The Atkins Diet phase 1 is known as the induction phase, and this is the phase that is basically an initiation for the Atkins Diet. When it comes to phase 1 of the Atkins Diet it has to primary objectives which includes jump-starting your weight loss. The other objective for the induction phase is to begin switching your body to burning fat mostly instead of your body burning mostly carbohydrates. People often times think that the induction phase of the Atkins Diet is the hardest part and the slowest part. In order to make sure that you are successful on the Atkins Diet, you must follow the rules of the induction phase exactly or else your progress could be hindered. In order to make sure you are successful on this new diet program, here are the rules you need to follow for the induction phase. Also be sure to check out the official How It Works page on Atkins.com
Atkins Diet Induction Phase Rules to Remember
Eat Three Regular Meals or Five Smaller- When you begin the Atkins Diet, it is important during the induction phase to follow a certain regular-size meal routine. You either want to eat three regular-sized meals or you want to eat five smaller-sized meals each day. You want to ensure during the induction phase of the Atkins Diet that you do not go more than six hours without eating a meal.
Do Not Starve- It is equally important to not starve yourself either or skip meals, even if you think it is perfectly okay. Skipping meals like breakfast or lunch is bad so make sure you eat every meal and choose healthy options.
Only Eat 20 grams of Net Carbs- During the induction phase you want to eat only 20 grams of Net Carbohydrates or less each day. 12 to 15 grams of these Net Carbohydrates need to be vegetables, which equals out to about two cups of cooked vegetables and also six cups of salad. Not all vegetables have similar carbohydrate counts either, so check all of your vegetables before you make them to ensure you are doing the Net Carbohydrate math right.
Stick to Phase 1 Foods- While on the Atkins Diet induction phase of the program, make sure you are sticking to the phase 1 foods only. This is a pretty important aspect because you have to ensure you are not going off the list during induction time as this is when your body is about to begin the transformation.
Eat 4 to 6 Ounces of Protein- The Atkins Diet induction phase requires you to eat between 4 and 6 ounces of protein each meal. This could be pork, fish, eggs, cheese, shellfish, poultry, lamb and beef. If you are a bigger and taller person then going up to 8 ounces is just fine, and the best part is that you do not have to get rid of the skin before you eat your meat either.
Do Eat Cheese- When you are going through the induction phase of the Atkins Diet, you can eat most types of cheese, but do not go past 4 ounces each day. The only cheeses that you cannot have are ricotta cheese and cottage cheese. Just remember that you need to count this towards your Net Carbohydrates for the day, which needs to be 20 grams a day.
Eat Butter, Olive Oil, Nut Oil and Mayonnaise– On the induction phase of the Atkins Diet, you can eat sunflower oil, olive oil, butter, nut oils, and mayonnaise. The mayonnaise does need to be made from high-oleic sunflower oil, olive oil or canola oil t hough. You can add the oils to your vegetables as well if you wanted to use that instead of butter, but butter is perfectly okay.
Know Your Sweeteners- You can have Splenda, Sweet’N Low, Truvia or Xylitol while on the Atkins Diet induction phase. You should not use more than three sweetener packets each day though, which might only be one cup of coffee if you like your coffee a little sweet. Each packet is counted at 1 gram of Net Carbohydrate due to the fact that there are fillers within the sweeteners that do have a tad of carbohydrates in them.
