[Snocioncilm]

Hey all,

I was on Atkins four years ago and lost 60lbs. I am back at 230lbs now and at 5'7'', I can feel the pressure on my knees and back. In addition, my husband and I are trying to get pregnant and I really need to lose some weight asap - first baby at the age of 36 is demanding enough without the extra pounds :wink:.

Atkins always works for me, carbs do no good to my body. I want to start it again, however, I have one issue. I have high iron deficiency (in EU terms, normal iron count is 12-14, I have 6), and I do not respond well to iron supplements, so I turned to nature - I juice 2lbs of beets, 2 lbs of carrots and 1 lemon. I get about one liter (34oz) of juice, to which I add 3.5oz of honey. I drink a glass of 3.5oz (100ml) every morning, so this amount lasts for about ten days. This has started showing results and I do not want to stop with the juice under any circumstances as anemia is not my prefered way of life.

Now, I could not find the carb value of natural carrot or beet juice (all they have is canned, which I presume has some sugar added to it), so I cannot calculate the carb value of my daily drink. Does anybody have any advice regarding this?

For the record, I have tried with red meats and other forms of natural iron repletion, this juice has worked the best so far. And yes, I do eat a lot of spinach.

Thanks!

[Snocioncilm]

Thanks for the reply.

To clarify - I do not drink a liter of juice every day, I drink 100ml or one tenth of it. I drink a liter over the course of 10 days, or three liters a month.

[Snocioncilm]

Thanks.

I did a very raw approximation based on your advice and it came out to about 15g of carbs a day (10g if I take out honey), which means I can go through induction no problem if I keep to meats and egg whites for two weeks. In any case, you are right, I will try (started today) and see where it takes me.

Will keep you posted. :P

[Rx-Ultram]

As bluehex says you can still reduce your carbs. 4 years ago I lost 100 lbs on Atkins and put it all back on + 10 more.

This time I just skipped induction, I'm eating about 40-60 grams of carbs a day, still losing and some days even getting into ketosis. Down 18 lbs in a month and having a much easier time sticking to the diet due to the extra choices the extra carbs afford me.

Good luck.

[JeorgeNoxeref]

Lilly... have you tried adding chicken liver to your diet? One 3.5 ounce serving has 70% of your daily requirement (12.8 mg). It also contains the more readily absorbed heme iron.

Vegetables get iron from the ground... that's nonheme iron and it's less readily absorbed. Meat protein and vitamin C will help absorbtion of nonheme iron, so you should be taking your "juice" with meat. The lemon would provide the vit C but you might consider taking a supplement of C as well. Avoid drinking tea because that reduces absorbtion of nonheme iron. So do legumes and whole grains (which won't be an issue if you're doing Atkins). One other thing that reduces absorbtion of NONheme iron is the proteins found in soy.

So... Avoid tea, legumes, whole grains and soy (read packages, it's in EVERYTHING). Add vitamin C and animal protein.

When you took an iron supplement, do you remember if it was ferrous or ferric? Ferrous is more absorbable. Of course, the side effects of iron supplementation aren't always pleasant. :wink:

Good luck! I hope you're able to make this work... both the weight loss AND the iron issue. You need to get your iron up before you get pg!!! Stick around here and we'll help as much as possible by supporting you.

Tril

[Deengealf]

Lilly, I have a very similar anemia issue. A few years ago my iron/hemoglobin levels also got down to the 6 parts per unit level and my doctor sort of freaked out and said she had never seen a level that low in 20 years of practice.not to mention scared my mother to death, since I was still in high school. I tried a bunch of supplements and ate red meat every single day. Lunch and dinner. Very fun.
Anyways, this didn't help much and they concluded my body just doesn't absord dietary iron like it should. Another doctor suggested IV iron infusions. Its definitely not fun getting iron, which looks like a sack of liquid rust pumped into your arm, but it works.like ill notice me lips become pinker almost immediately after the treatment...wierd, right? I'd suggest looking into this and asking your doctor, especially because you'll only have to think about it once or twice a year instead of daily (via diet).
Good luck!!

[Snocioncilm]

Thanks all for the support, I really appreciate it. /hug

Tril, the bottle says "fero fumarat", no idea which kind it is. Newbie, thanks for the advice and sorry to hear that you had to go through all that, even though it's very good they found a solution in the end. The juice I am making works for me, my iron has started going up slowly, but it's probably going to take six months or more to actually replete it.

Bluehex, you are right, I have been eating low-carb since Monday and it would not be possible for me to eat only meat and eggwhites. After finishing with Atkins the first time, I could not eat chicken and tuna for three months. Even now, I have to take it very much in moderation and eat more veggies. So, that's what I've been doing. I am probably at about 30 carbs a day (my brain immediately went back to previous Atkins time and pulled out of memory all the carb values of my frequently used food ), a bit more on some days if my salad has a cube or two of orange or a few almonds and raisins in it. It has been going well, I've lost two pounds already, and I am feeling better by day (first two days were dreadful with that constant meat taste in my mouth, but it's better now). :P

Anyway, your advice and support is very appreciated. I will definitely keep you posted at least once a week.

Happy Thanksgiving!