One of the first things I realized when I started the Atkins diet was that I would need some help keeping track of everything. This diet requires you to keep track of the amount of carbs you consume each day. There were other things I wanted some help keeping track of as well. Fortunately, I found some tools to help me do that.
The Atkins diet requires you to keep track of how many carbs you consume each day. I knew I would need help with this. I purchased a paperback copy of the Atkins book “Dr. Atkins New Diet Revolution” from my local bookstore. The first thing I saw after opening the front cover was a chart that listed the amount of carbs in a variety of foods.
The foods were separated by category, such as: cheese, vegetables, and meat, poultry and fish. This chart is printed on a thick paper, (much like the cover), and is perforated. I could literally pull this out of the book and carry it around with me if I so desired.
I discovered that there are a ton of resources on the Atkins website. You can get as interactive with this as you want to. I decided to go ahead and make my profile on the website. You can do it for free.
You can access an easy to use BMI calculator from the Atkins website. It asks if you want to lose weight and keep it off, or if you want to maintain your current weight. Next, type in your height, weight, and indicate if you are male or female. This tool will help you find your BMI number, and see where you fall on the scale. It also will advise you about which of the four phases of the Atkins diet you should start with.
There is a tool that lets you enter your daily net carbs. Just enter them in as you eat, and it will automatically make a log for you of your total each day. It is very simple. You also can keep track of your weight with the same tool.
It doesn’t actually let you keep track of the actual foods you ate. I wanted to be able to do that. I have a lot of food allergies, and I knew I would be trying new foods soon. It seemed smart to have some data to review in case I had an allergic reaction to something and didn’t know what it was from.
I also wanted to find out how many calories I was eating each day. Before I tried Atkins, I was counting calories. There is a great online tool, (that is also an app), called “Lose It”. Again, you give it your current weight, and weight goal. It figures out how many calories you should stay under. You enter each food and drink as you eat it, and end up with a running total for the day, (as well as the week).
Image by Dana Robinson on Flickr