Meal Plans for the Atkins Diet
The types of meals that you should be eating will vary depending upon which stage of the diet you are at: Induction, Ongoing Weight-loss, Pre-maintenance or Maintenance.
Menu for the Induction Stage
Breakfast:
- Ham or bacon with eggs (fried or scrambled) and, to drink, decaffeinated tea or coffee.
Lunch:
- Bacon cheeseburger (making sure you serve it without the bun to avoid the carbohydrates) accompanied by a small side salad and a glass of water.
Dinner:
- Prawn cocktail as a starter – the sauce should be made from mustard and mayonnaise.
- Clear consommé – this is a specialised kind of light soup made mainly from a kind of refined stock. This can be quite tricky to make so, unless you are particularly handy in the kitchen, you may prefer to search your local supermarket for a good, low carbohydrate brand Meat (choose any from the following: a steak, chops, a portion of fish, fowl or a roast) to be served with a salad.
- Sugar free jelly accompanied by a small serving of whipped cream (make sure this is also sugar free) for dessert.
Menu for the Ongoing Weight-loss Stage
Breakfast:
- Cheese omelette to be accompanied by some bran based crisp bread (to an amount containing carbohydrate to the value of 2 grams).
- To drink - decaffeinated tea or coffee and also 3 ounces of tomato juice
Lunch:
- A chicken, cheese, ham and egg salad. For the dressing keep it simple with an oil and vinegar based dressing.
- Herbal iced tea.
Dinner:
- A seafood salad.
- Poached salmon with a small portion of vegetables (avoid root vegetables to minimise your carbohydrate intake).
- A small portion of strawberries for dessert with double cream (unsweetened).
Menu for the Pre-maintenance and Maintenance Stages
Breakfast:
- Cheese and spinach omelette
- Half of one cantaloupe
- Bran based crisp bread with butter (to an amount containing carbohydrate to the value of 4 grams)
- Decaffeinated tea or coffee to drink
Lunch:
- Roast chicken accompanied by a small portion of vegetables and a salad. Try a green salad with a creamy garlic dressing
- Soda water to drink
- Dinner:
- French onion soup to start
- Salad with onions, tomatoes and carrots with a dressing (without carbohydrate in it)
- Veal chops (these can be breaded, but not too heavily as this will contain carbohydrates) accompanied by a small portion of vegetables and half of a jacket potato topped with sour cream and chives
- A small portion of fresh fruit dessert compote
- 1 glass of dry wine (or, if you prefer, two white wine spritzers – this is the old fashioned kind with soda water rather than the modern version of the spritzer served with lemonade)
More Sample Meal Ideas with Atkins
There are plenty of meals which can complement your Atkins diet. Below are some ideas to get you started.
- Bacon, celery, walnut and avocado salad
- Thai coconut curry
- Chilli and pepper marinated steak
- Chicken kebabs with peanut dipping sauce
- Beef and mushroom skewers
- Pork in a creamy paprika sauce
- Stuffed, baked chicken wrapped in parma ham
- Baked marrow stuffed with cheeses
- Haddock stuffed with leek and spinach sauce
- Tandoori chicken skewers
- Lemon seafood salad
- Large mushrooms stuffed with goats cheese
- Eggs Benedict accompanied by hollandaise sauce
- Pork with a stilton based sauce to accompany
- Vegetable curry
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