Thread: A little discouraged

Hi everyone:

I'm fairly new to the boards, and I began Atkins on 1/19/04. I'm still on induction, and the first week I lost 8 lbs, the second, 2 lbs, and then last week I only lost a half a pound. I am losing inches too, 9 in all so far, but last week I barely lost any. I will tell you what I've been doing, and if anyone sees something I can do differently, please let me know. I'm a little disouraged because I think as much as I have to lose, it should be coming off faster, and I feel like I'm following the book pretty religiously.

Here is a normal day's eating for me:
Breakfast:
2 eggs 3 slices turkey bacon
snack: 1oz cheese
lunch: beef patty with 1 cup veggies
snack: turkey slice
dinner: 2 cups salad, grilled chicken breast
snack: half an atkins bar or shake

My carbs have been coming in at about 13-16/day depending on what veggies I eat. I drink about 80 oz of water on a good day, 50-60 oz otherwise. I walk about 20 mins 5 days a week.

I feel no cravings, have lots of energy, sleep great, I love how I feel I just want the weight to come off too.

I take a celebrex every day along with a low dose birthcontrol pill.

Any advice or feedback would be appreciated.
Thanks everyone!
Renee
261/250.5/160

welcome to the 3rd week stall. Happens to a lot of us. your body is adjusting.

meanwhile, you need to up your water. You should be drinking 1/2 your weight in water oz - you should be at around 120-130 oz per day of water.

Some say the adkins bars shouldn't be eaten - but I stopped with them a couple weeks ago, and still haven't gotten out of the stall.

I'm in the same boat - lost 10 the first 2 weeks, and just have been stabilizing since then. But the health benefits are so pleasant, I intend to stick with this. I know my body will be giving up those darn lbs one of these days. We're (my body and the WOE) are still just getting used to each other.

Mary Kay

01/02/04 - 230/219/150 Atkins

hi Jooneezegrl,
Welcome to LCE. Congrats on your loss...over 10 lbs is a terrific start
I think you should move off of induction and into OWL and increase your carbs by 5g per week with the first increase being more veggies. Are you using full fat salad dressings? Second, I would stop the bars, as they could be causing a slow down of your weigh loss. The bars usually contain "hidden" carbs; even tho they may say"only 1g ". It is felt as far as the bars go, count the carbs by the method of total carb minus fiber equal net carb. Some people then count half of that number when dealing with the bars that have sugar alcohols in them. The shakes are usually safe as they don't contain sugar alcohols, but I still would not become dependent upon them...maybe save them for an occasional treat or meal substitute when you absolutely can't eat "real food". Everything else looks good on your menu. Post often and let us know how you are doing
HTh
Shelley

"if it ain't broke, don't fix it"
*LC WOLF*

Hi congratulation on your new way of eating, you are feeling great, you are exercizing and you are drinking water, I am a much slower looser and when I stopped the Atkins Bars I have found that my weight is coming off easier.
Rainbow

Welcome Renee

Thanks for posting all your info, it makes it a lot easier to help you out.

For some of us the bars and shakes, actually the sugar alcohols in them, cause problems. I'd completely skip them for a while and see how you do. For me the sugar alcohols don't throw me out of ketosis, but they stall me as fast as eating the same amount of real carbs.

You menu looks good to me. Since you're going into your 4rd week now you need to add another serving of LC veggies per day.

Are you doing any exercise? If not, since you're feeling so great, this is the perfect time to get started. **never mind. I just read your post more carefully. Good for you!


Always eat your veggies first!
LCE member since March 2002

Renee:

Please don't get discouraged. It may help to read this and to ditch the low carb products for a few weeks, re-weigh, and see if that helps. At this stage of the game, I would also up my vegetable intake.

My two cents...

April
352/209/180
Down 143 pounds
29 to go...
http://www.geocities.com/aprilwyatt/beforeandafter

Thanks everyone for your quick responses. I keep hearing "up the vegetables" but I have been trying to follow the book to the letter and it says 3 cups of salad veggies or 1 cup of the other veggies plus 2 cups salad vegetables during induction. I feel that I need to stay in induction longer since I have so much to lose, and since veggies are the highest in carbs, I am afraid that if I increase, the weight loss would slow even more. Not that I don't believe all you veterans , but what is the thinking here?

Thanks again,
Renee

Renee,
Yes, the book does say 3 cups veggies a day during induction but, when you move into OWL you can and should increase your veggies. Induction really serves no purpose over 2 weeks. The thinking behind moving on into OWL is to keep you losing beyond induction level carbs. If you stay to low carb, for to long, you will have trouble losing when you increase your carbs. Your body percieves this as a sort of "starvation mode" and hangs onto the fat rather than letting go; hence the reason to continue to up your carbs and find your CCLL.
HTh
Shelley

"if it ain't broke, don't fix it"
*LC WOLF*

Thanks for that explanation...when the book says you can stay on induction for 2 weeks or six months, I guess I was thinking the longer you stay on induction, the faster you will lose. But what you are saying makes sense, Shelley.

Renee

Yep, Renee, you don't do your body any favors staying on induction. I did it for 3 weeks and only lost 6lbs. As soon as I added more veggies, the weight started coming off again. You WON'T lose at the same rate you did during induction. It just will NOT happen. During induction, we lose a LOT of water weight because glycogen is held in the liver and muscle tissues via water. Now that those stores are gone, the REAL fat burning begins and slows waaaaaaaay down. Don't let that slow rate discourage you. Add more veggies, lose the bars, up the water. And if you are doing weight training, you will GAIN weight in the form of LEAN muscle, which is actually a GOOD thing.Lean muscle weights more but takes up less space, and afterall, people SEE that, not what's on the scale.

Barb - 30 lbs gone FOREVER!
www.iwsgroupinc.com - website design and development

Atkins-3/14/03
174/144/135 5'2"
"A little knowledge is a dangerous thing."
Knowledge is POWER

OK, I want to believe you guys, really I do. But here's a quote from the Atkins book:

"A lot of people think of Induction as lasting only two weeks, but it can be followed for a longer time. If you have a lot of weight to lose or have difficulty losing weight, you might want to do Induction for quite a while. That way you'll see dramatic progress before moving on to the more moderate phases of the program."

AND

"However, if you are comfortable staying in this phase, and you still have a lot of weight to lose, you can do Induction safely for six months or more."

I hate to keep harping on this subject...but why would Doc Atkins say if it it wasn't true? I am realizing that I need rules and structure around my food and when I'm getting conflicting advice, it is kind of uncomfortable.

Sorry to be so difficult--I think I am obsessed with doing this "right" since I havent' gotten a food plan "right" yet and this one is really working for me.

Thanks for your patience!
P.S. I drank 120 oz of H20 yesterday!!

Renee
1/19/04
261/250/160

First congrats on that 11 lb loss, what a way to start. Second, there is a stall around week 3 for a lot of people... your body is rearranging itself to take in different foods, and sometime it has to adjust. Staying on Induction for more than 2 weeks...well I have read lots of posts that you can stay for more than the two week, however, then you are basically telling your body this is all the carbs we are getting for an extened time, and when you want to add more carbs later, you body will reject them, cause you to stall more... etc... do a search on Inducation and try to read most of those posts will be very helpful.
Remember that people on this forum are telling you their experiences, YMMV (your mileage may vary) with any of the questions you ask.... and yes if the Doc says its ok, it should be ok, but .... be careful about being on induction for an extended time, expecially if you add exercise in a big way into your lifestyle - you should be eating more carbs if you are working out daily.
Hope this helps,

http://www.youravon.com/cnorulak

carolyn in texas
started 8/11/03
327/287/150

It's been MY experience on this board, that MOST people who do induction for a LONG time become over sensitive even to veggies. You could probably do a 35 gram range of carbs safely. Also, people get REALLY bored with induction and then just quit. Variety really helps. It's totally your decision if you want to do induction for a longer period, but just keep in mind our warnings and if you get stuck for 4 weeks at that level, it's definitely time to move on.

Barb - 30 lbs gone FOREVER!
www.iwsgroupinc.com - website design and development

Atkins-3/14/03
174/144/135 5'2"
"A little knowledge is a dangerous thing."
Knowledge is POWER

Hi Barb and everyone:
Thanks for your patience in answering my questions. I am going to see what my Sunday morning weight in brings and then perhaps begin adding more LC veggies and see what happens. Induction will always be there if I ever feel the need to go back, I guess.

I think it just goes against my logic that eating MORE can bring you out of a stall...but I will just try it and see.

Renee
1/19/04
261/250/160

Renee, I am currently reading Living the Low Carb Life by Jonny Bowden. He talks about the hormone, cortisol, which is a stress hormone. It is responsible for many things in the body. But when we "starve" ourselves, the body sees that as stress, which in turn will cause MORE cortisol to be released. This will tell the body to NOT use up fat reserves, but use muscle tissue as a source of energy. So, not upping your good carbs, in essence, is interpreted by the body as starvation, which increases cortisol levels. You do NOT want to do this. You want to do a gradual increase of good carbs, thus the reason for introducing carbs back into the diet in 5 gram increments per week according to Atkins.

Barb - 30 lbs gone FOREVER!
www.iwsgroupinc.com - website design and development

Atkins-3/14/03
174/144/135 5'2"
"A little knowledge is a dangerous thing."
Knowledge is POWER