Newcomer needing help
 

Yikes!!!!! I need :help:!!!! I'ts not supposed to be this way. Atkins is supposed to make you LOSE weight...RIGHT???? and isn't is also supposed to make you feel full of energy??? and make you feel better than you have your whole life??? But for me, this is not happening for some reason. I found this forum just when i thought about giving up, but now i think i will stick to it for awhile longer and see if I can't find some answers and some support. I did find out ( thanks to Fitday) that I'm eating way more carbs than i had thought, so that is the first thing I'm working on. But 14 pounds in 2 and a half months (and actually NOTHING in the last 4 weeks) HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!

Could be a stall---could be too many carbs----but you've done fantastic losing 14 pounds! That's great! Good Luck and don't get discouraged! :D

And so what will you do if you give up?? Uh.... the alternatives aren't so wonderful!!

Absolutely, without a doubt, the most important factor is LCing in:

NEVER GIVE UP,
BE PATIENT,
AND BE PERSISTENT.

LC veterans..... am I right???

14 lbs in 2 months is a good start, that averages to almost 2lbs a week which is a good healthy rate of weight loss. So you've hit a stall, most of us have, and all of us will at some point. I know it's discouraging and frustrating- I just came off a stall myself. It's easy to stick with it as the scale keeps going down, but now is the time it takes real commitment & strength. Have you been measuring? You can loose inches when the scale says nothing has changed, and according to many you don't loose inches & pounds together, so maybe this is your current dillema. A woman's TOM can greatly affect weight loss as well, could this be a factor- it was with my stall. Stick with it, and the weight loss will come back. Now the energy problem, are you taking any supplements? If not, you should be- at a minimum a good multi-vitamin and perhaps some calcium/magnesium. Are you drinking enough water? This can cause stalls & low energy. Patience is a virtue, a hard one but one just the same. Stay strong and the stall will pass, it did for me and many others. Just stick with it and things will get back on track again. I kept the same program all along, not changing anything even during the stall, figuring if it worked for 3 months it wouldn't stop suddenly, and it did work again. After a couple of weeks stalled, 2lbs gone in 3 days. This too shall pass, so keep the faith. Good luck.
God Bless,
Amy-Lynne

keep up the good work! you might keep an eye on the calories as well. you should be somewhere between 1500 and 1800 a day. good luck

You have to remember, this is not a fad diet, this is a way of eating. Losing an average of 2 pounds a week is very good. even though you haven't lost in a few weeks, you body is re-adjusting to the new weight. Keep LC and the weight will come off.
You can't expect huge weight loss every week. Heathly weight loss should be 1-1.5 pounds a week.

Keep an eye on hidden carbs. Make sure you are drinking enough water. And eating enough too. Don't want your body to into starvation mode.

advice
 

I think that most of the other posters have summed it all up.
+ Make sure you're drinking enough water (8 glasses/day)
+ Watch out for hidden carbs, they are everywhere!
+ Tally up your calories to make sure you're eating enough
+ Examine your exercise routine, include cardio and aerobic exercise for maximum fat lost
+ Check your body fat ratio for a morale boost. Sometimes you are losing fat but gaining muscle and the scale actually creeps up!

+ Hang in there! If you stick with this diet, it will work...

Thank-you all for the encouragement.
Goat Lady- I do think i'm eating too many carbs. I have found Fitday and will track all week to make sure i'm staying at 20 grams a day.

TeriDoodle- You're right!!!!! What is the alternative? It's not like I felt any better before either. At least my blood sugars are being controlled and that should be a prime focus of mine.

AmyTn- Yes i have been measuring and there has been no change since January's start date. I wonder if it has anything to do with the weight training I do? Maybe i'm gaining muscle...just a thought. Thank-you for the concern about supplements. Being diabetic, i take a whole whack of them..would probably take up this whole page to list them all, so i don't think that's a problem. I have decided i need more water, so thats a change I'll make today.

gonnaBlean- Thank you for the word about calories, I was wayyyyy over that.

Kelly- I'm trying to convince myself that i'm doing this for my health and that weight loss is a bonus. And i know what you mean about the hidden carbs. Fitday determined i was eating 35-40 instead of the 20 that i thought i was.

corianin- Can you tell me how to measure body fat ratio. I do workout with weights and i'm not really sure how that is measured

And thank-you all so very much for taking the time to reply. It really means a lot to know that there are people out there who care and are willing to help.