What am I doing wrong?
 

I started Atkins Induction 2 weeks ago tomorrow and I have not lost an ounce! What am I doing wrong? The first couple of days I had Atkins bars as part of my carb intake but since I wasn't losing any weight I decided to wait until after the Induction phase to add those in. I was eating onions with my meat but even though they're on the list, they're higher in carbs so I stopped onions for now. I am thirsty all the time and drink at least 100 oz per day of water. My diet is meat, cheese, almonds and a handful of salad greens per day. Shouldn't I see some weight loss in 2 weeks?

I would suggest you start a journal and record
EVERYTHING you eat and drink there - including water, medications and supplements. Cheese should be limited to a couple of ounces during induction and nuts not at all. BTW - being thirsty all the time is a sign of ketosis - a good thing. Take your measurements - tape measures are more accurate than scales. Want proof? Weigh yourself, then drink a couple of glasses of water and weigh yourself again.

Almonds are not allowed on Induction. Are you really only eating a "handful" of salad greens each day? During Induction you should be getting a big portion of your carbs from the allowed vegetables, plus a few grams from eggs, cheese, etc.

you may not be getting enough calories.. that can stall you by making your body think you're starving it.
add mayo, butter, oils... etc. for extra fat and calories and drop the nuts ;)

How about posting a day's menu for us to see? Sometimes another personcan spot something we might miss ourselves...

The most common reason people aren't losing is not eating enough allowed veggies (2-3 cups a day of natural fiber), or food enough period. It is usually recommended to be eating close to 10-12X your body weight today in calories.

Post your menus and we maybe able to find what maybe wrong.

OK, so I really wasn't recording everything I ate. I started a journal at fitday:

http://www.fitday.com/WebFit/Public...?Owner=bratster

Still have not lost weight. Though I went through Halloween without eating any candy. That's a first.

Girl looking at your fitday you are not getting enough carbs. 20 every day most of which are to come from allowed veggies. Not enough calories you are supposed to be eating 10-12 time your body weight. Add butter, oil, mayo. as hard as it may be to change your thinking fat is your friend. And are you taking your supplements. Flax seed oil cap., omega 3s and vitaim E. In your salad you can add a pretty large list of veggies, just stay away from the carrots, tomatoes, onions(white, yellow, and purple) green onions are okay. If you like mushrooms add them to everything good fiber. I put them in omletts, satue in butter or olive oil and put over chicken and steak then cover with cheese. At Atkins.com they have a list of allowable foods I'm thinking its about 3-4 pages long. And if you look under the recipes they also have them for each phase you are in. Hope I hepled alittle. Just stick with it. and stay away from the nuts. :lol: they are killers in induction.


Dawna

PS check your meds if any.

I guess I'm missing something here...
I eat about 3 cups of veggies per day.
3 cups of mixed baby spring greens or spinach.
Can I eat more vegetables? I want more vegetables.
So I can eat (unlimited) meat and (very limited-3 cups) vegetables with 2-3 oz cheese and unlimited fats. Anything else on induction?

I'm not sure what you mean by "unlimited meat" but if you follow Dr. Atkins' advice of eating until you are satisfied but not stuffed then you are okay. As for the three cups of veggies per day - if you're eating mainly the salad veggies from the first group (lettuce, romaine, and so on) they have very few carbs per cup so I don't see anything wrong with eating more of them. The veggies from the second group have more carbs so make sure you are measuring them and counting all of the carbs and tomatoes are listed in the second group. Tomatoes ARE high in carbs, but a few halved cherry tomatoes in a salad really helps with flavor.


I need to ask this - have you READ Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution? That will explain everything to you. It's important that you read and re-read and understand what this is all about. If your budget is really stretched and you don't want to buy the book right now, just go to the library and borrow one.


shortstuff

We're not allowed to eat tomatoes? I thought we could as long as you don't eat more than two cups of salad in a day.

They are allowed if you don't exceed two cups of salad vegetables per day. I think the point being made is perhaps tomatos aren't the best choice during induction as opposed to other veggies on the list due to their slightly higher carb content.

I do have and have read the book. I am just really tired of meat. I prefer vegetables. He says to limit your veggie intake to 3 cups of salad greens or 2 cups of greens and 1 cup of the allowed veggies. This usually does not add up to 20 carbs. So how do I get to 20 carbs? Please look at my posted menus at fitday and tell me what I can add or what I should be leaving out.

Thank you for your help. I really appreciate it. I figure I'll give it another 2 weeks and if I still have not lost anything, I'll move on to something that allows me more variety.

Atkins makes it simple for you - maybe too simple - by giving guidelines for cup measurements of vegetables.

The only foods that don't contain carbohydrates are muscle protein and fats. Everything else has carbs - shellfish, eggs, coffee, tea, dairy and vegetables. Putting a limit on vegetables makes it easy for the first two weeks. Low carbing is a huge learning curve.

If you look at the choices, there are some that are higher in carbs than others. A salad doesn't mean only lettuce. What is 2 cups of lettuce? Usually under 2 grams. According to Dr. A., salad vegetables are also daikon, jicama, mushrooms and peppers. Allowed vegetables that are higher are Brussels sprouts, eggplant, onion, pumpkin, tomato and turnip. You can also eat avocados and olives. It's assumed that you are going to eat from a wide range of foods and not only eat iceberg lettuce, plain meat and broccoli.

Use up your 20 grams a day, eat more fat and enjoy it! :)

Karen

Hi there! I'm going to toss in my 2-cents worth because I see we're roughly the same age, and you're a few pounds lighter than I am. I know there's more that comes in to play than age and weight, but hey, it's a start, right! :)

I had a pretty good Induction, lost a total of 9 pounds, two of which I gained back the following week, then it went away plus more. I haven't weighed for a few days because I know I'm holding water right now, LOL.

Anyhow, here's what I did.

For breakfast I ate at least two eggs, and tried to add in some kind of meat and a little cheese. I always TRY to get a 500-calorie breakfast and the only way it will go that high is by frying or scrambling the eggs in oil/butter or adding butter to boiled eggs, and have some kind of fatty meat.

For dinner, I ate a salad that was made up of some of (not usually all) the following:
1-2 ozs. of tomato
1/2 or so ounce of chopped onion (yes, onion is a little high in carbs, but 1/2 an ounce or so packs a whale of a lot of good flavor for hardly any carbs)
1-2 ozs. of sliced cucumber
1-2 ozs. of sliced radish
1-2 oz. of diced bell pepper
2 small-medium-sized mushrooms
1-2 ozs. sliced celery
1/4 cup of alfalfa sprouts

I'd take my one-cup measurer, and fill it half full of assorted odds and ends from the above list, then top it off with either spinach, romaine lettuce, kale or other salad green.

Add to that a couple of tablespoons of your favorite fattiest dressing (mine is Litehouse Bleu Cheese), and voila!

Sometimes I add meats and/or cheese to my salads, sometimes not, then ate some good meat, like a burger patty on the side (cheese if no cheese on my salad), and a half-dozen green olives are just :yum: cut into the salad.

Supper was pretty much the same kind of thing--more salad, possibly a cooked veggie, although we didn't eat very many cooked veggies during Induction (still don't for that matter), and some meat.

Generally speaking, by using a good combination of veggies it was pretty easy to get all the carbs I needed. If not, I added more veggies or salad.

I know in town I see what people call salads with a little iceberg lettuce, maybe some cabbage and some grated carrot thrown in. That's not a salad, for crying out loud! A salad has flavor, it has pizazz, and most of all it has nutrient value and fat! :D

Hopefully that will all help a little and good luck to you! :)