sod Atkins
 

So now I've been on Induction for 4 weeks and all I've lost is the 6 pounds I lost in the first 5 days. I've been drinking half a gallon of water a day, meat, eggs, 2oz cream cheese, Baken-ets and a few leaves of spinach with my dinner, followed by an ounce of heavy whipping cream made into lebne (with the whey strained out).

I'm still having headaches every day, but would put up with that if I were getting anywhere, but I'm not.

Hiya
Where are your vegetables and salads? A few leaves of spinach is NOT enough! Most of your carbs should be coming from fresh veggies, not from cream cheese.
Do you keep track of what you eat? www.fitday.com is pretty good, though it's a pain to get used to. You need to know your carb counts, and whether you're getting sufficient calories...
Are baken-ets on the allowed list for induction (I have no idea what they are)...

Cheers
Steven

Why not real bacon? Fake bacon probably has sugar in it, because most fake foods do.
And you are just working against yourself with the lack of veggies. Don't be so impatient...it makes you give up all the quicker.

I see by your profile, you've read the Atkins book.. I suggest going bact to the induction chapter and choosing a few of the allowed veggies there, in good amounts. The headaches continuing after the first few days is a sure sign you aren't getting enough of the "good" carbs from veggies...

There is a reason why induction is suggested for 2 weeks. Yes, Atkins says it is safe to stay on induction but for many people, 20 grms of carbs isn't enough and instead of losing weight the metabolism slows down. Follow the time table and move on. You will probably find your weight loss gets a kick start and your headaches go away. Start by adding veggies. A salad at lunch and dinner plus a veggie with dinner. Your body needs the fiber and vitamins. Bacon-ets are high in sodium. Sodium causes water retention. Just eliminating the bacon-ets may effect your progress as well. Congrats on the 6 pounds you have lost already!

Correct me if I'm wrong, Ursula, but I think Baken-etts are the Frito-Lay brand of pork rinds ...

But everyone else is right, where are your veggies? Put that cream cheese on celery sticks! What supplements are you taking?

I didnt lose any weight after the 4 lbs on induction for about 3 weeks. Yes, three weeks after induction being over. Since then its only been a few pounds a month that I've lost.

10 lbs in almost 4 months now. I suppose I should be discouraged, but I'm not. I'm 10 lbs lighter than I would be if I hadnt stuck with atkins and I feel better than I have since I was a teenager. To me, this is a way of life now. Even if I start losing a lb every couple months I wouldnt stop eating this way. The improvement in my health is just amazing and I want to continue to feel this way. :) Now if I could just get to exercising...

Look at it this way, you're 6 lbs lighter than you were before and you havent gained anything. That's great!

I agree with the eating more veggies, I need to work on that myself. As for the headaches.. are you eating anything now that you didnt eat before? Maybe you're sensitive to something new. I dont know what baken-ets are, but if they have extra sugar you might be getting headaches from having a sugar crash. I get those the times I've cheated for parties or thanksgiving, it doesnt take much if your body isnt used to it anymore.

I'm working from Dr. Atkins New Diet Revolution. He says 3 cups of salad veg., loosely packed, or 2 cups of salad plus 2/3 cup of cooked vegetables in the below 10% (does he mean 10g? God knows.) Cooked spinach is in the latter category, but rather than eating the salad veg., none of which I care for, I substituted raw spinach with my dinner, as near as I could judge 2 cups "loosely packed." Although such are cup measures it could have been anything. I eat this with my 6oz of sirloin or slice of roast pork, or 1/4 chicken for dinner.

Yes, cream cheese is included in the Induction diet; I've been eating 2oz a day at 0.5g per ounce. This, with Baken-ets (also a recommendation of Atkins) is my lunch. Baken-Ets are fried pork skins.

My breakfast until the last 6 days was 2 eggs scrambled with a heapedless than table-spoon of feta cheese (1 oz, actually, at <0.5g). Then I switched to one fried egg with 2 slices of Owen's breakfast sausage (Og carb) and today, because I didn't care for it and wanted to get rid of it, I just ate the last 4 oz of sausage and left out the egg.

Yes to the Baken-ets. See my answer to earlier poster.

I loathe celery sticks. In fact nothing other than crackers appeals to me with cream cheese.

I'm taking a Target multivitamin for adults (50+) and a calcium (600mg) with vit. D, Magnesium, zinc and manganese. Also extra Vit. C, E and folic acid.

And salty as the pork rinds are (I've always craved salt) I'm not retaining fluid and also take a blood-pressure pill which also acts as a diaretic.

I've never had a sweet tooth, so lack of sugar isn't causing headaches. The only thing I'm eating now that I didn't eat before is meat; I was a vegetarian. I actually lost the 6 pounds in a couple of days, then after nearly a week, whoopee! I lost another pound. Then gained it back the next day, then lost it. I've come to the conclusion that that pound is there to stay and it sometimes goes when I stand differently on the scales!

One thing I just realized in re-reading the Atkins book about the Induction diet is that his 2/3 cup of veg is for cooked spinach, not raw, so I've been shorting myself on that inconsistency (he doesn't say that in the list but does in the instructions earlier).

Another thing: I didn't realize that the veg. were anything more than a sop to health. He does give the impression that it's the pure protein and fat that causes weight-loss and carbs that interfere with it. Add to that the fact that someone on this site a couple of weeks ago said that you need to eat something very 5 hours or your body thinks you're fasting and goes into fat-preservation mode. That was my cue to start eating the Baken-Ets and cream cheese because normally I never eat lunch, just breakfast and then dinner about 5pm. I guess that's where I could fit in more veg.

Thank you all for your replies. Your questions and suggestions really made me focus and helped me understand what I was doing wrong.

Dr. Atkins gets a reprieve.