New member-having difficulty
 

Hi all,

I am new here. I have been following the induction phase of the Atkins diet for about 2 mos. I started at 181 lbs and looking to get down to at least 145. I don't cheat. I have only had one night a month ago when I had a small amout of rice and 1 glass of wine at an event that I attended. Other than that, I have stayed below 20 carbs--sometimes way below. I am in my early 50s. I have only lost 7 lbs and am losing hope. I bought ketostix and it does not seem that I am in ketosis although i have only tried this twice (in the morning before a meal). I find I get hungry sometimes since I am not interested in eating tons of just plain meat and veggies have carbs. I use 2 actual teaspoons of splenda in my 2 cups of morning coffee and 4 tsp of heavy whipping cream. I have 1/3 to 1/2 of a 2 to 4 carblow carb bar. I don't snack between meals and my portions are modest. I have not lost a lb in weeks. has anyone had these kind of results. My spouse lost 20 lbs in the same amout of time as me and 2 of my friends (middle aged and male and female) lost 20 lbs plus (each) on the South Beach Diet.

I guess my metabolic resistance must be high. I don't think I could handle the fat fast though. Any suggestions folks before I loose total hope.

I was on the Carb Addics diet for a long time too. Lost 20 lbs and couldn't loose more so i gave up. I gained that all back then tried again, lost a bit more and then started Atkins.

Thanks.
Dog

you need to eat 20 carbs at least. EAT your veggies, increasing that intake and drinking a min of 80 oz of WATER per day will help you. Please read the book. Dump the carblow bars - they are just frankenfoods, get back to basics, veggies, meat and cheese and make sure your fat content is high enough.

most of your carbs should come from vegatables, and drink your water. how many calories are you eating, are you excercising?

And many people lose better at higher carb levels. But not cheese and dairy. Eat veggies & salad, add berries. But keep to real food and drink lots of water.

Wow! Sounds like you're having a rough time of it.

I would sure be increasing my vegetable intake if I were you. I lost really, really well during the first two weeks on Atkins, then stopped cold in my tracks. After talking to a lot of people here I found that is normal, and they recommended increasing my carbs, so I started upping them a little at a time. I finally started losing again and did well until late December, then nothing was going nowhere fast and stayed that way for about three months.

I think one of the big keys is to try to stay consistent, and don't give up. Remember, the health benefits eating like this are way worth it, even if your weight loss sometimes slows or stops. :)

Age does play a part of it. As you get older, weight loss is slower.

It also sounds like you still have some habits form low fat days. It is ok to snack between meals. Many diets say haivng 5-6 small meals through the day instead of 3 big ones can help rev up the metabolism. Atkins states that you should not go more then 4 hours without eating, even soemthing small, and if you are hungry, then eat. Since you are male you may need more calories. Cutting calories to severly and going hungry can backfire, making your body want to hang on to what energy stores it has.


Get rid of the low carb bars. While they say 2-4 net carbs many are made with sugar alcohols. These are partially absorbed and you have to count at least half the total carbs in them many times.

Atkins also says to haev at least 2-3 cups of salad a day, plus 1 cup of other veggies. If you reduce the amount of carbs coming form other sources, then you have room for even more veggies. Which do you think have more nutrition for your carb and calorie buck, a protien bar or veggies?

Weight loss is not a constant thing. It will plateau, go up and jump all over the place. Sticking it out through the rough times is what gets you to your goal eventually. Even now you are 7 pounds better off then you were before.

Try getting rid of the low carb bars and any other low carb substatutions you are having. Stick to whole natural foods that includes alot of veggies from the allowed food list, adiquet protien, and a good amount of fat. You might even try cutting out that morning cup of coffee with splenda and cream for a week to see if that helps. The splenda is made with bulking agents that have carbs, coffee has carbs, and cream has carbs. For that same amount of net carbs you could probably have a large salad and get far more fullfillment, nutrients and so on.

Hi dog...not everyone shows ketosis...even if they're burning fat. Fitday.com is a free website where you can post what you eat. Do that for 2 weeks then post here again. You would be AMAZED at what some of the people here can do with detailed information. If your portions are too small..your body goes into starvation mode and trys to keep EVERYTHING you eat. You also have to make sure you're getting enough fat. Yes I know, others have lost anyway....but it DOES vary person to person and the people here will have some good feedback if you give them very good information on EXACTLY what you are eating.



Do you read the actual nutrition label? Most of those bars have a TON of sugar alcohol in them. Heck, in my 3rd week I was stalling out from 4 or 5 pieces of sugar free gum (which had 2g sugar alcohols per piece). Do NOT trust the net carb count.

The more information you give, the more you'll get back. Don't hang up those LC shoes yet dog......you're doing the right thing asking the questions.

2 other things...

1) if you haven't "measured" yourself, do so, many people lose fat without losing weight (trading muscle for fat).
2) you don't mention exercise....it's real simple, you gotta burn more carbs than you're taking in

Here is a post I made for newbies...you're not one, but it may help anyway.

http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?t=175492

Go get that info!! Good post!!

All great advice. I would suggest upping your carb intake a little with green veggies like broc and spinach, great for antioxidants. And by all means..NIX the bars. Even the Atkins products can wreak havoc on your efforts. Check the labels for any of the sugar alcohols, and you'll start to see how the marketing giants are making fools of us! *see below for some ifo I got from here*
And water is key. Skip the fat fast...I tried it and it;s not worth it. You'll get into ketosis, but you gain all the weight back after you quit cause you're so hungry. And please please please excercise at least 30 minutes 5xs a week if you can. That;s the key!

I guess I forgot to post this info...

Maltitol has a glycemic index of between 38 and 50, and 2.7 and 3 calories per gram. This makes it roughly equivalent in carbohydrate level to Rice, or lactose.

Gram for Gram, it has about 53% of the effect on your Blood Sugar that Sucrose has [76% for Maltitol Syrup,] and 68-75% of it is absorbed. So, figure that for every 2g of Maltitol, you'll get the effect of 1g of Sugar, and for every 4g of Maltitol Syrup, you'll get the effect of 3g of Sugar. So, 14g of Maltitol would have the effect of 7g of Sucrose [Table Sugar.] 14g of Maltitol Syrup would have the effect of 10g of Sucrose. Definitely not as bad as say a 3 Musketeer Bar with 41g of Corn Syrup, but definitely not 2g of Net Carbs. I treat Maltitol, Maltitol Syrup, and Polyglycitol Syrup (HSH) as 1/2g to 3/4g of Carbs per 1g, and thus no longer consume products containing large amounts of Maltitol.

Maltitol Syrup = 76% of the GI of Sugar
Maltodextrin = HIGH
Dextrose = HIGH
Polyglycitol Syrup (HSH) = 57% of the GI of Sugar
Maltitol = 53% of the GI of Sugar
Xylitol = 19% of the GI of Sugar
Isomalt = 13% of the GI of Sugar
Sorbitol = 13% of the GI of Sugar
Lactitol = 9% of the GI of Sugar
Mannitol = NON-GLYCEMIC
Erythritol = NON-GLYCEMIC
Glycerine = NON-GLYCEMIC
Polydextrose = FIBER [AS FAR AS I'M CONCERNED]
Tagatose = NON-GLYCEMIC [Some studies indicate it may actually reduce the GI of foods its eaten with.]

Stalled
 

Hi,
Starting your day with 30 minutes of exercise or until you break a sweat can help jump start weight loss. I have had the same expereince and it all began with the low carb bars. Hang in there,

Don't compare your weight loss to your husbands. Men stink, they lose weight so fast.

I found that I had to cut back on my calories on Atkins to lose weight. I keep track of what I eat in FitDay and try to stay low on the calories.

I think you'd be better off increasing your veggies beyond induction levels. That's a lot healthier in the long run and will giveyou more variety.

Don't do the fat fast. If you want to jump start your loss, I'll tell you what I did. I'm 45, have a sluggish metabolism too. I tried counting carbs alone but I stalled for about 8 months. Took me that long to reconcile myself to having to count calories. I started at about 1600 calories and each week I'd slowly drop my daily calories until I started losing at a decent rate. Like 1-1.5 pounds a week. Once I found that point, I also found my appetite had decreased too.

I had been doing very high fat, but I am doing lower fat, higher protein now. It helps keep the calories down.

Anyway, if you decide to go that route, you might want to use www.fitday.com to help you record stuff, or you might want to purchase their software (it works very well).

Good luck to you! And remember, men stink because they lose weight so fast.