Hello all,

For the last couple of years I've maintained a "beer belly" that I was always able to hide in most non-skin-tight clothing, so it was never a problem. However, when I took my shirt off, it was less than attractive. Last year, I put on a bit more weight and was starting to push the "thin" image - an outline of the belly was starting to appear in almost all clothing and I was nearly 28lb overweight. Because I was surprised at the rapid rate I put on the lbs, I jumped right onto the Atkins diet "cold turkey" and never looked back. I did it for several weeks (about 11) and lost over 20lb. I was back to normal. However, because the winter season was upon me and I live at a high altitude and Ski every day professionally as a teacher, I absolutely had to have carbs to maintain a decent energy level. Not only that, but the only way to actually grab a lunch between lessons was to have a Sandwich on the slopes.

After the winter season (about 4 to 5 months) I was almost back to my previous weight (although I had probably but on a few lbs of muscle - tough season), albeit 2 to 3 times slower than I put it off. I had put on about 12lb and once again was concerned that my weight would slip, especially since I was doing far less excercise with no skiing. This time, starting to Atkins was a far more difficult process. I had indulged all winter and was used to being able to snack on anything, and I constantly fell back into my old eating habit. The pounds continued to flow in and I was almost back to the position of having put hte 20lb back on (although this was nearly 6 months later at this point, so it was much slower than what it took to lose it). Finally I put an end to the cheating and jumped back onboard.

I know that a lot of people will wave their fingers and say this is not the way people are intended to do this diet. I've been lectured about how LCing is a "way of life", not a temporary fix - I'm afraid that simply does not apply to me. I love carbohydrates and will not give them up. In the near future, my lifestyle will be changing drastically and I will be able to maintain a regular excercise program that should allow me to begin enjoying a balanced lifestyle of all the foods AND excercise - something I have never been able to do. I realise that a lot of people do not like to hear this, but please, do not lecture me about how this is a WoL, because it will never be my WoL

A couple of things I'd like to point out about my experience:

For me, carbohydrates were an addiction. I found it incredibly difficult to stop eating them because I absolutely love foods that are made of carbohydrate - pasta, bread and pizza are my favorite foods. Kicking the sugar habit was not so hard because I have never been so in love with chocolate and such, although losing the ability to have a nice dessert once in a while was a bit hard. However, I could live with this. Without a doubt, the first few weeks are the hardest for this diet. Both times I found myself being extremely hungry at all times - and because it is so much more difficult to just grab a "casual snack", you find yourself far more aware of your food intake (or lack of). Before, I could grab a bag of chips and just forget about hunger for a while afterwards.

For me, cheating is the worst. Once I take in too many carbs in one meal, like 50g or so, I say "what the hell" and just go all out. Then I figure, hey, I already ate carbs, I might as well eat some more. Before I know it I'm back to a full carb diet and then it's the same problem all over again. I found this far less of a problem after the first week when I began to feel satisfied with just my LC meals.

Menu limitations - I spend about 1/3 of my meals in Restaurants and the food choices are often a big problem for me, as I'm usually relegated to a steak. Most chicken dishes tend to come with carbs of some form. I got to the point where I would actually ask the waiter NOT to bring me any french fries (although most of the time they came anywyas) just so that the temptation wasn't there to have them if they came with the dish usually. Losing a lot of my regular foods was very difficult, and I would start to dread going out to dinner / other people's houses for dinner because I would end up cheating or starving.

Starting and Stopping - the second time I went into the diet in a serious way, the first two weeks were fraught with cheating. This made my weight fluctuate by a massive degree - almost 6 or 7 pounds per week. From my reading, I can only assume that this was water buildup that was coming / going. This makes it very difficult to actually gauge at what weight level you are.

Last time I did the diet, I never made it to my "ideal" weight, although I was only a few pounds off. Although it was sad to see the 10 weeks of work slip away, the fact that I put the weight on over 24 weeks made it less difficult. This time I plan & hope to be able to keep the diet going until I reach my target weight, which should come at around the time when I finally have the option to maintain a regular excercise program, so I will hopefully be able to slip back into a more conventional eating style (albeit a healthy one - no more cakes / sodas for me, except on special occasions)

I don't know if anyone has similar experiences with this diet but if so, let me know how you coped with the same problems.

Great forum by the way, keep up the good work everyone.