Active Low-Carber Forums - View Single Post - Protein Power Pals - Tuesday

Quotation from article for those just beginning to lower their carbs, explaining the 'fatigue' you may experience at first:

"Some individuals experience a 24- to 36-hour period of fatigue during the restrictive phase of weight loss [phase I of the diet] if their body is resistant to the switch from carbs to fat for energy," admits Heimowitz. "The body is depleting its stores of carbs and not yet using all the reserves of fat for energy so a feeling of fatigue may be experienced temporarily."(Collette Heimowitz, director of education and research at Atkins Health and Medical Information Services )
Benefits-More than weight loss

On 'stalls':

"Your fat cells are resilient, stubborn little creatures that do not want to give up their actual cell volume. Your body hates change as much as you do!!

Over a period of weeks, maybe months of proper dieting, each of your fat cells may have actually lost a good percentage of the actual fat contained in those cells. But the fat cells replace that lost fat with water to retain their size. That is, instead of shrinking to match the reduced amount of fat in the cell, they stay the same size!

So you weigh the same, look the same, maybe even gained some scale weight, even though YOU ACTUALLY LOST SOME SERIOUS FAT.

The good news is that this water replacement IS TEMPORARY. It's a defensinve measure to keep your body from changing too rapidly. It allows for a slow, gradual reduction in cell size.

The problem is, most people are frustrated with their apparent lack of success, assuming they have lost nothing, and give up and go back to eating poorly.

Give those fat cells some time, like 4-6 months, and IGNORE THE SCALE WEIGHT FLUCTUATIONS, your real weight/shape will slowly begin to show. BE PATIENT! "

***4-6 MONTHS????????????????

Plateaus
If you hit a plateau for longer than a month... Cut treats and go back to unprocessed meat and dark green leafies... and slowly add... this list may seem picky but your body has been overwhelmed with carbs and what you are doing is finding the most effective way to loss your extra pounds... you have eliminated the carbs, you will find all your body intolerances are apparent now...
List of possible stallers (also note combinations of stallers):

Dairy
Peanuts
Aspertame
Sacchrine
Citric acid
Starchy vegetables like corn
Nitrates (read the packages)
Glycerin (in Advantage bars and more)
Organ meats (yes really)
Egg yolks
Soy products
Alcohol & sugar alcohols (Alcohol is a fuel and will stop fat burning for the entire time it is your body) - a carb of a different color!

Eat! If you drop calories too low and you are forcing your body into "starvation mode". Your metabolism will essentially slow down to accommodate these lean times.

** Personally-- I am going to squash my Dr's suggestion of 1200 calories, as Dr Phil's question lolls around my head "So hows that working for you?" The answer has been: ITS NOT!... So yesterday I intentionally ate more calories..my goal is changed from 1200-1500 to 1500-1700 for this week. Yesterday I ate 1710 calories... ( man was I stinking stuffed tho!) Hope you all enjoy the info I shared today!

Bawdy... I am sorry about all of your losses.. man.. thats like losing your whole family! [[[[[[[[[[hugs}}}}}} All of my animals are pretty much up there, my dog is 14, and the other cat is 9 ... the new fat one, jillie, she is only about 3 ish.. so.. we are probably stuck w/ her for a tad longer. Did you ever get your chairs refinished?

There's more that I was going to chat about, but this post is turning into a thesis.. LOL! Have a great day!