Thank you all for your replies and even more for your support. You have given me a lot to think about.

I wrote the following post in response to a bunch of questions that I was asked on another message board. I think it will answer most of your questions and let you know my whole story.

First off, I am not eating any hidden carbs because I am only eating pure meats, eggs, veggies (mostly salad), butter and mayo. There a no hidden carbs in my salad dressing. There are only 5 natural ingredients and no sugar.

I am watching calories and trying to eat 500 fewer calories than I burn each day. That usually ends up to be 1400-1500 calories. I am still starving on this amount of calories, but when I tried to raise the calories, I gained weight quickly.

I use fitday to track my carbs and calories. My ratios usually end up around 65% fat, 3-5% carbs and 30% protein. I do have a hard time keeping protein down because I am constantly hungry even though I am in ketosis.

My daily meals consist of salad, tuna with mayo, plain celery or dipped in Ranch, chicken with the skin baked in butter, sausage (contains only pork, water and seasoning), grilled steak, chicken breast and pork loin and about 200 ounces of water a day. That's it!

My cheat day consisted of a couple bowls of the raw cherry chip cake mix (mixed with water) that I LIVED ON up until 4 months ago, most of a regular size bag of Doritos, a snickers bar and 2 doughnuts. That's all I ate all day.

As for supplements, I take L-carnitine, L-glutamine, ALA, CO-Q10, a multi vitamin, a mineral supplement, Omega 3-6-9 oils and various other herbs for my circulation. All of these vitamins are yeast and sugar free.

I don't believe that my 7 pound gain was just water because that was weeks ago and I still have not lost all the weight.

When I was 105 pounds, before the Pill, my body fat was 18%. After one month on the Pill it went up to 22%. When I started LC, it was 26%. After the first 10 days when I lost all of my weight, it went down to 22%. After my ONE cheat day, it is now 25%. So, my weight gain obviously isn't from gaining muscle. (Keep in mind that I am measuring my body fat via a Tanita scale. I know that these scales are not necessarily accurate, but they are good to measure progress. Plus, the number that my scale gives me is pretty close to what I get from the online calculators.)

Also, I have always worked out, so my body isn't suddenly building muscle.

105 is a perfectly healthy weight for me according to my doctor. I would never be considered skinny at that weight. Body type and bone structure matter more than the number on the scale when it comes to the weight charts.

It has been 3 months since I lost a pound or an inch. After 2 months with no weight or inch loss, I tried the Fat Fast and GAINED a couple of pounds. It took me a week to lose that weight. I have also tried the Meat Fast with no results. I'm tempted to try Stillmans, but frankly, there should be more to life than that. How many things can one person cut out of their life???

I changed to this WOE because I wanted to finally lose the 10 pounds I gained while on BC and at the same time I wanted to cure my sweet tooth and learn to eat healthy. I knew that just cutting calories a little wouldn't teach me a thing because it would be just eating a few less Ding-Dongs. The problem is that now I can't eat anywhere near the 5000 calories that I was eating before without gaining. I can't even eat enough to feel full. My metabolism seems to have changed since I started LC.

As far as how I feel, I didn't have health problems or food sensitivities before, so I LC hasn't improved my health in any way that I can tell. I have LESS energy now and a harder time working out, but that is about it. I have not lost any inches. In fact, my thighs are now 1" larger since my cheat day several weeks ago. My jeans are as tight as ever, so I am once again living in my overalls and business suits.

I have been mildly hypothyroid (still in the normal range, but at the higher end) for many years, but the natural thyroid that I take keeps me exactly where I am supposed to be. I never really had symptoms in the first place besides dry skin, insomnia, cold extremeties and constipation. I've actually always had a very high metabolism. My doctor says that Armour thyroid would not keep me from losing weight. It would actually encourage weight loss. I feel like everything about me is the exact opposite of what it should be!!!

I have seen my doctor about all this and according to him I am perfectly healthy. He agrees that I could stand to lose a couple of pounds since my body fat is 25% and I have a lot of obvious fat on my hips and thighs. He said that 105 would be a healthy weight for me. The only thing he doesn't support is this WOE. He thinks it is very unhealthy. We agreed to disagree. He's a great doctor.

He also said that the hairloss is directly related to dieting. I lost 8 pounds (from 118 to 110) in the first 10 days (have since gained most of it back) and he thinks that shocked my body. I have also seen numerous posts about hairloss on other LC message boards. The physical trauma that causes the hair loss happens about 3 months before the actual hairloss. My hair started falling out at 3 months and 1 week.

I think that I may be one of the few people that do better on a higher carb diet, but I am scared to death to eat carbs after what happened from one cheat day. I can't imagine how much I would gain if I went totally off plan.

I hope that I answered all the questions. I really need to get this figured out because it is causing me a lot of stress. I hate having to think about what and how much I eat every minute of the day and then not seeing results. And then, I live in fear that the one screw up will put 7 pounds back on me. I am trying so hard. I'm eating all the right foods, taking all the right supplements, exercising and drinking tons of water.

It's not even the slow weight loss that is my main concern. I know that is common with the last 10-15 pounds. I'm more concerned with how fast it comes back. That doesn't happen on other "diets". Sure, if you go back to your old ways, you will gain the weight back, but NOT IN ONE DAY!!! I planned on making LC a WOL with a couple days off a year for special occasions. Now I know that if I stay on LC, I will never be able to taste any of my favorite foods again. If I do, all my hard work will be gone in one day.

Oh yeah, I weigh on the same digital scale every day. I test it with a 10# hand weight and it is always dead on.

Thanks a lot for your help!


__________________
Shasta
29 year old female
5'2" - 122*/116/105
Atkins since 6-8-02

Trying to lose the 10 pounds I gained in ONE month on the Pill.

*The day I started Atkins, I was up a few pounds from a couple days of heavy salt consumption. I consider my actual "start" weight to be 118 pounds.