Hello people!!

I've been following CAD and have already posted this on the CAD forum, but am hoping for ideas and views from everybody so I'm re-posting it here. Please help me I'm really panicking!!!!

Up until thursday I'd been on CAD for over a month. In that month I only cheated once (real cheat), the rest of the time, apart from overdoing it at my RM, i was practically perfect. Up to a certain point I lost and then regained the same 2 pounds over and over again, then I re-committed and tried harder and started to bloat and put on weight. By thursday night both feet looked like they had sprained they were so swollen and I'd gone up 3 pounds.

Friday I decided to "eat normal": yoghurt for breakfast, yoghurt mid-morning, pasta for lunch, whatever for dinner, etc.. Half way through the afternoon I started to use the bathroom and couldn't stop and by evening my feet had gone back to normal after more than a week of bloating. The morning after I weighed myself and had lost a pound and a half.

I spoke to a nutritionist who told me that the RM and no other carbs all day had completely blocked my metabolism and my body wasn't prepared to give up a thing, not even water. As soon as it realised I'd started to eat constantly again with snacks and carbs spread throughout the day it started to relax again. By the way, friday night I went to gym and was nearly bursting through the roof with a new found energy and I upped all my weights a lot.

The thing is that with CAD I had found control, I had found great digestion and a solution to stomach problems. I've been back to "normal" eating since friday and so far so good, but I don't know how long it'll last. Normally my insulin takes a few days of "normal" eating to go crazy. Must I change woe? Go back to PP although I was far less happy on it? Any suggestions? Tomorrow I have an appointment with this nutritionist (BF has been nagging me to go so I said OK) but I have the sneaking suspicion that he may not be illuminated!!!

Ideas, views, comments?
Thanks
C.

Hi Chocolate!

Even though you may be happier with CAD, your body may not be. I took a peek at your journal and I have a couple of suggestions. It looks like your RM is pretty heavy on the carbs and light on everything else. Your RM is supposed to be balanced with equal amounts of everything (protein, veggie and starches/sugars), not just all pasta and chocolate, and if you go back for seconds, you have to take equal amounts of everything again. The nutritionist may be right in that respect in that you are going all day with few or no carbs and then giving your body a big jolt all at one time. Your body may be happier with your carbs spread more evenly throughout the day. It's been my experience that no matter how fast I eat those carbs or what I eat them with if I eat a lot at one time, I'm going to have an insulin response and my blood sugars are going to spike.
Since you have so few pounds to lose, you may want to try the ongoing weight loss phase of Atkins or Protein Power like you were at the beginning and see if your body responds to it better. With so few pounds to lose, the weight will come off slowly but that's a good thing in many respects.
Be prepared when you go to the nutritionist for them to pretty much trash low carb...most of them will and are still coming from the high carb/low fat school of thought although there are a few out there who are more open to this WOE.
If you do decide to switch plans again, stick with it for a minimum of 4-6 weeks without cheating to give it a fair trial and re-read the plan you're switching to so that you have a clear picture of how to follow the plan. Good luck!

How about trying SugarBusters or the Insulin Resistance Diet. The IR diet is working GREAT for me!

Maybe, in addition to getting some sort of carbs during bfast and lunch, you could try going to other sources of carbs for dinner? When I ate the CAD way, I had a few carbs at bfast, a few more at lunch (in the form of veggies), and at dinner, I separated my groups, a meat, a carb, and a veggie. I also always had a salad before I started on my dinner plate. The pasta and other high glycemic carbs might do it to you, no matter how good you are. Pasta and white bread makes me bloat like Moby Dick, but if I have a baked potato or dense carb, it doesn't affect me. Now, I don't do this often, but when I "cheat", I try to pattern it after CAD and it keeps me from getting into trouble somehow. But, I know that certain carbs trigger my bloat, so you might want to try other forms.

Amber

Thank you all for your kind interest and suggestions. I don't have much more enlightenment about what's happening to me but I am feeling much better. I've spreading my carbs out through the day, without counting or being too strict about it. Big salads with everything in them etc. and the weight is falling off. I haven't weighed yet but for the first time in months my pants are actually loose and so are my rings. Don't know if it's water or fat, I don't really care at this point, I think I also need a mental break from thinking about dieting the whole time. I’m avoiding the sugars and the big carbs but I think that all the planning and psyching up and mental preparation for dieting probably stressed me out a bit. I’m waiting to hear what the nutritionist says and then we’ll see. If he trashes low carb I’ll just ignore him, because I really believe in it no matter what.

I really think that I'm a little stressed out about planning every meal, I'm just going to carry on as I'm going until I feel I can commit to something again. I'll see what the nutritionist says and then maybe consider a Schwarzbein or something else. Thanks again for your support guys, knowing someone's out there helps a lot!!!

Plum: You're right about my journal, I went to check it out and something else jumped at me that I didn't remember: how well I was doing on PP!!! And how little I weighed compared to now!! Will definitely keep that in mind!!! I guess I got a little lazy and not a little greedy and decided to change Might be a good idea to change back, wouldn't it?

Hey Scarlet, tell me about the IR diet, what's it about? I'm glad it's working so well for you...

Bye for now
C.