hi,

i kno this may sound crazy (and i hope i wont be flamed), but im only trying to lose around 7-10 pounds (im pmsing so my weight is fluctuating, but my goal weight is 105-108, im 5'5" and im currently 115-117). I kno im not overweight, quite normal but that IS my goal weight and im asian and have small bones and i feel that this weight does not complement me very well and im quite unhappy with it. i have started KIND OF, the induction phase (exactly a week ago) but ive cheated every 2-3 days so ive never really gone into ketosis, not to mention i constantly eat sf candies w/ maltitol (russell stovers, mainly) and even nuts (esp cashews!!! high carb nut, right?) b/c im mostly used to eating anything i want. but once i hit my 20s (im 21), my metabolism has hit a new low and even w/ 1.5hrs cardio and .5hr weight lifting 4-5 days/week has made me gain weight (ive toyed with the idea that its muscle mass but i highly doubt that i could suddenly gain that much in muscle mass when ive been working out most of my teen years to now).

Pretty much, ive heard that small weightlosses like mine take much longer. how long do you guys think it will take me for those number of pounds once i start taking it very very seriously (i have a ridiculously difficult time controlling my eating habits). My workouts have kind of stopped because i am a fulltime student and my schedule does not allow time to workout much and when i do, i usually run 3.5 miles a couple of times a week or briskly walk 2-3 miles 4-5 days a week (inb/w the running).

Another question i have is, how do i control these cravings??? i never craved chocolate so bad (i quit chocolate before for almost a year just b/c i grew a distaste to it) but now i HAVE to have chocolate (i even went on searches AND found reeses sf pb cups and hersheys sf choc as well as sf gummy bears, jelly bellies, etc). now i have an extremely difficulty controlling candy in my appetite, i would eat 2 whole bags of russell stover cups or just about any large amount of candy to send me to the bathroom for an hour . afterwards i feel sooooooooooo guilty its like i cheated and i feel that im starting induction all over again. i really have no clue how sugar alcohol affects me so that doesnt help very much.

my diet in a day usually consists of 3-4 eggs, 3 slices of 0carb med cheddar, 3-4 cups of salad (w/ 2 servings of a 0/1gm carb dressing) w/ roasted chicken, a couple of hot dogs and lots of water. now im treating myself to sf popsicles. id say i take in around 15-25grams of carbs a day (i really REALLY have to stick w/ 20grams/day, right, to go into ketosis? and none of it must be a sugar such as fructose/sucrose, etc?). many times my food ranges a LOT esp from eating out (i always get salad but im never sure of the dressing--i stick w/ bleu cheese or caesar or some vinaigrette). vinaigrettes scare me now, however, since i checked dressing bottles at the market and found that many have more carbs than caesar and bleu cheese, which sometimes have the least amount of carbs and little or no sugar!

ive decided to start induction AGAIN today (after i just snacked on the rest of my sf jelly bellies and choc covered gummy bears AND some crackers--2grams of sugar from the amount i ate ). Id so appreciate it if anyone can give me advice on what to do in general. Im having trouble staying on track mostly b/c i have absolutely no will power! thanx in advance =)

Dear Peggopanic,

First, let me start by saying that your lack of willpower is not a personality flaw... it's the sugar talking! Those maltitol candies really messed with my ability to stay on the program. I had to cut them out cold turkey to quiet the urges.

The first three days of Induction were hard for me because it takes approximately 48 hours for the effects of high-carb food to get out of your system. So, for the first 48 hours, you are likely to think about eating starches and sweets.

BUT...

If you hang tough for the first three days, your cravings for them will disappear and the resulting peace and serenity is worth any candy bar.

Now, I can't tell you how quickly you will lose the weight. As I've posted other places, I am a very slow loser. But even though my weight comes off slowly (1 to 1.5 pounds a week), the lack of food cravings more than makes up for it. I know longer feel that I can't trust myself or that I'm a weak person because I can't stop eating.

When your blood sugar levels are under control, you CAN stop eating. And sometimes you have to make yourself start because your appetite has disappeared.

Also, remember that it's not your *weight* that you want to decrease, but your *size.* The Atkins plan will help you lose inches along with the pounds because the fat is melting away.

Make a commitment to drop all the candies and low-carb specialty foods for a week and follow the rules of Induction as stated on the Atkins web site, and you gain control over the cravings.

Best of luck,
Nelle

Pardon my opinion, but at 5'5" and 115, you are actually slightly underweight.

If you were under this weight as a teenager, you were probably a little skinny.

I suspect your body is craving because you need the food and energy. I would encourage you to eat healthy, fill up on good food so that you minimize the cravings for junk. If you need sweets, eat fruit, not chocolate.

I suspect that if you eat right and continue to exercise your weight will settle into what is a normal adult weight for you. Trying to recreate your teenage weight is just not practical. Afterall you were still growing in those years, and now you are reaching full maturity.

I remember wearing a girls size 10 in high school and I felt wonderful and was thin. I also had no hips or bust to speak of.

I apologize if I may have offended you, but I don't think you need to worry about your weight.

You do not need to be on Atkins. period

If you do need to lose 10 lbs do it by working out more or eating less calories. You do not need to be in ketosis so forget about induction.
The reason you are not supposed to eat sugar free candy during induction is to break a possible addiction. You do need to bust this sugar addiction and there is a supplement that will help you L-Glutamine - buy it and read how often they recommend taking it.
Get your sugar from natural fiber rich sources- FRUIT !
Try keeping fruit around instead of these sugar free sugar alcohol candy.
You should check out the Zone diet it is more appropriate for someone your size and weight, or someone who wants to maintain a low weight for life. Going into induction may be counter productive. If you added 2 runs to your week you would drop 10 pounds faster than you would on Atkins.
Same if you did pilates etc.
Cutting out refined flour and sugar is the best thing you could do for your health long term anyway. Check out most Asian cusines, there are no refined products except sugar which is mainly used in American Chinese food and otherwise comes mainly from coconut milk which is a natural source when unsweetened and totally fine !
Those 10 pounds could be anything, water,, muscle....do not obsess about it ! Its a number !!!

Check out your body and if you want more shape run more or do another workout geared to the shape you want.
Please dont go on induction, it is silly. But eating the way Atkins recommends you do is not so silly-no refined products including sugar is a healthy way of eating.
Good luck and I mean all this in the best way while hoping for your happiness with the way you feel and see yourself.

I'm sure the fact you're PMSing, it is contributing to your chocolate cravings. But the purpose of a "clean" induction is to rid your body of the "sweet" cravings. It takes a few days, but if you have cheated every two or three days, you've not even given your body a chance to switch from carb burning to fat burning for fuel. I would stop the sf chocolates until after Induction.

All that aside, it doesn't seem that you "really" need to lose any weight. Your starting weight is five lbs. under my goal weight and you are three inches taller than I am. I too, am small-boned. I "judge" how thin I'm getting (besides looser clothes and the scale) by extending my fingers straight out with my thumb at a 90 degree angle to them and looking at the hollow between my thumb and wrist. If you are really committed to low-carbing, I would do the maintenance phase of Atkins or possibly look at other maintenance phases of other low-carb plans out there. When I was in high school, I was an underweight, unhealthy 100 lbs. which was achieved by low-fat/low-cal, and some exercise. I knew that was not a sustainable weight for me which is why I chose 120 lbs. as a goal. After being out of college, I remember always weighing 120 lbs., then life happened, I got pregnant, etc. and the lbs. crept on. You may end up losing a little bit of weight, if you really make the switch to low-carb, but weight loss shouldn't be your goal.

You sound awful tiny. I am small boned and at 5'3'' I weighed 110 when I was in my early 20s. I wore size ones at some stores. I hated being so tiny. However, I didn't exercise and I was never a big eater. Remember, that Asian women are at a higher risk for osteoporosis therefore you need the added weight . I don't think you are looking at yourself from all the different angels.

You remind me of a freind of mine who is Asian, tiny and wants to lose weight. I told her how much weight I lost and she replied " Mary! you're shrinking down to nothing!" I told her that when I get down to my goal weight, I will still weigh more than her.

Girls and women who are already thin and want to lose weight worry me. Can you post your picture on this site?

Black57

Oh, I forgot, black57 brings up a good point:

Quote:

Remember, that Asian women are at a higher risk for osteoporosis therefore you need the added weight

Remember to take a calcium supplement daily, if you don't get enough calcium from your dietary intake.

Very slow??? That isn't slow, that is pretty darn good!

You're already at the very bottom of the weight range for your height. Since Atkins is designed to burn stored body fat, and you probably have very little of it, this probably isn't a feasible way to slim down.

If you really want to lose size without compromising your health, maybe you should try an exercise regimen such as Pilates that is designed to make you look trimmer. Please don't do anything that will endanger your present or future health simply to achieve what you think is a more pleasing look.

BMI calculator - so that you know we're not just a bunch of lying Mommy-types:

http://nhlbisupport.com/bmi/

My advice, cut out the junk, eat lean proteins, veggies, and do weight training. You need to be consuming a MINIUMUM of 10 times (max 12 time) your current body weight in calories in order to not slow your metabolism and lose weight. I recommend www.fitday.com to analyze what you consume.

I do not believe, on the evidence you've given, that you have a hard time losing weight OR a slow metabolism. Sounds like you like to binge on junk and then try to compensate in other small "healthy" meals. If you just cut out the sweets and high glycemic foods (breads, pastas) in favor of green veggies instead, break that nasty sugar addiction (takes about 4 days max) - you WOULD lose weight. And maybe you do need to. I have a friend who is amazingly tiny and at 45 years old weighs, well, not much. She's Chinese. BUT - what you're doing is not cool, in my opinion. I will warn you that early life yoyo dieting (binging then starving) is one sure-fire way to REALLY mess your metabolism up. My Mom did that when I was a kid, by age 30 her weight started upping and she has been seriously obese to this day.

So, that's my 2 cents. If you'd like to do Induction for 4 or 5 days to end sugar cravings - then do it and do it right or don't bother. I lost only about 3lbs on a TOTALLY clean and sugarfree, no candies Induction.

So there you have it. Take care of yourself. We give dire advice because many of us have been where you are and hope you'll listen.

Jinx

hi guys, thanx for all the advice as well as the warnings =). well, my problem is that i speculated that i had a hypothyroid and had a tsh test done, but it came out negative although i had every symptom related to it. ill be taking the other two thyroid tests soon when i have a chance. other than that, i have NOT been able to drop these 10 pounds no matter how hard i tried, working out and eating heathily. from february this year ive already cut out all potatoes, pasta, rice, bread, cereal and some starchy veggies from my diet, taking in no more than id say 1-2 servings a week sometimes b/c of cravings. i also constantly ate fruit, low fat, low sodium foods, etc. my weight has yoyo'ed for a bit always b/w 115-120 now, before it used to go inb/w 108-113 just this past year. it was this year that i gained weight and was not able to lose it. the only time i dropped weight w/o exercising or trying very hard was when i had the stomach flu and couldnt eat anything for days, which meant i was starving. back when i was 16/17 years old, this weight would have been dropped in two weeks b/c of my workouts, but now its impossible for some reason.

nelle and fairchild, im going to try very hard to resist those candies from now on! i had also noticed that if i dont eat them, then im ok but i think its the fact that im pmsing that makes me crave them (youre right paradise, i sure hope!). well, ill be sure once i "finish" my cycle.

and yes, inches are more important than pounds! i gain weight mostly on my hips and thighs so i judge by the way my pants and jeans fit. im mostly trying to slim dwn my thighs, i have a lot of cellulite there and its definitely the largest part of my body tahts not in proportion with everything else (i have skinny arms, belly, etc). so i figured by going on induction, i would burn whatever extra fat i have left over, but it will just take me a long time.

jinx, the reason i went onto this diet as b/c i DO have problems accepting my weight and i was trying to go about it the wrong way (binging and starving) and i felt horrible for it. i found this diet much better for me, esp since i [have grown to] love veggies, meat (someone had told me ive stayed slim b/c i eat only meat), and cheese. but yes, im going to try induction again and try my best. its jsut a hard time think, pmsing and having 4 midterms to study for very soon.

someone had asked me for my picture; i have a website w/ most of my pictures so heres the link:

http://www.pbase.com/peggopanic

in the first gallery, im the one on the left in the photo they show before you enter, so that should give you an idea =)

and again, thanx everyone!

First, you are absolutely adorable!

Second, I can understand being upset that you have 10 pounds that you are not used to. Some of it may be muscle mass, if you have been increasing your workouts recently.

I think a low carb approach is just plain healthy-but I doubt you really need the induction phase. Atkins says those that need to lose 20 pounds or less can skip into Ongoing weight loss. Since you are getting older (aren't we all?) your metabolism will change, but usually doesn't really slow down til you get closer to 30-that is when it all hit me.

Good luck and keep hanging out here-I swear I lose weight by comming here.