I am new to low carbing, but I feel like I'm somewhat getting it. I lost about 10 lbs on the induction and have moved onto OWL. I have upped my carbs a bit and am not loosing weight. I have been on the OWL for about 3 weeks and the scale has not moved. I haven't gained any back. Thank God, but still I was expecting a faster results. Should I start some sort of exercise? I also, added Peanut Butter occasionally for my sweet tooth. I have about 2 tablespoons. I added La Tortilla (low carb tortillas) in the diet. I added sugar free popcicles (3 carbs for 1 bar), and occassionally I've had a carbolite chocolate bar. Not on a daily basis, but occassionally. Could these items be stalling me? I need to drink more water that's for sure and I started this week trying to get my 72 oz. in daily. Please help. I'm registered at FitDay.com too. I just don't know if I'm on the right track and if I should eliminate all the new foods I added.

Try cutting the "sweets" out.

If you are like most of us, anything that tastes "sweet" real or not triggers the release of insulin. Insulin in the blood stream will prevent any burning of fat for fuel.

So with that being said...you may want to cut out those "sweets" and up your carb intake the legal way of adding more veggies and salads in.

I didn't know that. I was just counting carbs. So, the sweets do count?

It really depends on "how" your body reacts to them. Everyone is different, some systems are more sensitive to sweet taste even if it is a false one.

There was a study done YEARS ago, like about 20 or 30. It was done on a dog. They would ring a bell and then give the dog food. After a few weeks of this behavior they noticed that the dog would start to salivate at the sound of the bell even if food was not offered. Same theory applies here.

Only you will be able to say yes or no to this. Try cutting out the false sweets for a couple of weeks and see if you start losing again. If you do then yes...you are one of those that's system has been conditioned to release insulin even with a taste of something sweet on the tastebuds.

Thanks alot. I'll definately try that. Thanks for the advice. ( I also didn't mention that I cheated with 2 oreo cookies a few days ago) Ugh!

Careful of those Carbolite bars. They have lots of hidden carbs.

Em

Neni...

It's good advice to cut out the low carb sweets, but it's also not unusual to have a period of no weight loss following induction. You started out having less than 30 lbs to lose, so losing 10 lbs during induction is doing great! The average weight loss during induction is about 10% of what you need to lose (which in your case would have been about 3 lbs on the average). Those that lose weight fastest on low carb are generally those that have the most to lose. The closer you are to a healthy weight for you, the slower the weight will come off. Try cutting out the low carb sweets and see what happens over the next week or two and above all, be patient with your body. The weight will come off, but maybe not as fast as you'd like it to.

Hi there Neni....

You may find that you have better success by eliminating some of the things that you've added back in. The low carb tortillas, the carbolite chocolate, the peanut butter (I assume it has sugar in it.) Though you may not be using all of those every day, there seems to be a trend here and I suspect it's your sweet tooth that has gotten you to where you are today.

Is the object of this "diet" you are on, to lose weight and then keep it off for the rest of your life?

The thing is that when we finally 'get it' that the way we have been eating kept us overweight, no matter what that way was (we're all different), we need to change it if we hope to be slim for life.

You asked about exercise. Getting some exercise instead of indulging in a 'sweet thing' (LC or not), might be a step in the right direction for you. It could be as simple as taking a trip up and down a flight of stairs. Exercise combined with LC, can change your life. And change it for the rest of your life.

It's up to you. What do you want to achieve for yourself?

l-Glutamine (an amino acid) can be used as a supplement that will help you get past the sweet cravings. Many of us in the forum are using it for that purpose or because we do strength training and it helps with muscle building. If you decide to try it, be sure to get it in the powder form as you need at least 5g per dose.

I wish you every success with LCing.

Marlaine