hello,
I was just wondering if Atkins would still work if i eat over the amount of calories im suppose to have..like over 10-12x my body weight, but still following all the other rules. Would it slow my weight loss down or have very little effects? I am around 112 now..(i think) and i find it hard to stick to less than 1500 calories.

Each person's different, but if you eat way too many calories your weight loss will probably slow or stop. If you stay in ketosis, you might not gain weight since insulin is required to store body fat - but your body can always convert protein to glucose to get insulin if it feels it needs to and that protein can either come from your dietary intake or your lean muscle mass.

I'm still curious to find out why you think 95 is the proper weight for you when all of the tables, even for small framed girls, indicate that 108 to 118 is the best range. What has led you to pick 95 and, in particular, why do you feel that 112 is too much.

Before you start cutting calories, keep in mind that the 10 - 12x body weight guideline is the MINIMUM energy necessary to keep certain necessary biological functions happening. Eating more is OK and is probably even better for you. This guideline should not be seen as the maxium you can eat.

Nat

Thank Natrushka for clearing that up...now i wont feel too bad about eating 1600 cals or something...

Wbahn, 112 may seem normal to you but it is considered fat to me, my family, and compared to all my skinny friends who stand at 5'6" 108lbs, and 5'1 at 95 lbs. so, how can i NOT think 112 is too much?

but it is okay because i won't be 112 forever. I am so happy i found about Atkins and lowcarbing because it is the only weightloss plan that has worked for me and i will stick to it until i have reached 95.

why 95? i dunno...there's something about that number that feels right..not because my friend is 95 though...

Twinkle, take it from someone who has been there. Being underweight is just as bad as being overweight. Maybe even worse. I had an eating disorder and was 115 pounds. At 5'10", that was really skinny. Let me just tell you how I felt physically, because mentally, I still felt fat.

I recovered just last year which resulted in a pretty big weight gain and am now trying to get down to a weight that is better for me. It's going very slowly because my body remembers starving and is fighting me every step of the way. I have resigned myself to the fact that this is going to take a long time because just a year ago I was still underweight. Not fun, but that's my reality at the moment. Very, very slow, but I'll take that over starving and having an eating disorder any day!

I was tired all the time. I had absolutely no energy. I would get home from work and immediately fall asleep on the couch. I was always turning down invites to do things with friends because I couldn't fathom having the strength. I have managed to alienate so many of them now that I just don't get asked anymore.

My hair was falling out and I actually had bald spots that I had cover by arranging my hair in a certain way.

I went to the beach in the middle of the summer, sat in the sun and was still so cold that my fingers and toes went completely numb.

I would get sick if I ate more than about 200 calories at a time.

I could count my ribs on my front and back, and got bruises if I sat in a hard chair because I had absolutely no padding on my body.

I completely lost my sense of humour. Nothing was very funny anymore, particularly me, and I'm usually pretty funny. (trust me on that one!)

I constantly had people asking me if I was sick, and when I told them that I wasn't, I could see the disbelief in thier eyes.

I looked terrible. I had dark circles under my eyes all the time, my hair was dry and brittle.

I stopped getting my period regularly. I never knew when and if it was going to come.

When I finally realized that I had a problem, I soon discovered that the road to recovery was not an easy one. Please think twice about the reasons that you want to weigh 95 pounds. If your friends think that you are too fat then you need new friends. True friends only want you to be in good health and will not care how much you weigh. I don't know what to say about your family, except that they should love you for you, and not your weight. Perhaps you need to think about educating them a little bit. Your health is more important than anyone's opinion of you. You need to love yourself for who you are, not what you look like. If you love yourself, others will see that in you and love you as well. And if they don't then they are probably toxic to your spirit and you should be rid of them anyway, because they will do you more harm than good.

Please just think about these things. Check out some eating disorder websites. I'm not suggesting that you have one, but they are full of very eye opening things that may help you realize that there is a lot more to you than your weight.

I know this may seem weird coming from someone at a weightloss forum, but believe me when I say that this is message from the heart of someone who has been there. I want you to be happy and healthy. Not skinny and miserable!

I hope that I haven't offended or upset you, this is completely unsolicited advice, but I had to reply when I read your post.

Take care and I am always here if you need someone to talk to, okay?

Twinkle,

Please understand that it is not a matter of what might seem normal to me. Companies such as the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company have spent a great deal of time, effort and money looking at what are healthy weight ranges that lead to the longest life span? Why? Because they are gambling on being able to know how long people will live so that they can set their life insurance premiums and terms accordingly. Just as a casino knows that it can play the odds and win over time provided it has a very good knowledge of what those odds are, so too do life insurance companies know that they will win over time if they know the longevity odds for people well enough.

Their weight tables yield the following:

Height without shoes = 5' 1"
Small Frame: 105 to 119 pounds
Medium Frame: 115 to 129 pounds
Large Frame: 125 to 140 pounds

Your frame size or body build is determined by the thickness of the bones in your elbows, knees, ankles, and wrists. The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company offers this method of determining your body frame size: Extend your arm and bend your forearm upward at a 90 degree angle. With your fingers straight, turn the inside of your wrist toward your body. Place your thumb and index finger of the other hand on the two prominent bones of the elbow. Measure the space between the fingers against a ruler or a tape measure. Compare your measurement with the figures in the table below. Elbow measurements less than those given indicate a small frame; greater measurements indicate a large frame.


Women

Height without shoes .......Elbow Breadth for Medium Frame
4'9" to 5'2".........................2 1/4" to 2 1/2"

To find the points to measure your elbow between, form a U cradle out of your right arm and grasp your left arm (if that's the one sticking up) underneath the bicep. Slide your right hand down until you feel the two knobs of bone protruding sideways at the elbow. You want to measure the breadth of these two bones at their widest point.

Another means of estimating frame size is to measure the circumference of the wrist since there is seldom much fat there. For your height, the wrist measurement for a medium framed woman is 5.5" to 5.75".

Now, the above tables are for women that are 25 to 59. I do realize that you are younger than that. I also realize that a given individual's ideal weight may not be reflected by any given table very well.

But they are a good guide and unless you are extremely small framed you should consult a nutritionist about this issue. Don't go by what you or your family or your friends "feel" is fat. Don't go by what your "skinny" friends weigh - those skinny friends may very well be underweight and damaging their own health, too. Being 10% underweight can have serious health consequences.

Ask yourself why you won't just go see a doctor or nutritionist to find out what a good target weight for YOU is. Could it be because you suspect that they will tell you a higher weight than you have convinved yourself it "right" for you? If so, that is a sure sign of an unhealthy approach to your weight.

I knew two girls in high school and one in college that were rail thin and absolutely adamant that they were either at the proper weight or were still a little fat. Two of those three girls are now dead. The last I heard of the third she had finally gotten treatment after nearly dying herself and is now doing great.

Like Dizzy, I am offering this unsolicited and don't know if any of it applies to you. But we offer this information because we are concerned and do care, albeit we are strangers who never have and almost certainly never will meet.

Thank you dizzyd and wbahn for caring but i have heard it all, read it all, and experienced it all..or most of it all..eating disorders and the right normal weight and such..

But I've been going through this 'phase' of mine for a long time and came to terms that I will never be happy until i have reached my goal..or at least near it. I've tried to be happy with who I am, but i've realized I can never accept the reality of it, therefore I am finally doing something to change it.

May I add that I am asian and my family is very critical. I got sick of the constant comments about my weight and i hated being targeted in the family. The weird thing is that my dad is a bit overweight, my mom weighs more than me and a little shorter than me, and the other members are not even skinny, yet they constantly target me as the fat one.

It is not my friends that led me into this path, it is mostly my family, people who i have to always be around and successfully and permanently planted the image of me as -fat-

I will stop whining now..
Besides, I'm kinda going off topic

Twinkle, I'm very concerned about your health, both physically and mentally. I've been through the pain and trauma of an eating disorder and I know what you are setting yourself up for. If it's your family that's making you feel this way then talk to a school councilor, a minister, a family member outside your immediate family, anyone! You can get help, for free and confidentially if you're prepared to look for it. Call your public health nurse and they can direct you. Call Overeaters Anon. They can direct you. Check the phone book for local support groups. You need help and you need it fast, before you get too far down that slippery slope and set yourself up for a life time of health problems, and possibly death. This is no joke.

I'm going to paste some links below. Check them out. Maybe you will find something in them that can help you. I know I did when I was struggling with my ED. Just look at them, that's all I ask. Please? Maybe it would help if your family saw them as well. Might make them realize that they are harming you by thier words and actions more than they know.

http://www.caringonline.com/

http://www.something-fishy.org/

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/thin/

http://www.edap.org/

http://www.coun.uvic.ca/personal/edtips.html

http://www.mirror-mirror.org/eatdis.htm

I could put a zillion of them in here, but there is a lot of really eye-opening things in these ones. No one, and that includes your family, has the right to make you feel bad about yourself based on your weight, or any other aspect of your appearance for that matter! Stand up for yourself, and if you can't do that alone, get help. There is help, and hope, for you. Be strong and you can do anything!

I'm thinking about ya kiddo.

What is considered a healthy body fat percentage for many races is not the same - this is what I found for Asians, Twinkle. I know it sounds like we are beating a dead horse - but we are concerned.

*The bones of African-Americans tend to be dense and so they sink easily in water. On the other hand, the bones of Asians are light and porous so they tend to float. To allow for these differences, healthy African-Americans should have a lower percent body fat than Asians and Caucasians, while Asians should have a higher percent body fat than African-Americans and Caucasians

The healthy target for Asians is listed as 25% - slightly higher than the 22% for Caucasians.

Nat

Hi Twinkle,

I don't have much to add at this point except to note that this is NOT at all off topic. It might be better in your journal (and can be moved there if and when you start one, which I highly recommend) but it is certainly not inappropriate.

This support forum isn't just about eating poperly on a low carb diet. This support forum is about supporting the whole person to become healthy and happy. It really is. Scour some of the journals and you will see people reaching out helpful and supportive hands when people are sick, when people have had injuries or deaths in their midst, when people are frustrated and angry, when peoples' spouses have walked out on them - you name it.

You have joined a community of friends that are spread out all over the globe. Yet that community shares stonger bonds and genuine concern for each other than the vast majority of neighborhoods do any more.

We'll keep trying to convince you and you keep trying to convince us and eventually we will come to a meeting of the minds where we can both be reassured that you will be healthy and happy.

I know how families can be and the pressure they can place on you - especially in your teen years. They truly and firmly believe that they are acting in your best interest which makes it all the harder. How about challenging them (politely and respectfully) to show you what their basis is for claiming you are fat. Ask them to show you what your ideal weight should be based on evidence and numbers for a reliable source. Perhaps that will force them to rethink why they think the way they do.

Best of luck - always.