My fiancee and I have been on Atkins for about 7 weeks now, and we both have had what I would consider a significant amount of success ( we have both lost about 13 lbs). Although we both have been hovering around our current weight for about 3 weeks now. A gentleman who works with my fiancee (and a fitness professional/bodybuilder) told him that sometimes you should periodically take a day and eat carbs throughout and it will "jumpstart" your metabolism. Personally, I am hesitant to even consider taking a "break" or "cheat" day because my withdrawl symptoms for the first 2 weeks of induction were TERRIBLE. I had headaches and awful anxiety. I dont want to go through it again. If I did eat carbs at one meal, would it happen again? I have seen other posts where people go out to dinner and cheat, and are terribly ill the next day. I believe that CAD/CALP diets suggest you eat one meal a day of carbs. I am a tad confused about this. The only book I have read is Atkin's new diet cookbook, and it doesnt really go into any descriptions of carbohydrate withdrawl symptoms or anything like that... (I actually accidentally found this forum doing research to find out if how I was feeling was normal!!!) If anyone has had negative or positive experiences with cheats or "reward" days, I would appreciate a response. Thanks in advance!!

Lisa

The media is not fooling me

Lisa

It's perfectly normal to have a slow-down after Induction. Some people stop losing weight entirely for 2-3 weeks (or more) while their bodies adjust to the new fuel. At 7 weeks, you don't even qualify for a "real" stall.

I've been on Induction-level carbs since March and the absolute worst I've cheated is to go to 70 carbs (twice, because I didn't know the carb count on a particular food I thought was low-carb). When I do that, my nose gets stuffy, my energy level is WAY down, I almost feel like I have a bad cold and am having to recover from an illness. For me, cheating isn't worth the hangover. I'm trying to stay under 30 on a daily basis and seem to be mostly successful.

Good luck, whatever you decide!

I hope that you have all increased you carbs by 5 grams per week as in the Atkins book until you stopped losing. Then you could decrease until the losing resumed. If you stay at Induction levels, you have nowhere to go and your body can become very efficient at the low levels of carbs. If you have increased the carbs, then you could just go back down to Induction to get things moving again.

That is the way Atkins recommends.

hi! Hm... maybe I have an older version of the book, but I could have sworn you could stay at induction levels as long as you didnt only have 10ish lbs to lose? I am quite comfortable at 20-25g of carbs per day, and I havent been losing at that! I dont have the book with me, but I have only increased my carbs by MAYBE 5 carbs/day. But, Tofi, I dont see what this has to do with the question?

Have a great holiday!!!!

I believe that Dr. Atkins described a "reversal" diet in one of his earlier books where you do a different type of diet (low fat, all fruit, etc..) for 2 or 3 days to help break a stall. It wasn't at all a "eat all the carby food you were missing" type thing and he did caution that a weight gain was likely during the reversal diet period. I don't recall seeing it in his newest book, so he may have re-thought his position on that. If you do go back to a higher carb diet for a few days (or even a few meals), I imagine that it would provoke carb cravings and the reappearance of symptoms in a lot of people, so you'd have to decide for yourself if it would be worth it or not.
The reward meal for CAD is not a carb-fest as some people seem to think; it has to be balanced with equal amounts of protein, high fiber veggie and carbs and eaten within a one hour period. I tried CAD for a few months and gained weight on it, so I know that it's not for me, but others seem to do just fine with it.
Dr. Atkins does say that you can safely stay on induction levels of carbs for longer than the 2 weeks, but he doesn't recommend it and I think the reason for that is what Tofi said; your body can become very efficient at using 20 grams of carb and stop losing and you also have nowhere to retreat to when you hit a stall. Many people have also found that increasing their carbs a bit has helped get the weight loss going again. Give it a try and see what happens.

I don't have my book with me either, but I seem to remember reading that to cheat at all will only serve to set you back. The way you lose weight with Atkins is by getting into ketosis, in which your body will burn stored fat as fuel as opposed to carbs. Now, if you cheat, it will likely take a few days to get back into ketosis, which is where you were already...so what did you gain? (other than a few lbs...lol) Also, I'm afraid that if I were to get into the habit of occasionally cheating on purpose it would become easier and easier until I'd find myself right back where i started. I have a friend who's done that for the last year and she weighs the same now as she did a year ago.
Bob