Hi everyone... This is my first post here; I hope someone can help me out...

My freshman year of college, I gained a lot of weight, then went on Atkins (induction the whole time) and dropped from 195 to 165 pounds in 4 months! (I am a 5'11" male.) I had caffeine, aspartame, didn't take vitamins, ate macadamia nuts, had liquor, all induction no-nos -- and I didn't exercise at all -- but I still dropped the 30 pounds effortlessly.

Now, four years have gone by, and I've been off Atkins completely. I never got back up from 165 to 195 -- I've been up as far as 180 though. Twice I've tried to go back on Atkins, using the same techniques as before, but I just don't seem to be losing any weight when I do it.

Most recently, I've been on Atkins Induction for almost 3 weeks, and I dropped 2 pounds right at the beginning, and now nothing. I am just going up and down between 169.5 and 172.5, with no progress.

I stopped eating Atkins Advantage bars, no longer have any caffeinated drinks or aspartame, don't drink anymore (tough for a 23-year-old guy), and I exercise almost every day for 45 minutes. But I'm still not losing weight... although my lipolysis strips tell me I'm moderately into ketosis every time I test them.

Could it be that drinking Fruit-2-O (water with citric acid and splenda) is causing this stall? Should I just drink plain water ALL the time? Could the macadamia nuts I'm snacking on be stalling me? I'm so baffled because just four years ago I shed 30 pounds while doing all the same things PLUS consuming caffeine and alcohol and aspartame and NOT exercising, whereas now I am not having caffeine or alcohol, and I *am* exercising, and not losing. Help!

Does anyone recommend the Atkins Accel pills? I just bought some, but they have caffeine in them, and Atkins says caffeine is bad! What gives?

Maybe trying this "egg fast" that I read about will help restart the weight loss? Or giving up the Fruit-2-O or nuts? Why is it so much harder this time?

OK, sorry for the long post. Any help would be *deeply* appreciated.

P.S. a typical day for me would be:

Breakfast: 2 eggs and 2 strips bacon
Lunch: Chicken Caesar salad, no croutons (2 g carbs in dressing)
Dinner: 4 hotdogs (0 g carbs) or another Chicken Caesar
Snack: several handfuls macadamia nuts or pork rinds
LOTS of water and Fruit-2-O (contains Splenda and citric acid)
Multivitamin, chromium supplement, calcium supplement, fish oil supplement
Constantly testing positive for ketosis, moderate level

I hear the second time around is a little harder. Try taking L-Caratine Supplement to help the process and try giving up the macadamia nuts. I would also limit the Fruit-2-O to one bottle at the begining to see what happens.

I'm having the exact same problem. Up and down the same three or four pounds for almost two months now! There's a link in another thread that addresses this, but I've done exactly what it said and still nothing.

Here's the article, in case it can help someone else:

http://ir.geometaphors.com/html/010509-1.html