I had to go off Atkins for the last week, basically because we've been frighteningly broke to the point where I actually went to a food pantry. I spent the week having to eat lots of carbs or starve. When I got on the scale after a week, I'd gained 5 lbs. I wasn't binging, I was eating fairly normally --just carbs. Is this normal? I'm hypoglycemic and pre-diabetic, so I was wondering if my body must be hyper-sensitive to carbs. Any hints? I'm back on more or less and surviving on eggs, cheese, and a little deli turkey.

Thanks!

Sorry the times are so tough for you. Hopefully things will get better soon. I ate high carb for 4 days before a blood sugar test and I gained (I'm hypoglycemic also). I think if you're insulin levels are high you will gain pretty easily from the carbs. Depending on how many you actually had though it could just be water retention. Stay on plan and I bet the weight will be gone in two weeks max.
Nancy

On Atkins you probably had low glycogen levels. The carbs probably filled your glycogen 'fuel tank'. The carbs you store also require about four times their weight in water. That could account for about 3# if you went from completely empty to completely full of glycogen, just as a motor vehicle weighs more full of gas. And as Nawchem said, high insulin levels are associated with water retention. So if your calorie intake was reasonable, it should come off pretty easily.

Sorry to hear you're struggling. Like you, I found Atkins expensive. I've learned since to eat mainly eggs, cheese, ground beef, sausages (check the content) and chicken sometimes, which has brought the bill down a bit.
Hope you find a way to keep going, I'm also hypoglycaemic and pre-diabetic and this is definitely a good way to eat for us.
Take care, Jay

I understand completely what you are going through. A few weeks ago the same thing happened to me. My advice is to get back on track when you can and not do what I have done and continue the spiral back to where you once were. Good luck, I know how you feel

Thank you everyone for your advice. It turns out that after just two days back on program I lost all five pounds! Yay! So I've got a renewed sense of purpose now.

And in about two weeks we should be on track with our finances so thanks for the concern and empathy.

Chryslin

i too have been living off of eggs and ground beef.

i am now trying to avoid buying low carb products. there are just too expensive.

BUT I did find LOW CARB SINGLE SERV CHEESECAKES AND LOW CARB PIZZA AND LOW CARB BAGELS and low carb waffles

they are all pretty good but extremely expensive -

$5.99 for 4 bagels (they are big and you could only eat a half at a time - has only 2 g. of carbs for a whole bagel)

$16.98 for two frozen lc cheese pizza (3 g. of carbs per slice - you can add pepperoni etc yourself)

$2.99 for each individual lc cheesecake (3g. of carbs per each cheesecake - no crust - but they have that really good richness that only comes from not making it yourself and they have sugar alcohols to really sweeten it up)

$3.49 for a box of lc blueberry waffles (there are 8 waffles in the box - so this was the best deal - a serving of waffles which includes 2 waffles has 6.5 g. of carbs)

but i think the prices will drop considerably after some time and with more competition. i am seeing new low carb products every day and with more and more companies competing for low carb dollars - prices will drop. we'll just have to wait.