This is probably a crazy question but there are about 20 of us doing a Weight Loss Challenge. I have been doing Atkins since the beginning a few months ago and feel that I look great and I have lost a ton of weight.

I don't know how everyone else is doing(haven't seen anybody) Our final weigh in is on April 6th and I am hoping to win(it's almost $1000) The past couple of weeks my weight loss has slowed down but I was hoping to lose about 10 more lbs by then or at least 5 lbs. How can I lose more weight fast or at least weigh less on the scale that particular day?

By the way, I plan on continuing Atkins even after the Challenge. I am hoping to win though!
Thanks for any ideas,
Kim

Hi Kim, I am on your side. One thing I do, because I was eating way to often is intemittent fasting. It is defined by eating 2 times one day and eat 1 meal the next. But, what I and others do is fast for around 20 hours and eat within a 20 hour windo. During the eating window, don't be shy about eating. Eat what you want until you are full for your fast breaking meal. It should be 100% Atkins friendly food. Yesterday, I had steak, stirfried shrimp and veggies,sliced avocado, some macadamia nuts, sugarfree pudding. That was my meal when I broke my fast. I had no desire to eat again until dinner time where I had 2 pieces of fish and spinach. I had a very hard time eating my dinner. I will try and post the thread on IF and I will post something from Dr. Eades blog.

I was stalled and began gaining. Out of all the tweaks, this was the only tweak that worked. You actually try and get in as many calories as you possibly can during this time. I am happy with this. Doing this for nearly a year and I lost 15 lbs since last April. This isn't something that you can just jump into though. You have to ease yourself into it.

http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/...ittent-fasting/
http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?t=365598

I'm rather new to IF'ing, but I'd suggest that too. I'm working my way into it, so I'm at about 16 hours of fasting on the days that I fast, then I have usually breakfast and lunch, or lunch and a snack. I credit IF with my five lb loss in the past few weeks.

This is the current IF thread: http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthre...94&page=1&pp=15

I'm on spring break and starting with IF today- I have had no caloric items since 7 PM today. The goal is to fast until Thursday (tomorrow at 6 PM)- a 23 hour fast. I definitely think this is possible. I have incredible strength and willpower.
My goal is to do IF for a full week

One thing that seems to help me is eating high carb for a day or so and then going back into induction levels. Keep drinking lots of water!

Your mileage may vary. Good luck with the contest though!

Have you tried HIIT? Its seems the be the only "on the plan" that works for me.. Im not a fan of complete fasting or carbing up. You might wanna try a meat and egg fast too.

Good luck!

IMHO I would not play around with upping carbs unless you're really stalled out- HIIT can also be dangerous if you're not working out a lot now- I think IF might be the best thing for ya. If you want, I can join you and we can have a week of IFing competition or something. Feel free to PM me.

Our bodies are fully capable for fasting and it is surprisingly healthy.

Yup. It wouldn't shut your metabolism down anyway. It's more like we know that if we eat 6 small meals a day our body is constantly working to digest something, so we ARE metabolising things. Thus, metabolism tests show a working metabolism. If there's nothing in us, there is nothing to metabolise so....it gets a break...but its not like a resting metabolism is a dead metabolism! That's not really how the breakdown of energy works.
Taubes really explains this well in his book.

I wouldn't do IF unless I knew it wouldn't make me panic and binge.

Good luck!! Lot's of good advice here....I don't have anything new to add; let us know if you win!!

???Why would it make her panic? I mean, its not like she could never eat again...

She might panic because some people take hunger signals as STARVING signals - and others (myself among them) take any excuse to binge :-) I've been following Mama Lu's advice and easing into IF *very* gradually (if I'm really hungry, I eat). I'm down to about a six hour window and if it takes me another month to get to five, that's okay by me.

For the OP: there are lots of tricks and tweaks out there, YMMV on each one. Try not to make the contest too important - in a year from now, will it matter that you won, or might it matter more that you took the "lifestyle" route and are still on low carb and look fabulous. It's so hard - I definitely want some instant gratification (hello, onederland, yoo hoo, you out there????) but it's really the long term that counts.

Good luck!
Chris

I liked IFing. Another thing that can shake up your metabolism is upping your fats to 75-80% of daily calorie intake. Meat and egg fasts are also of merit. The infamous fat fast in also known to be highly efficient. All these topics have their own threads. I WOULD NOT go into calorie restriction. Starvation mode will not help you at this point in time. Plus, check out the stalls and tips section. Lots of good stuff over there. I tried carb cycling, and just plain out gained weight from it. I don't recommend it, though it apparently works for some people.

I would rather pig out during my feasting window. With 3-4 meals a day, I am stricter with the amount of food that I eat. It isn't the amount that is improtant, it is the frequency. By learning to allow the feeling of hunger and prolonging it a bit can actually give your digestive tract a rest. Let it complete the job before processing more food. I think that is why i have to "go" after my break fasting meal.