I started the Atkins diet January 4th this year, and so far I have lost 25-28 lbs. The last 3 sort of keep coming and going. My goal is to get as close to 145 as I can, I have a long way to go.

I have noticed some things happening and thought I would mention them, and see if any of you notice this, as well.

Firstly, I noticed that every night, I tend to run a low grade fever that seems to be in tune with my ketosis. The temp can range from about 99.3 to 100.2 or so. I do not feel ill, just hot, flushed and my energy shoots through the roof, though I tire easily if I try to exercise. If I sleep at night instead of working, I wake hot and sweaty. The doctor assures me nothing is wrong, though I did have a thyroid test 10 years ago that showed me very close to the low end of normal. The doctor assured me then no action was needed.

I work at night 3 days a week, and the other days I try to sleep at night, but this burst of energy I get is making it a bit difficult. I have checked my blood sugar and it is well within normal limits.

Also, I notice I fluctuate in and out of ketosis many times during the day. I can taste and sort of smell it on my breath, and it is strongest when the fever is highest. At first, I was thinking it was menopause and hot flashes, but soon correlated the fever with the ketosis, verified by Ketostix. I do not see a lot of mention of anything like this.

The gas, bloating, and loose BM's, all gone.

Atrial fib and palpitations.. gone.

Oily hair and facial skin, now normal.

I used to wake and live most of the day with headaches, migraines so severe I would.. well, you know.. also gone.

I used to never feel like I quite woke up, even after 10 hours being awake, I never *felt* awake. That is also gone.

Fibromyalgia, gone.

Ringing in my ears, gone.

Asthma, almost completely resolved. (I would often wake at night after inhaling regurgitated stomach acid.)

Constant pain in the upper center abdomen above my pancreas, gone.

Chronic back pain due to pancreatic problem, gone.

Chronic pancreatitis, severe duodenitis, peptic and duodenal ulcers, and GERD all a result of years of suffering from undiagnosed unrelenting inflamatory gallbladder disease (never had stones or cholesterol problem) with resultant biliary diskenesia, gone.

The first four days were almost a blur to me, my head was in a fog, I felt drunk, even stumbled when I walked, and had slurred speech. On the 5th day, it lifted, and I feel like I did when I was 25!

I think I am pre-diabetic, possibly with Syndrome-X/insulin resistance, and I cannot go above about 15 carbs per day, or I go out of ketosis and feel *horrible*. It is almost like carbs of any kind cause me severe distress both gastrically and mentally. (due to the "fog" I mentioned).

It took me years to get diagnosed with gallbladder disease because it did not fit the "typical" pattern of gallstones, and I finally went to a surgeon who ran a simple test and found my gallbladder to be horribly inflamed and diseased. He stated it was an autoimmune reaction, my body was attacking itself, but no one ever gave me a *cause*.

For several years after my gallbladder removal, I tried to avoid the fats as per the prescribed diet for this disorder, and continued suffering multiple, frequent bouts of chronic pancreatitis, as often as twice a week at times. This is a horribly agonizingly painful disease.

It seemed proteins were the real culprit. If I ate steak and a salad, I could expect to be in the emergency room. Peanut butter. Eggs. Chicken, cooked in any form. I was running out of foods I could tolerate. I ate toast, mashed potatoes, mac n cheese.. I lived off of carbs.

I gained an immense amount of weight from eating "low fat" (from 185-280+ lbs in a little over a year), only ate once a day or sometimes twice because of the gastric distress, but found my carb consumption was enormous!

I was afraid I would get violently ill with each meal, so I would gorge as if it were my last meal, and pray I would make it to the next one without an attack. I couldn't take typical antacid meds like Pepcid or Zantac because I became "allergic" to them, suffering kidney shutdown.

I suffered constant "near syncope" (almost fainting), weakness and shaking when I would stand, and orthostatic hypotension (low blood pressure upon standing), which I now believe was hypoglycemia.

Starting Atkins was a huge leap of faith for me due to this past history, but I have become a believer now due to the instant relief of the pain that has enveloped my life for so many years now. I still have infrequent near syncope, and my blood pressure has risen to normal levels.

The first day on the diet, bacon and eggs. Steak. Chicken. I told my husband we may well be visiting the emergency room *again*, but it was almost like a last ditch effort for me. I ate the protein, the fats, and guess what? I even ate 3 meals and no attack!

I was conidering gastric bypass, but feared I would not be approved due to my history of gastric problems. I was really feeling like I was dying, slowly and *very* painfully.

Reclaiming my life has been a difficult and frightening thing to me, but I can atest to the fact I feel better than I have in years upon years, and I feel I owe it to Dr. Atkins.

I do not miss carbs, I do not miss it one bit. I see bread now, I see pain. Carbs=poison to my body. I have some fears over what the general populace calls "healthy" dieting, but it was truly killing me. I know I need vegies, but my body just doesn't want to adapt to even the mildest carb intake right now.

The induction part of the diet is effortless to me, and feels simply *right*, the way a lifestyle change should.

I am confused and dismayed at how carbs can cause so many problems. Am I alone? Does anyone else relate to any of this? Any comments or suggestions are most welcome!

~Fantasia

Wow - my sister has a similar history and is terrified to lc. I just forwarded this post to her.

All the best and I am sincerely happy for your courage in choosing this WOL!!

Thanks for the reply! I hope she can summon the courage to try it, and finds some relief.

I got very wary of doctors after it seemed everything they told me to do seemed to be the exact opposite of what I really needed, so I visit them as little as possible

Do let me know what happens with your sister. If my story were to only help one person, that would be terrific!

~Fantasia

Dear Fantasia,

Congratulations on your weight loss and all the problems solved! The 'low grade fever' is normal. I get it when I am in ketosis.

Our bodies never evolved to eat so many carbs as we do (or did!)

I went off the diet for three weeks at Christmas. I was staying with my sister so I didn't impose my diet on her. What amazed me is just how many carbs people eat!

Try and introduce veggies - maybe you could start with salads.

Good luck,

Robert

RC,

Thanks so much for the reply, I was really beginning to wonder if I had some underlying infection or something! I admit I enjoy the feeling, though, the natural pink flush to my cheeks and my eyes seem to glow. The energy rush is WOW!

I try to add in veggies, but each time I do this, I stop ketosis. One night I made some cooked minced tomatoes (about 1/4 cup) mixed with some mayo for a meat sauce, followed by similar concoctions the day after to have the weight loss come to a halt. I went through this a couple times, restarting induction at zero (as close to it as I can get) to have it kick back in. It gets frustrating at times, but I won't ever give up. Perhaps my body needs some time to adjust to all these changes.

I am a coffee addict, admittedly, but weaning myself off it to avoid withdrawals. Even so, I am grateful for the dramatic weight loss I already had.

Looking at starting a journal, too, so maybe that will help some. One thing I can say, my cooking creativity has blossomed, and I even invented a nifty sort of cheesecake that makes it's own crust. (Lol, someone else has probably already made it) I consider it a challenge to come up with new menus every day!

What an inspiring story! I am so glad you found something that your body responds to and obviously prefers. It amazes me that what we eat affects so much. I have also found that daily and monthly bloating has almost ceased. It is wonderful!

Keep on-instead of trying to add tomatoes as your veggie-why not just some lettuce or green beans. Keep it small at first.

Paleoanth

There are couple of things I just wanted to mention to you.

You may still be losing weight if you keep your carbs low enough and your sticks may not read ketosis but that is ok.

You chose one of the highest carb veggie to start with. Here is a list of Atkins Induction veggies to try again. I'm a little anal about this but I know veggies are so important to good health and natural fiber is so important in weightloss too.

Atkins Induction Allowed

Please try one of the higher fiber veggies that you are allowed to have up to 2 cups daily even with minimal carbs in your diet.

Wow Fantasia, what a great post!

Congratulations on your success so far! I also started BACK at the beginning of Jan too! I have lost about 16lbs myself and when I look at that figure I think "Wow not bad"! Although I seem to be coasting along right now but that's o.k. I wanted to acknowledge your post as well because I also Thank Dr. Atkins especially for helping to change my life. I remember about six years ago when I first was told about his book and I stood in the bookstore with tears in my eyes because I had no idea that Low-Carb was even an option, and there I was in his book !!! My only regret was that I had not known about it twenty years earlier before my body got so trashed and damaged! I AM well on my way to Type 2 diabetes if I do not stay on track. and away from sugar.
Yes the health benefits I feel are more important to me than the weight loss for sure! Although the weight loss is great
I was just on MSM with a girlfriend and she asked after awhile how my fingers were, as they start to hurt with too much typing(arthritis) I replied ..NO Sugar No Pain!!
My moods are wonderful, I don't get anxiety attacks, I can HANDLE the little things.
My skin is smoother. The best is ..my TOM (Time of the Month) is painless, even sneaks up on me after 27 years of horrid pain!!!
One question to you is why after such a bad experience with protien in your diet did you decide to give it another try?

Hi Fantasia:

That was such a touching post. I could really feel your physical pain. I've also come back from poor immune system-related health problems. Just like you, I truly thought I was dying, my life had become so abnormal. It's been almost 2 years for me (being healthy) so I forget sometimes just how bad things were. Thanks for reminding me what it was like.

As someone already mentioned, being out of ketosis doesn't necessarily mean you won't lose weight. There are some higher carb diets out there where people don't go into ketosis, yet lose weight. You've already lost 25 since January. That is incredible. Ketostix are just a guideline. They aren't an accurate measure of whether you are losing weight. They just tell you that you are burning fat for fuel. However, water consumption and time of reading can affect them.

If, for whatever reason, you are unable to increase your carbs, you might also consider not cooking your veggies for now. Work on getting the most bang for your buck, so to speak, by not destroying all the important nutrients. Green leafy vegetables will always be your best choice. I buy baby spinach, which is really tender, and make salad with it.

Lastly, I don't think most people can say this enough. Track your food choices with fitday.com. I found this a tremendous tool to track how my body responds to different levels of macronutrients.

Again, thank you for your post,
Wanda

Paleoanth,

Yes, I did neglect to mention the loss of water retention I had. I had about +3 pitting edema in my legs, my face, hands, everything, were puffy with water.

I feel certain a good portion of the weight loss was water to start with. My first week of induction, I went to the restroom about every 20 minutes and woke a lot at night. That passed quickly, and I could see the fat start dropping off. Tom hasn't been around yet, but I too am curious how that will go. I could *easily* gain 5lbs or more in water bloating from it, so we shall see!

I had bought a mixed salad in a bag, but then saw the shredded carrots and balked. Lol. I wasn't sure how to count things I couldn't measure very well.

Thank you for the encouragement.

Ikon,

Thanks for the link. I have tried mushrooms, onions, celery, asparagus, black and green olives, spaghetti squash, and tomatoes so far. I had the tomatoes because I had a really deep craving for fruit, and it was the closest I could get. Heh.

I did fine till I got to the tomatoes, so perhaps I could limit that a bit more.

This does bring me to a question though. The Metamucil fiber capsules, do they have dietary content as far as sugars or absorbable content? I had tried the drink in the past and found it most revolting!

~Fantasia

Ruralgurl,

I am so happy to hear about your pain relief as well! Sometimes you can wonder if you attribute too much to your diet, but I truly don't believe thats the case for us!

I do agree with you, of course, that better health is better than losing weight, but I was so encouraged with the weight loss, I wish I could have turned flips! I sure know I felt it inside.

In answer to your question.. as I said, I felt this was something of a last ditch effort. I wondered perhaps if it was a problem with the protein I was ingesting minus the fat. It was enough of a curiosity for me I just took a deep breath and dove in.

Even though I was facing the possibility of yet another hospital visit, I was banking quite a lot on the fact perhaps it was bad combination choices I had made, ie: protein with little fat and high carbs.

One rule of thumb I remember and repeat almost daily to myself is, "When they take out the fat, they add sugar to adjust the taste". In doing this, I remind myself to keep up on the fats and avoid the sugars like the plague. It helps tons in the store too, I see "low fat" or "non fat" and I steer the other direction.

I think the "low fat" dogma was perhaps well intended, but not in the least bit healthy for our gallbladders, as I have seen in numerous other posts. When the gallbladder is removed, you have a constant trickle of bile through the digestive system. Bile salts are made to digest fats, so the very thing I was avoiding was exactly the right prescription for me.

What I seriously loathe is when a Doctor sees a fat person, and they just *assume* you eat alot of fat. Instead, you can eat carbs and convert it. Instead of taking a few minutes to ask, and to believe what you tell them, they have a condescending attitude and tend to look down their noses, making obese people feel less that human.

I did approach my doctor on several occasions, telling him about the irritation and pain I had when I went to the restroom. He said there was no way it could be irritation from bile, because it is neutralized in the intestines before it even came out. I disagreed though, because food passed through me at most unhealthy speeds. Bile and stomach acid = bad for your tender areas! He just refused to *listen*.

Quite simply, I prayed, I ate, I lost! I knew I was taking a huge risk. I knew I was on my own, but I also took a leap of faith in trusting Dr. Atkins. Seems he was one of the rare gems that had been there and *cared*.

~Fantasia

Wcollier,

Hi!

I paused for a moment upon reading your post because you said you experienced things of a similar fashion. Then you said "Thanks for reminding me what it was like."

For a moment, I said to myself, "ACK that sounds bad!" Lol. I understand what you mean though, and I had to sit and think on it long and hard. I don't want to remember the agony I have been through, but at the same time, I certainly cannot fathom a better deterrent!

I just wanted to let you know how powerful that comment ended up being for me, and thank you for that.

I do understand the thing with the Ketostix, and I am beginning to think now that I can recognize ketosis, the verying fluctuations throughout the day, I may do well to ditch the stix. Hey that could even be a sig! Lol.

At any rate, thank you for the suggestions. I do not know why I feel so compelled to cook the veggies, I think in an effort to add something to the meat. No rice, no bed of pasta, no potatoes, no big fat roasted carrots, no gravy, so add *something*.

I know I have many years of brainwashing to overcome, having been weight conscious since the age of 9, when my mother put me on my first diet. In looking back, I was not the least bit unhealthy for my size age and bone frame. This uprbringing also had severe effects on my sister, who suffers from anorexia, and has been hospitalized multiple times.

I remember even in school, looking at the food pyramid we learned in health, and thinking, "Could you imagine how HUGE I would be if ate ALL THAT?" All hail the new pyramid!

When I made that first induction food, the bacon and eggs, I sat and stared at it for the longest time. I am used to cooking lots, but avoiding most of the meal while everyone else ate. Bacon, eggs, and pancakes, and I would load up on the pancakes with an occasional egg once a month or so.

I stared at that bacon, and couldn't remember the last time I had had anything but immitation bacon bits on a salad on occasion. I had 5 slices of bacon and four scrambled eggs! I felt horribly guilty, that there was no way this could be right!

So many issues, I know.

I will check in to fitday and making a journal.

Thank you again for giving me pause to think

I can see by your posts that you've done some research. I'd like to recommend a book to you. Sugar Blues by William Dufty. It was an eye-opener for me. You asked why carbs do this. I think his book contains part of the answer.

Also, if you use Morton salt, you may want to consider buying an alternative. It contains sugar (dextrose).

Hi Fantasia,

Tomatoes are, as you said, a fruit so they are a bit high in sugar for us. Well done on buying the bag of salad. Don't freak out at some shredded carrot. Carrot has a low GI (the carbs are slowly absorbed) so a few shreds won't hurt you. My main veggiie are cauliflower, cooked in many ways. (You can even mash it and it come out like mashed potato), broccoli, and celery which I often stir fry. I also eat load of Chinese leaves, cucumber and lettuce. All these are low in carbs.

You are doing well - keep it up.

Robert