Hi everyone,

If you have plateaued and you're on the verge of quitting (like I have been for about six weeks...), I just want to say STICK WITH IT!!!

I hadn't lost any weight for quite a while (I'm in the OWL phase of Atkins), and was thinking that Atkins "just didn't work for me" anymore. I was wrong!

Here are couple of things that finally helped me pull through the plateau. While everyone is different, maybe some of these things might help you in your efforts:

1. I revisited what I was truly eating everyday and signed up to FitDay.com. Somehow, just keeping track of what you eat, and seeing the actual carbs IN PRINT, made me fine tune my eating habits (which, in retrospect, got a bit sloppy over the holidays).
2. I cut out all low-carb bars. I was using these to snack on (maybe one bar every day or so), and quit after I read that these can stall weight loss. Maybe I'll introduce them again when I'm on maintenance.
3. I cut out all dairy except for cheese (max of 4oz per day) and heavy cream (max of 2 TBS per day). No more cream cheese or similar cheese spreads.
4. I travel a lot for business, so I started packing easy snacks for the plane and light night hotel munchies. These include almonds and little pre-packaged cheese strings and mini-goudas. But don't go crazy with the almonds...!
5. I put a picture on my fridge of myself when I was 20 pounds heavier. While I still have a ways to go, I could congratulate myself on far I had already come.
6. I increase my beef consumption. I was relying more on chicken during my plateau period, and chicken has less fat than beef (I try to keep my fat levels pretty high).
7. I continuously read the postings on various support groups, which really kept me in the LC frame of mind and assured me that there were plenty of other folks in my position.

After doing these things for just a week, I finally broke through the plateau and lost three pounds, which is a lot for me a week (I usually lose a pound at most, even during the best of times).

Hope this helps you if you're feeling kinda discouraged...!