Hi..new to the forum and my roommate and I both have been on Atkins since Aug 11 2003 (so 20 days now...CHEATFREE!) Problem is..neither of us have lost any wt or inches!?!! We should be achieving enough calories a day for sure as we ARE eating; we are not eating any of the carb controlled candy; we ARE eating lots of baked chicken, steak; & hamburger meat. The only BAD things I am doing are: still drinking caffeinated coffee (1 lg cup a day) and I do drink several diet cokes a day (prob sometimes 6) and not much water a day (maybe 40 oz); my roommate however hates diet drinks and is a water-holic (she always has been...prob 2 liters at least a day). My question is...even WITH MY VICES (caffeine and cokes) and all ...shouldn't we be seeing SOME results? What are we doing wrong??
A VERY TYPICAL MENU FOR ME would be:
1 lg cup coffee (2 sweetnlows/1 Tbsp Half/half)
Boiled egg
Grilled chicken breast/iceberg lettuce/ 1 oz cheddar cheese salad with 2 Tbsps Marie's Creamy Ranch Dressing
Store bought / Bag type pork rinds (about 10 pieces)
Leg quarter baked chicken piece
1/2 can green beans
Snack size Sugar Free Jello (sometimes with Rediwhip small amount)

I did Atkins a long time ago (prob. when I was about 13 with my Dad and remembered drinking Diet Drinks galore and lost a great amount of weight in no time) course I was young then! (now 41!)

As far as exercising...we don't do a lot of that...we are both avid golfers and play as much as 36 holes on Saturdays and at least 18 or more on Sundays; sometimes sneak in 18 holes during the week; BUT we are cart riders not walkers; the poor feet and knees well... but we aren't couch-potatoes either.
Thanks for your help!!

I don't see anything wrong with your menu... but I've heard it CAN be harder to lose the second time around.

My best advice would be to keep your carbs around 20, maybe add a bit more calories from fat, and add some exercise to your day somehow. You need to find something to help get the metabolism "cooking" that won't kill your knees... swimming, maybe?

i would say lay off all of the artificial sweeteners. some people have a big problem with them, as far as losing weight is concerned. losing weight when you're 13 is a lot different than losing weight at 41. i would say give up the all of the sweeteners and try to make yourself drink more water for a few weeks and see if anything changes. if not, you can always go back to drinking the sodas. also make sure you check the carb and sugar content of the salad dressing you use. i've never used it so i don't know if it's ok or not.

amy

luv_golf

I am not an expert at Atkins however, I did want to suggest that you drink more that just two litres of water per day. I have no weightloss when I use any type of artificial sweetners. Sadly, caffiene also can cause stalls. If you can add a litre of water a day and stop the caffiene and diet coke for three days you might see some favorable results?

my contribution

Hi luv_golf!

Haven't got any magic answers for you, but it's possible you're not eating enough. Are you recording at Fitday? http://www.fitday.com A lot of us learn that our calories are too low when we first start lowcarbing. I think that's why we're told we don't need to count calories--it's rare for someone to eat too many. Most of us have the opposite problem. Lowcarbing seems to have a natural built-in appetite suppressant.

Do you know your BMR (basic metabolic rate and AMR (active metabolic rate)? Here's one site where you can check it out..... http://www.healthyontario.com/engli...asp?text_id=240

Fitday is also a big help keeping track of your fat/protein/carb ratios (s/b about 70/25/5%).

Hang in there....it does work!

judy

Thanks for all the supportive answers. I will consider getting off the diet cokes and sweeteners YIKES!! well will see.... y i k e s !
Quit smoking 16 months ago and kept my vice of lots of diet cokes! No smoking fine - no diet cokes aghhh!! Will definitely think about it though!

Signed up for fitday but haven't used it yet..need to...instead of recording everything I have on paper (done that since the beginning).

Oh ... forgot to mention... we did the Ketostix thingys and it turned between Moderate and the next darkest one! However I find if I check it at the wrong times it goes back to just Trace. If I check it several hrs after eating or when I come home from work it's back to Moderate +.
My roomate checked hers this morning after coffee and it was there too; hers took a much longer time to ever change a color. Mine had changed like during the 2nd wk I think it was. But like I said it varies alot depending on when I check it.
Anyhow...got to go paint a room now; and of course golf is later this afternoon...pray for NO RAIN!!!
Thanks again! Bye for now.