I am new to the Atkins diet. I started on Monday (11/17/03) and I have lost about 13 pounds, thats in one week! I started toexercise and did 3 times this past week. Is this too fast for me? I think the fact that I am a 23 year old male and never dieted before or rarely excercised is prompting the rapid weight loss.

Hi Marvin

Losing 13 pounds in one week is excellent news. Yes it is fast, but you do not say how much you weigh to begin with. I suspect that it is quite a lot and you don't want to own up to it! If that is so then 13 pounds is fine. Keep on induction for the next week and then start to increase your carbs.

A lot of what you have lost so far is water that was associated with the carbs in your body, now starts the real process of losing body fat. After the first 2 weeks you should aim for a weight loss of no more than 3 pounds a week. Doing exercise is great as it will tone up your muscles, give you a better body shape and convert that fat to muscle.

Yes, your age does help as well as being male!

Go on, own up to what you weight and what you would like to slim down to.

Continued success.

well, nothing gets past you! LOL. Yes I do have alot to lose I started at 290 and now I am at 276.

In the first month of atkins I lost 24 lbs I think. So no your doing alright. Just be prepared for the slowdown. This month I have only lost 8lbs. it happens to everyone.

13lbs is AWESOME. Keep it up!

13 pounds is fabulous--keep up the great work!! I think there is some truth to the "more you have to lose....the easier it comes off in the beginning" and that being male definately helps! Now, if I were only male and maybe 50 pounds heavier........no; just kidding! I think that it's wonderful how far you've come in this short amount of time. You've already seen that you can do it---so just continue on! Make this weightloss journey your final one!!!


Jen

Since you work out so regularly and have no trouble loseing, it may be time to move on to OWL and work on upping your carbs and finding out what food syou can and can't tolerate.

Even if you stay on induciton the weight loss does slow down quite a bit. There are even times it will stop or go up a bit. You have a huge advantage being a male though (darn you).

My initial weight loss was 3 1/2 lbs/wk...That slowed to 2 1/2 lbs/wk by Month 5. Month 6, it dropped to 1 lb/wk, it rebounded slightly a couple months ago to 2 lbs/wk, then dropped to the 1/2 lb/wk it is now. I'm near my goal, and I was hoping to breeze past it...But, at this rate the last 10 pounds will take months to lose