I was doing a moderate SBD type plan for a while. But...my blood sugar was going crazy and I was passing out by 4:00pm. My doctor recommended a stricter lc approach such as atkins. I ignored her and went on a fruit and nut binge for a week. Then I started what I thought was atkins (in reality I ate waaaaay too much cheese and bleu cheese and eggs and carby lunch meat) and gained 8 lbs. I am rather pissed. At myself mostly. I really want to lose these 8 lbs! And yes as I have stated before I have had an eating disorder but my doctor is perfectly happy with my weight and he also said I should'nt be gaining 8 lbs and should try to lose them. I read DANDR but I am having trouble following the diet. How much fat is 65-70%???? I am afraid to eat any now b/c of my weight gain and am looking at going back to high carb low fat.
here's my greatly shaved down menu...
b: chicken breast,broccoli, fried in coconut oil
l: salmon, spinach, some fatty dressing
d: a turkey burger, some mushrooms and bell peppers fried in olive oil.

I keep gaining inches and it is not funny!

Try tracking your food intake at www.fitday.com for a few days. It's a bit time consuming at first, but you soon get the hang of it, and it will help you keep on top of things while you figure out your eating.

Your food looks good so far. Don't be afraid to eat. On Atkins you never have to go hungry.

Yes, Fitday is great. I just started using it a couple of days ago and I really like it. Before I didn't even know that there are carbs in coffee and diet soda.
I'd say keep coming back here often. I learn something new everyday. Check out the recipes so that you don't become bored. This is a really good website. Learn to navigate around here. There's a section here with tips. Also read postings by other people. Some people will have a link to their fitday and you can see what they're eating. Some people will put in their journals what they're doing.
And don't forget to look at the before and after pictures for inspiration. It would also help if you keep a journal here.
Good luck and don't hesitate to ask more questions.

?? What kind of diet soda has carbs?

According to fitday, 1 oz. of sugar free soda has 0.03 grams of carbs. When I put in 2 cans of soda at 24 ozs. fitday puts in 1 carb in my total.
I am new to fitday, but I don't think I'm messing up.

I have stopped drinking 44oz of diet coke a day. I have started drinking water even when I don't feel like it. I am just sad. I feel disgusting about myself. I know what I posted as my food itake looks good but it is not very satisfying. I find myself wishing for more food all of the time and this diet is supposed to blunt your appetite! I tend to eat way too much meat (1/2 a chicken) b/c veggies and fat just don't fill me up (weeelll fat does but it also makes me gain weight) My goal is to lose these inches (1 off of my waist and 2 off of my legs) by July first. I care more about the ones on my legs. See the thing is I wonder what is going on with my body??? I exercise 5 days a week and am young so what gives? Why isn't induction working? I wanted to be in OWL by now so I could have strawberries . I am taking anti-depressants but I also binged on cheese like crazy for 2 weeks so I am hesitant to blame the pills just yet when my own behavior certainly wasn't stellar. <sigh> I just feel really yucky about myself and i wish I knew what the hell I am "supposed" to eat to lose this weight.

How much do you weigh right now?

That would make your blood sugar go even more nuts. Don't be afraid of fat. It doesn't make you fat, instead it makes you feel full and has no effect on blood sugar, unlike carbs and protien to some degree. If you want a more scientific explination then Atkins offers, then I suggest getting Protien Power from the library and reading it. If things are already confusing, then start slow. Go to the Atkins web site and print out the list of acceptable foods for induction along with the rules for induction. Start following that for two weeks. It will be hard and you'll feel like it's driving you nuts, but if you hang in there your blood sugar will balance and you'll feel alot better.

Once things do start balancing and working out, then take more time to go through the scientific parts of why fat is good, and why low-fat high carb could end up hurting you in the long run. It could be easier to understand and belive once you are already seeing results.

I really don't want to go back to counting calories (fitday) b/c that is what I did in my heavily anorexic days to ensure I didn't go over 800 a day! I do not want to fall back into that trap b/c it is really hard to get out of. I am really struggling with my food right now and I was hoping induction would get these 8 lbs off. My legs are rubbing together when I walk which they never did before and it sucks! I will never tell anyone how much I weigh b/c I was bothered by my mother as a child about it and I will never voluntarily divulge that info to anyone.

I really like this board, because it's so anonymous. People here always offer great advice. I don't want you to take this wrong, but I would give the anti-depressants awhile to work before going straight into induction. I know you want to lose the weight, and yes, 8 pounds gained isn't good, but maybe you need to give your body time to adjust to all of the trauma it's been through. From your name - ex-vegan - I am assuming you have tried many strict eating diets before. Then it seems you skipped over to SBD, while not really doing that, you hopped over to Atkins. How long have you tried each diet before jumping to the next? I also saw you mentioning having a severe eating disorder in the past, and I am sure that did a number on your body as well. 800 calories a day? I've been there. I ate nothing but chicken boullion cubes for a straight month in my early teens to drop 6 pounds. Nothing anyone said made me listen, until the terrible pains kicked in and I started losing my hair. I know you are very sensitive about your weight, but there seems to be so many emotional issues around food for you, that I would back away from anything strict for awhile. I do think LCing would be good for you as a way of eating, try not to think of it as a diet. There are a lot more benefits to LCing than just weight loss. Good luck with what ever you do!

Ex-Vegan, it seems to me that you have to get a grips of the body that you have. You are kind of a yo yo dieter, this makes losing weight difficult because your body thinks that it is living through a famine. Learn patience and sticktoitiveness and stop allowing yourself to be ashamed of your weight. Come to terms with it and become your own best friend as you endeavor in becoming healthy.

I exercise heavily (cardio 3-4 x's a week and weights one or two x;s) Do you think that my body is refusing to lose weight b/c I have been eating too low carb? Should I try adding more veggies/nuts/seeds/ to up the carb content and see if that helps? Does anyone here think that it would work?

Did you just switch over to paleo/neanderthin from Atkins? Are you reading all of these books each time you switch?

I think you will have more success -- and health if you choose a plan and stick to it for at least a couple of months. The foods you said you were eating when you gained the 8 pounds were very salty -- you could have gained 8 pounds of water weight from the cheese, processed meats and diet soda -- which are chock full of sodium.

Also, this is not a place where anyone will judge you for the number on your scale.

I appreciate all of the ideas that everyone has been offering up. It is nice to be able to post all of my inane questions here and actually have someone answer. I never would have thought about the sodium! I went and bought DANDR at wal-mart for 5.67 (awesome price) a few days ago. I now realize that after I got over my binge I have been eating way too little for the amount I have been exercising and that could be driving my body into starvation mode. 1100 cals a day just does not cut it when you exercise heavily! Funny thing is I wasn't doing this on purpose...I just didn't feel like eating much the past few days. I will reread my book and try to stick with it for the month of June and then reassess it after that.

Can I suggest that you don't get on the scale, at all, until you complete the month. You do not have to add alot more calories add maybe 400 calories a day. That is not much really.