I guess I'm not really a newbie, but I am wondering what I am doing wrong here. I have lost only 5 pounds so far, and I have been doing Atkins for four weeks now. I take the Basic 3, Essential Oils, and Dieters Advantage. I feel fantastic, maybe from all the vitamins. I love this way of eating. I have been exercising every day but only for 20 minutes or so. Am I doing something wrong, or is this just the pace that I am meant to lose weight?

Sandy you must admit that during the first 4 weeks you haven't exactly followed the diet by the book. (red wine, low carb bars etc)

Give it more time to work and make sure you are sticking to the diet. It takes time to work and when we allow foods into our diet that are not an approved source well it does tend to throw our weight loss patterns off.

I looked back on your calories for those days that you posted them.... your average calorie intake is 1534 which isn't bad, maybe a tad low. But what I have noticed is that your calories are starting to drop off.... down to the 1300-1400 range in the last few days. Try not to stay there, no matter how tempting. That's your old low-cal mindset coming to the surface. Instead I'd suggest keeping your calories in the 1600-1700 range, get rid of the frankenfoods and develop some patience. You'll get there.... it's just slower for some of us. Don't be discouraged. You're doing great.... keep on keepin' on with your fitday tracking. You'll be glad you did. (reminds me that I need to get back into it myself....I've been lazy ) Sometime it just takes some tweaking to figure out what works best.... HA! and just when you think you have it figured out, it's time to re-tweak again! LOL
I think that's just a function of being older....hormones and diet history and all that. Oh well, what's the alternative?

It's amazing and it's not good. Eating below your BMR will only further slow your metabolism and make losing anything (fat or water) impossible.

Looking over your fitday account your numbers look off. If you are metabolically resistant (IF) then eating more protein and less fat is not the answer, eating more fat and less protein is, however. Fat is metabolically neutral, protein is not.

Consistency, patience and persistance - and adequate calories.
Nat

Teri, thanks so much for being supportive. You are so helpful!! I am a little perplexed though. At first I started keeping track on Fit Day because I thought I wasn't losing weight because I was eating too many calories! So you think 1600 - 1700 is about right? It does seem really high to me. I think the only way to get it up that high the right way would be to add more fats. But I don't want to add more cream or butter, I think I am at about the maximum amount allowed for that, even though I would love to use more of it, so maybe I should just use more olive oil. My percentage of fat/protein/carbs tends to be 55%/40%/5% so I think I am probably eating too much protein and not enough fats.

What is a frankenfood? Would bacon be in there?

Nat, thanks so much for responding!
What do you mean by my numbers look "off"? Too high on the protein and too low on the fat? Do you have any suggestions? I am not eating the carb bars anymore. I am not sure if I am metabolically resistant or not.
I have trouble figuring out your numbers. Are they in kilograms?

Thanks, Cat for replying! Yes you are right I wasn't doing it very well the first 2 weeks, so I probably should count Induction as being only 2 weeks instead of 4