Well much to my surprise I gained weight onthe Atkins Diet
I did everything I was supposed to do, just started five days ago. I walked in the morning and did Tae Bo at night and still I gained. Once I realized I gained I stood on that scale and I cried. Because it is so disappointing. I am a senior in high school I was on antidepressants and they made me gain weight and destroyed my body. I am 5'7 and 185lbs. At first I started Atkins and lost 3 lbs. I stuck with it and gained 4 no over eating and now the diet is no longer making sense to me. I"m going on a water fast with a friend and after five days of that I'll decide rather or not I'll do low carb or not. Any advise would be great.

First of all, I'd have to advise to give Atkins a chance for a full two weeks before you decide whether you've gained or lost weight. Scales can be fussy and inaccurate. I wouldn't go by them, really.

Second of all, fasting is definitely not the answer. All that will do is mess with your metabolism and cause a greater difficulty to lose weight and keep it off in the long run.

Besides the fact that you should give Atkins more than a five day shot, why don't you post a menu of what you've been eating? Perhaps someone here will find culprits (such as salt, aspartame, etc.) that are causing slowed loss or water retention. Make sure you're eating enough fat and vegetables.

Most of all, I really hope you start to see eating right as something that's good for your health above something that may cause you to feel better about your body. We all struggle with body image issues, but screwing up your metabolism with fad diets is only going to hurt in the long run. The great thing about a low carb program is that it can be carried through a lifetime eating plan.

I hope you're not totally bummed and that you can find something that works for you. Exercise is great. Keep it up and you should definitely get more toned!

Best

If you think you have problems now......you haven't seen anything yet. By going on a zero calorie diet and just drinking water for 5 days....you are really going to shut down your metabolism.

You haven't said anything about what you are eating, or how much or what you were drinking during the past 5 days that caused you to gain weight. ALL of us gain about 4 to 5 pounds a day. This is due to eating food and drinking beverages. We don't lose this added weight until we go to the bathroom.

Salty foods, PMS, medication, are just a few things that can and will cause us to retain water. Unless you were eating 17,500 calories MORE than you BURNed over the past 5 days it is impossible for you to have gained 5 pounds of fat.

You are still in your teens and unless you get a grip on being patient with a diet, you are going to yo-yo diet and mess up your metabolism and damage your body so much so, you will regret it in later years.

Firstly...Thank you two for being a little hard on me. Maybe I was drinking too much water. I've been using water as my best friend on this diet and the only other drink I've been drinking is Diet Rite. It has 0 calories 0 Carbs 0 everything. So I thought I was on the right track as far a beverages. I don't usually get to have breakfast. And lunch at school is limited to like a taco-less taco salad or the inside to a steak burrito. Never the shell and only once since I started this diet being that I have only been on it for 5 days. I've had hot wings and salad in the after noon yesterday I had 3 rather small chicken breasts and water. I try to drink water before and after I eat to reduce hunger. It seems to work for me and I watch my portions because I don't want to eat TOO much fat of calories. So when I stepped on the scale one day and I'd "lost" three pound it was shockingly horrible that yesterday afternoon I had "gained.

I also eat fried eggs, or I have hard boiled eggs and I dip them in ranch dressing. Or I put them in some tuna. I found some crackers that have only 9 crams of carbs in 5. I have still been afraid to eat those. After I had one one day I said "never mind." My cravings aren't out of control. I have handled myself well. But I had just eaten 3 small chicken breasts and drank a ton of water before I got on the scale. And without using the bathroom. I should have known better.

But I'm not giving up. I did today. It really disappointed my mother. She said after the first two weeks I'll be thanking her. I sure do hope so.

Well there is my basic menu. Tell me what you think and thank you. I start Induction again tomorrow, and my mother and I are going to go and get some low carb food tomorrow when I get out of school. I love the money I save by not eating fast food everyday. I think I'll keep it that was.

Thanx again.....

First of all, water IS your best friend. Don't misinterpret that. It's great that you're drinking lots of water, but eat food too!

It looks like you're really not eating enough. I know that sounds weird to the dieting mind, but in order for the principles of Atkins to function properly, you really need an adequate amount of fat and calories in your system. First off, I would advise some sort of breakfast. Since you like hard boiled eggs those are easy to bring along if you don't have time to cook in the morning. Lunchmeats are also pretty palatable in the morning for me.

The hardest part for a lot us starting this way of eating is getting over the fact that portions and fat intake aren't limited. Cook your meat with lots of oils, coat your salads with creamy dressing, and try some low carb veggies (broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus) covered with butter. Stay away from things with sugar and wheat (even most lower carb crackers are risky) and fill up your carb limit with a few ounces of cheese and lots of veggies.

Agonycat and I didn't mean to be hard on you, it's just scary to hear about things like water fasts. These boards are full of people enjoying decandant eating AND losing fat, so you really can have it both ways.

Hope you start to adjust. Don't be afraid to eat. If you stick to induction allowed foods, you'll be fine!

Another point: You mentioned crackers - crackers are not allowed on induction - and if 5 of them have 9 carbs - that's almost half your daily allowance. You'd get much more - and better - food for you buck eating vegetables.

And as for weighing - the best advice is to forget the scale and measure yourself - or better yet, use the pant-o-meter. However, that one is hard for me to follow, too. I weigh every day - but I do it first thing in the morning - ok, second thing, I pee first - no clothes - so the conditions are always the same.

If you weigh yourself now, drink 16 oz water and eat something and then go weigh again, you will have gained exactly what the food and water you just took in weigh - and that is NOT your true weight.

Reread the Induction Rules and give this another shot - You'll be glad you did - what other diet allows you to eat and not go hungry, AND be healthy AND loose weight?????

Good for you on giving it another go

I am going to second and third the WATER and FAT are your best friends on this diet. 64 PLUS ounces of water a day.

Atkin's is not a low calorie diet. It is not a low fat diet. It is not a high protein diet. IT IS a high fat diet.

Your daily calories should be in the ratio of 65-70 percent fat, 25 to 30 percent protein and 5 percent carbs. The bulk of those carbs coming from VEGGIES. Not the frankenfoods

Take a deep breath. Take your measurements. Neck, arm, chest, waist, hips, buttocks, thigh, knee, calf and any other area. Our bodies are funny when it comes to burning fat. It never comes off where we want it to. My feet and fingers shrunk before anything else started moving.

don't want to rain on your parade, but as a mother myself, I have to ask you "why are you dieting?" If you start dieting now, you will be dieting your whole life. The best thing to do, (Atkins lovers aside) is to go to a dietician and learn to eat sensibly...now. If you are eating fast-food every day when you are not on Atkins, stopping that is a good starting point.

I know that you are probably impatient and want to see fast results, but the next 90 years of your life will go much better if you learn to eat sensibly and exercise now, instead of going off and on diets for all that time. I can not tell you how many times I have wished I never started the first diet I went on (I was 15). I had been on vacation and gained about 12 pounds and went on a diet to lose it. No one was around then to tell me if I just went back to sensible eating when I got home that I would have gone back to my regular weight.

My whole life has been a constant stream of on/off dieting. Instead of just realizing that eating sensibly, without od'ing on the simple carbs, and exercising would have saved me all this torment.

I constantly say that all carbs are bad for me. But the truth is, I have never been able to stay on a diet where I eat only good carbs (in other words without the flour, sugar and junk).

And regarding the scale...junk it.

You need to decide what you want to look like, what you would be happy with, and disregard the rest.

I have always weighed about 15 pounds more than people think I do. So, I go strictly by size as to what I want from myself.

Anyway, just something for you to ponder.

It does not have to be all or nothing. There is a middle ground

Earthangel...

Glad you came back down to earth and decided not to fast on water! Boy will you have a hell of a time getting your body to do ANYTHING after making it starve like that. The second you put something in your system, it will STORE for a later date. That's what happens when we program ourselves like that.

My daily menu...in case you want to compare:

BREAKFAST: 2 or 3 scrambled eggs in butter, with some leftover veggies from the night before, maybe some bacon or sausage already cooked...
my large coffee with half and half

I'm NOT hungry for hours after that!

LUNCH: Large beg of chopped lettuce, with a scoop of tuna or egg salad, as much veggies as I like, some hard boiled egg, maybe some some shredded cheese...all with blue cheese dressing... LOVE THIS - if I'm at school and didn't bring something, I hit Burger King and get whatever big burgers are on sale...ask them for extra lettuce and toss the bunz!


Water, water, water, water, water, water...... Get a really cool water bottle and never be without it!

DINNER: Any type of meat, some green beans in olive oil and garlic, maybe a diet soda later, LOTS of food...


For snacks, I usually eat some turkey lunch meat, or some celery stix with cream cheese, salamie, beef jerky, sliced cheddar, leftover cold veggies or chicken...

DON'T be hungry...eat when you want, from the foods you're allowed, and you'll see results at the END of the induction.

Earthangel,

Hang in there young lady. I had a samilar experience when I first started the Atkins WOE last February. I didn't gain but I had no loss. I stalled for about three weeks which to me, was extremely frustrating.

There are people here that can give you better advice than I concerning what to eat and how much to eat so what I would like to do is focus on 'mind set'.

When I started, I was rigidly adhering to the 'rules'. At first, I lost a few lbs. and thought I was on my way. I wanted the weight off NOW, not in several months and CERTAINLY not in a year. A year? UGH!

I weighed my options...... I knew I could crash diet and at the time, I was certainly in the frame of mind it takes to do it. (I dropped 100 lbs about 8 years ago doing that) You know what though? I dropped the weight allright but I taught myself nothing about eating in a way that I can live with from now on. Soon as I dropped the weight I resumed my old eating habits and before I knew it, I was bigger than ever. Another option was to be patient and see if this would really work. After all, I did like the foods I was able to enjoy with this WOE. We unfortunate souls with slow metabolisms should consider a long term nutritional system that not only works but one that we can actually live with. (READ: enjoy)

To that end, let me relate to you what I did. After getting over my frustration, I carefully analyzed what I was eating. Several of the more knowledgeable people on here had already made suggestions and I did further 'experiments' to see what was causing my problem. What I found is that I can't hit the cheese very hard, I can't eat the Atkins Bars at all and I can't eat the Atkins bread. There are a few other things that I have to lay off of too. The point is, it took me getting into an exploration mode to discover what foods I apparently could eat and still lose.

The good news is, I also discovered variety within the foods I can eat. Take a look at some of the recipes I've posted in the recipes section. This WOE works for me and I think if you'll be patient, it'll work for you. With patience, you can experiment and discover the different foods that you can and can not eat. With patience, you can be creative with not only food selection but preperation as well.

Sorry for the long post. I could have been much more brief by saying give it a chance and be diligent in your efforts to understand this WOE. Although there may be some fine tuning, it does work. Although it may not come off as fast as we want, it does come off an hopefully, forever.

Good luck and chin up!

--PaulB

Angel...

Don't weigh yourself at different times of the day and then try to compare those weights, it will just drive you buggy! Body weight can naturally fluctuate as much as 8 pounds from morning to evening due to the foods we eat and the fluids we drink. Food and water do not magically lose their weight just because we put them in our mouths. Try to avoid jumping on the scale several times a day; it's pointless and will only get you frustrated.
The best time to weigh is first thing in the morning after using the bathroom and before eating or drinking anything. If you weigh with clothes on, try to make sure that it's always the same clothes or, better yet, weigh yourself naked.
I won't go so far as to say throw the scale away (your mom might not appreciate that, anyway), but don't rely on it too much as a way to gauge how you're doing. Your measurements and how your clothes fit are a much better way to tell how you're doing.

asre there any rules to when you should drink water. 1 hour before meals 1 hour after durig???? Most of the time my stomach is so bloated I look 6 months PG

I would like to thank everyone who replied to my thread and all those who will. I feel a lot better now that I have some sound advise. I have started again today. It is Monday Nov. 18th where I live, and I had a great day. I have started keeping a journal of the things I eat everyday and this is my first entry:

1/4 lb Burger (Cheese, Lettuce, Ketchup, Mustard, Pickle, Tomato) NO BUN

SEAFOOD AND CRAB SALAD FROM SUBWAY 1 1/2 slices of cheese (didn't eat any of the tomatoes) I panicked a little

Some vienna sausage

Hot and spicy wings (Hot sauce and butter)

Broccoli with cheese (1 slice I was laying it on kinda thick there)

What do you guys think of my "first induction day feast"?

Angel, I merged your post with this one since it looked like it was suppose to be a thank you to the people who replied in this thread.

As for your menu, it looks great. One thing to becareful of...the seafood/crab salad at Subway is probably made with the fake crab. You may want to check with them to make sure. I highly doubt they make it with the real stuff because it is pretty expensive.

Glad you are back on track lady

THANX A BUNCH AGONYCAT