The past few weeks have been terribly frustrating for me. When I started Atkin's, I had a huge loss to start with. Then, I stalled. Normal, I know. But the stall has turned into this really wierd yo-yo thing, where I lose and gain roughly the same ten lbs in a frustrating cycle almost weekly. My body just screams out loud when I get to 248, and suddenly, I regain 7 lbs or so within the next day.

I have tried multiple approaches to combat this. The first time it happened, I maintained my diet status qou. The scale didn't budge from 255. I got sick and had a sudden woosh down to 248, then bam, right back up again.

The next time it happened, I tweaked a little, adding in some carbs to try to "jolt" my system. Big mistake. The scale went back up to 258.

The last time it happened, which happened last week, I tweaked the other direction and went right back to pure induction levels.

Now, I am holding steady at 250, each day the scale is going up to about 255, to drop to about 250-252 each day when I rise.

Some people say you shouldn't weigh every day, but I do so because I feel it is a way to keep better tabs on what I am doing, and when trying new things, like recipes, a way to know things I should perhaps avoid. (like the incident with sugar alcohols)

Anyway, I am frustrated and feeling not so hot, and I need some advice or something. I have lost my appetite the last few days due to a sort of rare illness I have that reared it's ugly head.

I have several concerns, one being that TOM is *horrible*, the pain is wracking me, and this has never been a problem in my life for me. I had, at the most, some mild cramps that lasted a couple days. Now, the pain literally awoke me, and I came *very* close to calling the doctor.

Next, the rare illness. I usually only have bouts in time of severe stress, it is an immune linked thing, and closely tied to TOM. This is the first time I have gotten it since being on Atkin's. I don't know if it is linked, but I am a bit nervous about it, seeing as I have gone through such a dramatic lifestyle change.

Last night at work, I had what felt like an extreme hypoglycemic episode, eyes got dark, ringing in ears, sounds got distant, feeling like I was about to faint. Haven't had this since the first week of induction.

Lastly, liver and pancreatic pain, which had previously all but disappeared. It would be horrible to think that all of this is linked somehow to my diet.

I do not find it linked to TOM for the yo-yo thing as that has been almost weekly for some time now. TOM is just a miserable joke that came along at a coincidental time.

I have heard the term "set points", and wondering if, in insulin resistance, is this more of a common problem?

Anyone got comments, help, or suggestions? If I see 248-258 again, I shall scream! (And cry)

Fantasia,

Sorry, I don't have any answers for you, but for what it's worth, here's a hug.

And perhaps a suggestion - do you think you should see your doctor? S/he might be able to give you better suggestions than we can.

--Ruth

Is it possible that 250ish is a previous "set-point" for you?

I ask because a friend of mine who started Atkins a year ago had a situation similar to what you're describing. The first 40 pounds that she lost came off steadily, and she was just thrilled. Then, when she hit 195 her weight started bouncing between 195 and 203. The fluctuations kept up for almost two months before she started losing again. She started getting pretty discouraged, but managed to stick to her eating plan because of she was so pleased with the results before her stall. One day she woke up, and had finally dropped to 193, and her losses started picking up pretty steadily again. A similar thing happened at around 175 for her, but it didn't last for as long.

In retrospect, she realized that before she had gained up to her high of ~240, she had held pretty steady at ~200 for almost two years. She now suspects that this is why she seemed "stuck" at 195-203 for so long.

Just a theory...

It seems that you really care about your weight loss. You seem to be trying hard to make the losses happen. That is a good thing. But I think you are also getting too stressed about it on a short term basis; and that isn't so good. One thing is certain. If you can stick to the plan, and have patience, weight will come off. You have already proven that for yourself. I think your first step is to calm down and relax. You already know that you have lost some solid weight on the plan. You can lose more.

One way that I believe works to help get you past a plateau is to very carefully count your carbs and at the same time, focus on eating less protein. You are actually lowering your caloric intake, which will help. You don't have to do any calorie counting. Just put a little less on the plate and try to feel when you are satisfied physically; not emotionally. And then stop at that point. At that bite. I have done that to lower my food volume to about half of what I was eating before I begain the diet. Just a little every few days until I was actually just preparing smaller portions.

Some people might say that we don't need to eat less, but even Atkins says we do. You could be reaching some point of resistence that your body doesn't want to pass, and eating less will make the body react.

You really could be at a point where this is necessary. Read chapters 20 and 21 in the Atkins book too. There are excellent suggestions and information there. Chapter 20 on resistance will help you.

And you must exercise. Even a little each day will help. It can be in small bursts; just get in at least 20 minutes total each day to start. Vigorously cleaning house counts. Raking leaves counts. [my fav] Short walks, even just going to the mall [no food court ] and walking the length of it.

Don't get discouraged. Just keep trying and make an effort to eat less and get past that plateau!

Good Luck!

Actually, Dex, that is exactly what I suspect. I was at about 250 or so for pretty close to a year or more, only gaining the few months prior to my diet start.

I have had other "set points" in my life, and know exactly where each one is. I just wonder if each time I get to that point, amd I going to be facing the same thing? If so, I can look forward to this at 225, 200, 195, and so on.

I don't see a lot of people talking about "set points", though I have firmly believed in them many years. In fact, each time I did gain, I would say to myself, "There goes another set point."

I have decided no matter what happens, I am stickingto true induction levels until this breaks and I am safely below 248 for some time.

It seems adding carbs to try to get to my CCL is not working at this time for me.

Thanks for your reply.

Teuthis,

Thanks so much for your reply. I have been reading so much about keeping the calorie count 10-12x my weight level, and was struggling most days to do that.

I do focus a lot on this for several reasons. The primary one being I do not want to have gastric bypass. I was homebound and nearly bedbound until I took the dive into Atkin's. My life has so dramatically changed, I am dedicated to this WOL, probably the rest of my life. I feel better than I have in years, and I cannot deny that.

Perhaps you are right about the stress. I did seem to have a higher level of stress that past week, especially, and TOM didn't help that.

I don't really know what to eat if I try to eat less protein. Right now, I am hovering right above 1000 calories, and according to the 10-12x weight level, I should be at a minimum of 2500. I add lots of butters and oils when I cook, but meats and eggs are obviously the mainstay on induction. I have tried snacking more on pork rinds, but adding anything to make them a bit more flavorful and tasty also adds carbs, or like cheese, protein. I was really more concerned my calories aren't high enough, as opposed to needing to keep them lower. Just happens they are lower because I am not feeling well right now. I fear going into the "starvation" mode, though, which is self defeatest.

I excercise almost every day, even if it is fast walking while going to or from work. I park farther away, and use the walk as a chance for intense exercise. I also am working on some Callanetics as my tolerance improves. Compared to how I was just in December, it is like seeing two different people.

I know I have made some drastic improvements, perhaps I am just expecting too much and need to be more patient. This plateau will have to give it up sometime if I stick with it, which I am so totally committed to doing.

Patience has never been a virtue of mine.

Thank you so much for the words of encouragement. Funny how people can make you look back more than a couple weeks.

Fantasia...

If you're jumping around as much as 7 pounds in a matter of a day or two, that's absolutely not fat; it's water retention. Caffeine can play a part in that (noticed in your journal that you're having a hard time giving it up). Caffeine is a diuretic. When you loose a lot of water through the use of a diuretic, often you will get rebound water retention afterwards; your body grabs as much back as it can and then some. If you can't give up the caffeine (and I know how hard it is), at least try to cut back; only use it in the morning to get you going and then switch to decaf for the rest of the day. Yes, it will be hard and you may be tired at first but your body will quickly adjust to the lack of stimulants (and that is exactly what caffeine is...a CNS stimulant).
If you have an autoimmune type disorder, that can also play havoc with your hormones (more water retention). As Teuthis pointed out, stress and lack of sleep can also do strange things to your body including making it more resistant to dropping weight.
If I read your stats correctly, you've dropped 32 pounds in less than 2 months...that's nothing short of amazing! There really is no realistic way that your body can keep dropping pounds at that rate indefinitely.
My advice would be to hang tight and not drop all the way back to induction. Try backing off by 5 grams and waiting a week or two before dropping any farther. With losing so much in such a short period of time, your body may just be trying to make sense of it all and is putting on the brakes until it figures out if everything is okay. Now would not be the time to start starving it; you'll only be reinforcing the feeling that your body has that all is not quite right. With the lack of appetite that you are reporting, I don't think eating too much is going to be a problem. Eating too little might be. Hang in there and be patient. I know it's frustrating, but stressing about it is not going to make those pounds go away for good. Relaxing and treating your body right will.

Fantasia,

Like you, I have been flucuating the same 5 or so pounds for the past two months. And yes, I am at a weight that I was at for a couple of years before I gained this 40 that I lost.

So, instead of repeating what everyone else is saying, I thought I would address TOM. You are about my age and I have noticed that once I hit my mid 30s, sometimes I would have bad TOM's and othertimes they were completely fine. I starting taking DONG QUAI a few years ago and it really helps. I know this because when I stop, the cramps come back and so do the cravings and mood swings. I get Dong Quai at my local grocery store and I pay about $5.00 and it is a 2 month supply. It may help, it may not.

I also agree you may want to discuss this with your doctor.

Hang in there! You will get through this. You have had amazing weight loss so far! Remember, it is a journey, not a race (have to remind my self of this all of the time!)

I'm also stuck (between 179 & 183) and am having lots of TOM cramping -- which seems very strange to me because when I was on Atkins several years ago for about four months, I felt great throughout my TOM. This last time it lasted about 8 days (I've never, ever gone more than 5), plus I had spotting for a week after that -- I did tell my doctor about it, but she said it was nothing to worry about (at least not at this point). I've now had cramps for more than 2 weeks and am beginning to wonder if maybe this isn't related to TOM at all. I was taking psyllium husks for a week during this time, but I stopped several days ago to see if they might have had something to do with the cramps -- no change.

What's most discouraging about it (other than the discomfort) is that I've totally stopped working out. I had finally worked up to making myself go at least twice a week, then all of this started to happen.

RDiane1

You mention that you had been taking the physillium and stopped, did you take it to help with constipation? I have IBS and physillium caps are NOT near enough to get me going. I also suffer from feeling cramping in the pelvic area when it is not TOM, and what it seems to be is the "backup" pressing into other organs inside. When you think of how many organs are in that relatively small pelvic area and the length of the intestine and figure that if it is stuffed -(how gross - sorry) that it is probably pushing into something else and likely causing pain. I also have low back pain and have started to realize that - low back - pelvic-some intestinal - menstual pain can at times be indistinguishable from each other. Do you find any relief after you have been to the Bathroom

Hello I looked at your diet looks pretty normal....

But do you do any form of Gym exercises?

If you want to maximize your weight loss you must do some gym exercise.... It will help alot.

Also I don't know ... are you allowed to have cream half and half on coffee?

wes

I heard that high fat diets put a strain on the liver and kidneys. I started taking milk thistle capsules three times a day, and I haven't had any problems with liver or kidney pains ever since. I feel that it's working for me, but I'd be interested in hearing what others feel about that. I will start another thread about it.

Fantasia,

I think Dex may have a point. I started Atkins last year and lost 60+ lbs in 6 months than found my CCL and went on maintenance for 6 months. I started again in Jan of this year to lose the remaining 40 lbs.

I had the hardest time breaking thru the point where I started maintenance, in fact even gained 4 - 5 lbs. But the good news is, you can break thru that point and keep losing.

I was really frustrated on Feb 1 when the scale said 150, but this morning it said 139.5. (my weigh in day is the first day of each month.) I find the jean-o-meter is much more accurate than the scales.

I do Callanetics also. Don't ya just love the stretches? I feel taller! Which is a good thing, cause everyone in my household, except me is over 6 foot tall.

As far as TOM and the other medical problems, talk to your Dr. I was experiencing changes (similiar to what you have described) and made an appointment. She looked me straight in the eye and said - you are 45 - things start changing and will continue to do so for the next couple of years.

Don't get discouraged, look how far you have come.

Carrollee