Afterthought.......

Having said that.....I think we all obsess too much about the scale! For example, I've been stuck at the same weight for almost three weeks. However, I am shrinking daily! My X-tight clothes are my scales. When you exercise daily (and lift weights), you replace fat with lean muscle. Lean muscle takes up less room on your body than fat; therefore, same weight on scale but smaller body.

If I look good, feel good and my clothes fit...I don't worry about the scales.

Now I'm done. Morgan

175 lbs - lost 32 lbs (without any stall) in 6 months, never cheated

To Maripooh:
Regarding your question. I would recommend you to read the success stories and the journals of those people. You will see how this "diet" became their WOL.

As my own experience: I came from an LC family, from an LC WOL. As a result I lost the excess weight after my three pregnancies in my 20s very easily, and kept the same weight for 20 years. Now, that in the last two years as a sign of aging, my metabolism slowed down, I lost the excess weight very easily again, and back to the very comfortable WOL - with 60-90 carbs. (Having a very vigorous exercise program.)

246 / 31 lbs / 10 wks / a lot

I think that "cheating" is magnified by the people on this board.....what is cheating?

I have drunk alcohol every weekend since I started this WOE. I have not given up coffee at all, nor decreased my consumption. I have gone nuts on vacations. Most weekends, I have allowed myself sugar in the form of tropical mixed drinks. I have also not given up pizza on the weekends.

On the other hand, I have watched my carb intake, and I rarely go above 35 carbs on weekdays. I think that I am just fortunate and have a good metabolism. I don't see eating pizza as cheating or drinking booze as cheating...it is part of my WOE and OWL, that's all.

Cheating signifies guilt, and life is too short to go through it feeling guilty every day.......

160-ish/25-ish/4 or 5 months/occasionally

Mind telling us your age? If you're an over fifty female, I must say I'm shocked. If you're in your 20's...check back with me in a few years!
Atkins is not only about weight management, it is also about HEALTH. The foods and drinks you mentioned would hardly fit into a healthy diet. Just my opinion.

197 / 32 pounds / 30 weeks / a lot

I prefer to call my "cheats", refeeds, since they were not always that enjoyable and they were planned.

232/80.5 lbs lost/ 50 weeks/twice

I will be honest.... ...I am afraid if I "cheat" that I won't go back to this WOE and loose sight of what I want to achieve. The only thing that I have "cheated" with was a Bloomin' Onion at Texas Roadhouse and I only had very little.

240/40 pounds/16 weeks

On inductio the whole time no cheats.

i agree with Grog that I refer to cheating as refeeding, depending upon how long it occurs and how often... I've been on this WOE for 2 months and have been in a 3 week stall...so I decided to cheat/refeed for 24 hours and immediately go back to PP... Having said that I thought that it would be easy to eat all I wanted...planned of course...and difficullt to go back on plan the next day...

Wrong...I was too full to eat all I wanted...ate mostly simple sugars...candy...muffins...burger and fries...beer...nachols...that kind of stuff... Anyway...today, the day after my refeed/cheat I feel terrific except a little bloated.... I have TONS of energy though and worked out hard today.... On the down side, I noticed the hip bump is back lol... But I am confident that by Friday it will be gone again and am hoping my stall will go with it....

Also, I thought I would have headaches by injesting all that sugar but not a one...although it did make me tired early so I went to bed about 2 hours earlier than usual...

So...bottom line....cheating/refeeding does work for some.... According to plan I did it for exactly 24 hours...

Male, mid 30's.

I love other people's perceptions of a healthy diet. Is wine healthy? Beer?

And how does one define a healthy diet? Via your bloodwork? Weight? BMI?

Different strokes for different folks.....

[QUOTE=CWC]Male, mid 30's.QUOTE]

I rest my case........

Plans that sugegst a refeed from what I've seen, say high carbs, but low fat. It is the combination of carbs and fat that lead to weight gain. Pizza, nachos, and beer are high in carb and high in fat. They are some of the worst foods you could of done. Candies and such have no nutricional value and rush strait to the blood and in turn cause a sever insulin rush. Any fat eaten will be stored. The scale may go down, but it is most often water. Remember too that fat is much less dense then muscle so you can happily put on fat and have tight clothing before the scale budges.

For some refeeds can work, and planned treats can help them to stay on plan. For the ones it works long term they learn all they can about the science behind them and do them smartly.