Hi everybody,

I know that this type of thread has been posted a lot; however, I really need to avail myself to your experience.

I began induction about three weeks ago, and have been in ketosis pretty consistently (so say the LTS). However, I have been weighing myself daily only for the past seven days. What I'm seeing on the scale is truly discouraging. I seemed to lose a pound in the first few days, but this morning I am up 3 pounds from where I was at the beginning of the week!

Now, then: my food. It's been pretty darned faithful to the rules of induction. My ketostix has been registering purple for the past few days. Honestly, the only tweaks I can think of making is limiting my cheese consumption (I have been pretty heavy-handed with the cheese), and perhaps cutting down on my one pot-a-day coffee habit. I also like the Hormel pepperoni and summer sausage. Perhaps I'm packing on hidden sugars? What do you think?

I have begun exercising two days ago, and that is going really well so far. Every couple of days I drink one of those vanilla Atkins shakes made with ice water only. Have any of you seen a stall as a result of the shakes? (as an aside, I find that I have to use my imagination to allow my taste buds to recognize a vanilla flavor...any ideas for sweetening it up without using a sugar substitute?)

Yes, I'm drinking my 64 oz. of water every day--actually, it is often double that amount.

I suppose what I'm wondering is if a 3 lb. fluctuation is appropriate, or if you think that I need to modify how I'm doing induction. What I am tremendously grateful for is that my resolve to remain in the Atkins WOL has not budged. I'm in this for the long haul.

Thanks for letting me ramble.

-Tim

[Honestly, the only tweaks I can think of making is limiting my cheese consumption (I have been pretty heavy-handed with the cheese), and perhaps cutting down on my one pot-a-day coffee habit. I also like the Hormel pepperoni and summer sausage.]

These things have been known to cause stalls. The pepperoni and summer sausage may have a lot of salt in them and the sausage added fillers that could cause trouble.

Have you measured yourself and tracked that way? We lose inches or we lose pounds, rarely at the same time. And we lose in odd ways, never where we would like to see it the most. Someone once told me women lose from the head down and from the feet up losing around the middle last. We'd like to lose in the middle first, I know I would.

Also when you begin to exercise you will gain muscle and muscle weighs more that fat, but takes up less space on your body. So you may really feel a difference in how your clothes fit and see inches come off.

Some people stall drinking coffee, you may consider giving those things up for several days to a week and see if it makes a difference.

The weight bouncing 3-5 pounds a day is normal -- if you weigh in the morning and then throughout the day you would see a fluctuation.

A lot have banished the scales in favor of a tape measure or the pantometer -- pick something to try on every couple of weeks and you should be pleasantly surprised. I would also suggest not measuring more than once a week or maybe twice a month.

Good luck and keep up the good work.

My first bit of advice is to only visit the scale once a week! There can be too many reasons for fluctuations (TOM, water retention) and those can be deceiving.

I'd stay away from all those Aktins like products while on induction - the program is very specific about what foods are permitted on induction. You should be eating no more than 3-4 oz. of cheese.

If you drink 60 oz. of coffee, you should drink that much MORE water to offset it. Increase your water to 124 oz. or so! You might want to cut back on the coffee too. That's a lot of caffeine!

Read package labels carefully! If it has sugar in any form, DON'T EAT IT!

Good luck.

tlw,

Please don't give up on this WOL!!! I have been with it for the past ten weeks and it has been a life saver!!! I would however modify some of the things you eat and drink. The pot of coffee a day is really not very good for you. That caffeine is a total killer on loosing (according to my experience). If you really have to you may drink one coffee a day. The cheese is another food that you should not eat too much of, but you are in the beginning of your life change and I ate a lot of cheese then too. Now, I have weened myself off of it pretty well and I don't eat that much of it anymore. Just don't over do it. Also, you may not drink enough water if you eat processed meats like peperoni and sausage. I make sure now that I drink WAY more then I have to so I will not gain water weight the next day after eating salty foods. I have also experienced no weightloss if I don't eat any carbs or way lower than 20g. So just make sure you are eating enough of those as well. That is all I can think of.

YOU ARE DOING GREAT!!!! Just don't give up. I am finally loosing again after my first plateau. You can do it.

Sunny

My weight is never stable. But I have detected a pattern. It might go up to 2 or 3 lbs heavier but it always goes down and there is a loss by the end of the month and I deal with the same fluctuations for the next month.

Black57

Thanks a lot for the fast feedback--wow, this board is VERY active!

You know, it's funny--my body does feel a bit less flabby since I began this WOL. I have indeed read much in this forum about losing inches but not pounds. I'll take the advice to purchase a tape measure and use that as my "measuring stick," as it were.

Duly noted about the coffee, cheese, and processed meats. Don't think I'll have a problem limiting the cheese and eradicating the processed meats. However, I'm a bit concerned about the java situation. Hmmm...

This forum is great! It's wonderful to know that I'm not practicing the Atkins Nutritional Approach in a vacuum. I have so many friends who told me they were "doing Atkins," when in point of fact they never read the book and assumed that the whole program involved permanently eating only protein foods. It's awesome to read posts by folks who are honestly understanding and applying the principles of Atkins. Thanks!

-Tim

I agree with the others about limiting cheese and caffiene. I went to drinking just a cup of de-caf in the morning and adjusted after awhile. I ate the 3-4 oz of cheese during induction but then I entered a 3 week stall and cut that out along with splenda to start losing again. The only cheese I eat now is the shredded stuff in Wendy's BLT salads which are my fast-food treat when I work late. I'm not so sure the shakes are a good idea either. Some people can eat anything and it doesn't affect their weightloss but if you are like me and lose so very slowly, we've got to be very stringent. Its not fair but it's life and I guess we wouldn't be overweight if we had those great metabolisms that kept weight off.

Just read your note this morning, and I think the main thing holding you back is the caffeine. Caffeine trigggers an insulin response in your body due to the fact that it makes your liver release glucose into your blood stream. So, this could definitlely be one of the reasons why you're not losing. Regarding the atkins bars, although they contain no sugar, they do contain a sugar substitute, and this will eventually be absorbed by your body, and along with the processed meat you like which usually always contains fillers such as sugar, dextrose, cornsyrup, etc, would definitely keep you from losing.
best of luck, hope this helps

You should be drinking: (8+5)x8= 104 ounces of water in addition you should have 1-2 cups of water for every cup of coffee you drink. Dehydration can really stall you bad. This is from my own experience.