Dear Karen:
I have been enjoying this site for over two months now and I have to thank you. I also was hoping I could ask your advice regarding the Atkins diet.

I have been following Dr. Atkins' way of eating for eight weeks now as well as incorporating daily 45-60 min cardio, some light weight training and yoga. I've noticed my clothes fitting a bit better and some people have been asking me if I lost weight. The best thing tho is I've lost all desire to compulsively overeat or binge.

I was feeling positive untill....I delibrately did not weight myself for eight weeks, then yesterday, to my horror, I stepped on the scale and not only didn't I lose weight but I gained 6lbs.!>!>!> Honestly, could this all be muscle? When will I lose weight? Is my age a factor (44)? Are there just some people who can not lose weight on this diet? I have been on this WOEing before and only lost 10 and couldn't lose more. I am currently 60 lbs overweight. I feel discouraged as I've worked so hard these past 8 weeks. I'm starting to think I could have lost more if I wasn't on Atkins, just from all the exercise alone.

Thanks for reading thus far!

Marg

Hi Marg

I'm sorry to hear your dissappointing news of a 6 pound weight gain after 8 weeks instead of weight loss. I'll try to answer some of your questions.



No, it is not. There are many members here who are older than you and doing fine. I'm 4 years older than you for a start.

Let me just check that you are not going through an early menopause? When my estrogen levels hit an all time low last year I stopped losing weight. Now I'm on HRT with my estrogen levels balancing I'm losing weight again.



This is not an easy question to answer as everyone is different and for some people it takes time for their bodies to heal before they lose weight. The fact that you are exercising and improving your body shape is certainly converting fat to muscle and so some of your weight increase could be down to this.

I got a shock the first week I went to the gym as I gained 3 pounds.

What you need to ensure is that you are eating enough and that your carbs level is around 30g a day. As you are doing quite a bit of exercise you will need more carbs and keeping them low for too long is not always a good thing.

Although this is not a calorie based way of life you do need to eat enough calories and so you should be eating around 10 times your bodies weight in calories each day. Too few and your body will think you are starving it and stop you losing weight. Too many and your body will get all its energy needs from what you eat. If you need to check this out join Fitday.

What I would say to you is keep low carbing. My own weight loss is slow and you can see my progress in my photos in my signature. However, I love this way of life and feel so much better for it.

I wish you every success. You might want to weigh yourself once a week from now on. Remember to always weigh at the same time of day as your body weight can fluctuate around 4 or 5 pounds during the day.

Dear Little Anne:
Thanks for your thoughtful and always great reply to my "panic" posts!
I never thought about the early menopause but I have been experiencing strange PMS lately!! I do need to see my doc soon! I am taking Progesteron Cream as well to help with the PMS ....thanks Anne didn't even think of the connection but might be!!
After I posted last night I opened the new Covert Bailey book I purchased (2nd hand used at Amazon-great deals!!) "The Ultimate Fit or Fat". I was reminded of how two people can weight the same but be in different shape. I remembered that my "ideal" or lowest weight was not my fittest weight....I was soft and didn't have much muscle in my 20s and 30s. I learned to my delight that I am not as overweight as I thot I was!!!!