I have been on this diet for about 9 weeks now and have had incredible loss....the first 4 weeks. I have lost nothing in 5 weeks and if it wasn't for my purple ketone strips and my 25 lb. weight loss in that first month I would feel like a total failure! But I am committed to this WOL and for the first time in years I have energy, but still I want and NEED to lose weight. I keep reading about a calorie restriction on the Atkins plan, what is the calorie restriction number...is there a majic #? Should I go "French" and eat mini meals (which I don't like) or should I stick to only eating 2 times a day like I have been. I am drinking a lot and taking coral calcuim and other supplements and I am swimming for exercise. How long is a plateau or would it be a stall (since I am not losing inches either) supposed to last and what gets you over the hump? Please help my last straw was when I gained a lb this morning!!!!!

DANDR says to eat about every 6hrs to keep your body from going into starvation mode (w/the exception of sleep). Your calories should not exceed something rational.. say 2,000 per day. That is, unless you're the symbol of fitness and have the metabolism of a teenager... LOL

Try to eat a few (3-4) meals per day. Drink lots of water. Exercise. Check your ketosix every once and a while. Use a scale once per week. Back it up with a tape measure. Don't cheat.

Good luck

Tina, I've just read your posting and was amazed because the EXACT same thing is happening to me ! I lost 29 lbs. in the first few weeks and then nothing ! I've been doing the exact same things, eating exact the same, maybe a little less (around 1400 cal. per day and NEVER more than 20 gr. of carbs - sometimes even as low as 5 gr. per day) as before but no weight loss whatsoever. My sticks keep getting purple too and I don't know what else to do. Does anyone have any suggestions ? I guess this is a little early for a stall, isn't it ? I heard those things usually happen around month 6 of the diet (ooops... WOL).

Just out of curiosity are you guys exercising? Or are you guys measuring yourself (either with a tape or buy close fitting)?

I read on the atkins site while you may not loose weight you maybe loosing inches. On the site through the variety of success stories people ahve recommended to change up exercise regiments as in if you walk try bike riding or weightlifting. Or if you don't exercise start when you hit a platuea.

www.atkins.com has a slue of information you might want to check out.

Many blessings,

Sacred

i have read many posts that state purple is not what you want your ketostix to be--this can mean you are not taking in enough water. using the search function on this site and typing in -ketostix- will give you lots of information re ketostix being purple and what it means

hth

I'm not exercising in the conventional meaning of the word, but I do run a business from home and have twin 3 year olds and one 4 month old, so I guess I'm not sedentary either. I guess I'll have to find a way of squeezing in a little exercise in my day...Yeah, I know your sticks shouldn't be purple, mine are, lets say, "dark pink", and I drink a lot of water, so I don´t think that's really the problem. The scale not moving IS the problem right now, and my clothes are not getting any looser either... Anyway, thank you guys for your information !

There was one success story of a woman who the only time she worked out was when she hit a plateua.

Although Atkins does state to work out while you are doing this diet. This lady didn't seem to have trouble loosing weight and just did exercise to help her to break through the weight platuea.

Also on the atkins site they recommend taking down your carb by 5 if you hit a plateua.

Good Luck!

Sacred

Okay, big deal, I count my carbs. LOL! I do not pay attention to calories however. Or actually calculate the calories from fat etc. If it looks like I am below 50-60 carbs a day I am happy! I have not measured myself nor have I stepped foot on a scale (I dont even own one) but I know I am losing weight because I have to buy new jeans. Hip huger jeans are meant to stay on the hips! LOL~ Maybe I should actually read the books I bought? Oh well, such is life! *smacks hands*

tina42, have you thought about switching to a different form of exercise? You said in your post that you're swimming for exercise. Swimming is great for your joints, but unless you're swimming many miles every day, it's not the best exercise in the world for losing fat, sadly -- though it's good for your heart, & stress level, life expectancy, etc.

One of the reasons (supposedly) is that when you swim, the body tends to be cold and will want to maintain a layer of subcutaneous fat to keep itself warm -- this is especially true for women. (??) I know, that sounds bizarre, and I'm not sure I totally believe it, but this is what a personal trainer said to me once, so take it for what it's worth. Or dismiss it as total hogwash (I've never heard anyone else say this about swimming).

Second (and this one makes more sense to me, and I actually DO believe it), swimming uses mostly your upper body. The muscles in your arms, back and shoulders are trivial compared to the muscles in your buttocks and legs. I mean, compared to the muscles in your lower body, there's just never going to be anything like as much muscle mass in your upper body. (This makes sense, when you think about it: your legs can support your weight all day, but if you were to try to "walk" on your arms you'd be able to do it for like, a few seconds, even if you were really strong).

Because the muscles in your lower body are so much more massive than the muscles in your arms, they burn many more calories when you exercise them. It just takes more fuel to power those big engines.

Third, if you've been doing the same exercise for a while, your body will become efficient at it. And the more efficient it is, the fewer calories it burns. When you switch to a different form of exercise, the new exercise will be less pleasant than your old workouts. You won't feel as strong or as graceful. You'll get tired faster. You might not get the euphoria. And it'll be harder to stick with than your old comfortable routine. But you'll burn more calories because your body is working harder.

Also there are low- and no-impact forms of lower-body exercise (stairmaster).

But, if for your temperament, it's "swimming or nothing!" then definitely swim! It won't slim you down as quickly as walking, stairmastering, aerobics, jogging, etc., but it provides a myriad of other health benefits and you will live a longer and happier life because of it.

Good luck. And don't worry. Stalls are part of the process.

I did modified atkins for a few weeks before going hard core..and I was working out every day..I only lost a few pounds...Since going hard core Atkins I am only working out once per week (Kickboxing :^) and I have lost 6.25 pounds so far. I plan on going back to the gym more and more as the weight comes off, to tone me up :^)