If you have any experience with this will you let me know.

I quit smoking after I lost about 15 lbs on Atkins and for the first month I was stable but after that, man oh man did the weight start creeping up and the hunger, oh my God, endless hunger... Does anyone have any suggestions for me please... And sugar... all I can think of is sugar.... What is going on.

Hello surrender. First, you are already down at a pretty good weight for your 5'5" height and perhaps your body is trying to tell you not to try so hard to go lower.

If you are hungry on the Atkins way of eating, GO AHEAD AND EAT. Just be sure to choose from low carb foods.

Your body is trying to get you to give it more food and is putting visions of the most available energy into your head = the sugar cravings. Eat protein and fat instead of carbs and the craving will go away. Eating these things will NOT increase your weight but they will help manage the hunger and the cravings.

Isn't it wonderful to know that if you are hungry, you CAN eat?

Congratulations on stopping smoking too.

I second everything BarB said. And I'll add my congratulations on giving up smoking - that's a hard one - well done!!

I just have a suggestion about the sugar cravings, and that is to try L-Glutamine. It really helped me. Dr A suggests 500 to 1000mg ½ hour before meals, although you can also take it at the time of the cravings.

HTH

Rosebud

I've been pretty much stalled out after quitting smoking... I have my days where I want to SCREAM and eat all the things I shouldn't out of sheer frustration..it's been MONTHS of losing and gaining the same five pounds...

BUT.... when I've quit before, I've gained 30 or more pounds. Once I started looking at it that way, it helps. That, and a supply of celery, string cheese, pepperoni, eggs... you get the idea.

I've recently started a better exercise program of walking every day. It seems to kill the hunger pangs (that aren't really physical hunger, if you know what I mean...)

Hang in there!!!

Hmmm. Were you having any sugar cravings before you stopped smoking? Cigarette addiction is perhaps the worst of all. What is interesting is the number of devious devices the addicted subconscious mind will come up with to get one to have a smoke and restart the addiction. So...."ever since I stopped smoking," ....I gained weight/ sleep all the time/ find myself following the smell of smoke/ Oh, I am so stressed..../ Well, I had a drink and everyone was smoking/And now, the new LC version.... " I crave sugar all the time"....so natch, one has to have a cigarette in order to STOP all those bad things that happen after one stops smoking.

So think about it...might this be what is happening? That your cigarette addiction is trying to manipulate you into having a smoke? It could very well be... try the suggestions given, drink heaps of water, and if you aren't eating many carbs, then you know that the call of sugar isn't really a call of sugar, its that sneaky nicotine addiction in disguise...finding whatever is at hand to get you back to it.

>>"So think about it...might this be what is happening?"

Interesting... that could be part of it, but I must point out that nicotine stimulates the liver to release glycogen. This is why you're not allowed to smoke the morning of a fasting blood sugar test. Take away the nicotine, and there's sure to be unstable blood sugar.

Good luck, surrender, hang in there!

ok when i have sugar cravings i run to SPLENDA! i love that stuff. go to the recipe section and make the LC PB cups they are great...just don't over do it and eat 3 at a time.

Jon

ps go buy soy slender vanilla it has 4 carbs for the whole container then use cocoa and a little splenda(it has splenda already) then blend it up, great milkshakes..you can also add peanut butter,or strawberries
remember to have this stuff once and a while but not all the time or you will still stall. at least i do but if i have something 3 times a week i still lose.
also i don't know what you exercise schedule is but the more you exercise the higher your matabolizm and the better you will fight off the cravings for cigs and the lower matabolism you get from quitting. wow my ps is longer then the rest of my post.

I quit smoking in 1996 (after MANY unsucessfull attemps) it will get better in time!
Chew gum, run in place, take a walk, drink water, start knitting or sewing. Keep busy!
If you need that sweet eat SF jello or SF candy.

Take it 1 day at a time and next thing you know you will be a non-smoker.

I can't beleive I ever smoked! But I did for 15 year.

God Bless you all, each and everyone of you little angels . Thank you for the suggestions.

[U]If I stick on Atkins will the stall/gain stop after awhile and will I be able to start loosing again?[/U]

My Husband quit smoking last week and he is using the patches, so he suggested that I use one. I cut it into 1/4 and it seemed to help some. But I feel like I am using it as a appetite suppressant.

But I totally dig the one about the disease trying to trick me into the cycle of a cig will fix it all. That trick has worked 4 times already.

Thanks for the shake receipe that sounds great.

And I might need to be eating more since I do excersise every morning..

I am back up to 145 but as someone else said, the last time I quit smoking I packed on 20 pounds... 7 pounds is a little easier to handle.

I just do not like the out of control feeling again like I used to have when I was eating nothing but carbs... and more carbs......and more carbs......

Plus is it possible that after smoking my matabolism has changed and now I can not have all that meat? What a thought huh? But that has been going through my mind.

Sneeky little thoughts huh? It reminds me of "Smeedy" not sure of spelling, the little guy from the "Lord of the Rings, Two Towers" the one who talked to himself and had two personalities... That is how it feels sometimes. Oh well I do ramble. Will close now and say. THANK YOU ALL AGAIN>

Hi Surrender,
I may be wrong but when I quit smoking 14 years ago I was told that tobacco is cured is sugar, hence the sugar cravings. I went to a support group, Smokers Anonymous (now Nicotine Anonymous) and I prayed to have the obsession removed! I quit cold turkey and have not found it necessary to pick up a cigarette one day at a time. Good luck to you.
Maureen

It stands to reason that when you remove a stimulant like nicotine that you have been dripp feeding into yourself for ages, something is going to happen. It will take time for your body to adapt to NOT having that stimulant in there. Using the patch is proobably not such a bad idea...perhaps use half a patch and see if it stops the cravings. if so, then gradually reduce the size of the parch over a few weeks and wean yourself off. But notice those addictive sneaky thoughts too and be alert to them.

Val

Sometimes your body is just yelling for something, even if it doesn't know what it is. Stay strong! You can do it.
Here's a cool thing I made for myself last night...darned if it didn't taste like strawberry cream pie!
Cut up 1 cup of strawberries, mix one cup of whole plain yogurt with 1 tsp Splenda and 1 tbl lemon juice. Chop 1/2 cup pecans. Mix all together.
Delish! I ate the whole thing as dinner, but you can divide it among two people as a dessert.
It's about 12 carbs in all, 6 carbs each for two servings. Very satisfying and not bad on carbs.

Hi Adkpam,

I hate to burst your bubble matey, but this mixture is going to "cost" more than 10 carbs. And in case you are thinking that a lot of the sugars in yoghurt are "eaten" by the cultures, I'm afraid I have even more bad news. I used to believe that too, but we now have more information about yoghurt. See this thread for details: http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?t=138905

According to Fitday, 1 cup strawberries, 1 cup yoghurt and ½ cup pecans has 21 effective carbs.

Rosebud