Hi! I can't do this alone, so short of having Dr. Atkins move into my spare room, I'm hoping that I'll get some support from this forum tat will help me get on my feet - and off my couch! I've been at this again (Atkins) since 1/1 - with some trepidation - my weight is beginning to cause some health problems and certainly keeping me from enjoying life as much as I want to - and I am getting myself back on Atkins. These days haven't been too bad - I guess that my desperation to feel better and willingness to work at it overshadow my yearning for goodies - besides, I did a thorough job of getting rid of nearly anything that would tempt me after Christmas. I've done Atkins before, and I couldn't get beyond about 5 weeks, even though I had lost > 20 lbs. The first 7 days or so go okay, but then I am hungry every 2 hours - I would feel shaky and have headaches and feel like I had the flu. I had cut out caffeine, artificial sweeteners and was living on cheese, eggs, meat,cream,green salads and Atkins bars and Atkins vits. This time I am skipping the Atkins bars and bottled dressings as well as caffeine and I will begin walking a bit today (reluctantly because my knees and ankles hurt alot, but this was something I did not do when I was unsuccessful the last time) . Anybody else experience these symptoms? Any tips to help me prepare in case this happens again?

Welcome to the forum!



I think tht this for me was a turning point to - I wanted to feel better and look better. I too had bad feet/ankle pains, my arthritis was horrible. But with the loss so far I am feeling like a spring chiken. I can walk and not get out of breath. My ankles still hurt a bit on occasion if I walk too much, but no where near like it was when I was 242 pounds on a 5' 4'' frame.

In the first week or so, I to had the dizziness and shakes associated with sugar/carb withdraw. I ate some high fat snacks when this happened, which often meant that I was eating every few hours. But theese symptoms will go away. Make sure you are taking your vitamins and drinking your water!

Hi Cathy,
I'm in a similar situation as you...really heavy, starting to get some health problems, moving is not comfortable any more. That is such a bad feeling. And of course, moving is important for health! I have just finished my 8 days of Atkins pretty successfully. (lost around 20 lbs a couple of years ago on it). I don't have a scale that goes as high as I am unfortunately.

What is helping me is to keep tasty and appropriate food around at all times to eat when I get hungry. This helps my tempation for the food I'm not supposed to have. I'm noticing that over the last few days I have been satisfied after eating a moderate amount. At first I still wanted to eat alot! I'm hoping this continues (the moderate).

Keep in touch and we will slay this dragon together.

Thanks!!! Just about made it through another day - thanks to snacks of cheese and fried ground beef and alot of water and herbal tea. Knowing I could check back to thios forum helped. I'll stay on touch...