The lowest I've gotten so far is 234. I weighed myself the week after, and I had gained 2 lbs. This happened before, but the week after *that* I had gained another pound. Now, I have been exercising more often and more intensely, lots and lots of stomach crunches, trying to do pushups (girly ones, I can only do 30) and more crunches (I can do about 300 in one sitting now). I thought for a while that I was just building muscle, but I read on several other posts that with intense workouts on this WOE you need to take in glucose or you will *lose* muscle. I haven't weighed myself in over a week now in FEAR, because I do not feel thinner and I can tell from my face, like around the neck area, that I have gained weight.

I thought this might have to do with eating those atkins candy bars....So I cut those out, and shakes too. Then I thought I wasn't drinking enough water, so I'm trying to up that. I want to know what else I could be doing wrong. I was losing weight faster, it seemed, when I didn't exercise. But it just feels wrong not to exercise, I feel lazy. Any thoughts?

First off RELAX!!!! I know, I know way easier said than done. Your body is stalling to make up for the fast weight loss, that is completley normal.

I think you are pushing yourself way to hard in the excercise dept. It's just as bad an obsession as food and Dr. Atkins even says to take it easy during induction.

You may want to just simply do something as watching your salt intake. That has been a problem for me. Also I know you might feel lazy but just take a walk and relax instead of pushing yourself so hard to force your body to lose weight. That in an of itself is a great defeat and we feel like miserable failures when our bodies don't comply to our set plans in life.

As for the gain, I think it is muscle plain and simple. You may not notice it right now because of your current weight but it WILL show in due time.

(((((hugs)))))) hang in there and post often.

Take a deep breath, and try and relax. Keep telling yourself, I CAN do this, it WILL work, until you believe it. While all your exercising sounds really great, it will still take time. I lost 13 pounds during induction and then lost nothing for a month. But I tried to keep the faith and hung in there, finally I lost 3 more lbs. It has taken me 3 months to lose 20 lbs. But I have lost 11-1/2 inches, and the roll of fat I had around my waist is gradually melting away. It will work if you BELIEVE it will, and stick to the program. Good luck!!!

I think the best advice for people who are just starting a new and vigorous exercise program is to put the scale away for awhile and rely on the tape measure. One of the reasons you're gaining weight could be that muscle retains water as part of it's recovery process. You're gaining lean muscle mass AND your bone mass is increasing... all those things lead to a higher number on the scale, but they're all GOOD things!! Your tape measure (or pant-o-meter) will definitely be a better indicator of your success. Oh, and measure once/month....a week after TOM!

Definitely take a deep breath!

IRR...

Hang in there!! We've all been UP one, DOWN two, UP three and so on...then plenty of nothing for the longest time...

It's just the way it goes. The downward trend over the long-term will show your progress. There's LOTS of things happening with your body that won't show up on the scale!

I bet you've lost some inches!

WEll, just enjoy the fact that you lost those initial pounds, and have patience, (pause here, I'm listening to my own advice, O.K.) stick with the program and it will come around.
I lost 20 pounds in 8 weeks, week 9, 10, and heading to 11, nothing. But I'm sure, when you really think about it, it makes sense your body is adjusting, and it will try to hang on to what it is used to, but there is tons of examples here to prove it will start to give up again, and you will lose, (note to self are you listening?)

Sorry the bars may be a problem, (oops forgot you did say you cut them out) look in the recipe thread here for sweets that might help in that department.
How about starting a journal here? It's a great tool.
Cheers Kathy