30 days, and a bit disappointed...
 

Hello,

so, today is my 30th days in Atkins - My goal is to lose 16,5kg in total.

So far I have lost only 3,9 kilos. The first 2 I lost in the first week. The rest I lost in the next week and a half. That is, 2 weeks and a half ago.
I have lost 5cm from my waist, 3cm from hips and around 2,5 from each thigh.

I am still in induction and I follow it by the book, the only indulgence is I have diet cola or cola zero. Nothing else. I sometimes eat cheese but not on a daily basis (just in case anyone is going to suggest I cut cheese).

I mostly eat fresh products, very very few processed. The odd zero sugar zero carb sausage, that's all.

I walk 45 minutes every day.

I am in plateau weight wise and "size" wise for two weeks and a half now, and I feel a bit down to be honest.

The first time I did Atkins (like 14 years ago) I lost 6kg in the first two weeks and I didn't have to lose that much in total.

Can you think of anything else I could do? Did you find yourself in the same situation and suddenly you lost a lot?

Thanks for your help and support.

Wait. Be patient. Continue with what you are doing.


Yes. See my journal and MyPlan. You may actually go up in weight soon! If you do go back and read my first comment above.

You will do well.

Yes! That's exactly what I was going to say. Hard pill to swallow, but that's all you need to do. Your body is getting used to it, and so is the rest of you. Hang in there!

You should not drink diet coke. For my first month, I drank diet soda and only lost six pounds. In my second month, I did a "clean" atkins diet which means, no diet soda, no splenda, only organic stevia and for that month, lost 13+ pounds.

Lately, I've been stalling, and I noticed that I drank "harmless" diet coke a few times a week, and saw my weight would bounce erratically from day to day. I didn't know why when for weeks, I was consistently losing weight. So my advice is, do Atkins clean. Don't drink diet sodas, just water, and perhaps coffee. And you may see an increase and consistency in your weight loss. Good luck.

Thanks to all for your nice words and advice!!

As per the diet soda, in general I try not to drink it (before Atkins) but now it gets a bit complicated as it's Summer time and I have family around, being social and the like, and it gets complicated drinking only water... But will try! I'll hang in there!

FWIW, I've measured blood sugar with meter using different dosages and timings for suralose (liquid splenda - no carbs) and didn't see any impact for myself. I've also gone for long periods avoiding any sweeteners, no particular difference. For me, sweeteners provide a drive to finish somthing, like cold, used coffee. That's where I think they get tricky for me.

Trying to pin a stall on one particular substance or habit is tuff indeed, that's why in my estimation the best cure is TIME on your selected eating plan - whatever that may be.

by TIME I mean like more than 6 months - then make a small change :)

3.9 k (8.5 lbs) in 30 days is really not bad for the amount of weight you want to lose and your starting weight-- you are comparatively close to ideal weight/goal weight, and as such, loss is smaller/slower as compared to someone who has more weight to lose/is starting their loss at a weight much higher than ideal.

We are always served up some amazing stories of rapid weight loss in a short period of time. As well as these stories are told, they are exceptions not experienced by most. Most who have success over a long period of time embrace consistency and have the confidence that nothing of value can happen immediately. It takes time to learn how to eat properly for oneself and to stay consistent without expecting too much too soon. Some bounce between dietary approaches thinking that since no progress was made in a short period of time that the chosen approach doesn't work. LC works, and it's sustainable. Give it time, and enjoy the journey!

I agree the first thing you should do is just stay the course, two and a half weeks isn't that long.

So this is some premature advice you should ignore for a while. :lol: Something you could try is counting calories, but I think it's important to be very careful how you go about it. If I push too far with calorie counting, I just end up in a binge and wind up eating more than if I'd just ignored the calories.

The way I'll do this if I've gained a bit and want to lose some weight--first I'll tighten up the diet, just eating to appetite, but I'll keep track of what I eat. Get an idea of how much I'm eating on a daily basis. Then I'll start eating that much on purpose. Sometimes just doing this loses me some weight, maybe because I end up eating less just because I'm tracking, or maybe it's just eating a bit more on weekends that had me gaining, or something like that. If I'm not losing, I'll cut calories, but I'll sneak up on it. But I'll have a no going to bed hungry rule. I'll drop a couple hundred calories a day, the point isn't to deprive myself, it's to see whether I was actually eating more food than needed to satisfy my appetite in the first place. I've seen Dr. Westman give this advice--not to deprive yourself, just pay attention to how much you're eating, and whether slightly smaller portions would be satisfying. I find my appetite sometimes driven by the environment. If I'm home alone, I might cook myself a 6 ounce pork chop with some broccoli and be satisfied. If I'm at a friend's place, and he's cooked about 10 pork chops, and he's looking at me eagerly, hoping I'll eat most of them and tell him how good they are, and once I'm done that one pork chop that would have satisfied me at home, all there is to do is watch other people eating pork chops--that can reignite my appetite. But even if I just make a stack of pork chops, instead of the one that'll do, I'll end up eating more.

I can't emphasize enough that this isn't about undereating, it's about fine tuning, figuring out just how much food you can be happy on.

Thanks all for the support. I will update you.
I did have to travel abroad and decided to "break" the diet (after a full month being good). I didn't eat whatever, I just consciously drank some beer, a couple of spoonfuls of cake, some wine.
When I returned I was on 67kg, and now, 2 weeks later I am on 65,1Kg. So somehow it has worked.
Also, I have decided to start with phase 2, so I am every now and then having full fat yogurt or berries. Yesterday I had a lovely smoothie. Still 10kg to go. Will keep you posted!!

Excellent!

I'm new at this, and I'm battling type II diabetes but I discovered that walking was not really enough for me. I found a short low impact cardio workout that seems to do a lot more for me than the waking, (I do both now).

https://youtu.be/asdQ3YgpRoQ

Tuscon - great video. I love those that have you doing something for 1 minute and then changing it. You never know how long a minute is until you start doing something for those same 60 seconds!!

Thanks for the video, Tucson Bill! I'm such a couch potato, and this is something I feel like I'll actually get up and do.

To be honest, I only make it about half way through - but I keep trying to go a little further each day.