New and getting frustrated.
 

So I started the Atkins diet and don't feel like I'm losing enough weight and I'm starting to get frustrated.

Background: just had my second kid 6 months ago and began doing a crossfit like workout 2 months ago. At that time I wasn't dieting. I could notice some toning but not much weight loss so starting May 1 at I started Atkins along with still doing regular exercise. i don't have tons to lose. I am looking to lose 12 pounds or so to be a good weight. 20 pounds would put me at my dream weight.

I weigh myself regularly and also take measurements all around my body. After 2 weeks of dieting I have only lost maybe 3 pounds and not much movement of the measurements either. My husband who is going the same diet minus the exercise has lost almost 10 pounds. He keeps telling me that it should start dropping off soon. But I'm gettin really frustrated and don't know what to do. Dieting is sucky enough that I don't want to torture myself for no reason.

I have the Atkins app and enter everything I eat. I am usually always below 20h of crabs, way under the fat and protein markers. And usually under 1200 calories. I drink plenty of water, take vitamins, haven't cheated, etc. short of starving myself i don't know what else to do.

Has anyone else has this experience? Is it normal to not see much loss at first and then see rapid loss. Any tips or help. It is extremely hard to stay motivated on a diet when you aren't seeing results. And even more frustrated when your husban who is doing a lot less than you is tripling your numbers.

Hi, Rml. Your experience isn't unusual. However, there's no such thing as "typical" on Atkins or any other eating plan. There are so many variables.

Here's the main thing. Low-carb isn't meant to be a "diet." It's meant to be a way of eating you can sustain for life. Because once you go "off" a diet--this one or any other diet--you'll just get back to where you were before you started. And fast.

Dr. Atkins specifically advises NO TORTURE, and his famous diet emphasizes luxurious eating: meats with the good fat attached, butter on your veggies, oily salad dressings, omelets with cheese and avocado, etc. If you are skimping on fats, you are skimping on energy. And that's torture. Do NOT under-eat fat. Do NOT overeat protein. Don't count calories.

The next thing is: be patient. It takes a while for the body to adjust to fat-burning as opposed to carb-burning. Even a month or more. Consider this a learning period--learning how to eat in a new way for life.

You've come to a good forum for lots of information and experience. Read around on the stickies at the top of various threads. But mainly stick to the Atkins plan as written in HIS BOOKS, not on the Atkins website. Eat real food. Eat to satiety. And be patient.

Best wishes.

P. S. And never compare your results to a man's. They are a totally different species :lol: Just consider the difference in essential hormones, for starters.

I think your calories per day are too low. Low carb high fat at your weight you could eat at least 1700 calories per day and still lose weight. If you go too low, your body will hang onto every little bit of energy it can. Especially if you're exercising. I use fitday.com, put in my height and weight, my weight loss goal, and it spits out the amount of calories to maintain as well as a reasonable caloric deficit in order to lose. Fitday also lets you insert your daily food and breaks down your fat, protein, carb macros in a daily pie chart.
You're exerting a LOT of energy with children. If you only have 12 - 20 pounds to lose, do it slowly and enjoy yourself getting there! Good luck!

I understand it's a way of life. I just had the hopes of going hard the first month with virtually no carbs to kind of jump start everything and make some good way and then slowly introduce some good carbs - fruits and nuts, etc for more a lifetime routine. I don't count calories but my tracker shows them so I know that I'm not eating lots of protein and a zillion calories. I'm focusing on no carbs but I can see that I am also way under pretty much everything.

Before this I did not eat healthy at all. I don't eat McDonald's every day. My diet was not excessive. Just normal but I never really skimped on anything or denied myself anything. I also never ever worked out.

So the fact that I have made a lot of life style changes 1) exercising regularly and 2) "dieting" I thought I would see better results.

You're still pretty close to having had a child 6 months ago. Hormonally, your body might still be rigged to hang on. As well, 2 weeks is nothing. Many of us lose one pound a week, some of us lose one pound a month! So if you've lost 3 pounds in 2 weeks, good on ya!! Men lose crazy quick because they have way larger muscle groups (arms, thighs etc). I think you might have to resign yourself to accepting your man will lose quicker (pinch him in his sleep).
Be patient. If you low carb high fat, you will lose!

Thanks! I will try upping my calories a wee bit.

You bet. As you go along, you'll find just the right balance for you. We are all so individual. I feel like mothers and wives already give so much, no sense beating yourself up to do this quickly. Give yourself the gift of time. Because you have it.

You can go zero carb if you want, but DON'T COUNT CALORIES, Ok?

Dr Atkins' famously said: "Eat when you're hungry. Stop when you aren't."

He also said that at some point, calories might need to be counted. But it's not at the beginning, and certainly not keeping yourself, as a healthy, active young woman, below 1200 calories!

A couple of questions. Are you/were you nursing? For sure you are sleep deprived; it comes with the territory of two kids, one of them only 6 months old!

Either nursing or recent weaning, along with sleep deprivation, can slow weight loss.

Personally, I never lost weight well until about two months after I weaned my kids, and that was anywhere from 6 months to a year.

As Barb said, Dr Atkins wanted people to enjoy their food, so they could continue to enjoy it in maintenance. If you are using the website, know that it has perverted Dr Atkins way of eating in order to sell products that aren't good for you!

You have a lot on your plate, and worrying about calories can be one that you take off. Just keep your carbs low, and, while I won't promise the weight will fall off (you don't have that much to lose, really) you will enjoy your food, rather than agonizing over it.

Many of the people on this forum, myself included, are much older than you, and believed, because that's what older women are told, that we COULDN'T lose weight, anymore. What we learned was that, by drastically cutting carbs, but eating as much as we needed of fats and proteins, we could lose, and be much healthier, too.

You state you are doing Crossfit and are way under protein markers. If you are doing Crossfit you need more protein not less. You need to feed your muscles. I'd suggest upping fat and protein and you might see a different result. Just my opinion, of course.

1. Crossfit will make you pack on muscle, so you will get smaller while not really losing weight. Talk to your crossfit trainers, they'll probably tell you you need to get go of some specific "dream weight" number. And be better off for it.

2. You really should eat more calories and fat. Otherwise it's not really what Atkins advises. At 1200 calories your body thinks its starving and will hang on to the weight. Especially since you're not really that overweight to begin with.

3. 10-15 days is too short a time to get frustrated with a change in diet.

4. Don't compare yourself to your spouse. Men lose weight faster than women.

Thanks everyone for your advice. I don't really count calories - I only really worry about low carb. But I log my food into an app so i know my calories and lookig back they are low (though this not my intention). I am now looking at them to make sure I eat enough. Though I'm not really hungry. So I am now purposely trying to eat some more low carb/ high calorie items so I'm not too low.

I also take supplements for the days I work out (coconut oil, amino acids, etc) so I can still build muscle and recover.

Ps - I had a small cheat day and had some pizza. That improved my mood along with the advice from all of you. So I'm just going to keep plugging along and see how it goes!

having a cheat day isn't a great idea. It tends to set people to end up in binge cycle.
It doesn't sound like you are looking at this as a lifestlye, even though you say you "know it is." Here is what i mean- you said the pizza improved your mood, instead of going with the suggestion to find on plan foods you love. If friends wanted pizza, i would suggest you enjoy the wings with celery and bluecheese. You still go out, have a great meal, be SOCIAL, and are on plan, win, win, win!

Also, if you are eating fewer than 1200 kcal per day and nursing and working out and taking care of a baby and a toddler, no amount of coconut oil or amino acids or any other supplement is going to let your body repair itself properly. Trust me- I'm a trainer and have a Master's in exercise science and nutrition, if that makes any difference to you. While I think the "dangers of undereating" are greatly overstated (terrific thread on this topic in atkins forum right now, you might want to read), the body does need enough protein to repair muscle. Without, there is no "back up" (the body will not use carbs or fats for this).

finally, you are down 3 pounds with a goal weight of 12 pound loss. That is 25% in 2 weeks- celebrate! but not with pizza ;)