Help!!
 

I have been doing the low-carb 16 days and still have not lost anything.

Anyone with any good advice

At the start of a low-carb diet, you can sometimes encounter water retention. While this is happening, the body can be shedding fat, but this is compensated by the weight of the water being retained. When this happens, the body suddenly releases the water it has been retaining, and a quite dramatic sudden weight loss can occur. People who are naturally slender, and only need to lose a few pounds to look better in a swimsuit tend not to lose weight on a low-carb diet, but presumably this does not apply to you! If you have not started losing weight in afew days, I would recalculate how much carbohydrate you are taking. Atkins often recommends 30g only per day in the initial stages, in order to stimulate production of the Fat Mobilizing Substance. I have seen other authors recommend even less. Hope this helps.

hi Sara, welcome to our forum
 

In Protien Power, the Drs. Eades point out that some folks who have been eating a high-grain and starch, lowfat and low-protein diet might even show a GAIN in overall weight, in the beginning. However it is muscle tissue gain, because your body is FINALLY receiving adequate protein, which it wasn't getting from the lowfat diet. However, you will be burning and losing FAT. It only "looks" like a gain, because muscle is denser than fat; it takes up less space than the same weight in fat tissue.

Have you taken measurements with a measuring tape?? This will show the true picture. Also, do you notice that your clothes are a bit looser? If so, then indeed you are losing fat, and gaining muscle. Very desirable.

Which program are you following, by the way? Dr Atkins New Diet Revolution calls for 20 grams of total carbohydrate in the first 2 weeks, called the Induction phase. Then you slowly and gradually increase the carbs in 5 gram increments, over subsequent weeks, as long as you continue to lose weight and inches (cm ;)). This is called OWL (Ongoing Weight Loss). Some lowcarbers find they must keep total carb intake around 30 gm or less for the duration of OWL, while others -- often men, or persons with a significant percentage of fat to lose - find they can consume 40, 50 or more total carbs per day, and still be successful with fat loss. However, these same folks often find that as they near goal, the carbs need to be cut back somewhat, in order to keep the momentum.

Phase One of Protein Power provides 30 gm per day of Effective Carbs (ECC), which is total carbs in the food minus the undigestible fiber content. There is considerable confusion amongst some lowcarbers about this "subtracting fiber issue" ... particularly for persons following Atkins Induction. Atkins' program was developed based on total carbs, NOT carbs-minus-fiber. However, folks read on the web about subtracting fiber, so they try to do Induction by calculating 20 gm of carbs AFTER fiber ... meaning their TOTAL carb intake could in fact be closer to 40 gm per day, depending on the food choices.

Another possible cause may be "hidden carbs" ... meaning you're consuming foods that you believe to be very low, or zero carb content, when in fact, there ARE carbs in the product. Cheese and cream are notorious in this category. Also, processed meat products ... bacon, ham, sausage and the like. "Sugar-free" treats, and those "lowcarb"protein bars can be tricky as well. These are sweetened with substances such as glycerine or maltitol, sorbitol etc ... which can act like sugar for many folk, and will stall the weight and fat loss effort. Check out these articles from our Tips webpage, Hidden Carbs and Sugar Alcohols for more info. on these topics.

Hope this has been helpful, and look forward to reading more posts from you about your progress... :)

Doreen