I have bad breath, because of ketosis I believe. But that is a sign for me that I am in a fat-burning mode, so I almost look forward to having bad breath. lol.

Jaob- I experienced a slight gain in weight when I started exercising. One of the reasons I only weigh in once in a while now.

All I can say is try cutting out the oreo's. I think 2 oreos have like 140 calories. You could try sugar/fat free pudding or jello with whipped cream instead. That is what I do and it satifies the craving for desert.

Thanks Akasha, my plan really is to NOT eat high carb treats during the overeating phase (even though it is stated to have dessert) but the end of the year (I'm a teacher) is so hard, so many parties!! I really hope the weight gain is due to exercise and not the wine. I would love a WOE that lets me include wine at night!! How much weight did you lose when you did the WD for a month??
Great luck to all! Let's keep this support thread going (or start a new one if it gets too long) We can do this!

Sorry Akasha, somehow I missed your post where you answered my question about how much weight you lost! Great job. What was your menu like (if you can remember)

How do you add a quote with only one highlighted question? (I'm very computer illiterate!)

Just bookmarking this thread (so I don't have to keep searching for it! )....

Thanks girls for sharing your experience about *the little dragon in the mouth*

Jaob.....last weekend I had garlic bread and white wine (the rest was LC) and next day I was up 4 pounds!!! I think almost everything is water weight (hope so, anyway) since I think most of it is already gone (I only use the scale about once a week).

Let us know if the extra pounds go away!!
Wish you good luck anyway!!!

Ditto, I keep debating about doing this and I want easy access to the info

HI everybody. I have been doing atkins for a while, and although I do lose weight when I am following it to the "T", I worry that it is not the plan I will be able to stick with. For one, I find that I have trouble eating in the morning, i'm just not hungry, and Atkins insists that you never go more than 6 waking hours without a meal. I also found that when i was a much lower weight this was the way i naturally ate. I wasn't to hungry during the day anyway. I was able to maintain it without any effort at all. I have been reading this thread, and I really appreciate the amounts of info there is here. especially from watcher. I am going to try this diet this week, and we will just have to see I am a little scared when I read that I may gain a little in the beginning but I really want to find the best plan for me that i can stick with. Wish me luck!

Hi, good morning everybody,

1. Although I know very well you want to notice any pound of gaining or loosing to adjust the diet, don't forget that your body has just very normal changes in weight which can mislead you.

If you want to track the weight: weigh everyday at the same time, put it in a simple graph and draw an moving average line. Excel can do this for you. That last one, the moving average (say a 7 or 10 day mov.avg.) will tell you what really happens!


2. Get the water loosing/gaining problem out of the way by simply drinking a lot of water, so your body will be well hydrated. If you don't drink enough, your body will retain water!


3. What I have seen from most beginners in a fat loosing program is they try, fueled by their enthousiasm, to force results by eating way to little.

So beware for that by using one of the calculators on the internet to estimate the amount of calories for your body and your activity level. When you want to restrict some, subtract maximal 500 cal from that, no more! (300-500 is often advised).

It will amaze you how much you 'must' eat then in the evening! So counting calories can be used for say a week to have an impression how you are doing. I guess a lot of people will have to add (healthy!) food to their meals. Use vegetables, nuts, the good oils, clean meat to eat to satisfaction. I hope some personal reward food, like a dessert, icecream, or chocolate is already in your menu.


4. Don't bother about not following your private 'WOE' for a day. Intuitive eating is something that doesn't align with our rational brain, but it may be very well that like dogs sometimess eat grass, our body needs a certain food, and that could include carbs or sugar. So I really don't make a problem about eating an 'unhealthy' thing now and then. When you have build some confidence in your WOL you will understand, and have no fear for cheating anymore .

Happy Sunday morning everyone! We have some new people!

Ellen and Naikiki-Are you doing the WD? We'd love to hear how you are doing. We all still have a lot of questions so it would be nice to hear what you have to share!!

Becky-keep on posting, girl! I am only a week into this and still a little concerned about the overeating phase. I am so surprised that I can go all day (until about 4:00-5:00) without eating! Never thought I could survive and feel good, too! Unlike you, I HAD to have a big breakfast (or thought I did).

Jpaleo & Akasha-yep, me too. Food obsessing. I find that I am getting alot done during the day to keep my mind off the ACT of eating. Physically I am surprised at how well I do on just water! But when you are used to eating as an activity sometimes I am asking myself "okay, now what do I do??"

Carmen-very discouraging to see the scale move up so much. I need to take everyone's advice and not put so much stock in the scale.

Watcher-your advice on the scale is good. I will try keeping a graph. Even though I know what you eat can show up on the scale 3 days later somehow that # in the morning means so much and it shouldn't. You mentioned that "beginners try to force results by eating too little". Have you seen the results of many people on this WOE? So far, I have only been going on your terrific results and knowledge Most of the other threads you've linked seem to be those into bodybuilding. Are there "normally" active people that you know doing WD? I am not very active and hope this will still work for me? I know, lots of questions, but I appreciate your expertise!!

Does anyone want to post menus?? Here's mine from yesterday for anyone interested.

B-3 BIG mugs coffee/cream
S-5 spoonfuls homemade chic. soup
4:00-8:30 overeating phase-3 big glasses red wine, one chic. leg, 1 beef rib, cole slaw, sunflower seeds, icecream for dessert (intuitively I didn't need this dessert but ate it because I figured I could, trying to stop that way of thinking!)
Sorry this is so long. Journaling is helping me stay on track! Have a great WD day!

My typical menu:

B: Coffee with a little whipped cream and Splenda. (Coffee does an AMAZING job of filling me up).

L: If I get hungry, I will have an egg or two and snack on a couple mushrooms.

Overeating: I tend to start out with a ceasar salad, then move onto other veggies, such as asparagus or green beans. I typically have my protein and fats after that, like a couple turkey burgers and tuna with mayo/celery/cheese.

That is of course, a typical menu. Some days I am more hungry than others. Today, for instance, my stomach was upset, so I had a can of tuna for brunch. I am still saving my big meal for tonight however. We are going out to eat.

It looks like we have some new faces around here. Welcome!

Becky, if you are afraid of gaining weight from switching from Atkins to WD, have you considered combining the two? I am doing the WD combined with Atkins induction for two weeks. Although I promised myself I would stay off the scale until July 15th, I can feel myself shrinking.... Well, except that TOM is close so now I am just bloated. LOL.

But seriously, if you enjoy Atkins, combining the two is always an option.

Carmen- take it from someone who is scale obsessive- force yourself to only weigh yourself once a week maximim. I read an interesting article somewhere the other day that said once a month is the most reliable. (That is what I am trying to do). It's hard to not get on the scale, trust me, I know, but when a number discourages you for the entire day... who needs that?

Question: I remember reading somewhere that the best time to exercise while on the WD is an hour or so before you begin the overeating phase. Can anyone confirm this?

Hi there!

I started yesterday with the WD and so far is going great!!

In the morning I've had:
-Cup coffee with soya milk (the soya milk is per 100ml: 2,2 gr. fat and 0,1 gr. carbs),
-Cup tea with soya milk
-Cup flaxseed with half boiled water and half soya milk.

In the afternoon (about 4pm);
- a piece of fruit and a tiny piece of low fat cheese

After 6pm:
- yesterday a bbq (DH was surprised to see how much I ate). Ate pretty LC but ate lots of fruit salad and some regular ice cream.
-today around 6pm a pasta salad and 3 ice coffee's and now (10:15pm) I'm eating chinese and I'm planning to have a muffin as dessert

The energy levels have been great (DH was also surprised at how energetic I've been). I haven't weighted myself since TOM is here. Anyway....I'm planning to follow Akasha's advice and weight myself only once a month as long as the clothes keep on fitting

Btw, I think is a great idea to combine plans...I don't see why not.

Hope you are all doing great!!
Happy to be here

I did fairly well early today. I did not eat anything until 1 pm and felt good and energized. I was out shopping and at one point felt like I was getting really hungry but then I got distracted and it went away. Then when I felt hungry a little later I had some plain yogurt and fruit.

Unfortunately, I was tempted with some bad food (fries). Oh well. At least I made it until 2 pm and I was aware of what I was doing (half the battle with emotional eating I think).

I think I may just have to use a little will power to get through the first few days. I definitely feel better blood sugar wise when I don't eat a lot during the day.

About scales--I think they can drive you crazy! I don't even have a scale. I basically find out my weight whenever I have a doctor's visit (so sometimes it is a whole year later!). I tend to go on how my clothes fit. Recently I know I lost some weight because I had to start wearing belts with all my pants.

And I am so glad to see more people trying this WOE. It's good to hear about others experiences. And of course get lots of good info from Watcher!

-J

Okay, I am trying this but I am still a little nervous, I have finally stuck to Atkins for a measurable length of time and the idea of having dessert at all kinda scares me. I have read a lot of testimonials about WD but most of them are from men, does anyone know how a woman has done in the long run? Also I thought that this was a training diet, if I am not working out right now will it still help me? The WD fascinates me because I have a tendency at about 7pm every night to become ravenous, no matter what I ate all day, and then I binge. On atkins I handled that by just having some protein, but during my TOM that is not satisfying at all and I will eat anything I can get my hands on. I decided to try this by starting last night with the overeating phase I had a salad with cheese, 12oz prime rib, a baked potato skin, and then an hour later I had four pieces of cheese and sausage pizza and 4 poptarts. After the pizza and poptarts I felt fine, then my bloodsugar crashed so I was sick. I am not sure if I did the overeating phase correctly, I read that you eat your salad, then protein, then steamed veggies and carbs and that after that anything because you ate all your good stuff. Maybe I messed that up? Or maybe I have to stick to the rules of Atkins even when overeating to keep my bloodsugar levels ok. I am deathly afraid of getting type II diabetes, my father has it, and want to make sure that I am doing everything to avoid that. Will WD help or hurt me with this? Today it is 3pm my time and I have had my vitamins and some water, I haven't been hungrey yet, maybe still messed up from the sugar? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

KaiNiki, I also have blood sugar problems. I am not sure if it is some weird form of hypoglycemia or what but I very often feel quite sick not long after eating. And if I get really sick (bad headaches, nauseous) I will often still feel bad for a whole day after and just feel like I can't get back in balance.

My old doctor recommended eating every 2-3 hours making sure to eat small amounts of food with protein. This actually made it worse which is why I am drawn to the WD.

Earlier this year I got very stressed out and got really tired and sick. My doctor put me on a strict diet and because there were so few foods I could eat, I wound up going for most of the day without food (I'd bring a lunch to work but it would be so gross I would just end up not eating it). While doing this I began to feel much better. I was also eating very healthy dinners (pretty much in line with the WD). So I started looking a the WD.

My challenge is that even I know the WD makes me feel better, I still tend to have emotional eating problems (and eat foods I shouldn't during the undereating phase). I actually think once I truly get acclimated to the WD these should go away but it's going to take some time.

My plan is to follow the WD while also noting how certain foods make me feel. I think once I start to realize that eating certain foods make me feel sick I will learn to stay away from them because I want to feel well and not because they are forbidden. Forbidding any type of food automatically makes me feel deprived and makes me crazy. The WD doesn't forbid any type pf food, it just gives you a structure within which to eat them. And I think Watcher has said that overtime you start to really crave the more healthy food.

I also want to find more women who are doing it (I know Watcher's wife does with great results) and find out what tips they may have and what success they have experienced.

-J