well 10 days in and im doing pretty good one question is it ok to cheat once a week i allow myself to eat bad chinese food once a week to keep me from wanting the funny thing is i luv the chicken fish and salads and dont even want the fried foods and carbs one problem is im never hungry is this normal if i didnt eat all day i dont get hungry i was never really hungry before i just ate out of bordum and thinking i should if im not hungry should i force my self to eat well 10 days in down 19 lbs only about 130 to go

I avoid Chinese if at all possible. http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?t=274034

Congrats on 19lbs gone in 10 days!! Thats awesome.

I'm on a plan that includes free (cheat) meals, so I use them. But many folks have issues when they cheat. Some people have an incredibly hard time getting back on plan after a cheat. When I first started low carbing I went about 5 months without a single cheat. I was so proud of myself and lost a good amount of weight. I had a cheat meal on my 40th bday and got right back to dieting the next day. Not everyone can do that, so my advice is if you think by cheating you'll wreck you're whole diet, don't cheat. That all or nothing thinking can be the downfall of your diet. I say if you haven't already picked a plan, read a few and pick one. If it has free or cheat meals, use them, if not follow the plan. I'm betting as your weight loss continues you'll be less likely to want to cheat.

Good luck!

Y'know I hate to be the schoolmarm here, but I cannot encourage you enough to find a diet and read it.

I won't push Dr. Atkins New Diet Revolution on you, although it's great; there are also plans like Protein Power, South Beach, Sommersizing, etc. that will answer all these questions. And it's not that you can't come here for answers -- that's why we're all here -- it's just that you need to know your plan better than you do if you want any chance at longterm success. These books are all free at libraries, ultra cheap at used bookstores, or reasonable even brand new.

There are things in these books that will help you not just now, but in the future.

To get to your actual question:

I would not deviate into any substantial amount of carbs at this point if I were you. It is normal to lose appetite, although you will get it back. The main thing that causes this loss of appetite is the large amount of fat in a low carb diet. I would not give myself carbs. In my case, carbs = appetite, and appetite is the path to overeating.

I do go off plan at times, but I've been at it 2+ years and understand my body and how it will react to the food. You don't have that yet; it's very easy to wreck a good thing by changing early on. I suggest that you don't.

But more, I STRONGLY urge you to choose a plan, and get to know it by reading it. It's of amazing help, and worth your time.

Woody - since you're not on a structured plan (aren't you the one trying to lose 70lbs in 2 months?) I don't know what specific advice we could give about eat. You've already received a lot of encouragement to choose a plan and apparently that's not your preference, so I'll just add my congratulations to the others; sounds like you're off to a great start!

Congratulations on your success to this point. Personally I can't speak to what would happen if I cheated. Honestly I have been too afraid to cheat for fear that it might send me back in the other direction. I guess only you know your body and can ultimately answer the question as to whether it will cause you to rebound back to eating poorly. Best of luck and continued success in your future.

I found a Chinese restaurant tonight that has crab legs on it, wound up eating 3 plates of them, also ate some food from the mongolian BBQ section as the food is unprepared and very low carb. I stay away from most of the things on the regular buffet. As far as cheats go, the last time I did Atkins I lost nearly 40 lbs in 2 months and I would have a cheat day every 2 weeks. This time I am going to have one with every 15 pounds I lose. It never makes me gain more than one to two pounds and I always wind up losing 6-8 rapidly afterward. I lost 17 pounds in my first week, have no idea on the second week until this Saturday.