Hello to all - Great forum! I'm new to LC and am in the middle of my 4th week of strict induction (<20g/day) with ketostix consistently indicating ketosis for the past 2+ weeks. I hope this is a case of me being impatient...if so, forgive me - If not, maybe someone can offer some advise! I am getting concerned because all of the reading/listening I have done suggests that others see/feel results by now. I have not moved the scale or waist size at all and don't what to do to get in gear!!

I am drinking between 6-8+ QUARTS of water a day - Other than an occasional decaf coffee w/cream, I've had no other liquids. I am eating green salads and other induction-permissable vegs plain or with LC dressing. I am eating 4oz or less of hard cheese (cheddar, swiss, feta, etc). My primary food includes unlimited lean beef steak/roasts, pork chops/roasts, chicken & turkey breasts, lamb and the occasional no-carb burger, sausage or bacon with no sauces, etc! I've had an Atkins LC choc-bar (just to try it - ugh), beef jerky and a handful of raw pecans once each.

I am a middle aged dad with a hard core carb crave/addiction that needs to lose about 75 lbs - I started LC when all other plans failed to deliver results. As predicted, the first week/10 days really sucked with chronic headache, loss of sleep, cravings and feeling lousy!! During this same time, I have been actively exercising 1.5 hrs every other day with 45 min of weights & 45 min of walking/treadmill! I feel much better today as the withdrawl symptoms seems to have passed - I didn't measure myself but no real change in clothes fit, etc at this point!

Should I be seeing results by now - Has anyone else had a SLOW start only to see results later?? What's up with me - Am I the odd one in the population that doesn't respond to this LC approach? Any/all advice or suggestions are welcome - I want this to work and am commited to success but need some kind of sign besides little pink K-stix filling up my wastebasket! Thx, enb

I feel your pain. I'm on my 10th day of Atkins strict induction and I haven't lost a single pound nor inch. I did the diet a few years ago and lost a lot the first week. I'm frustrated because I'm being more diligent this time around.

My best friend lost 100 lbs on Atkins and she thinks I'm not getting enough meat nor fat. She keeps reminding me "fat is your friend". I do find I've been hungry a lot which she says I should never be. Eat!!! Eat meat! and Fat!


Frankly, I don't know if I can afford all this meat in my diet! But then again...I can't afford not to!

I'm gonna keep checking in with you because maybe between the two of us and the mentord we can figure out what tweak we need to achieve better results.

By the way, do you smoke? I've been told that can affect ketosis...

Mani

Thx - I'm a non-smoker...and getting to/staying in K isn't the problem. I am right there according to the Kstix - I'm concerned that I am no metabolically tolerant or maybe just being impatient. enb

I am sure someone with much more success will respond, but until then, all I can say is keep up the good work. You seem very disciplined and I am sure it will work for you in the end.

When I was in my mid 20's, I lost 40 pounds on Atkins in less than 3 months. As, you can see by my stats, at age 30, for me it is much more difficult to lose the weight.

Keep up the exercise routine and the disciplined eating. You should see results soon.

Good luck,
Julie

Thx for the encouragement - I hope to turn the corner soon...cuz I'm a 12 pack of Bud, a dozen Krispie Kremes and large supreme Domino's away from falling off the wagon!

Just kidding - On the upside, after these few weeks, I have very few non-hunger related food cravings...this is a great motivator in it self to saty LC! enb

Hi and welcome! Did you start working out at the same time you started eating LC? Perhaps you've just put on some muscle!

Edit: I had asked if you've noticed any change in clothes, etc, but I re-read your post and you already said you haven't.

Maybe if you post a sample menu, or link us to your fitday.com page, if you use fitday... we can offer some feedback.

Hi!

I second what Kristine said about posting a sample menu. Many people here have found that when they started posting everything they had been eating in their journals that they got a lot of positive feedback, tips, and possible sources of stalls.

I know how frustrating it can be to not see the scales move. Just hang in there, and keep asking questions. You're bound to find the reason for the stall soon.

Also, it may take more than a month to feel a really noticeable difference in your clothing, especially if you are replacing fat with muscle. I noticed things like rings fitting more loosely, watches having to be tightened a notch, my face getting slimmer long before I noticed drastic changes in my clothes. Keep an eye out for those changes as well.

All the best,

KC

Thx for the note! I was working out for about 2 months prior to starting induction - I considered that I might be building muscle mass and that offsets any fat loss on the scale. Am I correct in my understanding that once someone is in K, as long as K is maintained then the carb count is low enough...is this true.

I use a journal at home - Yesterday's menu is typical:

B - 3 cups of decaf coffee, 2 oz of cheddar cheese and 4 oz of roast beef
L - Greek Salad (2 cups) with vin/oil dressing, 1 oz of feta cheese, olives, 6 oz of lamb
D - 3 broiled 6 oz pork chops
All day - 6+ qts of water, no snacks, 4 Kstix tests - all positive!

I actually see a change in shirt fit but not pants/waist size - Others have commented that I'm visibily thinner around my face...I thought they were trying to be encouraging with those remarks! Again, I just trying to determine if I have a warped metabolisim or just being impatient! Stay the course or try something a bit different/radical? enb

Any color on the Ketostix indicates ketosis. You want to aim for a lighter color as the darker purple indicates that you may be dehydrated. Additional water will dilute the results giving the pink color. This can only happen if you are burning fat, so you must be doing something right!

You may be one of those people that will build muscle and lose fat at a similar rate until such time that the additional muscle mass "jump starts your metabolism" and you start to notice the pounds falling off. You may also be a slow loser (check out some of the threads in the turtle club for more insight on this) and it may always be gradual for you.

Just make sure that if you are hungry that you eat. Do not skip meals, and feel free to snack if you want (LC of course ). I often eat 6 mini meals a day as opposed to 3 larger ones.

Best of luck and keep posting your meal plans so that you can get feedback. Things are bound to start moving more quickly for you soon.

KC

I too have been on Atkins for a month and have only lost 2 lbs. I'm 3 days into my 5th week and have only deviated twice. (White wine at 2 parties.) I exercise by walking a half hr/day and eat in accordance with the book. I don't measure quantities, but I know that I eat virtually no carbs. Meat, chicken, turkey burgers, bacon, susage, eggs, salami, jerky, d-caf, crystal light ice tea, and water. I have not tried the K-sticks either, but I assume that because I consume very few carbs, I must be in ketosis. It has been suggested to me several times that because my blood type is "A" I shouldn't be on Atkins. I don't know the answer...

Oh-oh...alcohol will produce a response on those ketostix too....watch out for this!

I would suggest starting a journal to post all your foods and maybe a gym log to post your exercise...or else post them both in your journal so that others can offer feedback.

Also check out the turtle club as the people that are slow losers post a lot of their findings and frustrations in there. There is a thread for tips and stalls as well that is worth a peek.

Remember that different foods affect different people, so maybe there is a particular culprit that is slowing things down for you. Where you mentioned that people have noticed a change in your face and your shirts fit differently I suspect that you are losing fat and that the scales are staying the same due to additional muscle mass.

Try staying away from the scales for a while and using your clothes and/or a tape measure for reference. They are more accurate than the scale to judge what is going on in your body anyways.

Would you really care if you weighed 1000lbs as long as you fit into your favorite clothes?

Hang in there...

KC

looks like you need to add some fat to your diet, especially early on during breakfast to kickstart this thing. Try adding some bacon and/or pork sausage and eggs. I think this could do the trick as many posts Ive read say that not having enough fat was their culprit....if its not that try cutting back on the cheese as it has caused some to stall. good luck.

EBesanko,

How are you doing now? I just started to lose...3 pounds in 2 days...this after the 2 weeks of nothing.

One thing that a friend told me is that she didn't think I was eating enough. I'm now eating over 2400 calories a day which is a lot. And that's when I started to lose. I also upped my fat. Per everyone's suggestion, I started fitday and try to make sure I have at least 2000 calories, less than 20g carbs and a ratio of 70% fat, 25% protein, 5%carbs. That seems to have helped.

I also had people say they noticed I lost wait in my legs and face (places I could care less about)...I want that gut out of here. I think our bodies slim up our non-problem areas first which is why I guess the areas left are called our problem areas...lol I am just now starting to notice a difference in those areas.

It felt funny for me to eat more and especially more fat but that seems to be just what I needed. Good luck! Keep me posted on how you're doing!

Mani

Lean meats?

Any idea what your fat/protein/carb ratio is? Believe it or not Atkin's is fairly high in fats, not proteins.

Our normal daily break down goes like this:

65 percent fat, 30 percent protein, 5 percent carbs
70 percent fat, 25 percent protein, 5 percent carbs
75 percent fat, 20 percent protein, 5 percent carbs


I don't think many of us go under 65 percent fat. Note if you have been on a low fat diet in the past I would highly recommend you see your doctor to run some tests. If your gallbladder has been inactive due to a low fat diet for sometime, you could have gallstones and not know it until you increase the fat in your diet. Better safe and check than in pain later.

Fat is your friend on this diet. It is inert and has no impact on your blood chemistry yet provides much needed calories. Excess proteins can be converted to glucose. Add butter to those veggies, buy full fat salad dressings, forgo buying anything that states "low fat" because in order to achieve taste they normally increase the amounts of sugar.

Your water intake, veggies, cheese and other things look good. Continue on with those. Remember this isn't a low fat diet anymore. This is low carb and a complete change in mental processing.

I share your frustration. I've been doing Atkins religiously since 7/16. I've lost 8 pounds, but yesterday and today I was back up 3 pounds, and that's the story of these 8 pounds. The only things different this week are on 9/11 I gave blood, then ate at a Chinese restaurant where I mistakenly probably ate something with cornstarch in it, then yesterday I ate one bite of coleslaw, which probably had a bit of sugar in it. My clothes do NOT fit better and I don't look slimmer anywhere, despite the 5-8 pounds, whatever it really is. My typical diet is:

B - fried eggs & bacon, 1 cup coffee w/cream
L - cheeseburger (no bun) w/lettuce/tomato/mayo or
3-4 oz. tuna or chicken salad with scallions and celery
D - 6-8 oz. grilled or sauteed meat or chicken
1-2 cups salad w/dressing or 1/2 cup veggies w/butter
1 piece low-carb cheesecake
1 glass white wine
2-3 quarts of water
I'm careful to make sure there is no hidden sugar or starch in dressings. I also take all the supplements, including L-carnitine & COQ-10.

I think I'm eating enough food because I'm stuffed.

Originally I thought it was the wine, so I cut that out, but it didn't make much difference.

I'm really considering switching to CAD/CALP because perhaps it will suit me better.