My husband has been on the Adkins diet for one month and has no recorded weight loss. He has been eating bacon, eggs, salad, tuna, cucumbers, tomatoes, cheese, pork, beef, asparagus, green beans….all the good stuff.

Can someone advise why this is happening to him. It is very frustrating.

Thank you.

Hi, labbies. Welcome to a great place to ask questions, find information, etc. Your question isn't unusual, but cannot be answered without more data. Also, there's that annoying fact: everyone is different!

For starters, which ATKINS (not Adkins) books or resources are you using? The online Atkins site tends to promote the use of manufactured "low-carb" products, which, most have discovered, are counter-productive.

If your husband is keeping a food diary, perhaps he/you can provide a list of a typical day's menu. It may be that he is extremely insulin resistant, in which case all those healthy veggies in your list might not have succeeded in creating the condition of "ketosis" or fat-burning. I don't know.

Please don't go away! We'd like to help.

Best wishes.

Simply not true.

Hi, labbies. I agree. Read a book. The Dr. Atkins New Diet Revolution explains everything very well. I got it for kindle from Amazon for under $10. You need to understand the science and rules for this to work properly.

You can also gain a wealth of knowledge free at dietdoctor.com.

If he is not losing after a month, he is probably not doing it right. You can post a day's worth of typical meals and let us critique.

Also, a few rules: only real foods, no sugar, no drinking calories.

Labbies,

From what you've described, it sounds like he's following the plan (unless he's eating more than the recommended amount of things such as cheese and nuts on induction). The only other thing I can think of is if he were eating past satiation; I believe the books say to be careful of this.

I hope that helps.

Hello labbies.

It happens. Some people lose better on a low fat diet that low carb. Phinney and Volek are considered the leading researchers on low carb diets and they found just that, people are different, i.e. figure 3 link

Before he gives up on it make sure he's eliminated all carbs from his diet including sugar substitutes. To absolutely know LC doesn't work for him he needs to make sure he's strictly following it. It would be a shame to give up on what is for many people, me too, a very effective diet because of some overlooked small thing.

Hi Labbies!

How exciting that your DH is taking control of his body and his health! SUPER COOL!!!

His menus sound pretty good, however, on A 72, which is the original plan and many report to be the most effective: there are no tomatoes or even asparagus on induction level.

Reading the Hard Core Atkins '72 Induction threads will give you ALL the info you/he need/s.

Some people can do more veggies than others. SOme people need to restrict to almost none. He might need to go lower than he is right now. More meat and fat, fewer vegs. Maybe - everyone is different.

He's made major changes and he's looking for results! YAHOO! A couple tweeks and he'll be rolling along!!!

Best of luck on the journey!

So, the obvious question is: does he eat all his meals at home or could he be eating his junk foods away from the house?

inflammabl, You're right. I misspoke.

Many people have discovered that manufactured low-carb products are counter-productive.

Many people have also discovered that manufactured low-carb products are very helpful in sustaining their commitment to a new way of eating.

I will stand by this though: Everyone is different.

And also that collecting personal data provides helpful information.

Any medications? Taking insulin? Beta-blockers? Lyrica for pain, anti-depressants, the list is long.
Many drugs can hinder weight loss. http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthre...11&page=2&pp=15

One indication that he is doing the LC correctly is a marked decrease in hunger, lack of cravings, "forgetting" to eat, etc. and this should translate by now into eating less food and fewer calories. If that hasn't happened, he may be consuming too many carbs for his metabolism.

Might be a dumb question but, is he overweight?

Thanks for all the replies. I will try to fill in the blanks as well as provide a little history. My DH was very successful with the Atkins Diet back in 1998.

March of this year he went back on the Atkins Diet at 330 pounds and only lost 12 pounds over a 90 day period. Each time he tested with a ketone test strip he was negative and suspect the small amount of weight loss was due to calorie deficit and not ketosis.

6 weeks ago he started a new low carb diet at 320 pounds called Eat Fat Get Thin by Dr Hyman. This diet was highly recommended by the family doc. The first 5 weeks of the diet did not provide any weight loss and keto test were negative as well. Week 6 after adjusting fats and carbs the keto test have indicated moderate ketosis but he is not sure what he did to change things. It appears to be a delicate balance between fats and carbs and so far is hard to nail down.

His daily diet consist of the following items as of week 6.

Breakfast 3 slices bacon or 2 sausage patties and 3 eggs. Items are purchased at work and do not know carb content if any in the meat items.

Lunch Small garden salad with some canned chicken breast meat and dressing. This is also purchased at work and the carb content of the dressing is not known but the serving is 4 tablespoons

Supper is a protein such as burger patty or steak and veggies. This diet allows about any non starchy veggie that grows above the ground so he eats lots of tomatoes, green beans, cauliflower, and broccoli.for his veggies.

Daily snacks only consist of almonds twice a day and liquids are black coffee or water.

Edited to add: he also takes 50 mg. of generic serequel to sleep at night.

Hope this helps.

People make up LC diets to fit three thinking and their results. Looks like Dr Hyman has what most would consider an induction from of the Atkins diet. That is, it's fairly strict.

One nice things about a strict diet that even if for the wrong reasons, it eliminates so many foods that if there is a trouble food, it probably gets eliminated. One food I found I had to eliminate, which was on even the strictest LC diets, was eggs made at work. Turns out that cafeterias make scrabbled eggs from a carton and those can have citric acid added as a preservative. Lyle McDonald specifically warns against citric acid on LC diets. When i switched from cafeteria scrabbled eggs to fried fresh eggs I broke a months long stall and life was good again.

Good luck.

...and many scrambled egg mixes also contain flour, to make them thicker. Can he get fried, instead of scrambled? Hard to put extraneous stuff in friend eggs.

Also, is he a Type 2 diabetic, or has his doctor told him that he is insulin resistant or has metabolic syndrome? The second two lead to the first, and all three can make it take a LONG time to start losing, because the metabolism is broken. (Not literally, but figuratively, yes.)

The other thing that jumps out at me is that he's eating almonds twice a day. That's a LOT of carbs, if he eats them like I eat nuts.

Which is why I don't.

He may want to try upping his fat intake, by putting heavy cream or coconut oil in his coffee, and adding some to his meats.

Also the sausage may contain sugar and almost all commercial salad dressings contain sugar.

A final thing to consider is that seroquel is known to cause weight gain.

Jean