Some of you may remember me. I have had 3 successful low carb experiences (Atkins 72) mostly in my 20s to late 30s where I lost drastic amounts of weight. I am turning 40 this month and have all the symptoms of perimenapause.

Most recently I tried to loose weight again after putting a stone on, follower my usual plan of 10-15 grams carbs a day, and the weight didn't budge after induction, though I was in ketosis. So I stayed in induction for a good 3 months, and still nothing. If anything I noticed more cellulite (whivh I rarely have), weight gain despite being so low carb, jiggly skin, and not much muscle showing, very odd. The fact that my jeans felt tighter is what made me question the low carb diet - even after experiencing lots of success from it.

My reasoning is age and entering menapause. Well, at least I hope it is that, so I can figure out what moves to make next in this diet before I really and truly say goodbye to it.

Anyway, I have binged on carbs (not the refined kind) and feel like I am stuck in a rut, confused, anxious, I have tried adding things I wouldn't usually eat, to taking away things. All haven't sorted the issue of weight gain.

I am writing this as I do not know what the hell to do, and I really need help from those who may have experienced the same and found a solution. Any helpful anecdotes would be hugely appreciated. I find myself crying because I have never felt this way before, or looked this way. I don't really look overweight, its just my body composition looks different to what I usually look like. Jiggly, dimpled skin, clothes feeling tight, yet until recently I have been eating to the book.

The only reason I have been introducing more carbs i because I am fed up of eating on induction and seeing little to no change.

Diet depression is real. I don,t see it talked about here but I have found it normal to get really down because as wonderful and life changing as the low carb way of eating is we are still giving up a lot to get those low carb benefits. As long as the scale is dropping at a rapid rate its easy to over look the things we are giving up but when the weight loss slows are stopped we have to deal with the mental side of what we have chosen to give up for a new healther life.

I just reread your post and feel like I really didn,t answer it. Please consider starting a journal . You will find it really helpful to reread it when you hit the wall like this and can go back and read your emotions and that you made it threw . A week or two from now if you stick with it you will more than likely be posting a loss and writing how positive you feel about the plan. I only found out threw rereading my old journals that the emotions cycle like that for me when dieting. It may be the same for you as well. Its just hard to see when your on a down emotion cycle so rereading your own words in a journal will really give you the strength to get threw it and contenue on. The only way to fail is too stop. In the past that was how I delt with it and all that did was give me a lifetime of diet gain diet gain rinse and repeat. I am in my fiftys and when still in my fortys I dieted for a set amount of time. Maintained that loss for years and now I have decide to lose the last bit. I find the skin tightens back up but it takes more time than it did when I was younger. Keep up the healthy lifestyle and your bodie will catch up. It is harder to lose in my fiftys I am losing well with lowcarb intermittent fasting 5 days a week and low cal.