Hello to everyone! I am new here.

And maybe I am just impatient. I started a lowcarb diet based on Atkins 40 a month ago. My goal is to lose about 20 pounds and find a diet plan I would be able to follow for my whole life, preferably. In that month, I didn't lose any pounds or inches - I started with 156 pounds and 29 inch waist, and I am exactly that now!

I ate a lot of grains before, rice, potatoes, sugar (chocolate, ice-cream), drank beer. I ditched all grains, legumes, potatoes, all sugar. My typical day now looks like this:

Breakfast: eggs with ham, or just scrambled eggs with butter; or smoked salmon; or ham with cottage cheese; and a little piece of vegetable, like small endives or little gem lettuce.

Lunch: meat (chicken, pork) or fish (salmon, trout) fried or roasted, with vegetable side dish - pureed cauliflower with butter, braised zucchini or eggplant with olive oil, steamed broccoli, or just a bigger salad of lettuce, endives, daikon etc. with oil.

Supper: similar to lunch, or something like mushrooms stewed in butter, or zucchini covered with cheese and roasted.

Snacks: mostly cheese, sometimes nuts (not much), or sausage, or a small green salad. About twice each week I had watermelon or blueberries and raspberries with whipped cream. No other fruit.

Sins: first week, there was one day with 175 grams of carbs from 4 pints of beer, one chocolate bar and 3 slices of bread; second week, there was beer again on Friday; third week, there was one square of chocolate on Wednesday and a glass of wine; fourth week, I had a piece of cake on Monday and 16 ounces of white wine on Friday.
(I keep a detailed food log.)

I went through the hypoglycemic (lowcarb flu) phase AND I still do feel some weakness, especially when I forget to eat. I didn't experience any remarkable water loss. I don't crave sugar (I even hated the cake I tried last Monday, so sweet it didn't really have a taste) - the only thing I crave is cream and cottage cheese, and that can be quenched with a teaspoon of cream (like once in 2 days) or incorporating the cheese in my daily meal plan.

So, where is the problem?
Not enough fat? I might be getting 60-80 grams of fat daily.
Should I eat more? I eat about 1200-1400 kcal daily, the portions I eat are of small to average size. I have a very sedentary life and I don't exercise much, about 3 hours a week.
Is it in the sins? I want the occasional beer or wine in my life. Don't care much about the sweets.
Too much milk products?
Too much nuts?
I'm taking a low dose of SSRI antidepressants daily, no other medications. No diabetes, no stress. I love the food I am eating now and I will keep on, but will the weight ever budge?

So. Really, you have not done Atkins.

Because following a way of eating means following the way of eating.

You may be better off if you go more strict. (I was!) At a lower number of carbs, I got full faster, and hungry less often.

First the snacks disappeared. Then, eventually, lunch became a small, mid afternoon snack. Now, it's just breakfast and dinner.

One of the reasons that you may be not losing, outside of not really following the plan, is the anti-depressants. They are notorious for both causing weight gain and preventing weight loss.

My strong suggestion would be to do a start over. Do the REAL Atkins, not the website Atkins--you can usually find either of Dr. Atkins' books at used bookstores, or if you have Amazon Prime, they could be at your house by Wednesday!

Your going off plan is not a sin. It's a choice. Choosing to drink beer and eat grains is also choosing to have a belly. Sorry. "Beer belly" isn't just a common phrase. It's a real phenomenon.

You can do this. You just needed to know that the website Atkins gives lousy advice. And now, you do!

I agree with MickiSue. I would gain weight if I ate as you have been. Unfortunately, Atkins 40 has sold everyone a lie. Yes, it's true that it's healthier than most peoples' average diet, but it's what most of us long-term LCers would call a maintenance diet. The original Atkins diet had you cut all problem foods out of your diet for two weeks, and then add them back slowly, in a specific order, so you can figure out how they affect you.

Like MickiSue said, start over. Go to our Atkins forum and read this sticky: Atkins Induction Acceptable Food List.

Do a proper induction. Note the no-nos: No cottage cheese. No alcohol. No nuts. No more than 3 Tbsp heavy cream, no more than 4 oz hard cheese. No sweet fruit, not even berries. No grains.

...AT FIRST. It's two weeks. Two weeks to break the addictions and get the traces of higher carb foods out of your system so you have a clean slate. Yes, you want a WOE that you can live with forever: but you have to build that off something. Being induction-strict isn't forever. It's the training; the learning. No one gets good at something without training.

Best of luck.

Thank you, I will try the strict induction phase then.

I thought cutting down all the white sugar, white flour, rice, grains and pulses would help just a little. I read all the time about people who just stopped drinking Coca-Cola and lost 4 pounds in one month. I cut down half my foods and I get nothing

You are also, at 5’7” and 156, already at a healthy BMI of 24, with a healthy waist size too. Your body only wants you to be healthy and reproduce. But you can try the diet in the back of Why We Get Fat, to see if going lower carb will remove a few more pounds.

29" waist? That sounds like a pretty narrow waist to me.

Healthier, maybe?

True, I am size US8 and I am not unhappy with my body, but I have over 33 % of body fat and I'm a bit wobbly. In the last 10 or so years both the fat and weight were climbing steadily (I'm in my late thirties), so its not just about fitting into a smaller dress, it's about finding a balance and better eating habits for when the perimenopause hits.

As I said in the beginning, I really might be just a bit impatient

I can relate to this. About 13 years ago, when I was closer in age to you, I did South Beach and the great thing about induction phase is that it works fast and helps see success. But I was 185 lb at 5'7" In fact I lost about 15 lbs in 2 months or so, and then a bit more, down to about 155 at my lowest.

Over years, I gained a few lbs each year - not going back to high carb mind you, keeping the good carb balance. When I was back to around 175 or sometimes 179 - I tried again. It was much harder to shed anything! Reasons? I thought I could go to phase 2 since I didn't need a carb detox. In the end, I managed to be close - right now - to my ideal, but still want to shed about 5-10 lb. It took 6 months of real work this year but I did not give up what I really liked, and figured a few things out - what are my weak spots, and how to balance that.

ok, back to you: The last 10 lbs are always hardest to shed. The "lost 4 lb just by cutting sugary soda" are likely starting at a much higher weight - the first lbs are typically easy.

You could go very strict for 2 weeks, you WILL lose in that case, and then it sounds like it will be hard for you to not go overboard once you can have an occasional beer. It would help you, as other said, to know exactly what is a problem for you, and what you can tolerate, adding only one thing at a time. For example, one vodka shot with the same amount of alcohol as beer has much fewer calories. Maybe those would work? My fear is that you would bounce back and forth between losing and gaining and you might gain more afterwards, is many do

The alternative is to accept, as others said, that you are close to ideal weight anyway - I am your height and my goal is 150. I am now 158 lb and size 12, occasionally fit into size 10, and your size, 5' 7". So, you could say: I don't want induction because I don't need detox, I just want to fine tune my life style to eat healthily, and figure how I can lose a few lbs. Your goal should not be 135 lb then, it should be slowly get CONTROL of your weight rather than losing a lot. And you don't want to give up certain food.

If you take that approach, which is not Atkins, I would eat more vegetables from the morning on - they fill and are healthy - and less meat (I am vegetarian/fish/egg ok but wasn't 13 years ago, I am not trying to sneak that in), cut all sugars as you did, cut any rice, pasta etc., except occasionally rarely whole grain rice or pasta, and LIMIT beer or wine to one a day max 4 days a week. It is pretty much maintenance.

I would try to see if you can tackle the exercise equation. 13 years ago, I only added some exercise (after nothing) after shedding the first lbs. Careful - exercise can increase your appetite, but it can also increase your mood. Exercise does in your body some of the same things that SSRIs do. So exercise is a natural antidepressant. For me, exercise makes me feel better, and feeling good makes it easier to restrict other things.

South Beach has a rule that I like: Everything forbidden is ok if you have no more than 3 spoons. That is 1 slice of bread, or half a brownie or 1 scoop of ice cream - and actually, there are good tasting sugar free ice creams. You can't have it every day but it is a good rule.