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  #1   ^
Old Sun, Feb-05-17, 22:06
delilah's Avatar
delilah delilah is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 341
 
Plan: Atkins
Stats: 300/300/195 Female 65"
BF:
Progress: 0%
Location: San Mateo, California
Unhappy 4 weeks of induction and no loss, no ketosis. Help troubleshooting?

Please bear with me. I've been trying to think of all of the variables and I'm just going to lay them out here. What I'm looking for is an idea of where to start adjusting, given my set of circumstances.

About 14-15 years ago, I had fantastic success with Atkins and lost about 60 lbs in 6 months. Then I fell off the wagon, but always remembered how great I felt (even if I was a bit bored eventually).

A couple of years ago, I had to have my gall bladder removed. Not long after that, on the advice of my doctor, I tried an extreme calorie-restricted diet (HMR ), which worked, but I HATED it. I ate about 1200 calories a day for about 6 months until I couldn't take it any more. Of course, I jumped off that wagon as fast as I could and gained all but 15 lbs back.

I also had a baby 2 1/2 years ago (c-section), so my body has changed a lot since the first time I did Atkins. And, low-carbing seems to have helped my body ovulate and I'm now 5 weeks pregnant. I lead a sedentary life, as I have a hip and leg problem, plus fatty liver makes it hard to bend, and I recently injured my knee.

So... yeah. I have a lot of bodily stuff going on:
  • No gall bladder
  • Previous extreme low-calorie diet
  • previous pregnancy
  • lots of injuries and a desk job, so pretty sedentary
  • newly-pregnant

And although I'm aware that pregnant women shouldn't try to lose weight, I'm 300lbs. I started at 315 during the last pregnancy and didn't gain anything but 60 lbs of water and baby. I remember how hard it was last time, so I would like to lose a bit soon, if I can, cravings and doctor permitting.

Alright, about my diet, and where to start troubleshooting -

I basically adopted the induction diet I used 15 years ago, thinking that if it worked before, it should work the same now, right? Apparently not.

I'm keeping under 20g of carbs, mostly in the form of dairy, cucumbers and salad, and low-carb tortillas. The first week, I got a very mild version of the keto flu - headaches and grouchy. But I never got keto breath or much color on the test strips. I've been drinking a lot more water than I usually do, but it's usually flavored with sucralose. A standard day might consist of:

breakfast: coffee with 2 Tbsp heavy cream, double serving of mock danish
lunch: 6 strips of bacon, rolled up into two 4g NC tortillas with 2 tbsp mayo. Atkins shake
dinner: grilled chicken breast, string cheese, roast brussels sprouts
some days, a treat of SF chocolate

I didn't start logging my eating because I was pretty much doing what I did before. I know I need to start that.

At the beginning, I was making homemade whole-milk skyr. I thought it was 3g carbs/cup, but realized I had misread the nutrition info and it's actually 6g. I dropped the skyr two weeks ago and thought my weight loss would start. Nope.

On the plus side, I haven't gained anything either. Yay?

So here are the pieces I'm aware might be a problem. Which of these sound reasonable, and which should I start with?
  • poor start. should start over on clean slate
  • too many calories given sedentary lifestyle, age (41), and previous crash diets
  • too much dairy
  • too much sucralose
  • not enough exercise
  • lack of gall bladder interfering(?)
  • need more fat

The last one's a given, of course. We all need more exercise. but that shouldn't be the thing that holds me back from losing anything at all.

Given all these pieces, could someone give me advice on where to start?
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  #2   ^
Old Mon, Feb-06-17, 02:14
gonwtwindo's Avatar
gonwtwindo gonwtwindo is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 6,671
 
Plan: General Low Carb
Stats: 164/162.6/151 Female 5'3"
BF:Sure is
Progress: 11%
Location: SoCal
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I think you ARE losing. By 5 weeks into pregnancy, a 5-8 lb weight gain is normal.
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  #3   ^
Old Mon, Feb-06-17, 05:27
JEY100's Avatar
JEY100 JEY100 is online now
Posts: 13,368
 
Plan: P:E/DDF
Stats: 225/150/169 Female 5' 9"
BF:45%/28%/25%
Progress: 134%
Location: NC
Default

Delilah,
Congratulations on the little ones. You do have a lot going on, and the Akins recommendations has always been to eat a higher carb diet if pregnant or nursing, I.e. Not induction but add more vegetables for nutrients. You can can still do a no-sugar, no-starch diet but focus on real foods and get enough protein. Dr Fox sees no issue: https://www.dietdoctor.com/can-eat-...ant#more-231256

You should work with all those pieces, but I don't think lack of a gallbladder is interfering, and there are successful losers who were wheelchair bound. Can you just add some walks outside with your children to get some exercise and sunlight? A positive benefit for overall health but not required for weight loss. My suggestions for the diet would be to ditch all sucralose, Atkins shakes, and LC tortillas. Count total carbs and not net carbs, and then there is no room for the fake breads.

Eat. Real. Food. https://www.dietdoctor.com/how-to-l...ht-part-3-of-17. The mock danish, SF chocolate, tortillas are keeping your sugar/carb cravings fired up...it is easier to switch to a LC diet without them triggering cravings. Consider eggs and bacon for breakfast (you can make a big casserole for the week and just reheat slices), whatever meat you have for lunch, roll in romain lettuce leaves or put it on top a salad for more veggies. The Atkins induction already has strict limits on dairy, going below those is not necessary. Eat the fats that come naturally with food, add small amounts for cooking, but you do not need to add more fat than is necessary to keep you from being hungry. Those are suggestions to consider, hope you get others.
Good luck

Last edited by JEY100 : Mon, Feb-06-17 at 05:34.
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  #4   ^
Old Tue, Feb-07-17, 13:02
delilah's Avatar
delilah delilah is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 341
 
Plan: Atkins
Stats: 300/300/195 Female 65"
BF:
Progress: 0%
Location: San Mateo, California
Default

Thanks for your feedback and ideas. Today I'm now up 5 lbs :/ I'm blaming the sesame seed-sized ball of cells!
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  #5   ^
Old Sat, Feb-25-17, 06:47
snatale1 snatale1 is offline
New Member
Posts: 8
 
Plan: Atkins / Keto
Stats: 278/235/190 Male 5'10"
BF:
Progress: 49%
Location: Boston, MA
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[QUOTE=delilah]
breakfast: coffee with 2 Tbsp heavy cream, double serving of mock danish
lunch: 6 strips of bacon, rolled up into two 4g NC tortillas with 2 tbsp mayo. Atkins shake
dinner: grilled chicken breast, string cheese, roast brussels sprouts
some days, a treat of SF chocolate/QUOTE]

Near impossible to troubleshoot without food logs but from this.....


What's the recipe for the mock danish?
6 strips of bacon (high in protein) and ANYTHING called a tortilla worries me
dinner looks good
normally I always say no treats at first.


You gotta log, I'm not a fan of calorie counting or being a macro nazi BUT sometimes it's needed for diagnostic reasons. Sign up at MyFitnessPal, its better than it was years ago and allows a lot of custom tweaking and % setting.

You've got some variables. 1 Obviously being pregnant, pregnant women seem to get into ketosis very easily so it's probably just food choices holding you back. 2. No Gallbladder, while that doesn't stop you from doing this, sometimes it's trickier and requires more smaller meals than 3 big ones. If you don't still have your book, get it again and follow induction to the letter, NOTHING thats not in those lists before you decide your not loosing. Also...Your pregnant! Forget that scale even exists! You can ABSOLUTELY loose while gaining weight in your case! My wife almost crapped her pants when she saw herself after my son was born! Like all weight loss your used to yourself and your pregnancy will steal your thunder until you deliver. Don't give up. I would try to keep your carbs around 20g though, gotta get those veggies and fiber up. Don't forget on the protein front, too much protein for your body and it converts to glucose to be eliminated!

If you sign up at MFP you can share your diary and then we could do a thorough nitpick of what your eating if you think somethings still wrong.
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