Sona - feel better soon!

Well -- I melted fitday today. After it screamed for mercy it eventually recovered enough to order me never to eat again. I am supposed to be on CD but I was HUNGRY - plus I was home with sick kids so I had time to cook. Big mistake. Let me tell you - the spinach feta bake with carbquick is a winner - as is the divinci custard pie - OMG - both recipes from this site. Plus I grilled the most delicious steaks for dinner. I am guessing that I had maybe 4000 calories today but maybe only 30-40 carbs and no sugar or starches. I would have to say this is a CU day regardless of plan. I am afraid to get on the scale tomorrow. Darn, darn, darn.

Sona, sorry to hear you're sick. I'm fighting a sinus infection myself, luckily no fever though. Hope you bounce back quickly, I'm sure you will.

Congrats to all you losers out there!

Sorry to hear about your difficulties amethyst.

Nutsnseeds, you've been reading Becki's (4Beans4me) journal haven't you? Very dangerous place if you have a weakness for incredible LC recipes.

Keep it up everyone.

I have nothing to report except that I, like Nuts, have been eating way too much this week. I consider it an involuntary cal up. I don't think I did enough damage to gain, still around 20/2000, but I know there won't be a loss. And I've been sick so no exercise. I weigh in tomorrow. This will be a test of what high cal really does to me.

Hey all- I just wanted to ck in & say hi. I'm a bit frustrated b/c my weight is up. I am so bloated as I'm waiting for TOM to arrive. At the same time I have realized that I have to refocus on my carb intake. Carbing up has been happening way too much. Well worded Jamian, "involuntary cu"!
Anyway, I'm NOT going to weigh myself until after TOM & I'm going to recommit!

Just wanted to report I'm down another .5 today. I think the high fat thing is agreeing with me.

Bethany-thanks for the link. I ordered Natural Hormonal Enhancement today! I also read the article you referenced earlier. It really DOES make sense to keep varying intake so the body is fooled into continuing to allow weight loss. Thanks for all the info!

So far no gain from my "accidental CU" - not sure who coined that phrase but I like it! I am hoping the gain is not laying in wait for a day or two to show up but I have been good today. Where is everybody???? Don't let this thread die! We have so much to learn here to make this work. The combined experience is so helpful.

I have been busy this week having fun. Played bridge twice.

Also had a looooooooooooong session with the dentist yesterday morning.

I have been tracking calories eaten and burned compared to pounds lost and it is interesting. I am on a 14 day DOWN cycle and at the end of the first 7 days I had lost more than the number of pounds I should have lost based on net calories burned. I am now at day 12 and the opposite is true. The pounds I "should have lost" is more than what I have lost. I will report details in a couple of days after I end my 14 day DOWN cycle.

We all have to learn what works for us. Anita has maintained that long ups and short downs work best and my experience may second that opinion. I lost 3.6 pounds in 7 days and am down only .2 for the last 5. In many respects very discouraging but it is going to give me better information for the future so it is worth it.

I was so proud of myself for sticking to this for 2 weeks and I don't think it was helpful to continue for the second. One week may be the longest down that makes sense for me.

I intend to up calories gradually as I go to my UP cycle and I am considering starting that today. I plan to add only 300 calories each day for 2 days.

I'll keep everyone informed of my progress.

Also a note on water weight. I have found that if I am at low carbs and increase to moderate carbs, I gain from 4-8 pounds of water very rapidly. The reason I am doing moderate carb, low calorie downs now is that I am trying to avoid that gain. I have been eating enough carbs that I am hoping that as I move up I will not see a water weight gain. I should already be holding that extra water weight.

Some of you who see large gains on CU may want to consider this. I think it explains the folks who go very high carb for a few days and see a major weight gain. Unless we plan to stay low carb (rather than moderate carb) forever, we need to factor this into our plans.

Annie, I can't tell you how informative your post was! You are approaching cycling as methodically and "scientifically" as I try to do (only you're succeeding where I do not), and it's a joy to read about your progress.

I can't wait to find out how you fare on this next cycle, and please post with any fresh insights or experiments you decide to try along the way.

Valuable especially for me is the idea of slowly raising my carb level so that I don't get blitzed later on with water weight gain when I'm ready to move on. Very thought-provoking. Thanks!

And congratulations on your loss. I think it was worth the 2-week CD if only to learn that you don't want to repeat that long a phase.

Best, Sona

Keep in mind that there are 2 components to consider...calories and carbs. Longer periods on increased calories are ultimately increasing your metabolism, regardless of your carb levels.




Alicemae, you are certainly welcome....I may not be posting here much longer since I'm a pretty active poster at the other location. But feel free to contact me directly if you have any questions or want to discuss NHE further. I've also found some online NHE forums, but haven't checked them out yet to see if they are of interest or not.

BTW, I'm down another VT pound today...tomorrow is the close of my cycle, and I'll post another chart with pounds and inches lost...I changed my tracking methodology to make it a bit more accurate, and I have lost 3 to 4 pounds a week for the last 2 weeks...it will be interesting to see if this holds. I increased my calories this cycle, so I am assuming my loss will be a bit slower initially.

My sympathies! Last year I think my dentist named a chair in my honor and probably sent a kid or two to college because of me. Lets see... 1 regular wisdom tooth extraction, 3 extremely impacted wisdom teeth extracted, 1 root canal, a few fillings and 2 crowns.

Of course, I'd been very bad about seeing dentists for many years (decades really) but I think I'm finally caught up now, other than needing a bit of tooth straightening.

I'm betting the low carb life style could probably drive a lot of dentists out of business if everyone did it!

Hi all - I was another pound into VT at 170 this AM so my accidental carb up on Thursday may in fact have been just what my body needed! Note to self: pig out on ocassion. I am hoping for the sixties tomorrow but that would make 3 pounds in 4 days and I am skeptical. But a girl can hope. Today was a weird day - ate all low carb and reasonable calories for a moderate CD day but was out of the city all day and basically starved (and no water) since an early light breakfast and then came home late and devoured a large dinner. Still drinking water to make up for all I missed today. This can't be good.

Glad you are feeling better Sona. Thanks for the info Aslavato. It's really helpful to see others' journeys - even though we all travel individualized paths to our success.

Pssst... I got a big tip for y'all. I just tried out Carbquik... I made biscuits (2g carb each). They came out fabulously!
www.carbalose.com

Today was not encouraging. I upped my calories--not to my UP cycle level but about 700 more than I have been eating the past two weeks. (I intended to do 300 more but got carried away.) The bad news is I am UP 2 POUNDS this morning. I know it has to be water because I didn't eat enough to put on 2 pounds but I am eating enough carbs I shouldn't be gaining water weight. Also although yesterday was higher calorie my carbs were net 40-45 which is much lower than I have been eating. I have been routinely eating 50-100 per day even on lower calorie.

Bummer. I will continue to report in. Even with the increased calories yesterday, I am still 300-800 calories below what I normally eat in maintenance mode or UP cycle. So technically I am still in my DOWN cycle.

Unless I see some encouraging movement on the scale tomorrow, I am officially going back--directly back--to my UP cycle on Monday to make sure I get my metabolism revved up. I am officially declaring that a DOWN cycle for me will never again be longer than 7 days and the next one will probably be more like 3 or 4.

Hope all of you are having good days and good results.

I agree that Carbquick is a great product. It doesn't substitute for flour in yeast breads or even sauces and gravies but it makes biscuits and similar products that are very good. It doesn't make the best pie crust but works well for "crumble" toppings like fruit crisp. I am going to try cookies with it but haven't yet gotten around to it.

OMG - lost another pound into VT!!! I am officialy in the sixties at 169. I am going to ride this out as long as I can. I love carbquik - I have made biscuits, a spinach-feta bake and a divnici custard pie - so easy and so good. I have also had better luck the last couple of days losing without obssessing about fitday. I initially gave up trying to log everything because some of the homemade stuff was too inconvenient to figure out. I think I will continue to eyeball my intact like this -- if it aint broke .....