Hello, everybody! I've been lurking on this site for awhile now, and I've gotten so frustrated that its hard to type this intro without alternatively sobbing & putting my fist through the monitor.

Inspired by a friend who dropped about 50 pounds on Atkins, I decided to take my second stab at Induction. The last time around, full of gung-ho energy and a spanking new bottle of Ketostix, I was a good kid for those two weeks. I got into Ketosis effortlessly, and thought "finally! I've figured this out!"

Eager with anticipation, at the end of those two weeks, I got on the scale. Looked down. Was two pounds HEAVIER than when I started. Screamed in frustration.

I didn't eat whole sides of bacon. My sticks were consistently the proper shade of mauve. I worked out (and had been for years) 4 or 5 days a week. I was never a huge caffiene, nut, soda or donut addict. My lean, muscular partner of 8 years ate what I did, worked out less, and STILL, nothing had changed for me.

Now, trying again, 12 days into Induction, I find myself in the same boat. I take my vitamins, drink my water, make my omlets, have heavy cream & Splenda in my coffee. Cows and leafy greens quake in fear when I pass by. And still, the strips are purple, the scale doesn't budge, and I'm miserable.

Can anybody point me in the right direction. I feel like a failure - this is the only thing in my life that I can't seem to control!

Are your clothes fitting any looser than before? If you are working out, your muscle weighs more than fat. If you are in ketosis, I wouldn't worry about it. Hang in there.

Maybe if you could post your menu's from a couple of days we could pinpoint what might be stalling you... or try plugging your food into MyPlan here or at www.fitday.com. Either one can help determine if you're eating the right mix of foods.

Nope, no change in the clothes, and the working out isn't a new thing, so there wouldn't be a drastic change in muscle to fat ratios. I'll check out the calculator, but damnit, I thought purple equaled weight loss???!

Thanks for the quick responses!

You can't alwasy count on the Ketosis strips.... many people think it's just best to not use them.

Just plugged yesterday eats into Fitday - I'm at 1170 calories and 15 carbs. I seem to be doing just what I'm supposed to do, even getting the occasional leg cramp to spur me on to higher levels of joy. Is there anyone else out there for whom it was so difficult to start seeing results?

Thanks - can you tell me how long it took before you started noticing a difference? I've read that the less you have to lose, the harder it is to get off the weight. I'd like to get down about 40 pounds...ARGH!

Hi,
just my experiance BUT i have tried atkins 3 times,(this being my 3rd) the last twice i ONLY did it for the 2 week induction and first time had good result,2nd time had no result BUT this time am finding weight slow to come off, difference this time is i am going to stick with it for longer than 2 weeks,infact as a way of life .i did not follow that view the first time around just a quick fix (which it is not)..
so hang in there u are only day 12,,,,,,,make sure u are eating your fat and are not starving yourself,eat when hungry .......apologies if u already are just that is what i am doing differently this time and therefore have no 'time limit ' to my weight loss....
hope u get a result u are looking for ......just to say also i get stuck at 154llbs always grrrr whatever diet I do.........cant seem to get past it, seems to be my stall point..BUT i will do this time definitely.. found it comes off dead slow each time i do low carb.......
best wishes and good luck
tab

Series7 (are you a broker?)

I had a good first week, when all the water weight came off, but then didn't lose anything for two more weeks and now it's finally started moving again.

Everyone on this site has great suggestions, but here are a couple more:

1. Are you drinking alcohol? This is a big staller for me.

2. Are you sure about your carb counts? Be sure that you don't have any carb creep in there. If I'm really diligent about recording my food in fitday, including weighing everything, I am often surprised by the number of carbs.

3. Is it possible that given your levels of activity, that you need a few more calories? I would try to up your calories to a consistent 1300/day. Increase them with fat, not carbs, and see how you do.

Come by my journal and let me know how it goes. I'm glad you stopped being a lurker!

Maureen

Heh, no, Maureen, I'm an artist. Series 7 is a fabulous type of sable brush made by Windsor Newton!

As to your questions - no alcohol since I began (which can be really hard since I live in New Orleans!) I'm reasonably sure about my carb count, and I'm drinking water, water, with a cup of coffee in the morning...

Gonna go hit the grocery store, get some more unfortunate lower species to chow on...thanks for your post!

I thought your sign on name wasa refernce to the professional exams stockbrokers have to take. Somehow it's seems better that it's a reference to a fabulous paintbrush.

Good luck! Please give it just a little more time and try to have faith that your aren't an alien species to the rest of us....

M

I'm a slow loser as well, takes forever (it seems) to lose so little. Your carbs are around 15 per day? It might be that you're not eating ENOUGH, believe it or not. Anything under 20 and your body will think it is starving and will conserve everything it can. I never thought eating MORE would make it easier to lose weight, but it's true.... Try upping your daily carbs to 20 and see what happens, also, slip in a cup or 2 of green tea throughout the day, sometimes it's enough to jump start your metabolism. Good luck, and keep posting, everyone here is in the same boat, and there's lots of us "turtles" (slow losers) that can support each other, save alot of frustration, a few tears, and maybe even a few monitors!! haha..... Drop by my journal anytime, have a good day.

Heh - turtle power...NICE! I'd be happy to see a 10 pound difference, let alone some of the amazing amounts of weight gone that I see out there!

I agree, there are so many of us out there that have been plagued by our body image. I accepted the way I look many years ago, but I have NEVER accepted that I haven't yet learned to manipulate myself physically as well as I can move the world and my place in it. This particular battle is more mind over matter than "I need to weigh this arbitrary number."

I don't have a journal here, but I do have one on LJ - http://www.livejournal.com/users/marrus/, and if anybody wants to see what I do when I'm not crying and punching out defenseless monitors, my paintings are here: www.marrusart.com. Thanks so much for all the kind words!