Help with Allergic Reaction and Plateau

[Sherry]

Help Help Help I haven't seen a problem like mine and I need some input. Went on Atkins in January. I used to do a bit of fasting, short and long term for non diet purposes. I have CFIDS for last 25 years. Not on any medications or drugs, not even aspirin. Lost 27 lbs and lots of inches, still on induction since even 4 grams of carbs slow down the progress. Everything going great. I don't cheat, consume between 1200-1500 calories per day, drink lots of water (my only beverage) no caffeine, cigarettes, sugar, or alcohol even before going on atkins. Went on Atkins because my blood pressure had shot up to unacceptable rate as had my weight. I was easily in ketosis. About 5 weeks ago, at 6:30 in the AM I awoke in the middle of a major severe allergic reaction and was rushed to hospital with respiratory, renal, and nervous system failure. Was given oxygen, something for shock, cortisone and morphine. All of which are now out of my system. My physician and I believe I was so good at burning those fat cells that it ended up dumping too many toxins into my system at once and it provoked an allergic reaction. I like the program so well that as I recovered I continued on the program only ever since the attack, I am no longer in ketosis and can't seem to get back there. not losing any more weight or inches,still having some signs of reactions (rashes, headaches, higher bilirubin counts, etc) Nothing other than my diet has changed that might bring this on. I don't want to go off the program, my dr. can't find any other cause for this. Now, no matter what I do, I can't seem to get back on track. I'm not sure what to do next. Any ideas or thoughts from all of you?
:exclm:

[tamarian]

Hi Sherry,

Welcome aboard. First advice, don't be in too much of a hurry. :) Each time you diet, you may experience slower progress than before. This is due to simply getting older, and repeated dieting (yo-yo dieting) slows down our metabolism.

Second, don't over-do things. No need to under-eat, nor eat fewer carbs than required, it may work against you.

If it's been a while since you've read Atkins, read it again to refresh your memory.

And last, are you sure you're not losing? Has it been over 6 weeks with no weight loss, and no inches lost? Have you tracked your measurements?

I may have made some assumptions in my reply, simply because I don't have any background information. But hopefully this may shed some light.

Give a though to journaling what you eat and do on daily bases, and post the entries in a journal here. Many of our members have a 6th sense in detecting stalls and offer good advice.

Wa'il

[Sherry]

Thanks for your reply. It's good to know someone out there is listening.
Since I just started this in January, I have both the old DADR and the new DANDR and I do refer to them often (for recipes, etc). I have never dieted before so can't be the yo yo effect. And yes, I do keep a close eye on weight loss and inches lost. I also journal using the HealthKeepers program which allows me to record everything that goes into my mouth and then it keeps track of the carbs, proteins, sugars, vitamins, weight, body mass, etc. So that means I have to come face to face with what i eat every meal! I measure every two weeks and keep record and ck weight every day. Some may say that's too much too often or I'm obsessing over it but I just like to keep an accurate record of what is going on with my body.
My concern is not over how much how fast. It's a concern that I became very ill and since that time (5 1/2 weeks) I cannot get back into ketosis. Now I realize some people never do show purple on their test sticks and still lose weight and inches. The problem here is that I had always shown purple and lost weight and inches. Since the illness,which was probably caused by too much toxin dumping, I can't get back into ketosis and there is no more weight loss or inch loss. Plus I am still showing some residual effects of the allergic reaction.
I do still take my vitamins and supplements and have cut out eggs since they can be a source of allergins. I sure don't want another episode like the last one but I do need to know what's going on so I can avoid another incident. I might not be as lucky next time as this time.
Thanks for your advice. Any other thoughts?

[tamarian]

Yes, one more thought :) Why since everything is recorded in the healthkeeper thing, cut and paste into your journal here, so we can go through some aspects.

< 4 grams of carbs, as you say, is a severe form of low-carbing, and lacks fiber. 1,200 calories is low-calorie. You're mixing zero-carb (not low-carb) with low-calorie. Are you sure this is healthy for you, and you like to continue doing it?

Wa'il

[Sherry]

Thanks Tamarian,
I looked at your journal and your success story. Way to go!
Ok, I could put stuff in a journal here so you can see what it is I'm doing...but how do I start the journal? Where is it? Since I haven't started one here, I don't have an icon under my posts.
Not sure I can cut and paste off Healthkeepers. Tried to print once and that function is not allowed. Right clicking gives me "delete entry" function not copy. control c doesn't seem to work on this program either so.... and I've got every mouthful ingested since Jan 15 on this program. Oh well.
"4 carbs" maybe too low? Unfortunately, 10 carbs is too much for me right now. Most of the carbs were in dairy products-eggs, cheese, plus the salad. I can't use any of the artificial sweetners since that creates problems for me. I will be trying Stevia soon as I used this pre-Atkins simply because I didn't and still don't like sugar. You expressed concern about not enough fiber, yes I thought about that some time ago and have supplemented my vitamin regimine with psyllium husk capsules.
1200-1500 calories too low? I don't keep track particularly but the software does it automatically so that's how I know what I seem to average out at. Remember, I am still at the induction level, not adding extra carbs yet. One can only eat so much mayonaise, butter, and meat fat before the stomach starts revolting. Plus I eat lots of different meats, cheeses, sauces and salads and dressings and still come out to 1200-1500 as an average. Before I got sick I was eating three meals a day (I'm only up 12 hours) but I'm going to try the Fat Fast for 2 days to see if I can get back into ketosis and will be eating 5 nibbler's meals a day. Will let you know how that works.
Any more ideas?

[tamarian]

Hi Sherry,

Eating all meat and mayo only will make it hard to reach your uptimum caloric intake. Adding veggies and healthy oil should make it easier. 1,200 might be ideal on a low-fat, low-calorie diet, but we know that doesn't work.

Adding carbs, does not mean adding sugar, nor dairy or artificial sweetener.. How about cauliflower, eggplants or any other veggies. I realize the temptation to over-do things by going lower, but the problem may not be due to veggies or calories. I would recommend doing things by the book first, for a month or two.

I never used health keeper, so if it does not allow cut and paste, no problem, start your journal from today, and your LC buddies here will check it out and give feedback.

Here's how to start a journal:
Since this is a very frequent question, here are the stepts to start a journal:

Go to the forum home page by clicking on the "Home" icon" or any of the other shortcuts to get there (menu bar, main logo, category bar)

Scroll down to the "My Journal / Bootcamp" section.

From the several journal sub-sections listed alphabetically, choose the one where your username (the one you login with) belong, and click on it.

To start a new journal, click on the "New Thread" button, write your first entry and a title, and click "Submit".

To add entries to your journal and respond to others in their journals, click the "New Reply" button.


Wa'il

[Sherry]

Thanks, Tamarian
I'll start the journal tonight. Sorry if I gave the impression that I didn't have any veggies! Actually, I had started on the old 1970's copy of Atkins where on induction you were only allowed the salad. But once I got the new copy, I found I could add some veggies and I did (cauliflour and broccoli some of my favorites and I have a nice eggplant parmigean i make). That is why the journaling will be good. I'll try to put some of my past typical days in there so you get an idea of where i was going before i got sick and then afterwards. Before I got sick it was going just fine. So maybe you can spot a problem I hadn't noticed.
Glad you're helping me out. :wave:

[Voyajer]

Wow, an allergic reaction! This bolsters everything I've read about the side-effects of having over 80 mg/dL of ketone bodies in the blood i.e being in the purple on the ketostix.

One explanation is that the fat stored in our bodies is an exact record of what we've eaten. When you go into lipolysis and start using stored fat (especially when you do a protein-sparing modified fast as you have done with you eating so few calories), you definitely start utilizing stored fat. And when that stored fat breaks down, depending on what fats you ate that are stored, they break down into the bloodstream. That is why for some, triglycerides levels rise for awhile. Now say that as is highly likely your stored fat is mostly saturated fat. Saturated fats contain arachidonic acid which some people are allergic to. See Dr. Eades book Protein Power chapter 12.

Cortisone is something you want to avoid if at all possible:

Info on cortisone:
Cortisone Injections [posted 7/24/98]
Question: I was visiting your website for information on the safety of cortisone injections. I have a question regarding a condition I have that is being treated with cortisone. When I was 14 years old I was diagnosed with apthous stomatitis, or non-herpetic canker sores, which there is no treatment for. In the past few years my outbreaks have become more frequent and quite severe. My dermatologist prescribed a course of oral Prednisone and the sores disappeared almost instantly. Now that the outbreaks occur so often and are so painful, I am considering cortisone injection as a preventative measure. All reports state that cortisone injections used for "short term" treatment is safe. What is defined as "short term?" Can I receive 1 or 2 injections per year and still be okay?

Answer: Yeah probably, but first, what is the medical condition that is being treated? Sounds like some sort of condition like lupus or one of its cousins. If you haven't had an evaluation by a Rheumatologist you might consider it. Steroids will speed up your aging process. They cause/accelerate cataracts, osteoporosis, diabetes mellitus, muscle weakness and atrophy, etc. The bigger the dose and the longer one takes it the more these problems will occur. If it is necessary so be it. But, again what is the condition that is being treated?

Therefore, I wouldn't be too anxious to get back into heavy ketosis. Trace ketosis is much safer as far as side-effects are concerned and for many people they lose weight just as quickly in trace as those do who are in heavy ketosis. If you are eating the induction phase of Atkins, don't worry about the ketostix for awhile if they don't seem to show that you are in ketosis. If you are sticking to induction, you will probably be losing weight anyway. Check your scale after 1 week.

At the low amount of calories you are consuming, you have no excess ketones to be flushed out your blood. Your body has to reach a certain ketone level for the ketones to show on the ketostix.

[Voyajer]

Forgot to mention:

Water dilutes the toxins in your blood. Are you drinking a gallon a day? You really need to be.

[Kristine]

I wonder how Sherry's doing. She hasn't been around since March.

[Sherry]

:) Hello All. Yes, its been awhile since I logged in but for good reason. I moved, my computer was down, etc. But things have turned around and at least my computer is working again...now if I could just find the box with my underware...
Progress report. Still not in ketosis...oh well. Rarely even check anymore. Still eating acording to plan. Maybe lost 3 lbs these last several months but that's ok too. Had an interesting thing happen, though. Most of my CFIDS symptoms have disappeared (the joint pain, fuzzy thinking, etc) . Then suddenly my testosterone levels jumped up!!!!! Wow, watch out world! :eek: I was flying high for awhile then crashed again, but not as badly as before. Next I recoved some energy levels and was feeling pretty good and proud of myself when I took another nose dive ( still not as bad as before) I'm still bleeding internally some, not bad. I find if I eat heavy protein meals during the day and then really heavy on the fat before I go to bed that I get the best results. (cheese, nuts before bedtime). Still can't do artificial sweetners except Stevia once in awhile. but that's ok, never did like sweets. No craving problems, staying full, easy to stay on Atkins and I plan on staying on this forever. I was and am still just so toxic that I guess it will take some time and patience. My hair turned almost black (its normally light brown with red highlights) for 2 months, then one morning I woke up and boy had it turned red overnight, no kidding. Since then its been getting lighter and lighter (my husband swears I'm putting something on it!) . Its really soft too, so something is happening in my system.
So there you have it. By the way, my husband is on this too and has lost 42 lbs since Feb. He has gone from a size 42 pants to size 32, and boy is he thrilled. That old pot belly has disappeared and he can now see his toes among other things :roll: I'm really proud of him.
Thanks folks for all the good recipes too. I'm hanging in there.