Soooo Frustrated

[mzshasta]

:wave: I started Atkins on June 24th (19 days ago). By the 14th day or so I had lost 10 pounds. Since then I have lost nothing. Infact, I tried to increase my eating yesterday incase the plateau was caused by not eating enough fat. So today I am .2 lbs heavier (132.2 lbs.). I have tried counting my carbs carefully, hydrating myself, cutting out cofee and aspartame, increasing exercise, basically everything I've thought of or read to try but still nothing.

My diet from day one has basically been a 20 carb/day variation of avocodo, spinach, beef, chicken, cheddar, walnuts, almonds, pecans (i make sure to measure the nuts out not to exceed my carbs), silk slender soy milk(which I cut out the last couple days), grape tomatoes and celery in moderation, water, decaf tea, some ceasar dressing, 8 carbs worth of chilis brocolli cheese soup, and fish.

This is frustrating because it is too easy to get discouraged when you have no weight loss to motivate and show you that this is working. :help:


HELP.......WHAT DO I NEED TO DO TO GET THIS WEIGHT LOSS HAPPENING AGAIN!!??!!

[krystalr]

You can expect to lose 10% of your total weight needing to be lose in the first 2 weeks. You lost 10 lbs. I fail to see where this is a problem, not good enough, or discouraging. You should be EXTATIC, and probably need to take a step back and look at what you've accomplished in a short period of time.

Have you read the Atkins book? Being so close out of induction, nuts wouldn't be in your plan yet. They are in the 4th rung of OWL. Soy products should also not be used (they're just plain BAD for you), and chances are that a lot of the things in chilis broccoli cheese soup aren't exactly on plan either (thickeners and such).

That all being said, wee's 3-5 are typically slow for people, and you may not lose at all. This is a common, every day thing. Atkins does not define anything as a stall until you have not lose weight or inches for 4 weeks.

Atkins isn't a crash diet to lose weight quickly. It's a new way of eating for life, and a more healthful one at that. Focus on the benefits of eating healthier - how much better you feel, how much more energy you have, etc...and put less focus on losing some insane amount of weight in 3 weeks. Again, you have less than 30 lbs to lose, and you're upset over losing over 1/3 of that in 2 weeks? You should be thrilled.

My suggestions are this - stop tweaking things until you're in a REAL stall, or at least until you have been on plan long enough to have even hit a period of time that is long enough to be considered a true stall. Read the book - if you haven't read the book, get a copy and read it front to back. Understand how and why this way of eating works, and how your body functions while eating this way. Learn how to balance your meals, follow the plan as written, and why fat is important. Relax, and set some realistic expectations. You're doing SO well and you are NOT seeing it for what it is. You've lost more in 2 weeks than some people on here that have 150lbs to lose do. A healthy rate of loss is 1% of your body weight per week. That's less than a pound and a half for you. That's the reality.

Celebrate that you are doing well, don't keep knocking yourself.

[mzshasta]

That does make me feel a little better. I think part of my frustration is that my fiance and several friends did this and lost 25+ lbs. ea. w/o ever having a stand still like this and he has kept it off easily with very increased carbs. I will have to accept that everyone is different. I am not worried about taking a while to lose this weight....I am just worried about never losing it because I am at a complete stand still. Or that the stand still will discourage me and cause me to stray after I've gotten this far. I will continue and wait more patiently. Thanx.

[krystalr]

4 days is really not anything. Many of us, myself included, have gone through periods lasting months with no movement. After all...all maintenance is is one big stall, right? ;)

Your weight will fluccuate daily. Too much salt, and you'll retain water. Lose fat? Your body fills those cells with water until IT is ready to drop them. Too hot? Retain water. All of these things are things you cannot control. Your body won't drop the weight until it's ready. You can tweak and change until you are blue in the face, but it's not going to change anything. Until you are at the point of a true stall, it's best to just stay 100% on plan, and follow it just as it is written.

You've just sent your body through a MAJOR change. You've completely changed your diet and how it uses food and how it sources its energy. That's pretty darn shocking to your system. Your body needs time to adjust, and that's what it's doing.

Things will start moving again when your body is ready. Don't let it psych you out.

[MsDrea]

That does make me feel a little better. I think part of my frustration is that my fiance and several friends did this and lost 25+ lbs. ea. w/o ever having a stand still like this and he has kept it off easily with very increased carbs. I will have to accept that everyone is different. I am not worried about taking a while to lose this weight....I am just worried about never losing it because I am at a complete stand still. Or that the stand still will discourage me and cause me to stray after I've gotten this far. I will continue and wait more patiently. Thanx.

First of all, don't compare your weight loss to your fiance's. It'll only lead to grief. ;) A lot of young (and older) men lose weight ridiculously easily compared to women. Like, just "give up donuts and lose 30 pounds in a month" kind of easy. Secondly, if you're 5'6 and 132lbs, your BMI is 21.3. You aren't even close to being overweight, so expecting to lose a lot of weight quickly is really unrealistic.

[JohnGibson]

mz,

You can't treat this like a race. Doesn't work like that. Each and every body is different and they react differently to different foods.

I have a friend who can eat Atkins bars every day, and still lose.

Me, if I have one more than once a week, I seem to stall. Does it frustrate me? Yes. But I can't allow that to get me down.

Remember this is a journey, not a destination. Losing the weight and going back and eating the way you did before will just put the pounds back on. Believe me.

I am in the middle of a 100+ pound weight loss, and this is after losing 100 pounds years ago.