Hello from Sunny Florida

[marcsfl]

Greetings. I've been working hard on lowering my blood sugar and insulin dosage and have in the past two months dropped 8 lbs, gotten my A1C to 6.1 and cut my insulin from 140 units a day to 45 units a day.

I've decided to try a low carb diet for weight loss because as I've been working on my diabetes, the most effective tool seems to have been lowering carbs.

At the end of my first full week of Atkins, I have not lost any weight, but I feel better, with more energy and am hopeful to start dropping soon. I've had a nasty sinus infection and sore throat, and suspect that the meds and cough drops (sugar free) have contributed to my lack of weight loss.

I'm currently eating 20-30 carbs daily, and not having any hunger or cravings.

What effect does illness have on weight loss? I'm still getting in 45' to an hour of exercise a day, and drinking lots of water.

[indie]

Hi marcsfl and welcome rom a fellow Fla gal :wave:

I find that being sick causes me to stall. Its almost like my body suspends all efforts except getting well.

After you feel better, if you are still not losing like you want to - there are lots of knowledgeable posters here who may be able to help you tweak things so that you can get the results you want.


Happy reading (and posting)

[marcsfl]

I just took a look at the Ricola Sugar free cough drops, and it says 7 drops equals one exchange (Fruit) or about 15 grams of carb.

During the worst of the coughing, I've been going through 10 a day, so this might be a cause of the lack of progress this week.

[aj_cohn]

Marc, focus on getting well. Not low-carbing, not exercising, just getting well. Of course, starving viruses of glucose helps, but don't worry about minor sources of glucose. If it were me, (and it was at one point), skip the exercise while you're ill, and spend your body's energy fighting the illness. Make sure you're getting your electrolyte minerals (calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium); the glycogen loss during induction tends to flush those out of the body, especially sodium. 2 C of regular V8 juice/day during induction is a good source of sodium and potassium. Supplement if you need to for calcium and magnesium. Keep up the Vit. C (until you get diarrhea), and take 50 mg. of zinc/day for the first few days of the illness. Skip two days, then repeat the cycle.

[marcsfl]

Thanks for the advice! I'm well on the way to recovery, and look forward to good heath again soon.