Hi all!

I started a thread about cream causing stalls some weeks ago, and found out some stuff. I hoped it would help, but it didn't I'm truly stalled.

OK, I started a low-GI calorie reduced diet about sep 5, and lost 3 pounds. After 6 days I went over to Atkins and lost another 8 pounds. (I started off at 195 and want to get to 150 wich is just under "overweight" BMI) But there it stopped.

I had started using heavy cream in my coffe, and was adviced against it. I dropped it and lost 2 pounds but then regained them overnight. I tried carb-cycling according to a popular thread here and kept gaining a pound on "up" and losing that same pound on "down". Then some swedish (I'm from there) Low-carbers told me I needed to eat more fat. So I did. I lost 2 pounds and gained back 4!

When I was losing, I took antidepressants. I quit them, and still I don't lose. I take Q10, L-carnitine, L-glutamine, chromium. I don't drink much, that's true. I do drink coffee, but I did when I was losing, too. When I was losing, I also ate (brace yourselves) brie cheese melted in the microwave oven. Is that what's missing? Also, when I was losing, I felt warm, now I'm cold. And the weather is about the same.

What changed? What can I do? I have started drinking more water today, but I don't really like it. I'll do it anyway. I'm trying to write down my day's manu, but my memory is very short. I'll get back on that.

Not only is my body resisting weight loss. My husband is on to me about my diet being unhelathy, that I will lack something, that all that fat can't be good, can't you eat one bread roll... It's hard to motivate a "strange" diet when it doesn't even make me lose weight. And he is very persistent with his critique.

OK--I see a few things that really may not be your fault or the fault of the diet at all (although I am not familiar with swede LCHF).

You say you started on Sept 5 on the Swede LCHF and 6 days later you switched your plan? Right there, it takes more than 6 days for any plan to work. It takes months!!

Then you switched to Atkins (but it doesn't say for how long) and you started tweaking it (it sounds like almost immediately) which I really don't recommend. You gave up cream, you gave up this, you gave up that, you tweaked, you fretted....sounds like you really haven't given either of plans a real chance. Then you started carb cycling. Your body isn't resistant, it's confused.

Plus you say then (just a few weeks ago?) you were hot and now you are cold??
Maybe not eating enough and maybe not tracking your carbs appropriately.

It looks like you recently had a baby (is that you in the pic)?

After childbirth, peri-menopause, menopause, and other medical type conditions may slow weight loss. To me, it sounds like your body is resisting becuase of the constant switching of plans and perhaps because you just had a baby.

Now, take a breath....BREATH....relax.

Coming from someone who is 47 and perimenopausal, this (Atkins) does work, but it doesn't work in 6 weeks. It took me close to 8-9 months to lose 30-35 pounds. Your weight does not drop in a linear fashoin. It drops a bit, stays for a bit (a bit to long for my taste) and then drops a bit more--so on and so forth and then one day, you wake up and you are at goal.

I started about where you are (185) and my goal is/was what yours is (150--although I only hit 150 for 24 hours--my body liked 153 and I was cool with that). Might I suggest that you re-read your Atkins. Plug in your foods to make sure that you are not overdoing the calories and that your carbs are inline, and read the below article. Also until you are well versed in your low carb WOE and can identify your trigger foods--please, please, please, follow the carb ladder (a mistake that many people make).

Not only weigh yourself, but also measure yourself. It could have been that you really were losing inches but the scale wasn't showing it. Scales are nasty devilish things--always messing with your head (read the below article)


Might I also advise you to start using a tool such as FITDAY or MYPLAN (I use MYPLAN--available on this website for free)--a very real eye opener as to calories and carbs. Remember, Dr. Atkins never said that calories don't count. Just that low carbbing gives an individual a metabolic advantage.


As for your husband--he's probably telling you to eat a piece a bread because your driving him crazy with the diet and the scale--you know men--maybe if you ate a piece of bread you'll feel better--NOT!

Good luck and read this article.

Lisa
http://carbsmart.stores.yahoo.net/outout.html

Hi Lisa!
Thank you for a very informative answer.
I will check out MYPLAN. I tried FITDAY but it was really hard to try to convert swedish foods to us foods, with the metric conversion and all. Maybe myplan is easier.

You are probably right about me confusing my body. The thing is, it was so easy to lose in the beginning, and the way I figured it, it can't have been only water. I lost about 8-9 pounds easily at first.

I'm not driving my husband crazy, by the way. I have always hopped on the scale each morning, and I don't much talk to him about the diet, because I know he will go on a rant about fat being dangerous and how bizarre it is to not eat potatoes and bread. I have tried to convince him by showing him studies, but he doesn't want to read.

I have measured myself and I'm not losing inches either.

I have checked the carb ladder and I guess I'm at 2. I did induction for 2 weeks but after roughly one week my weight stpooed dropping. After induction I did start to tweak because I could feel I was doing something wrong. So I quit the cream that I had just started, and so on...

I just had a baby (or rather, he's 14 months now) and on the scale in the delivery room I weighed 99 kg (218 pounds) and 3 months after child birth I was at 88.5 kg (195 pounds). So I don't think the pregnancy in itself made it very hard to lose weight. I must admit that a lot of that weight seemed to be water, though, because I peed it out in the days after delivery ;-)
I guess what I'll do is get back on induction for another 2 weeks, plug my ears against hubby's persecutions, and fill out MYPLAN as best I can.

Theresa, Lisa was right on her info except some of us not only don't lose some weeks, we gain before we lose again. Since you've been LCing for only about three weeks and "tweaking", I would suggest that you go back to strict induction for the two weeks and then see how you are doing before you start going up the ladder.

Also, don't worry about the day-to-day fluctuations. If you made a monthly graph you would see that you probably lose consistently.

Hi JAnn!

I guess I'm avictim of high expectations. I've read so much about people losing alot in the beginning. I feel that I actually do have a lot of fat to lose, even if it's not extreme. And I'm fairly active so I don't know why I've stalled. I guess it feels unfair. Also, it feels like I might be doing something wrong and I don't want to continue doing it wrong and be stalled if I can change it.
I will add a graph showing the time I've been on these diets, to show you the inconsistencies in my nonexistent weight-loss:
My Weight Chart:
>

I don't mind the day-to-day fuctuations, I know it's about water, toilet habits and other things. But it's a stall even if I look at it over months.

It doesn't look real good, does it? I would definitely go back to a strict induction, weigh and measure everything for the two weeks and enter it into MyPlan (I find it much easier than FitDay). I would also make sure to cut out known stallers. I would start with cheese and other dairy.You may also have to exclude artifical sweeteners.

If after the two weeks you still aren't losing, you can also try the meat and egg fast. If that doesn't work, I would talk to your doctor as you may have a low thyroid or some other medical problem that needs to be addressed.

Also make sure that you drink plenty of water as that flushes toxins from your system and aids in weight loss.

Hi JAnn!

I don't know if I'm motivated enough to eat strict induction without cheese, if that's what's going to make me lose weight. I was very bored with my options on induction, and I don't think I can stand it for long. Not to mention egg/meat fast. Heck, I lost the weight I actually have lost by eating melted brie for a snack! Not to mention what hubby would say if I eat only meat and eggs for 2 weeks...

My thyroid has been checked thoroughly. I'm fine.

I don't use any sweeteners or any sweet tasting stuff, no frankenfoods, no diet sodas, no breath mints, chewing gum. Nada.

I feel that if I have to cut everything out, I won't want to be on this diet. It's too restrictive, too depriving.

And I'm sorry if I sound negative. It's not your fault or anything. It just feels like my overweight problem is not worth that much work.

Thanks for all the advice!

By the way, how does one add the water drunk in a day?

If you lost eating Brie then I would say that cheese is not your problem.

Actually I find there's a lot to eat on induction. Of course I love veggies. You can go to Linda's site for ideas, or here for recipes and Sherrie's is a good site as well as our own kitchen and Kevinpa's recipes and his journal.
Actually I believe they eat vegetables, too. I don't know what else they allow themselves.

Do you mean to MyPlan or how to count the ounces?

I hope this helps and hopefully others will have more suggestions to help you.

Hi JAnn, thanks for hanging in there.
Yeah, I lost the 8 Atkins pounds eating 2 snacks of 1.5 ounce slice of brie each. It's not on the Acceptable foods list specifically, but one line says: Cow, sheep and goat cheese. I know you have a differing cheese tradition from our european one, but to me brie is an aged cows' cheese. Also, I looked it up, and brie has the least grams of carbs among cheeses; .5 grams/100 grams. And it worked. Then. Now I haven't even been eating it, and I still don't lose weight. Maybe I need to eat it?

My MY-P.L.A.N for today shows how I eat now. I used to eat more under induction. Maybe that's it? maybe I need to eat more? Before I started trying waight-loss, I used to eat 3000 kcal/day. I'm an active person with lots of muscle.

I haven't checked what they eat on meat/eggs because I dread going in that diet. Or the fat fast! I want to find an eating lifestyle that makes me lose 1/2-1 pound a week, that I can maintain without fuss, and without sitting there longing for a slice of chêvre and a tomato!

On induction, 2 cups of romaine salad (I chop if fiiiinely) and peppers and 1 cup of tomatoes/string beans is a little low for my taste. I'd eat that in one meal ;-)

Regarding the water, I meant how to add the numbers to MY-P.L.A.N. but I can't find the link to get a form to add it. Any suggestions?

Thanks for all the recipe links! I will check them out. I have been looking for recipes but most things I find contains daVinci syrups, granular splenda, or soy-based baking mix. Those things don't touch my lips! I don't need sweet food, nor do I need something that mimics carb-food. So I'm on the hunt for recipes!

To add water I go into Daily Entry, then in Search For, enter Water, a list will come up. One is Municipal Water, which I add to my daily menu. I also have added it to my Favorites so I don't have to search each time.

Also, I can't get plain water down so I add a squirt of lemon juice with a little stevia making it a very weak lemonade. It's very palatable that way.

I don't eat cheese (although I love Brie) as it stalls my weight. I will add it later as I get closer to goal or to goal.

I never worried about limiting myself to 2 cups of salad. I figure that most of it is fiber anyway so during the summer I know I was eating as much as 4 cups of salad (lettuce, radishes, scallions, avocado, cucumbers, mushrooms with about a half a tomato) with a mayonnaise dressing and I was losing anywhere from 1-3 pounds a week. My favorite dinner is grilled chicken with a LARGE salad!

Also, one of the things I like about LC is that I don't--and won't--give up my heavy cream. I even take it with me when I travel!

I don't know how much you are eating but if you're very active and about 30 years old, this site recommends 2080 to 2600 calories a day. If you keep your carbs low (under 20 or 30) you may be able to go higher.

I know how frustrating it is not to lose weight. that has been me most of my life. I think that LC will work for you, we just have to figure out how.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the encouragements, JAnn!

I found water in the list, finally. I will try the "favourites" fetaure. I'm slightly dyslexic, and hate searching lists in a language that is not my own.

I can't drink tap water from a glass. I feel nauceaus (sp?) but I can drink ti from a sport bottle. That's what I do.

I love cheese, especially chevre. But I was given a huge brie pie from a wedding party (leftover) and I munched away for 2 weeks ;-)

Ok, I might try a little more sallad, then. makes eating more fulfilling.

I can't use haevy cream. I still don't know what has stalled me, of course, but cream caused some serious cravings with me. And I can clearly feel that I'm addicted to it. I can make myself a cup of coffee just to get to drink cream. Must stay away from that stuff...

I'm 38, run after my son alot, giver riding lessons, which makes me walk after horses for 4-5 hours several times a week, and I walk alot, since I live in a metropolitan area where busses and traffic is jammed most of the time, and I have no car!

Yeah! I have to figure out how to make it work for me. This evening (it's 11 pm now) I was in the bath tub and felt hungry. I felt a bit disappointed because I can't sleep if I'm hungry and I already ate 1550 kcal and 20 carbs today. Why would I be hungry? The I realized I actually food poisoned myself yesterday, with all the horrible effects of that, so I didn't eat much yesterday, and that's probably causing my hunger. I need to eat some. An egg?

Eggs would be good. And your calories are too low for you, you do need to up them. I think I would die if I couldn't have any cream. You should check out ElleH's journal--she drinks it!

It looks like we have something else in common, too. You teach riding, my husand is a saddlemaker. Our website is www.rioverdesaddlery.com. Come visit it sometime.

We seem to have many things in common. I have been reading everywhere and the thing that caught the most was that "you have to watch your calories" and that people were eating 1200 kcal a day! I did that on WW, and it was no fun, besides completely unthinkable in the long run.

I don't know about the cream. I can feel the addiction, I do. But it can be that it's not what stalled me. If I start losing again, I might try to add it after a couple of weeks, just to see if it makes me stall again. Then it's no cream for life.

Western riding is not really my forte. I know very little. Except that the woman I took some courses for (basic handling) started out in dressage and went into pleasure later, so it's related. I'm into dressage myself, but I teach allround english. I also feel I need to state that I DON'T teach the kind of dressage one sees on TV or in the competition ring. I teach an old-fashioned french style which is so void of force that handicapped people can do it. I'm very aware if the general view of dressage and I basically agree.

Regarding the website, I LOOOVE the look and feel of that old style cured natural leather. It must be great to work with!

I don't know about my carb count today. In my book cauliflower has net 1.4 carbs/100 grams. In My-P.L.A.N. it has 4.1. Who to believe...
By the way, all numbers are different from my counter. Is that -fiber or what. Which do I count on Atkins Induction? I think my book says "net carbs".

According to my cookbook 100 grams of raw cauliflower is 5.3 or 2.8 less the fiber.

I wouldn't worry about the calories while you are geeting started and you probably won't have once you get past the 2 week induction period. During the first two weeks you need to concentrate on keeping the carbs under 20; once you do that your calories will probably remain low. I know that when I was going good, my calorie count at the end of the day was usually around 1500--and I never worried about them during the day, just the carb count.