Some of you helped me in my previous post on my stall and gave me some good advice. Of course, no one knew the cause of my stall.
The post can be found here.
http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?t=163206

Now, its simple guys. Im no guru. But look, when your body is just not budging a pound, increase the exercise. THat budged me. I doubled the exercise to cardio twice a day and weight training once a day 5x a week.

Now I was doing moderate calories for sure. I mean I was having 4-6 small meals/snacks easily ranging around 2000-2300 cals with plenty of protein and many healthy fats, no bars to stall me, so much exercise, high reps , low reps, you name it.

With all the jazz, I decided to shock my body as many bodybuilders advocate.
You guys have probably heard of a ckd. Well how about a tkd.
Its when you do a refeed of carbs for a weekend and then go back to your low carb lifestyle during the week. A tkd is when you eat carbs SOLELY before a intense workout (weights). Now, I did my own version of the two, by SIMPLY eating some carbs not before a workout but on a day of rest in which I did nothing at all.
My results and what I ate follow (obviously cheat food to shock the body):

1 meal:
1 french vanilla oatmeal packet 26g carbs
2%milk
1 tbsp peanut butter (all natural)

Another meal:
Slices of Cantelope
Slices of honey dew
Strawberries
Bananas
Water
Ice
1 scoop vanilla protein powder low carb (PLENTY of carbs here!!)

Then I went to a restaurant, ate some bread with olive oil, some mashed potatoes, and a fantastic spinach that i loved with a steak.

The next day (today) I woke up and ate this:
1 2 inch by 2 inch CUBE of cheddar cheese. THATS IT! Lots of water.
worked out after warming up 10 minutes jogging:
Chest, high reps.
Abs all exercises possible with a weight on me, hanging leg raises, weighted crunches, reverse crunches, oblique crunches etc.

Hey bros, I come home, and this is what I found out.
From the 217lbs stall, Im down to 215lbs.
2cms down on stomach, and hips. And I was back in light ketosis.

Of course, coming home I ate tomatoes with olive oil, and a steak in the oven massaged with butter.
Try the tactic, you might like it.
Im and endomorph and hold a lot of muscle by the way.
My stats: 24-26%bf/215lbs/goal:180 or 10%/18yrs/male

You can be sure, cheat days are not to be used all the time! I used this after a 4 week induction phase and a 1 1/2 week stall with no cms lost or gained.
Use it sporadically or youll bump yourself out of ketosis too much and youll be gaining fat for sure. Use it wisely, and youll lose it.
Dan
PS> If you want to go for ckd, visit http://www.~~~~~.com

Hmmm ... I'm not sure if I'm willing to do cardio twice a day and weight train 5 times a week just to lose 2 lb. I'm lazy, I guess. But I'm glad it worked for you!

I did try this for a few weeks for my 1st BFL challenge. It was a nightmare. Set off more cravings that I simply COULD NOT HANDLE.

It may work great for some people. Not for me.

No! You dont have to. What Im saying is the actual cheat day made me lose 2lbs not the 2x a day training. Of course, that helped before, but soon enough it stalled me and i needed a shocker, and voila this is when a cheat day comes in!!

thids doesnt work for everybody lots of us would like an excuse though lol

I am glad it did work for you...

Or, you know, it could have just been that you reached the end of the infamous week 3/4 slowdown that happens to just about everyone. In any case, you really can't call where you were a "stall", because a) it only lasted 1 1/2 weeks; and b) you were still losing inches, and a stall is 4 weeks or more with neither inch nor poundage loss. As you were told in your other thread, most people's loss slows temporarily after induction, as the initial water loss is replenished and the slower loss of fat begins. Let's say you're losing fat at the rate of 2 lbs a week, having dropped 10 lbs of water and glycogen in induction. If you put 2 lbs of water/glycogen on in the third week, and 2 more on in the second week, your scale weight won't have budged, but you'll still have lost 4 lbs of fat.

IMHO, that level of working out can't be maintained consistently, and will lead to overtraining and injury in the long term. In particular, by everything I've ever read or heard -- and I do think I'm reasonably familiar with the subject -- weight training 5x a week is a really bad idea. Every book and article I've ever read, and every personal trainer I've ever talked to, says that you should allow 48-72 hours of rest between each time you work a muscle group. Working out 5x/week, especially in combination with twice-daily cardio, strikes me as unreasonable and likely unnecessary.

Also, going for a whole day on nothing but 1 oz of cheddar cheese is *terrible* for you. That, BTW, is just about enough to explain your 2lb loss right there, and not in a good way. Food and water have weight, and when you eat or drink, you're adding weight to your body -- if you eat 2 6-oz portions of meat a day, that's 3/4 lb right there, and a gallon of water weighs 8 lbs. You lose this weight every day when you exhale, perspire, and excrete, as well as when you burn food for energy, so you've usually got roughly consistent amounts of food in your system between daily weigh-ins. If you don't put anything into your system for a day, and continue to burn food/excrete/perspire/breathe, of course you're going to notice a drop in the scale the next day, but that doesn't necessarily mean you've lost any *fat*. Eating and drinking will similarly make a difference in your measurements, because food and water have volume just as surely as weight. That's why it's recommended to always weigh first thing in the morning, after using the bathroom and before eating, so that you'll be as consistent as possible. There are a lot of little tricks you can do like that to make the scale move, if that's all you're after, but none of them result in permanent fat loss and most are unhealthy.

Refeeds are always a touchy subject -- some people swear by them, some people think they're the first step down the slope back into carb hell, and some people just think they're not really necessary if you're eating properly and exercising adequately. I tend to fall into the last group, and FWIW, I lost all my weight without cheat meals, cheat days, refeeds, or any variant thereof. After having done Atkins for more than a year, I see the keys to successful weight loss and maintenance as being patient and maintaining consistent, healthy eating and exercise habits. You are of course free to do whatever works for you, but I wouldn't advocate that anyone else follow the advice you've outlined.

Amen to that, Atlee.

Hey Dan-
Glad to hear that worked for you
I've read other threads in the past where people say the same thing about jumping off the fats for a day of carb-hoggin' and it seems to kick start the system (a shock perhaps?)
I'm afraid to try it myself as I have a very sensitive pancreas that screams FEED ME!!!

Here are some other threads about "refeeding" - i.e. REAL "leptin refeeding", not just binging:
http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthre...ighlight=refeed
http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthre...ighlight=refeed
http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthre...ighlight=refeed

However, I think it's worth repeating that a real "stall" or "plateau" is defined as "4-6 WEEKS of NEITHER pounds NOR inches lost". Most of us experience a slowdown or pause in weightloss after the initial 2 Induction weeks, before it starts up again, since the body often seems to need a small break to readjust. (I, for one, gained 1 lb week 3 and hovered w4-6 b/f weighloss started again.) That natural pause would better be addressed with patience and not by messing around with the metabolism as it could be quite counter productive.

Well I 'm really glad it worked for you, but chances are it would of come off anyway :>)
Do not expect to lose each and every week .
What you had was not a stall by any means, your body just needs to rest and adjust, so the best thing to do is just stick to the plan, unless you go through 4 weeks or more then play around with different things, but you really will do just fine by follow the plan.


I just noticed in your profile you have not read any low carb books, that would be the best thing you can do for yourself The net is O.K. but the books are the real Meat so to speak, lol

Good Luck Kathy

You can do it if you train only one muscle group per day, with the workout lasting perhaps 45 minutes. I did this for a while and got pretty good results...BUT, and it's a big but (so to speak), I wasn't trying to lose weight at the same time. I was allowing myself to eat whatever and whenever I wanted.

I wouldn't try weight training 5x/week on any less than maintenance calories, and probably not on LC at all.

My 2p

Emily

To tell you the truth, Dan, I think you should include yourself in that "no one" as well. A stall, as mentioned in the thread you linked to, is a period of 4-6 weeks with no loss of pounds OR inches. Since you reported that you were losing inches, you were not in a stall at all. It is very rare for a person to lose weight absolutely steadily and in a straight downard line no matter how correctly they are following the plan or how much they are excercising.
You seem very impatient (as I take it from your post that you were "angered" at not losing as fast as you wanted) and are already resorting to all sorts of "tricks" and "tactics" to force your body to lose weight as fast as you want it to, instead of being patient and letting your body shed the fat at the rate that it's comfortable with.
I have to ask...where's the fire, dude?
As I see it, you can follow the plan, excercise reasonably and be patient while your body does the rest (and a lot less stressed, I might add) or you can spend your entire weight loss journey beating your head up against a wall because you're not dropping X number of pounds per week according to some pre-determined schedule.
Remember...the more you tinker and try to figure out why you're not losing as fast as you'd like, the less likely it is that you'll ever figure out what works best and what doesn't. If you make 5 changes at once and your weight drops a few pounds, how do you know which of those 5 changes produced the results you were after or for that matter even if it WAS one of those changes and not the fact that your body was about to drop a few more pounds anyway?

actually, it's easy to train 6 days a week. you should (well, you don't HAVE to, but this is the way most body builders train) take one day off for rest. you train upper body one day and lower the next. it's not unheard of in body building circuits, nor is it a BAD thing. alternating upper and lower gives muscles the recommended 24 hour rest. i did it in high school and was ripped (of course, college happened--and then my thyroid went kapooie we all know the story). if i can find a pic i'll post...HOWEVER, training 6 days a week is not unheard of. EAS fitness magazine, ENERGY, always has women doing cardio 5 times a week, so it's not unhealthy as long as you are careful about the intensity and don't injure yourself.

Dan I feel bad for you. I thought you posted a great post with some very good thoughts and you've gotten hammered for it. Sorry

You did a refeed, great! It's a good idea and has helped many a dieter get over a stall. I have done many refeeds during the 2 1/2 years I've been LCing and they have been a great help. They are well backed up by tons of anecdotal information and also scientific research. They can help with cravings (not for everyone though), they help with leptin levels, and very importantly they allow one to maintain a high level of training.

You workout like crazy, and do cardio, Wonderful! People say "you can't workout that much you need blah-blah amount of time between workouts". I say many Bodybuilders workout that much AND DO FINE. I say show me the scientific research thats backs up your amount of time for recovery. Besides if anyone can workout that much its going to be a 18 year old male.

Please remember all! WHAT WAY YOU HAVE USED TO LOSE WEIGHT IS ONLY YOUR WAY. TO TELL SOMEONE THAT YOU HAVE TO DO THIS OR THAT, OR NOT EAT THIS OR THAT WAY BECAUSE IT DOESN'T WORK FOR YOU IS IGNORANCE. We are all individual and different. We can help and encourage and give suggestions, but this guy found a way to lose his weight, and I'm happy for him! I think a 18 year old male with a with a high amount of muscle is rather realistic in hoping for a fairly quick weight loss.


Sorry all for ranting. I feel bad for this guy though, and would hate to see him discouraged from his weight loss goals. I would hope this board can be a place for positive encouragement and help.



Anyhow My Thoughts,
JWJ


PS - Dan I don't think the cheese only was such a great idea. But if it works for you, fine!

Hi Dan,

I did a refeed (36 hrs.) this weekend, and will let you know my results over the next week or so. I have been on Atkins about 10 months, have lost 68 lbs, and have been stalled at 180 for 2 months. Having done lots of research on refeeding, leptin, etc., I thought I was a good candidate for this so I went for it! I ate almost all carbs for two days, and lots of them.. No bad effects, like feeling sick or bloated, though I am up 3 lbs today, which I expected.

I was very apprehensive about doing this, afraid it would start a downward spiral into eating carbs on a regular basis - but today I am back on Atkins and feeling good about it. So will keep you posted about how it works for me. Hope some more people who have tried a refeed, carb-up, whatever you want to call it, will chime in!

Liz