Hi. I'm new to these boards, looking for help. I started Atkins 20 months ago and was successful at first - lost 21 pounds over a 9 month period taking me from 174 to 153 pounds (28 %) with some stops and starts. I'm 5'4" and 66 years old. Then, I stalled and have been stalled ever since. I started counting carbs and realized I was too high so I decreased to about 35 carbs daily. I counted calories for a while and reduced my fats and cheese. I'm hypothyroid, so I had the doc increase my meds. Then, while I was on vacation, I gained 6 pounds (159). Then, I started induction again but -two pounds off, two pounds on. Recently, I stopped eating after 6PM. Almost anything including exercise works for a couple of pounds - but it's a yoyo - two pounds off, two pounds back - weighing myself a couple of times a week. I still have at least 20 pounds to go, but I'm so frustrated, I don't know what to do. Since my hypothyroid diagnosis, this is the only weight loss program that's had any effect. Before Atkins, I tried herbs, weight training, aerobics, a nutritionist and weight watchers without any success at all. Thanks in advance for anyone's ideas.

Hi Mitchell37, nice to meet you.

I can sympathize with such slow losses - I'm a turtle myself. I have "issues" with medications that slow me, and it can be very frustrating indeed!

Perhaps you can find something on the Plateau Buster's Checklist that may help.

Do you use www.fitday.com to keep track of your carbs?

How about posting some of your regular menus here? One of us may be able to pinpoint something from your food.

I wish you all the success in the world!

Rosebud

It's hard to help without a journal to take a peek at. Perhaps you need to examine what you're eating. There is a list of stallers in the CAD forum...something you're eating might be on that list. Also, your medication can be interfering with your weight loss. As a last resort, perhaps Atkins doesn't suit and you need another program.

I can't offer much other than support..I am 63 and can't lose either, and my thyroid is fine! On just this topic, here is something from Dana Carpendar, of "Hold the Toast":
In her book Outsmarting the Midlife Fat Cell, Debra Waterhouse says that the stubbornness of fat in menopausal women does, indeed, have to do with dwindling estrogen levels. You see, it's not just that estrogen creates fat - fat also creates estrogen. You might call it a feedback loop. This ability of fat to create estrogen (and other hormones, as well) is why women who are a little overweight are far less likely to get osteoporosis than women who are underweight. It is also a reason why serious obesity is a risk factor for hormonal disorders.

Because fat is a source of hormones, when estrogen production by the ovaries starts to drop as we approach menopause, the body hoards fat to buffer the decrease in estrogen. Waterhouse claims that women who aren't painfully thin actually have fewer menopausal symptoms than really skinny women, for this very reason.

This means that our bodies are increasingly reluctant to give up their fat cells as we advance through perimenopause, and apparently supplemental estrogen doesn't encourage them to let go - it just increases fat deposition and holds water, just like it does during our menstrual cycles (or, for that matter, in farm animals fed synthetic estrogens to fatten them.)

Waterhouse doesn't have much of a solution for this, you understand; she just encourages women not to worry too much about it, and accept it as part of the aging process."

So I have started weight lifting to at least try to get toned up. I feel better LCing which is a good reason to stay with it, although I try to consume more monunsaturated fats than saturated...not that this has helped my weight!

Val

Hi Rosebud, Zuleikaa and Valewis: Thank you for responding. I looked at the websites you suggested, Rosebud. I may try one of those plateau busters. Zuleikaa, you may be right - that I've gotten whatever I can get out of Atkins and need to move on. I've thought of that. But, until I find something else that works, I'll hang in here. Valewis, thanks for the information. I am taking DHEA every other day. Come to think of it, I started to take it at about a year ago! Hmmm. Let me stop it for a week and see what happens. Thanks so much your thoughts. I'll let you all know what happens.

ok, so there are a multitude of reasons why one stalls and stalls for a long period of time.

What I don't understand is, why can one be losing on the exact same foods up to a point and then stall out for as long as my daughter and I have, since christmas.
I can understand that with an older person there are certain medical reasons that that could happen as well as a life of dieting and food intolerances. But, in our case we both lost at the exact same rate even though I had to work hard in the gym whereas she doesn't other than her PE sessions and now and then some extra. She is 14 and has never dieted before, so no yoyo issues, hormonal etc. She is very faithful about carbs and calories. Yet its the 30pd mark I see where alot of people seem to stall out, as did we.

I have been reading these boards trying to find answers and its like a hundred diff. reasons and no common.
Like I said the foods we had since May haven't changed yet all of a sudden nothing for 2.5 months.
Is the body merely defending itself, is it registering the pattern of what we are doing to it. will it simply safeguard itself with setpoint times its hanging on.

I can give it time as it took time to gain it...3 years. But for a young one its really frustrating to the point of giving up.

Whats your thoughts folks ?

My thoughts/2 cents worth. First of all, I think it is a mistake to think in terms of general rules about weight loss or just about any human condition...there is a large amount of variability due to genetic factors. When people do research of large groups of folks, they have to use averages, and those averages all have variations as well, so that big indiviudal differences are sort of smoothed away by the statistics used. From the begining of time, the human body has never been identical...always differences in body types (mesomorphs, endomorphs, ectomorphs), height, etc.

This is why reading personal accounts and anecdotes is useful, as folks can relate their own experiences as individuals. I have read a few posts here from people who have stalled for much longer than a few months, but have realized that this is a WOE and stopped focussing on weight loss and more on muscle gain...invariably, these people report that either 1) they start losing again in time, or 2) their dress/pants size shrinks over time and their BF % decreases.

And yes, there are 'set points' that many of us appear to have... for many, it appears that the body does not want to do any further weight loss...weight loss could be a signal that we are in a state of famine after a certain point, so things need time to regroup and adjust.

One of the problems I detect here is that you and your daughter may have been doing this more as a weight loss exercise than as a solution to previous weight gain.
It is critical to evolve a way of eating that is amenable to not putting on weight...you have managed to improve your health already and have lost excess fat by eating this way....this is a big plus.

Have you been careful not to eat too little? One clear cut reason for stalling is by eating too few calories...assuming that you have not done this (need to keep them above 1200), then my advice would be to focus on weight lifting to increase your muscle mass, which in turn increases fat burning. And to throw away the scales.

Val

P.S. One reason people have a lot of psychological difficulty with stalling is that they have consistently used the descending figure on the scales as the main 'reward' for the WOE. I suggest you get your gym to do BF readings once a month and see if you can't get that to decrease. Many people here have had to put scales away in the closet and never take them out again...weight-fixation and scales addiction is a big problem to overcome.

Val

Valewis,
Thanks for you input. I should have stated that I am an avid lifter and have been most of my life. I played hockey in younger years. I had kids and family and later developed degenerated disk which stopped me in my tracks. In three years and no activity I gained lots and lots of weight. Finding my own 'cure' i.e. pain management I got back to lifting and cardio. Faithfully every morning for 1.5. hr workouts. So not lacking in those.
post more later, gotta run for now, basketball game

If you and your daughter have both stalled out then it's probably due to this. Things should start to move naturally in late March-early April. Meanwhile just be patient, wait for spring and stick to plan.

Thanks for the post, and yes I believe SAD has alot to do with how bodies function. But I also believe it is learned behavior by our bodies. I think it outsmarts us with its own memory, constantly readjusting and putting a stop to something it feels threatened by. I think that explains why one doesn't have the success in a second try of any plan as the first time.

If SAD were really a factor though, I wonder why. If it is a defense mechanism from early neander days, why it doesn't hold true for all humans.

All the factors stated somewhere or another are valid reasons, yet we are with our histories all so different that one wonders how to ever find out what makes our individual case tick.
Just why any doctor than could prescribe one diet over the other for instance is a puzzle to me. And what do they then tell people like turtles and stallers, that they are not trying hard enough ?
Where is the scientist that tells it how it is. We just don't know the answers yet. Just marvel at this body for being able to adjust and survive. Now if that would only work for the mechanic parts as well...wow we all would be so much better off.

thanks again for you post and YES I will see if there comes a difference. will be interesting to see.

i stalled for 6 mo. with hypothyroidism. lost 35lbs and no more, no matter WHAT i did. turned out my thyroid went kaput again and the meds just weren't working. docs will be verry reluctant in changing meds, but sometimes it must be done. you may need to have your blood work done again...good luck!