Hi, new to this board and to low carb WOE. My husband and I are both doing Atkins right now and feeling great so far. No serious cravings so far. I started on 3/18 and was just amazed that by Monday I had gone from 185 to 176.5 lbs!! That's only 10 days. Then today I woke up and the scale said 178.5...a two pound gain. The same exact thing happened to my husband the morning before....an unexpected 2 lb gain, 9 days in for him. Today he's back down one pound.

I can't think of anything that we're doing wrong except I think we should both be drinking more water. We really just drink diet caffeine free soda. I had a headache yesterday which I'm thinking now may be due to being slightly dehydrated. Could that be the problem. We're taking vitamins and potassium supplements. Any ideas what our problem is, or is this an expected phenomenon.

Thanks

hi leelee,

Congratulations on your terrific losses so far.

Fluctuations in weight from day to day are perfectly normal and par for the course. Don't be surprised in the next day or two to see 3 lbs off, for a net overall loss of a whole lb. A lot of lowcarbers only weigh themselves once a week for this reason -- it can get distracting to see what appears to be yo-yoing. This is another good reason to take your measurements on a regular basis too. There are a zillion reasons why you might see a temporary gain - fluid retention, maybe you had a salty meal, maybe constipated??

Another thing to remember is that your rate of loss will gradually taper off to a steady, but slower rate -- and this too is normal.

On the subject of drinking enough water, my thought is - if YOU think you're not getting enough, you're probably right. Unless you're in severe kidney or heart failure, you can't possibly drink too much. So, tip up that glass ..

Take care, and please keep us posted of your (and hubby's) progress.

Doreen

Doreen, you must be able to see into the future.....or you're a low carb expert....because I did indeed drop *3* lbs this morning!! So that 2 that I put on was definitely a water retention thing. I drank *lots* of water yesterday and it must have been enough to flush out my system a bit. I should have known better to drink more water....I'm only a critcal care nurse after all!! Why is it that we can explain fluid balance to our patients and not follow the same principles ourselves!!

Yesterday....178.5....today....175.5...what a great feeling!! I wasn't giving up even with the slight gain. I know that there will be ups and downs, but so far the hubby and I are enjoying this WOE. I'm loving the rich sauces that I can make with our meat entrees. We're never hungry and when we eat we're satisfied but not stuffed. He's down another pound today. We both know that this rapid gain will slow down soon, but we're enjoying this "shedding of some major poundage" for now. Thanks for the advice.

it could also be the scale
especially if it is the spring type
if you both showed the same differential that could be it
long term is a better measure