Ok, I am very depressed and went into cheat mode this week-end. I have been on Atkins for almost 5 weeks. The first week I lost 4 pounds (mostly fluid because now I have ankles). I have only lost one pound since. I am very depressed and ready to throw in the towel.
I went to the doctor and he can not believe that I have not lost weight with what I have been eating. He has ordered blood tests to make sure that my thyroid etc, is working properly.
Meantime, if anyone has any advise I would appreciate it. I have decided I am going to cheat a little today and then Monday morning I will get back at it and hope that maybe it will work this time. I can not find anything that I have been having that would have hidden sugars etc. My husband is eating pretty much the same (only he is snacking on peanuts and low carb bars) and he is losing weight. I am so frustrated!!!!

My best advice (read my disclaimer/signature below) is to hold tight, try and stay on track and wait to see what the doctor has to say.

Are you using fitday or MyPLAN to track your foods? Are you drinking water? Are you exercising?

Don't get frustrated! There are soooo many reasons why you may be losing slowly. I am a slow loser and it can mess with my head sometimes. I enter my weight in Fitday every day (www.Fitday.com) and when you look at your overall progress, I can see the number going down every day. That is a motivator for me.

Try not to let it get to you.

You might want to post some typical menus, any meds you are taking, what exercises you are doing, etc and let the old timers here help you adjust your plan and get the weight moving.

Have you dealt with emotional eating issues? I bought Dr. Phil's book, The Ultimate Weight Solution. Didn't find the diet interesting but the tests and activities he give you to deal with your emotional eating and handling your environment are dead on and helped me a LOT!

Don't judge your weight loss by your hubby's. He is a MAN! He is built to lose, we women are built to maintain fat.

Hang in there!!! You can do this!!! Since I am such a slow loser, it seems like I am always having to tweak my plan and readjust so that I can lose.

Also, are you taking any supplements? Sometimes getting the right vitamins can make a lot of difference. I know it does with me.

Anyway, I hope I have given you some ideas and I hope you are able to find what works.

Good luck!

Have you moved on from Induction? Some people are able to continue losing at 20 carbs per day, but the rest of us need to move on to OWL. I stayed on Induction too long and my body let me know! I felt tired, irratible, etc and the scale wouldn't budge. Once I moved on, I felt much better physically and the weight loss resumed.

You should post your menu's so we can see what you are eating and help you out, you might not be getting enough fats, greens, you name it! We are here to help you and you obvisouly need us, so here we are, don't throw in the towel just yet!!!!

Giving up is not a option when you want something so badly!

Good for your doctor getting thyroid tests done.... At least he's on the ball! Some of them would have made out it was something you're doing wrong and sent you away.

I've been told today that if you have low thyroid (I'm with your doc on this, if you've been doing the diet correctly) that you won't loose weight on less than 30 g carbs per day.

I am also suspect thyroid prob and see my doc soon now, but after my induction is over, I will increase up to 30 and see what happens. Low carbs means that you take energy away from your cells (where you convert your thyroid hormone) and without that conversion, nothing works properly.

Can I suggest you supplement with some selennium? It's the thing that's primarily responsible for thyroid hormone conversion and most of us are defficient in it. You need about 50mg per day I believe.

In the meantime, I agree with the others. Do what you're doing. Get back on the diet and maybe shove some serious exercise in there too ... Stick to it and await the doctor's report.

If he's tested only for TSH levels then that's no good. He needs to test for Free T3 and Free T4 too. A TSH (Thyroid stimulating hormone) can come back normal but you still could be hypothyroid.

Hang in there and stick to it. I'm sure all will become clear real soon. Let us know what the test results say...