LC Forum moved this to the Success Section of their website. Am I truly a success? Yes, I’ve successfully lost the weight and a lot of it. But isn’t true success going to be my ability to keep it off? Right now today, I am committed 100% to follow S.E.A.L. Just like the first month or so of staying religiously committed to sticking to this WOE, it is going to take my complete focus, determination and perseverance. I have to remember what the end game is. The end game being that I am an LC WOE Lifer. If I choose not to be, because it is a choice -- “Fat Jo” wins again and, honey I ain’t letting the bio-tch win anything ever again!! Because she made me so miserable and she does NOT have that power over me anymore!! I control what I eat, not her and I will win this!!

Okay I haven't lost anything since May 14 so that's 18 days of no gains/no losses. So I think I've found my kcal & carb thresholds for maintenance. It seems that I can not do more than 1400 kcals and 14 carbs.

Well it is what it is and since I REFUSE to REGAIN -- those are my daily targets for nourishing my body.

YOU are absolutely amazing! And such an inspiration!

You're doing great, Jo! It's interesting that your level is 14g carbs. After so long of thinking that 20g was the point where you'd lose weight, I suspect my own CCL is below that as well. At <10 I'm losing quite nicely, steadily, and only hanging at a particular weight for a couple of days rather than for days on end. At 20-25g I would also pop up and down in weight.

Anyhow, I credit YOU, Jo, with inspiring me with what to do this time around and things are going beautifully!

Thanks Sunny for your kind words!!

You know I write those things to keep myself focused and to remember what's important... my personal LC WOE Journey Journal is full of positive affirmations -- I truly believe in self-fulfilling prophecies because attitude truly is everything.

Awwww shucks, Carole **hugs** I am so glad things are working out so well for you!!! I keep trying to tell people that A '72 is the way to go...

Here's the deal with higher carb levels like in the newer versions of Atkins:

Too many carbs (even if it is considered a LC WOE) and you negate the entire LC WOE benefits such as weight loss and hunger suppression. The lower the carbs, the faster you shed the pounds and the less hungry you are. The less hungry you are the less kcals you eat, the more weight you lose. It's a pretty remarkable cycle and the reason the LC WOE is so remarkably successful for those who follow the plan w/o cheats.

A lot of people can't handle more carbs, that's why they are frustrated when you go read the threads about other versions of Atkins -- especially those that are experimenting with the recipes and/or using Atkins franken-food processed products. They can't get into ketosis which is what makes us less hungry and what makes A '72 work so brilliantly for those of us that are following it to a T. I'm like preaching to the choir now aren't I, Carole? Sorry!! But can I get an AMEN??

That's why Dr. A in his ultimate wisdom back in the 1972 version started everyone at "biologically zero" carbs on Level 1. It detoxed all the carbs from your system and started making over your body into "fat-burning" machines.

I wanted to congratulate you on your losses -- wow that's really amazing!! Wishing you heartfelt success as you continue your personal LC WOE journey!!

Yes, AMEN to all you say, and I'm definitely in the choir! I would love to convince everyone here to go the A'72 route and follow it closely, BUT....you have to be "ready" to hear the message, I guess. Took me awhile to fully comprehend exactly what I needed to do, despite the fact that I never bought into the net carb thing, or later versions of Atkins. I've always put my focus on A'72 even if I wasn't doing it correctly.

It takes time for the brain cells to fire and say DO IT & DO IT for REAL or is that S.E.A.L ?

In any case, we are so both ROCKIN' this A '72!!

I love your motto SEAL. I've adopted it for myself!

Jo....another thought. You most definitely ARE a success because you set out to reach a goal, and dang it, you got there! That's more than I have ever managed to do (yet!!), so I view that as real success.

But since you are even below goal now, you just have a new and different goal: maintaining your weight. Since you mentioned that previously you had lost and regained lots of weight, your challenge may be different from some of us, but you just have to be positive with it going forward: You had the power to get lower than ever before this time, so you just take all that strength and apply it to new strategies for maintaining that loss. I suspect that like me, you will always have to be vigilant about what you eat, always watching things, but at least, if you see yourself go up a bit you know how to switch back into a mode to drop a tiny bit of weight quickly. I plan for a margin of weight gain of maybe 3 pounds, and when I see that happen, back to strict induction for me!

Thanks for that, Carole, about me being a success -- but true success is still keeping it off.

You know I'm here cheering you onward and more importantly DOWNWARD. Cause dang it, we're LOSERS, not Quitters!



Wow that's amazing you should say that, because I wrote some of that in my journal this morning. I've added it below:

Okay I am back on track, yesterday, I had less than 1400 kcals and only 10.5 carbs. I did not have any pork rinds and that helps keep the kcal levels way down. I ate a little more than what I wanted too but I kept it down below 1400 kcals so I am not going to beat myself up about that.

I know in A '72 we eat when we are hungry -- which makes it really amazing when you are on any type of WOE plan -- sure beats WW. But I'm probably eating less kcals then I would if I were actually doing WW. I guess it's the idea that if I want to pig-out on pork rinds, I can because they have ZERO carbs - since carbs count on a LC WOE lifestyle. So for me, it's a head game I am playing with myself.

No that’s not really true. Since eating LC purges your body of those toxic, poisonous, insidious crappy killer carbs makes you less hungry, that’s why I can get away with eating less than 1400 kcals and not feel like I am starving all the time. That’s why A ’72 works so brilliantly for me -- always has!

Constant vigilance, determination and perseverance will keep me doing this LC WOE successfully. I have already made my personal goal weight. Actually, I have exceeded my personal goal weight. Originally my goal was to weigh 150 lbs, since 155 lbs (Nov 2007) was the lowest I have ever been since goodness knows when and 296 lbs was the highest.

I don’t know what made me check the BMI charts. I know they are “guidelines” but I didn’t want to be “overweight” as indicated by the charts at 150 lbs for my height. I was determined to be at the “normal” range. According to the chart, that meant anywhere from 108-144lbs. That’s a huge gap, a 36 lbs gap. I settled on weighing 130 lbs, it had a nice ring to it. When I hit 130, since I was going to do this for a lifetime, I decided that I needed “wiggle room” to experiment with amount of kcals and carbs I can have daily. It’s been 20 days without any losses -- so it seems that <14 carbs and no more than 1400 kcals are my "magic numbers."

Holy Hannah, do you realize this is the first time EVER, that I am not mentally beating myself up and saying, “Yep, ‘Fat Jo’, you gotta do something before school starts because you will be so disappointed and miserable with yourself if you are as large as a house when it does.” Oh my gosh, this is HUGE! First summer ever that I have not had to get my proverbial “Fat” act together and lose some tonnage!

Yes....isn't that wonderful about not having to think about dumping weight this summer! What a "weight" off your shoulders!

I've been thinking about shopping for pants soon, but not yet. I have a few things I bought a couple of years ago when I was in my low 140's (and which I can't comfortably wear right now). So I'm close to getting back into those pants, but what I'm really looking towards is NEW pants in an even smaller size.

Clothes: When I lost my weight a couple of summers ago, I made a conscious decision to throw out ALL my fat clothes, I wanted no option to eat myself back into them. That was a good move, because one thing that really motivated me to get serious now is that I tried on all those "smaller" pants and some other summer things, and to my horror I found could no longer zip them up, and therefore didn't have a lot of things to wear for summer and the heat. I wasn't about to go out and buy larger ones, so I figured my only option was to get busy and lose that regained weight...and MORE!

Thinking about weight, so many weight charts I see put me at my height at a higher weight than I believe will look good for me. BUT....I was looking at the weight chart in Atkins '72 and HIS chart is different from what I see elsewhere these days. He put 120-135 for me, a 15 lb range. So that tells me that my goal of 130 is just fine, and perhaps I'll want to go lower when I get to 130, and that's not excessive. I think the modern weight charts have conditioned everyone to think they should be heavier than they really should be!

Holy Hannah, Carole, at least you tossed your bigger clothes out -- guess what I would do time and time again?? I'd lose the weight, as the clothes got too big I'd box up FAT clothes and store them.

Then it dawned on me this time around. What in the heck was I doing? Was I subconsciencely giving myself permission to fail and regain the weight? Did I have that little faith in my ability to not regain the tonngage? I mentioned that something "fired in the ole brain cells" this time around, something really "clicked" and so every time I would outgrow something, off it went to the box of clothes I was giving to the charity thrift store. So I broke the self-destructive cycle on this issue!

"Past relevant behavior predicts future behavior." (Dr. Phil-ism) Well I wasn't going to let my past eating behavior predict my future eating behavior!


The chart in the back of A '72 was the standard weight chart for those times, it was generated by the health insurance companies. If I am not mistaken, didn't they have a break down for male/female as well as large, medium and small frame? I'm not really sure if I like the some what newer BMI charts for the simple fact it doesn't take those factors into account. Let's face it, to me, personal weight is something the individual has to be comfortable with -- I think we know when we're "overweight" and as long as our doctors are good with our weight -- who cares, it's a number on a scale! (It's not like we wear our weight "number" on a t-shirt for the world to see!! Wow wonder if that would change some of our eating behaviors if we had to?)

My doctor was never overly concerned about my weight even at 265 lbs. All my medical test, bp etc was normal even my cholesterol levels (below 100) and I was not pre-diabetic -- I am/was TEXTBOOK healthy. I'm the atypical fat person.