[Toossehew]

Okay, since the weekend, I've tried to follow Atkins to the letter of the law.

I've eliminated caffeine. I've made sure to get 2-3 cups of approved veggies daily, but not exceeding the limit.

No forbidden carb-rich foods like bread, white rice or potatoes. No sugar. No booze.

Eating 4-5 protein-rich meals daily. Watching the cream and artificial sweeteners in my defaf coffee.

Drinking a half-gallon of water or more a day.

Working out for up to 45 minutes every other day.

Yesterday, I stepped on the scale and I had lost nothing.

So I tried going all day on just 2 eggs and 4 servings of protein powder (each serving = 18 grams protein, 3 grams carbs, 100 calories.)

Today, I am one pound heavier.

What the hell?

This has happened to me before when I tried Atkins. I'll lose a few pounds and then hit a plateau that I can't seem to break through.

Why won't my body give up this excessive weight?

[Junrlaeh]

LOL Frustrating, isn't it?

What's going on is that what you do today is NOT always reflected on the scale tomorrow...

So you followed the plan exactly for three days and stayed the same. Monday, Tues, Wed... got weight Thursday. Three days isn't long... you won't lose every day. You won't even lose every WEEK!!! This takes time. And patience. Besides... the scale weighs EVERYTHING, not just fat gain/loss. You said you gained a pound overnight. After what you ate, that's just impossible. But the scale DID go up, so what was there? Probably water... maybe waste... inflammation... OR, if your scale weighs to the closest 0.5 pounds, you COULD have been just 0.2# higher today and it clicked you up to the next half pound. For example, 123.25 will round down to 123.0. But if that same person got on the scale the next morning and weighed 123.3 it would round UP to 123.5. Did she gain half a pound? NO, she "gained" just 0.05 of a pound.

Get back to the program... follow it as best you can. If being TOTALLY strict reduces your enjoyment and increases the stress, go back to what you were doing before... you were losing, right? So don't mess with it. You'll need to cut back later... change things up as you get smaller. So do it then. And... I'm going to say it... STOP with the crash diet!!! It won't help.

Oh... and regarding the veggies. Are you following the old way of measuring??? It's no longer "2 cups greens, one cup other". I think you should look at the Induction list... go by that. You can, and SHOULD, have more veggies than you had this week.

Hope this helps.

[Toossehew]

Here's the deal. I'm a 53-year-old 5'10" man. My freshman year in college I weighed 155 lbs. I currently weigh 251 lbs. I want to get back to my college weight, i.e. I have to lose 96 lbs.

My daughter's Wedding is coming up in late January. I would like to be at least down to 220 lbs. by then, if not 200 lbs.

At the beginning of this month (September) I weighed 260 lbs. I've spent most of the month doing Atkins, although the first week I didn't realize you can't have cottage cheese or nuts on induction, and I completely splurged during a friend's 5- day visit.

So, I've lost 8-9 pounds so far this month.

Can someone please tell me: is that good? What do I need to do to accelerate the weight loss?

Please don't tell me to cut back on coffee or stevia. I can tell you right now that's not going to happen. Seems like the best I can do on induction is to get carbs down to about 30 a day. 20 a day seems unattainable for me, even though I eat no bread or high-carb food at all.

Is it realistic for a man my age to lose 10-15 pounds a month on this diet? If not, then why don't I find a less restricted diet, because I once lost 10-15 pounds a month just by counting calories?

Finally, please allow me to vent for a moment: I have to admit being somewhat frustrated with Atkins, because the more you get into it, the more you realize it's not all it's cracked up to be. For example, the literature says on induction you can have "unlimited quantities" of meat and high-protein items such as chicken and fish. Yet, on this board and elsewhere, the Atkins moonies start adding all this additional information like "you have to count calories" and "don't eat the Atkins bars," etc. etc. etc.

Well, if you can't eat the Atkins bars, why does Atkins distribute them? It makes the whole thing sound like another diet scam.

I know this is a lot to talk about all at once, but I'm serious about losing weight and need to cut through all the BS, and as I'm sure you serious weight-losers know, there's a whole lot of that out there.

Thank you in advance for your advice.

[Junrlaeh]

I totally agree with you... there's a LOT of BS out there. So, let's cut to the chase.

1. No one can eat unlimited portions of anything and hope to lose or even maintain their weight. Overeating is overeating. The "unlimited" means you don't have to limit yourself to 4oz of burger or plain boneless chicken breast (like some diets)... you CAN have more IF you're larger/hungry/etc. As one of our members used to say, "Just because you CAN eat a whole cow doesn't mean you should." IMHO, it's a semantics issue... and we overweight/overeater people see "unlimited" and think... OH BOY. But I believe the term simply means "eat what YOUR body needs", and not what "your mind wants".

2. ATKINS is actually 2 different things... the DIET, and the COMPANY. The diet is what Dr. Atkins developed. The company is what it became after he died... and what is now marketing those bars, shakes, etc. Just because it has his name on it doesn't make it special... or appropriate for everyone. You will hear warnings about these products because REAL people find they cause weight loss issues for them. You should try them, if it's important for you to have these items for your lifestyle/diet... but be cautious, and watch for wt loss problems. The only people I've ever seen be able to successfully use them are very large/tall/young men. So... go for it, but just be willing to ditch 'em if necessary.

3. You don't want BS, so I'll say it. 8 to 9 pounds for a man your size isn't all that much in your first month. You screwed up. Those 5 days where you "totally splurged" probably set you back by two weeks. You took yourself out of ketosis and replenished your glycogen stores... so on top of those 5 days you now have to add 3 to 4 more days getting back into ketosis. PLUS I'm sure you gained during the 5 days... so now you have to relose those pounds. Yup... you lost at least two weeks of losing weight. So really.. you lost 8 to 9# in half a month. It would have been more probably, had you actually been following the Induction Foods List for those two weeks.

You don't want BS? Get the book. Read it. Get the Induction Food List. Follow it.

To accelerate the weight loss... do NOT take days off, be sure you get the 12 to 15 net grams from the foundation veggies every day, drink 64 oz of water every day, get moving/be active, watch the limits on things like cheese/cream/artificial sweeteners, keep a food journal so you KNOW and you're not GUESSING at your carb counts and finally, get involved here. The support from others is the one thing you can't do yourself. You need to be part of a group... like here. The daily give and take are so important to successfully changing your lifestyle.

If you do all of those things, you will lose weight. How much? Well... as much as you possibly could between now and the wedding. You can't lose more than your body will allow. So concentrate on the plan... let the weight loss happen and know that no matter where you end up on the day of the wedding, that you are the best you could be because you did all that you could. You can't ask for more than that!!

Also... have you thought about how you're going to handle the holidays??? It's not too soon to start planning for that, wrapping your head around the fact that THIS holiday season is going to be vastly different from all of the past ones. If you associate the holidays with food... time to change that. Look for other ways to celebrate and mark the season. Go into it determined to stay the course. I don't mean that you'll "try"... I mean that you will DO IT.

I haven't said this in a while... but it seem appropriate here:

Weight loss happens in the head.

Change the way you think and you will change the way you act.

There... I don't think there was any BS in there!

Anything else? LOL

Tril

[Toossehew]

Tril,

Thanks for that pep talk, which I'm sure I needed.

After reading your post, I made a resolution to bear down on my self-discipline in following the diet.

At least I've lost 8-9 lbs. I'll do what I can to speed that up and check in regularly.

I've only been standing on the scale about once a week--I find that given as much as I have to lose, weighing daily is too depressing.

Anyhow, it's off to Atkins boot camp for this fat boy!

[Junrlaeh]

OORAH!

Repeat after me...

"If it is to be, it is up to ME."

[Dwemadayday]

Ah ha ha ha ha! Blue... Man card!! Ha ha! Funny! But seriously... My husband read me a quote once, something to the effect of "Dieting and exercise are hard. Being fat is hard. Pick your hard.". I probably didn't get that spot on, but close enough. And get exercise. If I can drag my obese butt out of bed every morning to hit the park and run, or lift weights, or whatever, so can you. Find the time, and as Nike told us, "Just do it!" best if luck! I'm rooting for you!

[Toossehew]

Tell me more about insulin resistance. What is it? What other foods/chemicals besides caffeine make it worse?

Also, yesterday in the cafeteria, I ordered a lunch of pepper steak. It had some thin gravy on it that had a sweet taste to it. What's the likelihood that this contained sugar in some form? If so, how much might that have set me back?

Another question: does it matter how late you eat supper on Atkins? On other diets, you're not supposed to eat too late. Does this matter on a high protein/low carb diet? Does it make a difference if you work out late... say, hit the tread mill for a half-hour at 10:30 p.m. after a 9:00 p.m. dinner?

[Toossehew]

I took your advice about caffeine to heart, eliminated it over the weekend and when I stood on the scale this morning, I'd lost another 2-3 pounds!

That's 11-12 pounds so far for the month of September!

Not only that, I reached my first "mini-goal," now weighing south of 250 lbs.!

Thank you for your advice. I appreciate it.

[Junrlaeh]

Well done!!!

[JessiPollo]

AROOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

well done you!

for me, i am sticking with tea these days, as for some reason, my coffee is not tasting good AT ALL! i know tea has caffeine too, but at least it's less!

may ween myself to rooibos or something to see what happens....still a dark tea, but no caffeine

and there is always chai as well...hmmm. may make a cup of that right now...soo nice with stevia

sorry, i went off to another planet there. Fatso, you are doing great. well done on taking suggestions and making a positive change! have a read of some of the other guys' threads here for some really good manly-inspiration too! (although tril and blue have such a wealth of knowledge to inspire us all of course!)

keep up the good work man!

tracy

[JessiPollo]

oh, and don't get fitted for your suit for the wedding until the last minute!! otherwise you may need to have it taken in!!!



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[appleiphoneees]

Well, you've got me thinking about cutting down on caffeine but I haven't seen a negative impact the huge amount of caffeine I consume on my weightloss. But today I did only have 1/2 a pot of coffee. That's a start. Still had probably 4 diet soda's after that but no tea. Hmm. Well, it's a start. I usually go from coffee to diet soda to iced tea during the day with several bottles of water thrown in for good measure.

Fatso, you're doing great. No BS! And I totally know where you are coming from on that. On the one hand this is the "easiest" diet I've ever done in terms of not feeling hungry. On the other hand it easy to over eat the protein too because its "suppose" to be okay.

Had an out of town trip last week, sort of fell off the wagon so to speak but did enough damage control that I only had a net gain of 2 pounds. Not too bad, really. Back at it now and back in the gym. I feel much better. Net loss even with the 2 pound gain was 15 pounds in 5 weeks.

Hang in there and keep us posted. Frank discussion is refreshing.

[JessiPollo]

that's awesome LeAnn!!!! well done on the damage control, and your losses so far!

ha ha re the caffeine for you - whoa nelly!! but hey, if you don't see any effect, than maybe for you it's all good! for me, i just don't know. haven't done enough research for myself to say for sure. i jut know coffee is damn expensive here in australia so if i can cut it out, it's potentially good for a couple reasons! i usually would only have one (half-pot-sized cup mind you) in the morning and then just water the rest of the day, maybe a chai or other herbal tea as well, so i haven't been going overboard. but, if i'm not enjoying it, i may as well just switch to a nice cup of english breakfast, which never disappoints!

tracy

[Toossehew]

Speaking of stevia, is it any better or worse than the other 0-calorie sweeteners? Do you still have to count a serving as 1 carb?

Oh, and other question: when counting carbs from veggies, which counts: the total carb count or the net count?

[Junrlaeh]

Liquid sweetners don't count toward your carb count, but they DO count toward your daily limit of 3. Powdered sweeteners have carbs in the fillers they use so it's measurable/pourable. That's maltodextrin, usually.

When count your veggie carbs (and any other food with fiber, like nuts or flax) deduct the grams of fiber from the total grams of carbohydrate IF you live in North America. In Europe it's already been done for you (on the nutrition label).

Total grams - fiber grams = net grams