Losses slower to register than on typical "diets"...

[Adena]

My problem has never been that I can't lose weight. If I follow a diet, virtually any diet, I lose. If I stick with it, I lose. It's the sticking with it that's the hard part. I guess, for me, that's always been one benefit of being significantly overweight. It's easy to lose -- for a while, anyway.

Well, with Atkins, I'm finding that's not necessarily the case. I've lost a total of 17 lbs from my high weight in about 6 weeks. Which I'm happy with. But probably 12 of those were within the first 2 weeks or so.

It's weird to be as heavy as I am, but not see the weight coming off as quickly as on a typical low fat or low cal diet. I've posted elsewhere in the boards about this before, and have a pretty good understanding of why this is. And I can live with it -- for now. But, I'd be curious to hear from some other century club members about their related experiences.

Thanks much.

[2big4mysize]

Re: Losses slower to register than on typical "diets"...

if you are not over eating your Atkins nor have a medical issue make friends with your tape measure and watch the inches of fat melting off as you work your Atkins to morph your body mass.

CAFFLYGAL lost over 5 ft of inches using th measuring points in the 6WEC challenge but less then 40 scale pounds. On Atkins you are preserving your lean mass too unlike low cal diets where 25% of the weight you shed is lean tissues.

[dreamof145]

Re: Losses slower to register than on typical "diets"...

This is just my opinion....but when I was on diets in the past, I would starve myself. I felt miserable and hungry all the time. After I ate the allowed amount of food, I still wanted more. Because I was miserable, the diets never lasted more than a few weeks till I'd give up and resume eating the same as before. In doing the Atkins program, I am able to eat till I am satisfied and not have the constant want for more.

I think in any weight loss program....if you aren't satisfied, you give up. Since you quit the other programs that you were on...you don't know if the fast weight loss that you talk about would have slowed down. I think it would have. Dr. Atkins explains that slowing down the weight loss is a good thing since it gives us time to work on changing our bad eating habits into lifetime healthy ones. Since we feel satisfied with Atkins, we can stay on it because we aren't starving. In being a member of the ADBB, I've had people to talk to that have been on the program longer than me and given me excellent advice. Without the support and friendships here, I'd probably have freaked out every time I hit a plateau thinking that it wasn't working. At least thats been my case.

The combination of knowledge, friendships and Dr. Atkins' excellent weight loss program works hand in hand. In other diets I tried, I never had support or changed my way of life. I just ate what was on the list and felt deprived because I wanted more.

[Adena]

Re: Losses slower to register than on typical "diets"...

I've lost a few inches, 2big -- maybe 3? Wow... 60 inches but only 40 lbs. That's a good case study, isn't it? I still have lots of pounds to lose regardless... but I'll try to focus more on the inches.

Becky, you make a very good point about longevity. I haven't stayed on most diets long enough to find out how much the losses slow down. The longest has probably been Weight Watchers for a few months. But, in those last couple of months, I was admittedly up and down a lot -- never really losing much more than I've already lost here. I think the most I've ever lost on a "diet" in my adult life (since college) is 25 lbs. Thanks for the perspective on this -- that helps a lot.