Over 45? Word of Warning

[liv]

Re: Over 45? Word of Warning

No need to apologize. You ask some very good questions there. If I ever have some answers I would tell you.
Definitely I think on any diet hard to keep weight off. Partially that is psychological and partially that is physiological. Psychological because many of us get into the mindset that because we have reached goal we can reward ourselves and eat more like we used to. Which of course is a recipe for disaster. Maintaining will mean using the same strategies as you established when you lost and continue those. Which is why Atkins wrote a maintenance phase in his book.
Physiological - research indicate that even when we get thinner we keep all our fat cells (they are just smaller) and these cells will want to get bigger no matter what so we are working against odds that people who have always been thin do not have. That is just how it is.
Yesterday I as reading that one of the things that may help people maintain easier is exercise. It will not hurt for sure. And it does not have to be super vigorous exercise - just walking fast one hour a day may be an ingredient for success.

[mizski]

Re: Over 45? Word of Warning

I don't really know what my question is, I just see so many people yo yoing, up and down, up and down. I was trying to figure out why and I was wondering how the weight comes back so quickly, how strictly do you have to stick to the 20 carbs before gaining. I know everyone's carb intake is different for gaining but what is the limit you guys can eat and not gain? I should have reworded my question. Are you gaining because you just stop Atkins completely? Or do you see gaining even if you are watching your foods just not counting carbs? Which yes, the latter would not be doing Atkins.....but you aren't doing Atkins IF you are gaining, correct?

OWL is where we learn how our bodies react to different foods and how many carbs we can have before gaining weight. When weight loss slows it might be because you are approaching your CCLL; when you gain, it might be because you exceeded your CCLL and need to lower your carbs a bit. What I am finding out is that it is not so black and white as this as it appears with me, it depends upon the type of food as well as the carb total (see my earlier post).

For purposes of this thread, I believe this may be a post-menopausal issue too...weight is slower to come off and easier to put back on. It is a hormonal thing, not a cheating on the diet thing.

it seemed to me that I had read a lot of threads where people were going up and down. I was just wondering how easy it was to gain, how hard it was to keep the weight off once its lost.

From what I've observed in my few months on ADBB is that there are a LOT of people who start a low carb diet and call it Atkins. They try to cut out a lot of carbs and eat a lot of bacon and eggs and then wonder why things aren't working so well. Or they read the Induction stickies and maybe skim that part in the book and either do their own version, stay on Induction far too long (or permanently, thinking that is Atkins) or expect to be instantly thin and then go back to eating whatever.

It is imperative to go through OWL if one ever expects to learn how to keep the weight off. It takes time and patience. It is not a clear-cut journey like Induction was as each person has to experiment and figure out what works for them. Many people choose not to bother with this critical phase of Atkins. And many (most?) end up gaining weight back. If the time is taken to do OWL correctly then you find out your CCLL and then your CCLM and then have a clue on how to maintain your weight. IMO, maintenance is a continual effort...going back to old eating habits will result in gaining weight back.

Those were very good questions. I don't think anyone would take offense by them.

p.s. You mentioned changing to WW when in Maintenance. Personally, I think that is a sure road to weight gain...and repeating the whole process again. No thanks.

[pinkfusion]

Re: Over 45? Word of Warning

In all honesty for me I am just happy that I broke my carb addiction.

I just remember getting up numerous times a day for a carb fix and then consuming huge amounts of calories as a result. My loss has way slowed, and yes I have cheated, but I am still headed in the right direction!

I notice more cravings at that totm (i'm still pre) and thats usually when I blow it.

But yeah, like a lot of you I have found that I really need to keep it simple and the recipes and so forth are a luxury for me to take the time to prepare.

[Jenileigh]

Re: Over 45? Word of Warning

When I did Atkins before, I used the book but I played with Induction after the first 14 days. I did 20 carbs or less but I used anything to get the combo. More than likely I was often over 20 because I never counted mayo, texas pete or things that read 0 on the container. There were many days I ate correctly-I've always loved veggies- but there were days I ate only meat and eggs and then had 1/2 a Hershey Bar with some peanut butter. There were days I ate 30 to 40 and then backed down to 20 and of course there were days I blew it and then went back to 20. But I have to say that for the majority of time I ate a lot more healthy than when I ate whatever I wanted, and was most close to Atkins.

I added my carbs back in weekly and found I could usually eat 80 carbs or so without gaining. What I plan to do differently this time (if I'm as blessed to be able to eat 80-100 carbs without gaining this time) is to eat complex carbs, adding recipes and healthy Atkins friendly foods instead of eating meat, cheese and eggs and 80 carbs of candy, cake or brownies.

I know I'll have to add my carbs back in slowly each week to see if my body has changed since last time being that was over 10 years ago. I'm 38 and I know my metabolism may be slower than it was when I was in my twenties.

I have a gym in my basement, complete with an extremely nice tread mill, elliptical, weight bench, ball, Gazelle, and a vertical knee raise/chip dip station. Along with tons of work out dvds, Leslie Sansone walking dvds, and numerous other things. I have no reason for not working out. I was waiting until I lost a little more before beginning.

I want to be healthy. I'm tired of yo yoing. I am bad to do really good and then binge on carbs. The foods I can't have are the foods I want when not eating low carb. This last time I didn't even care for meats or veggies, just rice, potatoes, pastas, soups, gravies, breads and things I didn't have while on the diet . I know its just because I haven't had them in so long.

That is sad about our fat cells. Like they are just sitting there waiting to be able to BLOW up again.

Thanks for the discussion ladies. There are two things I want, the first one is success to lose to my goal and the second is find a weigh of eating that I can live with for life without gaining back. (with some exercise for my health as well)

[chinadoll]

Re: Over 45? Word of Warning

Hey Jenileigh, this whole site is just for folks with questions and misperceptions about Atkins. As liv said this particular thread started off for the 45+ crowd. I wanted to post on that subject because a lot of newbies come in at our age and are dissatisfied with their slow loss rate, so I wanted them to understand there are actual biological reasons why the fat comes off more slowly at our age and tends to cause a lot of scale bobbing as the hormones go wild. But all questions are welcome.

If you are under 40 you will probably have much more steady progress than us older gals.

With regards to the carbs- you can lose weight on 20-30-maybe even your 80 carb grams a day but the way to find out and still lose weight is through OWL and by the book. That's the only way to learn what your losses can and can't tolerate.

As far as going off track--sometimes one cheat send people spiraling off for days. That one taste is like alcohol to an aloholic. Thats when you see folks gaining 20 pounds fast. Once they binge they often binge hard. I mean if an alcoholic goes off the deep end, they don't take that first sip, have one beer and walk away. Often they buy a bottle and get soused. Same with a carb addiction. One slice of cake may lead to a Doritos/pizza/ice cream orgy so all those calories hitting your system at once are stored as fat and they bring on some wicked water weight as well. So yeah, the regain speed is truly horrifying in those cases. All the more reason to get back on track at the next meal if you do stray. Just keep telling yourself that it isn't "just one bite" of something you miss. It could be the pebble that starts the avalanche that undoes all your hard work. That is enough to keep me scared straight (most of the time).

I do find that this WOE is more up and down on the scale than some other diets but the longterm is much more down than other plans I have tried. You just cant be a slave to the scale's numbers. If you are sticking to the plan you have to trust that the scale will eventually get on board too.

[Jenileigh]

Re: Over 45? Word of Warning

Jill, that is it exactly. Your description fits me to a tee. Thanks for the help. I'll bow out of this thread now.

[chinadoll]

Re: Over 45? Word of Warning

Glad it helped!