Not a lot to loose?

[musician]

Does anyone know of a thread on here where people who haven't got tons of weight to loose talk about it? Like if you only have about 20-25 pounds to loose? I'd like to know what sort of success those people have had, and how fast it has come of...

[Perry]

The plan is the same whether you want to lose 20 or 100. You just need more patience if you're close to your goal weight. The first 2 weeks are critical to your success and doing a fat fast when you're just starting out is not recommended.

[musician]

Oh, I'm not just starting out, the reason I'm asking about the loosing a smaller amount of weight is not for myself... I'm still interested if anyone knows of threads where people started out with not so much to loose...

[cnwade]

I don't know of any particular threads to address this subject, but I will tell you from my own experience of needing to lose 20 pounds or less that it took me much longer to see results ; even with exercise.

I almost quit after doing induction for 3 weeks the first time and not really losing much at all...definitely not the 8-10 pounds some people on this board complain about losing in the first two weeks. I WISH (ed)!!!

Even after a month with less than 30 carbs a day; I still didn't notice much until the fifth or sixth week. Then after that every pound came of VERY SLOWLY...and it was strange...like one week I was at the mall and couldn't get into a size 8 or 10 pants and then seemingly just weeks later I was in size six.

Just my experience. I've been trying this time to lose 8 pounds I gained on birth control shots...well I finally managed to make it to six days of clean induction. No pounds lost...but a skirt that was tight just a week ago is now much looser.

Good luck...believe me, in some ways, it is mentally more difficult to lose a small amount of weight than a large amount because you don't see yourself as being that bad off...so the motivation is hard to dredge up.

[AmyinVail]

you know what? that's true...when I start seeing some lose (10lbs recently), I feel great and think, I can fit into my clothes, I feel good, I look better - I should "reward" myself!! It's terrible. I devised a calender with my goal (which should end up being pretty thin) and charted out a 2.5lb weight loss each week....it's really the only way I can stay strong and keep wanting to meet each goal. I've lost 35lbs before on Atkins and I was steady for 3 weeks, then whoosh, dropped 5 and really could tell in my face, etc....almost like overnight. With that in mind, I'm trying to be patient! Good point, though!

[sadie147]

The trick when you don't have a lot to lose is to be patient. They say that in induction you lose 5-10% of your total you need to lose. so of courese anyone with alot to lose will lose more.

It took me 10 months to reach my goal weight (about 24lbs lost)..It was well worth the weight! Alot of inches came off in the first tow months as well..so measureing yourself is VERY important. When the scale doesn't move, the inches could be.

[sem11]

I am 5'10 started atkins nine days ago at 149 woke up this morn at 138. I am working out an hour a day and will do anything to get back to my pre moving to england weight of 126 ( I moved to the UK from Canada in March/04). I have gained weight once before (1997) where I went from 129 to 155, went on atkins and lost all the weight with one month on just induction. I hope it works this time, but I think when you you are not over over weight and you need to loose to get super super skinny the only way to do it is stay on induction and work your little tail off and it will happen

[jessicalynn]

i do not have much to lose either i have been on induction now for 1 week and one day i have only lost two pounds but it is also my time of the month so hopefully when it is over i will get a whoosh kof weight lose! but ye4ah i also think it is a bit harder when you don't have much to lose

[musician]

sem11, that's a pretty amazing weightloss in 9 days! Questions: What did you eat during that time (roughly the foods, and did you control calories aswell, in that case, how many?), and how "hard" was that hour of exercise? I mean, exercise can be running as to save your life or walking in a moderate pace (I'm guessing you did more the first sort of exercise...)

Would really appreciate answers! :yes :joy

[tammytomandgirls]

I have to disagree with Sem11...the only way to lose the last bit of weight is NOT to stay on induction the whole time...then your likelyhood of gaining it back is VERY HIGH and that is NOT the purpose of the Atkins program that is the biggest misuse of it.

I don't have that much to lose...I've been on induction for 14 days as of today and I feel much better, I've lost some weight, my clothes are fitting better...... I have a trip coming up in 4 weeks and I'm sure if I stuck it out and pushed/deprived myself on induction for the next 4 weeks I just might meet my goal weight - BUT I'm not doing this just to meet that goal weight fast...I'm doing Atkins to MAINTAIN that goal weight for YEARS to come after reaching it and I know (from experience doing figure competitions and crash diets) that the ONLY way to maintain that weight is to go through all the phases of Atkins and lose this weight SLOWLY...learn about my body and what works and doesn't work for ME.

Its kinda sad that the only post of all these great posts here that was responded to was the one that has the "quick fix" eat practically nothing and do a TON of exercising to reach that goal FAST....because while there is no doubt that type of working out will give you the results your looking for there is slim to no chance of maintaining those results for any period of time. I have a lot of friends that are bodybuilders...they know the tricks, I know the tricks, I could VERY EASILY open one of my previous food plans/workouts and drop this weight.....but by the time I came back from my vacation I will have gained it all back and then some because I didn't take the TIME and EFFORT to learn about my body and KNOW what I need to do for LONG TERM SUCCESS... please don't fall in that trap.

There is a buddy board here and I'd be happy to ask if we could start a buddy list for those of us who don't have a lot to lose if anyone is interested :wave

[musician]

though i'm sure there is nothing wrong with what your saying tammytommyetc (long name ) I would really still want to know what sem11 did... and tammy, sem doesn't say s/he (think she..) ate nothing, that's what i'd like to know, cuz you can eat tons on induction and still just eat induction foods... my guess is sem must have been restrictive, and since i've got events comming up I'd want to know how restrictive, to see if the reason I've never lost at that rate on atkins is because i've eaten of the "sometimes ok-foods", or if I've had too many kcals, or maybe just cuz sem works out more than me and has a higher metabolism...

personally i've been back and forward with different diets now for what feels like quite a while, but I'm just completely stuck at the moment, and I want to know if maybe I should give atkins another go (I will if I find out I did it differently from sem, and believe if I do it like her I might start shifting some weight) So please reveal everything Sem11, and a big congrats on your loss, excellent job! :icondance

[tammytomandgirls]

Sem didn't have to say she ate nothing...the point is to get that kind of loss with only a little to lose you have to be VERY restrictive and your body can NOT stay that way for any length of time.

You yourself say you've been off and on diets for a long time now...THAT is the problem...you need to have a different mindset from the yo-yo, quick fix diet...a LONG TERM thought.

But, people will do what they want to....I think you should read the OWL and pre maintainance and lifetime maintainance parts of the book...it would probably be very helpful.

[Elizellen]

personally i've been back and forward with different diets now for what feels like quite a while, but I'm just completely stuck at the moment, and I want to know if maybe I should give atkins another go

Musician - how much weight do you have to lose?

[musician]

You misunderstood me Tammy, I ment that I've been going on different diets, like varying myself. I haven't actually been yoyo-ing (now for a while, it has happened in the past), but when I've noticed a diet isn't going anywhere I might have switched to another one for a while... From yesterday to today I've actually shifted some weight again (not with atkins, but with calorierestriction..) I was just stuck forever, so I thought I couldn't do it, but now I'm back on track... :icondance

It seems like forever ago I actually started this thread, so conditions change... Now I'm only about 18 pounds from my target, but I feel like if what I'm doing keeps working, I prob won't go back to Atkins... It's hard for me not to start allowing myself more and more things, bringing me to a stall, bringing me to quiting... So it's probably better if I just decide, ok this is what I'm allowed to take in, nothing more nothing less... Last time I tried atkins I lost myself somewhere along the "mmm, whipped cream mixed with cocoa powder and sweetener, yeah I can have just a little more cheese..." well you know what I mean...