Very Frustrated. Please Help!

[regulaone]

This is my first time ever on a message board so I hope I'm doing this right. Please forgive me if I'm not. I’ve read a bunch of the posts on here and have not found an answer that answers my particular problem. I’m going to give all the information that people ask for, so this could be a long post. My husband and I have been on an extended Atkins Induction for 8 weeks now and after the initial Induction week one weight loss have not lost any weight. We followed Induction strictly for two weeks before adding nuts (and he added alcohol later on) to our diet. I have read the book, several times. I have read all the information, and printed it, off the Atkins web site. We are both very careful and accurate in our carb counting. We each eat under 20 carbs a day, exercise 2-3 times a week, drink 64 ounces of water a day, take vitamin supplements daily, and he is taking the L-carnitine and CoQ10 supplements. We don’t eat more than 2 ounces of cheese a day, this last week we dropped the 2 ounces of almonds or macadamia nuts we were eating, still no change. I don’t drink alcohol at all, and he drinks maybe 2-4 drinks a week, consisting of miller lite, or hard liquor mixed with Diet Rite. I drink one cup of coffee a day in the morning. We have the Ketone Sticks and I am constantly in Small to Moderate ketosis, and he is constantly in Moderate to Large ketosis.
Having read all the literature I believe that this diet works. We are both very happy on it. I’m not hungry now, where I was very hungry all the time on Weight Watchers. We are both just getting very frustrated with the lack of weight loss and lack of inch loss.
My husband is 6’2” and his start weight was: 263
Week 1: 258
Week 2: 257
Week 8: 257
I am 5’4” and my start weight was: 142
Week 1: 139
Week 2: 137
Week3: 138
Week5: 140
Week 8 : 140

I realize that since my goal weight is only 130 that it will take me longer to get there, but neither one of us is seeing a change. I’m ready to quit and try something else. Before getting pregnant with our son who was born in January, I weighed 132 pounds, the lightest I have ever been in my adult life. I’m thinking that maybe the fact that I am still nursing might be affecting my weight loss, but I would really like to lose this last ten pounds before getting pregnant again. My husband, however, has 50 pounds to lose and should theoretically be losing weight faster.
Can anyone help us? Is there something that we are missing here?

[liv]

Re: Very Frustrated. Please Help!

Not sure that you should do induction when you are nursing. Atkins says that nursing mothers should eat maintenance menu and not weightloss menu on Atkins.

Could you post a detailed menu for your husband and lets see what is up.

[regulaone]

Re: Very Frustrated. Please Help!

I know Atkins does not recommend weight loss while nursing but my son is now 8 months old and getting most of his nutrition from baby food. My pediatrition says that he is the healthiest baby in his practice. I'm more concerned for my husband who has far more weight to lose than I do.
Here is a typical day for us:
Breakfast:
2 fried eggs
2 strips of bacon
1 cup coffee with 1tsp heavy whipping cream and 2 tsp davinci sugar free coffee syrup
Lunch:
2 cups Romaine Lettuce
1/2 grilled chicken breast
2 TBLS blue cheese crumbles
2 TBLS Kens Caesar Dressing
Snack:
1/4 cup almonds or 1/4 cup macadamia nuts
Dinner:
Steak (once a week, grilled chicken most of the time)
1 cup broccoli with butter
1/2 cup mushrooms cooked in butter and garlic
Snack:
Atkins Bar - 2 carbs

And of course we are drinking at least 64 ounces of water throughout the day.

My husband will occasionally drink a Miller Lite or a Vodka and tangerine Diet Rite at night. I will occasionally drink a Diet Rite coke. Sometimes, if we are rushed in the morning we will drink an Atkins Shake instead of cooking breakfast. And every once in a while I make a crustless low carb pumpkin pie, with pure pumpkin, 3/4 cup whipping cream, 3 eggs, 1/2 cup sugar free coffee syrup, and spices that comes out to under 3 carbs a 1/8 slice.

[liv]

Re: Very Frustrated. Please Help!

Here is my opinion
**Too much sweeteners. Between what you put in the coffee, bars. shakes and in the alcohol - you may be keeping your insulin levels too high. Try cutting those out. Completely.

**Of course at one point your husband may have to choose between drinks and losing weight. You may not be able to have your cake and eat it too here. I would try being without drinks for a bit and see what that does.

**Too many frankenfoods. Those bars and shakes can be stallers. Cut them out and see what happens. Those bars may say 2 carbs but the Atkins company does some fancy counting to make it that way. The bars contain non induction friendly ingredients.

**Nuts are not on the induction menu. Is it a trigger for you and your husband making you eat more?

**Coffee - can lead to insulin spikes. Perhaps moving to decaf to see how that works out

** How many carbs does your husband eat per day? I think that that menu may be quite a few - especially if some beers are added to it. Induction should not be more than 20 and most of those carbs should be from veggies.

I suggest cleaning things up for a bit - cutting out some of the extras on the menu. And then perhaps move up to OWL when you got it going again.

Do you guys get any exercise in? I know, probably not easy with a little one around

[regulaone]

Re: Very Frustrated. Please Help!

Thanks for the advice! You are totally right about the artificial sweetners. I had not realized how much we were eating a day. We are going to completely cut them for this next week, along with the alcohol, and see what happens. My husband is also getting more serious about hitting the gym every week which should help as well.

I do have a question for you though, you said that our insulin levels could be too high because of the sweetners. I thought that we were okay since we were both in ketosis. Are those two things not connected?

One more question as well: Is there a chance that our bodies will eventually reset and we will be able to eat Splenda without insulin spikes? Or is this pretty much par for the course?

[liv]

Re: Very Frustrated. Please Help!

I hope things go well with the adjustment.
You are right about the ketosis - if you're in that means insulin should be down. But there are other things that may give you a positive on a ketosis thing - like alcohol (sometimes exercise).

I would probably start by doing things clean and then gradually introduce some of the things you want to introduce - one at a time - and figure out if they may be an issue. Maybe if you find splenda IS an issue you could try one of the other allowed sweeteners? Many people like Stevia because it is more natural.

[Greeneggs&ham]

Re: Very Frustrated. Please Help!

OK, I'm going to be yelled at for this, but since I'm a guy, I feel like it may be applicable since it's something I would have done at one time. Is it possible that your husband is eating something non-Induction friendly and not telling you? Before I was serious about losing, my wife would make me a lunch for work which I would eat...along with a candy bar from the vending machine. Of course it was cheating, but what my wife didn't know didn't hurt her. I know, I know -- I'm a pig of a man, but I've changed and am now seeing great results (on the scale and in my marriage). I'm just wondering if your man might be as stubborn as I once was. I hope not, for everyone's sake!

[regulaone]

Re: Very Frustrated. Please Help!

I have to laugh at the last post! Yes, a year or two ago I would be very suspicious, but he's finally really serious about losing weight. (I hope) If he's giving up alcohol for weeks on end I KNOW he's serious!
Other than running around like a mad man in full tactical gear for hours on end in the hot sun playing paintball, he really hates to exercise and now he's been going to the gym 2 or 3 times a week. He's been very discouraged with the lack of weight loss. It doesn't seem fair that when you really get serious it still doesn't work! Let's hope the artificial sweetners were the problem. His doctor diagnosed him as borderline diabetic (whatever that means), but since starting Atkins he hasn't had the low blood sugar drops that used to make him tired and cranky.
Thanks!

[regulaone]

Re: Very Frustrated. Please Help!

Hey, just wanted to leave an update. My Husband lived through a week of cutting artificial sweetners, caffeine, atkins bars and shakes, and <drum roll please> alcohol. And guess what! He lost 3 pounds! He was trying to blame it on the sweetners, but has finally come to the realization that it was probably the alcohol. I think his body was spending too much time burning all that off and not enough on the carbs. This week he is adding artificial sweetners back in moderation and see what happens.
Thanks so much for your help Liv!

[Greeneggs&ham]

Re: Very Frustrated. Please Help!

Glad to hear the two of you found the culprit. Hopefully dropping a pant size will outweigh the desire for another Jack & (diet) Coke.

[determined2shrink]

Re: Very Frustrated. Please Help!

The ketones spilling into your milk can affect the brain developement of your child. You are putting your child at risk. Even if your child is heathly it doesnt mean that you arent causing damage.

Have you spoke to your childs doctor about the fact that you are spilling ketones into your breastmilk and what can do to your baby?

[Gabriella28]

Re: Very Frustrated. Please Help!

Hi Regulaone,
Your husbands situation sounds so much like my husbands. My husband doesn't drink alcohol but he wont give up sweeteners. He insist that sweeteners do not sabotage his diet. I'm eager to learn if your husbands weight loss continued after consuming sweeteners. I look forward to your response.

[TyCowboy]

Re: Very Frustrated. Please Help!

One caveat on the gym thing...and I don't want to get into the whole density argument on fat and muscle...but I would suggest possibly using tape measurements instead of scale measurements if you are actively working out heavily...especially if weight lifting is involved, as I have found I may "stall" but the pants are looser...follow me?

Ty.

[regulaone]

Re: Very Frustrated. Please Help!

Hey everyone,
First off, about the breastmilk, I have checked my milk on the ketone sticks and found that it always registers negative to trace amounts. My little boy is 8 and 1/2 months old and prefers eating to nursing, so I'm not really worried about it.

Second, about the sweetners. My husband lost another pound and a half this week, eating sweetners but cutting way back on the alcohol. I think he had one hard liquor drink and several low carb beers throughout the week. If he had completly cut them he probably would have lost more weight. Its up to him but I'm hoping he will decide that faster weight loss is more fun than the occasional beer. It doesn't look like the sweetners were affecting him very much or at all. Gabriella28, I would encourage you and your husband to stick with it and maybe try a week or two of cutting the suspects and see what happens. We are on week 10 now and just now figuring out what works. Some people seem to be blessed with the ablilty to see instant results dieting while others of us take a lot longer.

Third, I've tried to get him to measure but he says that it is a flawed system since you can't be sure you are measuing in the same place every week. I don't think he is really working out enough to be replacing enough fat with muscle that it would change the scale that much.