UNEXPLAINED WEIGHT GAIN or is it?

**cmcole** · March 27, 2005, 05:23 AM

I wish I could give you a great answer, but you perhaps have alluded to it in your post.

Often people who give up smoking gain weight. I'm not saying any of these apply to you, it is just a generalization.

Could be a variety of things, including

- you can actually taste your food now, and enjoy it more
- you replace food for smokes
- your body is actually using the food you're eating, because it's not being poisoned by all the toxins you've put in it previously (so, even if you're not eating any more, you're using what you are eating)

I'm sure someone way more knowledgeable (and perhaps even an ex-smoker) can shed better light on this subject.

**Peterlock** · March 27, 2005, 05:28 AM

Hi cmcole, :wave

Thanks so much for responding. I think you're exactly right it has to be directly related to my quitting smoking. I haven't been inclined to eat more or even larger meals - it's probably my bodys reaction to having all that dreadful poison removed.

Thanks again for your thoughts!

Peter

ha

**tabekat** · March 27, 2005, 05:40 AM

i challenge you!

hey you - GET AWAY from the scale. yes, i mean it.

it is a useless contraption that cannot measure your dedicated effort, your loving heart, your expert nutrition, your metabolic change, and your excellent character.

why would you waste 1 neuron hanging around with such a lousy companion? aren't you through with masochism?

peterlock, i challenge you to go TWO months without getting on the scale.

:guns :guns :guns

it is high time you remove anything ego would use to berate yourself from your life.

**Peterlock** · March 27, 2005, 05:49 AM

Binky! :wave

How good to see you! How's the new job? is there a room with ocean view with my name on it yet???

Now listen am NOT enslaved by the scale..but I mean at some point you have to check your progress via evil scales and their equally evil side kick measuring tapes.

But eight pounds?...HELLO!

eh..I can live with it, I just don't understand it..not a woe is me just in "How the heck did THIS happen" kind of way...it's has to be the smoking or rather, lack there of.

Peter :hug

**tabekat** · March 27, 2005, 07:04 AM

soul search

:hug

you HAVE to "check" your progress? is that true?

terrible things would happen if you didn't "check" your progress?

weighing every two months wouldn't be enough "checks" on your progress?

you know there are some people out there who just shamelessly live their lives without "progress" checks. can you imagine? how dare they
allow themselves to have freedom from the tyranny of the
mechanical device - how sacrilegious.

what if you just lived your life and fogot there was a machine out there
that you give the power to define you?

what if you just forgot to do the self-obeisance ritual?

your "progress" is based on the little black and white numbers
on this mechanical device? i don't think so.

i STILL challenge you. you have given up high carb foods, sugar and nictotine. you have made plenty of progress in spite of the scale.

notice how you resist the challenge. doesn't that level of
resistence tell you something? doesn't it have the same feel
of another addiction?

PS.
if you gained 8 pounds, it was 8 pounds of courage, muscle,
love and smarts. :laughing

**Peterlock** · March 27, 2005, 07:15 AM

Binky , :wave

One thing you should know about me and that's that Flattery will get you absolutely...everywhere.Thanks for kind words and BTW, who says a I declined your challenge? Not I, I say challenge accepted! :joy

I'm going to put the scale in the closet, put in the three mile WATP pounds DVD and swear at Leslie Sansone for half an hour.

Peter :icondance

**cmcole** · March 27, 2005, 07:17 AM

Well, Tabekat, there are some of us who are more analytical than others. I speak from experience.

When I started Atkins (Sept 21, 2003) I had no idea of my weight and measurements. I almost wish I did.

It wasn't until December that I knew my weight, when I visited my doctor for something else. So, my point of reference is gone, because I'll never know where I started, or how far I've come (number-wise).

As for measurements, I didn't record those until February, 2004, and then I recorded them in mybodycomp.com That, again, would have been nice to have known as a point of reference.

Beginning December 26, 2003, I discovered Fitday, and have been "religiously" recording ever since (see, obsessive, analytical). The only times I missed were in July when we were travelling across the country. I recorded my meals in a notebook and tried to transcribe them, but sometimes it was just too much pain to try to figure it out (especially a couple months after the fact - when we finally got a computer and Internet connection).

All these tools are a good point of reference. I do not make myself a slave to the scale or the measuring tape (I took my measurements this morning; the last time was in February, I believe).

If I had not been charting my fitday totals, I would not have seen the problem that has been sneaking up on me since mid-May - not eating ENOUGH calories to even equal my BMR. Now I know
(a) why my weight loss has come to a grinding halt;
(b) why I am not feeling as healthy
(c) why my nails are breaking
(d) why I am having TOM troubles
(e) why I don't have enough energy
(f) why I need my glasses for EVERYTHING instead of just close reading (they are not that strong, so I shouldn't need them that frequently)

There are probably lots of other little things that have been happening in my body that I was not aware of, but those are the major things.

Now, this past week, I have been faithfully eating more calories and have noticed an improvement already. My body is responding to my feeding it nourishing foods, and not trying to hang onto every calorie in the fear that I won't feed it again.

So, I would have to argue that scales, measuring tapes and things can have their place - it is just that you need to use them as tools, and not let them take control of you.

**Peterlock** · March 27, 2005, 07:31 AM

Hi cmcole, :wave

Very well said and a good point, for me I'm not a slave to the scale or measuring tape and often suggest to people in the posts that the real benefits of Atkins can't be measured by either.

But the primary reason we're all here is weightloss, the primary reason Dr. Atkins devised the diet was in an attempt to cure his own ever expanding waist line. So I think scales are important, unless we become obsessive with them and allow them to control our feelings.

As you said - they're a tool.

I would be lying if I said the weight gain didn't bother me - on one hand since starting Atkins I've gone from a 100% sedentary life style to walking two miles a day, my overall mood is better, no more gastric reflux, cigarettes or binge eating - food doesn't control me anymore, I don't let it. And all these things are valuable and good - the weight gain however is definitely puzzling.

Thanks for your thoughts

Peter

ha

**not2late** · March 27, 2005, 07:52 AM

What was the time between this current weight and the last time you weighed?

**Peterlock** · March 27, 2005, 08:20 AM

Megs,

The time between the two weigh ins was exactly eight days, I weighed myself the day I quit smoking, I was 277 as of yesterday and this morning back up to 285,

Peter

**kellygirl2** · March 27, 2005, 10:00 AM

Hi, Peter,

I can't speak to your question about the weight issue, but wanted to stop into your thread and tip my hat to you for stopping smoking. Wow, what an accomplishment.

**not2late** · March 27, 2005, 10:23 AM

8 pounds in 8 days, sounds more like water weight than anything else...unless you've been eating an additional 3500 calories a day!

**Peterlock** · March 27, 2005, 10:31 AM

Hi Kelly, :wave

Thanks so much! it's been long overdue and I know the benefits of not smoking are much more significant than the short term weight I'll gain as a result of it.

To anyone out there whose considering quitting (and what smoker isn't?) All I can tell you is if this three pack plus a day for the past twenty-five years smoker can walk away from it - you can too.

A huge help to me was the Book "The Easy Way To Stop Smoking" by Allen Carr and was recommended to me by many people on here - just read the reviews on www.amazon.com

I had already quit when I read the book, but this insightful little masterpiece confirmed suspicions I had had all along, not to mention I can't see how anyone after reading this book would ever conceive of smoking another cigarette, no hypnosis, no scare tactics, no awful images of people sick from the diseases caused by smoking. In short none of the useless tools that have proven ineffective in getting smokers to quit.

That said, if your smoking just give it some thought, give Atkins some thought too, because it really doesn't matter how much you weigh when Iron Lungs come in all sizes.

Peter

ha

**2big4mysize** · March 27, 2005, 02:03 PM

looks like that book didn't tell you that fluid retention is one of the problems encountered by those who stop smoking. Your kidneys and fluid regulating cemicals produced by your glands should soon have you back in a homeostasis regulation.

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UNEXPLAINED WEIGHT GAIN or is it?