no weight loss =(

[krawdaddy]

I have been on this diet for 2 weeks now and havent lost anything. I started at 144 and went from there ( 144,143,142,143,144,143,142,143) Now I am back up to my starting weight again. I have not cheated at all. I heard that if you dont eat enough food you wont loose. Is this true??? I know I dont eat enough during the day and there are times I tend to skip a meal altogether. Please help me!

[Lyssie]

Re: no weight loss =(

You need to eat every 6 waking hours. You need to eat enough food to keep your body out of starvation mode. Are you drinking your water, exercising, etc?? Skipping meals is really not a good habit to get into, even if you're not hungry, eating a small snack does wonders.

[Capemay Eagle]

Re: no weight loss =(

The book says to eat if your hungry. A nice in-between snack is a hard boiled egg, or celery with cream cheese and you can have a turkey roll up. Gotta keep that metabolism going..

[lbrowne]

Re: no weight loss =(

Did you take your measurements and starting photograph? Sometimes the scale just doesn't show it. I've actually had a month that showed only 3 pounds lost, but the photos I had taken showed a great difference.

Have you been exercising? That can show a false 'stall' on the scale. If you haven't been exercising - start!

Have you been having any artificial sweeteners or processed low carb foods? If none of these ideas help, post a menu for us to check out. Stick with it! It's well worth it. The very first two times I tried doing Atkins I didn't lose weight and gave it up. It wasn't until the third time that I succeeded because of giving up my sweet tooth and diet sodas completely.

Good luck!

~ Linda

[Elizellen]

Re: no weight loss =(

Hi
Without knowing some more about yourself it will be hard for anyone to give advice, Krawdaddy.
Maybe you can add some info to your signature like height/gender/start, current and goal weight?
To do this you need to click on the link 'User CP' along the top of the page then choose 'Edit Signature' and add these details. This will make the info appear at the bottom of any posts you make and mean we dont have to ask for the info all the time.

We do have a special forum called 'Review My Menu' where you can post recent menus and get advice from our members.

[krawdaddy]

Re: no weight loss =(

Yesterday my food consisted of : coffee when I got up; 2 eggs w/ cheese for breakfast; vienna sausages for lunch w/ tea w/ splenda; atkins drink for snack; and for supper I ate a salad w/ lettuce, tomatoe, baked chicken, boiled eggs, cheese, a few fried onions, some crumbled pork rinds and bacon ranch salad dressing.

[krawdaddy]

Re: no weight loss =(

Also I know I dont drink enough water which I am trying to change. I also dont exercise because I babysit my 6 month old niece from 8am to 6pm and she has been sick with RSV so its hard to go walking during the day. It been really cold here during the day and I dont want to take her out in the weather since shes been sick. I also have a 5 year old at home. When my niece leaves in the evening I have homework to do with my 8 year old and then comes time to fix supper. By the time I finish supper and baths its dark and really cold outside. Any suggestions on inside exercise?

[Lyssie]

Re: no weight loss =(

I would say, for induction, switch coffee to decaf (if you can), I'm not sure whether you're drinking it black or not, but the 3 packets of sweetener thing applies between this and the tea... cut the atkins drink, the ingredients in them are not friendly for induction, and can cause some people to stall even in other rungs...

What were the portions of the other things? Are you putting them into FitDay or a tracking program like that? What are your ratios at? Also, it's better to split the veggies throughout the day if you can - small salad with lunch and dinner - instead of having one meal just be a salad...

For exercise, there are a lot of great videos out there that I like. You can always use the baby for a weight to get some of that done (fave pasttime of bench the baby). There are even videos designed for younger children that you could do along with your 5 year old while the baby's napping. I know there's yoga and at least one other...

[astrogirl]

Re: no weight loss =(

I know you don't want to hear this, but coffee has carbs. You have to count them. Worse than that, splenda has trace carbs, which is why the limit of 3 units a day.

Your food mostly sounds fine, except for the shake (like Lyssie said), but I second Lyssie on fitday too. Enter what you eat for a couple of days, including the coffee and tea.

I drink caffienated coffee because it does not make me hungry (opposite) and it does not make me crave sweets at all, so I can't tell you to switch to decaf from a place of moral authority ( ), but DO NOT cut back on your veggie carbs to fit coffee in. Cut back on the coffee and tea.

I run, but I also do indoor exercise for strength. The floor exercise would be easy for you to fit in and very much worth doing. It's better than nothing. http://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/www...00000000000000 will take you to the exercise section of the Hacker Diet. I use his exercise ladder, and it's based on the Royal Canadian Air Force exercises. Start on the rung that's hard for you to do, but that you can actually do. I sub running for the running in place thing he suggests. The idea with the running in place is that you can do it ANYWHERE (which for him was a hotel room while on work travel -- no excuses!!!), but I love to get outside, so I run.

I DO NOT use the diet he advocates as I have starvation mode issues with low calorie diets and I feel about 1000% better while doing Atkins. The exercise plan is still sound though.

[irlandes]

Re: no weight loss =(

When in any doubt, use the ketone test strips. I tend to agree with the idea you need to post your menu in that part of the board.

For all except those with high metabolic resistance (such as me) the Atkins diet will work with virtually no exercise at all. Exercise is good for you for many reasons, but exercise is not a mandatory part of the diet. The diet is low carbs, and take needed supplements to compensate for lost nutrition in the carbs.

Remember Atkins only had 95% success. There are a small number who can't lose weight by this system.

Though he says not to count calories, people who find themselves against a brick wall do need, ONE TIME, to examine just how many calories they are taking. For most people, it doesn't matter, since 'normal' people can lose weight with a large amount of calories, as much as 2800 a day, but for a coarse adjustment, make sure you aren't taking much more than that.

When I started, I discovered cream is no carb, so I ate a lot. I finally realized I was consuming almost 4000 calories a day. Blecchhhh!!!!

Just don't think you have to start counting every calorie, because it's not true. I use calorie counting in brick wall situations only, and then only for a coarse adjustment.

[Lyssie]

Re: no weight loss =(

Dr. Atkins states that Exercise is NON-NEGOTIABLE. Yes, you will lose without it, but you will look better with it, and it will help you burn more carbs.

Despite irlandes' views on the ketone testing strips, you can show a false negative on them if you drink enough water. They are not the solution to everything.

While irlandes may believe people should only count calories once, it's fine to watch them other times, if you're not eating enough, it can stall things as much as overeating.

Cream is dairy, dairy is 3-4oz/day on induction.

I count almost every calorie. Of course, it seems to work a lot better when I do since then I eat more than 900 calories a day.

[ttdriver]

Re: no weight loss =(

Vienna sausages and pork rinds are high in sodium which can cause water retention (and weight gain on the scale). Strictly limit your salt and nix the Atkins drinks. Use Fitday and log everything you eat. You should be drinking HALF your weight in ounces of water everyday.

As for exercise, get yourself some exercise videos and workout at home. I'd also suggest an exercise stability ball and some dumbbells which are relatively inexpensive.

Betty

[irlandes]

Re: no weight loss =(

I am using the 1992 book. I realize he may have changed his opinion after the first 20 years of pushing his diet (1972-1992). Here is what he says p. 256 of 1992 book:

"not only is it (exercise) an essential part of the progam but in cases of metabolic resistance, it's likely to be the difference between success and spinning your wheels."

He also says, though, "I've also helped many people become slim who didn't want to exercise, therefore never did, but all of them would have been much better off if they had been willing to incorporate a reasonable amount of healthy exercise into their lives."

I agree with that, and in several of my postings have said so. However, note that he did indeed 'negotiate' with people who would not exercise, no matter what he may have said later, which was my point. The diet clearly is much better with exercise, but IT WORKS WITHOUT EXERCISE, and he admits it.

[Lyssie]

Re: no weight loss =(

I didn't say it didn't work without. My first time around (1999) I did not exercise. I said it is non-negotiable.

Advice given on this board is per the 2002 version.