Been on Atkins 3 weeks, not seeing a difference, Please Help

[Voodoochild87]

Hello. I am a 20 year old 6'4" male. When I was 16 I lost alot of weight on Atkins (down to 190). When I went to college, I realized I couldn't continue atkins because the cafeteria was the only source of food and everything had starches in it. I slowly gained ~60 pounds over the years.

Now I am living off campus and all my food comes from the grocery market, so I decided to restart atkins. I began induction and working out 3 weeks ago.

In a given day I eat a chicken ceasar salad (no croutons), 7-8 hotwings (they have 1 carb each) and usually an egg dish with cheddar cheese. Some times I eat sausage or beef instead of the hotwings.

I started going to the gym 6-7 days a week when I started the diet. I do 10-15 minutes of cardio followed by 30-45 minutes of weight training.

I take a chewable childrens multi-vitamin (standard vitamins upset my stomach) and a fiber supplement. For the first week I was taking green tea extract twice a day which had about 50mg of caffeine in it, but then I realized I wasn't loosing any weight so I stopped the green tea extract.

My problem is that I am not really seeing any results. Most of my body fat is located around my gut, hips and chest (I even have some man-boobs going on). Since three weeks ago, I have lost about 6 pounds, but I notice no difference in my gut and chest (If anything, it looks bigger). My arms and legs are feeling more toned and thats about the only difference I can see.

I am getting very frustrated as to why I am not seeing results. The weight loss isn't even consistent. 2 Days ago I was down to 248, now I'm up to 251. I don't know if this could be a factor, but I'm under alot of stress from school and other personal issues (excercising and dieting and not loosing weight isn't helping either). I even bought ketosis strips to make sure I am in ketosis and I checked every day since last week and am in the 2nd to last shade of purple.

Any help or advice would be appreciated. I'm going to keep going with atkins (I'm not thinking of quiting or anything) but I'm getting very frustrated as to why this gut isn't shrinking at all. Thanks

[lisainaz]

Re: Been on Atkins 3 weeks, not seeing a difference, Please Help

maybe you are bulding muscle from working out so much? muscle weighs more than fat, so you could be losing fat but gaining muscle!!

[Evermind]

Re: Been on Atkins 3 weeks, not seeing a difference, Please Help

Doesn't sound to me like you're eating enough veggies.

Are you drinking 64 + oz of water every day?

[Voodoochild87]

Re: Been on Atkins 3 weeks, not seeing a difference, Please Help

I'm definently drinking enough, I have to go to the bathroom once every 2 hours I drink so much. I usually through onions and red bell peppers in my eggs, and I eat a generous amount of lettuce in my salads every day. Even then, could not eating enough vegitables account for lack of weight loss?

I do 120 reps on the abb machine each day, could I possibly be building abdominal muscles that are pushing my gut out?

[lonz]

Re: Been on Atkins 3 weeks, not seeing a difference, Please Help

I'm definently drinking enough, I have to go to the bathroom once every 2 hours I drink so much. I usually through onions and red bell peppers in my eggs, and I eat a generous amount of lettuce in my salads every day. Even then, could not eating enough vegitables account for lack of weight loss?

I do 120 reps on the abb machine each day, could I possibly be building abdominal muscles that are pushing my gut out?

Onions typically have a lot of carbs in them as far as I know. Check this: http://www.calorie-count.com/calorie...d=11282&size=5

For one slice it's like 4 carbs.

[Duinai]

Re: Been on Atkins 3 weeks, not seeing a difference, Please Help

Seems like you doing REALLY good, IMHO. definately you KNOW what you suppose to do, dear. As a man, you should NOT see as much fluctuations as we, ladies, do. I really think that you are SO MUCH into workout that you start building your muscular machinery so fast you dont even see your fat droppage. I know, is more typical for females.... who love to measure... but maybe you need to find some old jeans and use them as your measuring device... see if you losing fat inches around your guts... I am sure, if you continue what you are doing right now, you will see results. And.... speaking about green tea... I would recommend buy green tea packages ( I absolutely love green tea with herbs... maybe lemon or jasmine!!) , make your own green tea in a huge coffee mug, let it cool down.... ( or maybe put it in fridge)..... super good after you back home after your workout.


<hugs>


Dui

[Sera]

Re: Been on Atkins 3 weeks, not seeing a difference, Please Help

it looks to me like you are indeed not getting enough veggies.
while i was on induction i got around 75 % of my 20 net carbs from veggies, the rest came from eggs and cheese for the most part.
you would be getting almost half of your carbs from chicken wings if you are indeed still on induction.
please have a look at the allowed foods list:

http://www.atkinsdietbulletinboard.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6781

eat your 3 cups of veggies a day and stick strictly to that list.
I personally found that chicken wings can have sugar added in the spice mix that is used, so you might want to check that.

definitely measure yourself if you don't already, so you see if you are just not losing weight or really arent losing at all (inches count you know )

if you gain muscle mass it is indeed possible that you dont see much weight loss but the inches should go.

i also suggest you use fitday to enter what you eat every day (if you dont already).
i measure EVERYTHING i eat as well so I can be sure I'm not going over my limit.

also, if you post your complete menu including any snacks you might have, someone might be able to tell you if there is anything you are eating that can causes problems.

good luck with the rest of your journey, im sure you'll be fine in the end.

[Jace]

Re: Been on Atkins 3 weeks, not seeing a difference, Please Help

If you're working out every day you have to keep in mind that it's pretty hard on your muscles when they aren't used to it. They suck up as much water as they can to repair themselves and keep it until they adjust to the new regimen. There have been times when I retained a great amount of water for close to a month due to the above fact.

That could be part of the problem.

Also keep in mind that you're not going to lose weight exactly where you want to. It's completely up to your body what fat cells it's going to burn so you could very well be losing, just not any place that would notice it right away. If you have substantial girth it could take 20 or more lb loss before it's visibly noticable. And it's usually the case that we're so used to seeing ourselves overweight that it takes us longer to notice a change in body shape than it would take an outside observer.

And yes, you could very well be building muscle under the fat which could account for higher fluctuations in the scale. However, the scale is not the best measure of weight loss. Your measurements are the most important.

If you stay faithful to the plan you'll continue seeing results. The bottom line is you have lost so regardless, you're experiencing success!

Best of luck!

~Far la bella figura!

[dpaca]

Re: Been on Atkins 3 weeks, not seeing a difference, Please Help

I'm definently drinking enough, I have to go to the bathroom once every 2 hours I drink so much. I usually through onions and red bell peppers in my eggs, and I eat a generous amount of lettuce in my salads every day. Even then, could not eating enough vegitables account for lack of weight loss?

I do 120 reps on the abb machine each day, could I possibly be building abdominal muscles that are pushing my gut out?

Hi. I just thought I should tell you that whenever i eat onions and peppers, I never lose any weight, and what you decribe has happened to me when eating these foods. I love peppers esspecially red ones but I realised that they sabbatage my diet. And the onions, well, i found it very difficult to cook without onions and then I just had to give them up. Now when I make an omelet I put in cheese and spinach, or cream and leeks. They are tasty too and help me lose the weight.

[ttdriver]

Re: Been on Atkins 3 weeks, not seeing a difference, Please Help

Personally, I would increase your fat intake. Sounds like you are getting enough protein (perhaps too much?) but I wonder how much fat ... ? Your percentages should be 65% fat, 30% protein, 5% carbs (from allowed veggies). Too much protein will convert to glucose ... scary thought.

Great job with the exercise .. don't cut back !

Betty

[Voodoochild87]

Re: Been on Atkins 3 weeks, not seeing a difference, Please Help

I'll take what you guys said to thought, I'm starting to notice the diet kicking in. Jeans that didn't fit me a month I now wear with a belt to stop them from sagging, thanks for the responses guys.

[westendop]

Re: Been on Atkins 3 weeks, not seeing a difference, Please Help

Hey dude,

Keto strips aren't that accurate because if you aren't taking in enough water, they will be closer to purple. If you were to drink alot of water in a day, they would be lighter shade of pink. Anyways, here is a typical day for me. 2-3 eggs with 2 strips of bacon or two sausage links. Lunch is a garden or caesar salad, about 2-3 cups of salad with 2 tblspn of dressing and also a chicken breast or can of tuna or a salmon fillet and a couple slices of cheddar cheese. Supper is usually some type of meat(steak, chicken pork chop, hamburger patties), broccoli or cabbage or green beans. Also eat alot of sauteed mushrooms and cauliflower. Remember carrots, peas, beets etc are not good for you. They say diet pop is okay, but I recommend to stay away from it. Drink a bottle of water for breakfast, 1 for lunch , 1 for supper and 1 in the evening and that will be the minimum you should have but try to get more in.
count your carbs to make sure you aren't going over 20 g /day.

Good luck

Jamie