Help me to understand

[neems]

I'm frustrated.

Ok, dh plan was to low carb for 6 days and have a treat on the 7th. He said last time it worked like a charm for him and so on and so on (cycling ketosis)

Well I've lost nothing in 2 weeks. I'm depressed hungry tired. But listen to this.

We have keto sticks. He is always in small I am always moderate+. Even after my 7th day treat (good all day but had a sunday at the end of the day as I just didn't FEEL like eating but made myself to keep to his regime)... anyway my keto stick went to small+ not trace.. was still in ketosis.

So my thinking (and I've read that whole atkins book but retain little in my brain fogged head) I'm always in ketosis. Therefore I should be burning fat. But I'm not burning a thing.

Here's what we ate today (he's hasn't lost an ounce this week either). Chicken in cream sauce (full cream so no carbs), flaxseed 1tbl with 2 tbl cream and water, tried something new after reading these forums didn't know cream cheese was allowed so made stuffed peppers (bell today, jalepenos were too hot i just licked the cheese out) cheese was cream cheese and a mazerlla blend). oh and shrimp scampi home made. and then diet green tea and cheese sticks through out the day. (ect)

I know he anally checks for carbs so I'm pretty sure i'm eating next to nothing.

I'm just so frustrated I could cry. We did exercize a few times a week. We are clinically morbidly obese so you would think elminating ANYTHING we'd drop SOMETHING.

What's wrong with me? Why can't I lose weight?? I'm gaining a couple pounds a day. Even on a low cal working my butt off 3 hours a day im LUCKY to lose 4 pounds a month. It will take me forever to lose if i keep gaining.

[Georgiana]

Re: Help me to understand

Having a treat (i.e. some "illegal" food) once every 7 days is not going to work if you want to do Atkins. You have to be very strict, especially during induction. It might make you feel miserable for a few days (didn't happen in my case, though), but it's all worth it! Most people lose about 5-10% of the excess weight in the first two weeks of induction, so the results will be even better if you have a lot to lose.

About your menu for today now.

• Cream sauce. Is is bought or home made? If you bought it, then check to see if it has sugar in it. If it does, get rid of it. AND don't trust the "0 carbs" label on the package.
• By cream I suppose you mean heavy cream, not some other sort of cream.
• Cheese. You're only allowed 4 ounces of cheese (i.e. about 100 g) per day. From what you say (jalapenos filled with cream cheese and mozarella, and cheese sticks "throughout the day"), I believe you go beyond the 4 oz limit.

What is missing from your menu are the salads. The only vegetable you seem to have eaten is jalapenos. However, you should be eating three cups of salad per day! The salads are really important, and from personal experience I would suggest you to choose fresh vegetables (raw tomatoes, raw cucumber, raw peppers, etc.) rather than canned ones; this is because the canned ones contain a lot of sodium (unless you buy low sodium ones, but I would avoid them anyway), which will cause you to store water in the organisms. You can make some delicious salads using raw vegetables and vinegar or seasonings (again here, be careful about salt).

Also, make sure you drink a lot of water. And I really mean A LOT here. On average I drink about 130 per day, and I recently noticed that I don't lose anything or lose very little during low-water days. So make sure (especially if I understood you correctly and you have a lot to lose) you drink at least 100 oz per day. Give up coffee or tea, because it can stall you. If you REALLY need to have them, make sure they don't contain caffeine, and drink an extra cup of water for each coffee or tea cup you drank. Of course, don't count the water used for the coffee or tea in those 100 oz of water.

To convince you that cheating from time to time is not an option on Atkins, below is a graph showing my weight loss since I started Atkins. The values on the y-axis represent my weight in kg. I had small cheats until the point where you see the last peak (at about 71.5 kg).

[kate58]

Re: Help me to understand

First of all welcome to ADBB Neem!!

I agree with everything elbisivni says - your menu is wrong and cheating will NOT help, it doesn't matter whether you call it a "cheat" or a "treat" or whether it is planned or not.

Aside from the fact that it isn't helping you to lose weight, it will not help you to learn the new eating habits that you must learn if you are going to be successful. Calling food that is patently bad for you a 'treat' is a mindset you need to lose - in fact using food, especially unhealthy food, as a treat is something that ihas gotten a lot of us into the state we were in in the first place.

I'd also emphasise the veg - you should, in fact you MUST, have three cups of salad OR 2 cups of salad and one cup of other veg every day. This is not optional. It isn't better to eat less than that, veg is good for you. And salad veg doesn't mean lettuce - you should aim to get as MANY carbs as possible from those three cups, not try to eat as little as possible. You won't go over about 12-15 carbs no matter how hard you try.

You are eating too much cream and cream cheese in relation to the good food you need - good meat, all your veg, eggs etc. There is nothing wrong with cream and cream cheese (though they are NOT unlimited), but they should not be the basis of your diet. You are almost certainly eating more than your 4oz daily of cheese, and remember that is a maximum, not a target.

Bear in mind that at least half of your carbs now, ideally more than that, should be from veg, and that cream and cream cheese HAS carbs. So unless you eat your full veg allowance you are not going to be entitled to that many carbs from other sources.

I suggest you spend some time reading though the stories in the success forum. Have a look at how the really successful people did it. I don't think you will find a single person in there who advocates weekly cheats. Nor will you find any who rely so much on cream or cream cheese. You will find that almost all of them eat prodigious amounts of vegetables, even those who didn't eat them much or at all before starting Atkins. None of these things are accidental.

Finally, being in ketosis means you are burning fat as your primary source of energy. It does not nessessarily mean you will lose weight - for that to happen you have to eat right. It is perfectly possible to gain weight while in ketosis. Don't copmpare you colour on the sticks to anyone else's - everyone is different. Also the actual colour isn't that important - Ketosis is a bit like pregnancy, you either are or you are not. Lot's of things apart from how you eat influence the actual shade you get.

Take out your book again and read the chapter on induction. ALL the rules there matter, all of them. Follow it to the letter and it will work. Mess with it and not only will it probably not work, it may even be bad for you.

[APanthesilia]

Re: Help me to understand

I agree with the others. You don't seem to be doing a real induction! It is so tempting to want to do Atkins "our" way, unfortunately, that just doesn't work! If you want it to work for you then you have to work for it the way it was intended to be done. Follow all the rules in the book and you will not be "depressed, hungry, tired"! One of the great things about this WOE is that you shouldn't be hungry. If you are hungry, then eat something! It's great! Just don't overeat and make sure it is induction friendly.

You can do this! Don't give up because you've had a disappointing first two weeks. Take the advice given here (cut back on cheese, caffeine, cream and the illegal treats and add lots of water and veggies!), follow the DANDR induction rules and see how it works for you. After really doing it for a few days I'm sure you will feel much better about it. Good luck and let us know how you do!

[brandywine1241]

Re: Help me to understand

Welcome to the board neems. You can get tons of help and support here.

There are two other things you should do in addition to what everyone else has said.

The first is to weigh or measure everything you eat. I would suggest weighing because it is more accurate. Get yourself a good food scale that resets between ingredients. In the Atkins Low Carb FAQs forum there is a NUTRITIONAL SPREADSHEET that converts weights to cups for many veggies and also tells you what phase of Atkins they are allowed.

The other thing is to write down everything you eat. Many of us use Fit Day to do this. In the Induction forum there is a sticky called FITDAY that gives an overview of this program.

I would strongly encourage you to browse the Atkins Low Carb FAQs forum. It has threads on so many subjects that people new to this WOE have questions about.

You can do this! You are not the first one who has had a disappointing first two weeks and then found the the key to what has been hindering them.

[mystic]

Re: Help me to understand

Hey Neems,

Lots of good information provided here. I just wanted to add something Brandywine is hitting at and that's portion control. I know Atkins says eat til you're satisfied, but when I did that, I was seriously over eating even though what I was eating was legal for induction.

I started tracking my calories using FitDay too and when I did that, then I lost the weight. I'm religious about keeping my intake at about 1400 calories (female). 1200 was too low and I would stall. 1400 seems to be my sweet spot. You'll have to find yours through some trial and error, but I'm sold on the fact that you have to actually track your intake because at the end of the day, regardless if you're doing Atkins right or not, if you're consuming more than you burn, you're not going to lose weight.

Keep up your exercise. Good for you! Try to do that every day - walking for 30 minutes should really assist you well at this stage. Then just track that food. You'll find the path to success.