Induction for 20 days and gained weight back!

[tararism]

I am one of those people that has to do things all or nothing. I have not ingested anything resembling a carb for 20 days. With the exception of the dressings that say <1 carb on the label.
I play on a soccer team 2x a week. I had headaches for the first 3 days, but have not felt hungry or better about myself in years!
I eat egg whites with mushrooms and spinach for breakfast, some sort of meat with salad for lunch and the same for dinner with random snacks of veggies in between. All water All day.
The first 7 days I dropped 5 pounds. Yea. Then nothing for 2 days. Then I got a nasty stomach flu for 17 hours and could not eat or drink. And could not eat subsequently for 2 days following. Dropped another 6.
I went out of town, started nibbling on my carb free diet again after the flu.
When I returned back from my trip (day 16) I weighed at 8 pounds up!
I drank gallons of water to try and flush out whatever and take care of any constapation. So here I am, on my 20th day. I am very disappointed. I wish I had indulged in the homemade cannolis if I was going to pack on the pounds anyways! I have been adhering strictly to the no carbs and gained 8 out of 11 back?
This is crazy!!!!
Any words of advice?

[Slapshot]

Re: Induction for 20 days and gained weight back!

We don't do no-carb here. We follow Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution (2002). Sounds like you're trying to do low carb/low fat, which is a recipe for failure. You're not eating enough fat. Also, if you're eating salad for lunch, mushrooms, spinach, and random snacks of veggies in between, you're certainly ingesting many things "resembling a carb." You're likely going way over your 20g daily limit on veggie carbs alone.

If you want to follow Atkins, you should do pick it up - it's a quick read. In the meantime, you should check out the stickies at the top of each page to get better acquianted on how to do Atkins...

Also, if you don't have a lot to lose, your weightloss will be much slower...

[tararism]

Re: Induction for 20 days and gained weight back!

Thanks for that. I was modeling my diet after the atkins plan and eating food on the veggies that were ok for induction.
I dont think I am eating more than 10 carbs a day, and there is nothing low fat about cheese and meat. Celery is my staple for munching, takes care of that oral fixation i guess.
Either way, gaining 8 pounds back is ridiculous.

[Slapshot]

Re: Induction for 20 days and gained weight back!

Gotcha. Didn't see the cheese reference in your post, and thought since you were eating egg whites only that your meat was probably a leaner variety.

Water weight fluctuations (both down and up) of 5 lbs or more aren't uncommon. It's possible that your illness messed things up for a bit. How's your sodium intake? With all the water you drank, you could be retaining some water, too...

*edit

By retaining water, I mean, in combination with a sodium intake. On first read, it sounds like I'm saying drinking a lot of water will cause water retention. Actually, the opposite is true. Sorry if that wasn't clear.

[Georgiana]

Re: Induction for 20 days and gained weight back!

Could you post a few menus (for the days during which you gained weight) in the "Review My Menu" forum, including quantities for everything?

[liv]

Re: Induction for 20 days and gained weight back!

I am assuming you became very dehydrated when you were sick and some of the weight you have put back on is probably the body readjusting to getting back to normal.

I worry a bit about this no-carb you are talking about. The goal of Atkins is not no-carb. We follow the rules as to what to eat.

Also nibbling? You are not really eating meals?
Snacks should not be veggies. Snacks should be protein/fat.

I agree about the complete menu posting thing. Maybe we could have some pointers as to how to improve your menu if that is needed.

[Desertthorn]

Re: Induction for 20 days and gained weight back!

Was this all on the same set of scales?
I think what happened was when you were sick you lost a lot of water weight, and when you started back on the diet, you just rehydrated yourself. Its okay, your probably still ahead of the game. You haven't listed your stats but in the first two weeks you should have lost 10% of what you want to lose all together, and then a pound or two a week there after.

[Gottabringmeback]

Re: Induction for 20 days and gained weight back!

Eat more fat.

[ilahstrait]

Re: Induction for 20 days and gained weight back!

The more fat I ate the faster my weight came off. I ate vegtables, but if I ate more of them and less meat, I would get an upset stomach, and my loss would slow down.