Maybe low carb isn't for me?

[ketogenocide]

hey..

i'm 17 years old and looking to loose about 15 to 20 pounds. On january 11th of this year, i started a low carb diet along with exercise. this wasn't exactly an atkins diet, but close enough. because i am so active in the gym (i recently increased my work out to 120 minutes daily for AT LEAST 5 days, but most weekends i work out too, both saturday and sunday) i needed more than 20 carbs in my system.

so i didnt really count salads in my carbs and still dont. actually i dont plan to ever count salads in my carbs and i eat a good amount. anyways i'd substitute that with low carb hoods choco milk or something of that nature to give me energy.

after 2 months and barely losing 5 pounds, i saw a doctor for a full physical examination. she asked me a bunch of questions and the conclusion was what i had suspected. the reason i wasnt losing weight as fast as most people who start atkins is that even before the diet, i had been eating pretty much healthy. i'm asian and our diets are VERY well balanced. we dont keep much junk foods at home. soda was a once a month thign even before the diet. the reason i had gained weight was that i wasnt as active as i shouldve been..cause u know asians eat a lot of rice..

anyways the doc said that that was probably the reason. now i am approaching my 3rd month of atkins (april 11th) and my weight is STILL FLUCTUATING around the same damn number that i started my diet around. i think i h ave BARELY lost 5 pounds in the past 3 months. i do notice a big difference in inches though but still, its the weight that matters..i mean inches count too..but i dont understand WHY THE WEIGHT ISNT COMING OFF?

i got blood tests done, i dont have any problems that may be contributing to this issue. my mom is a doctor, she said that maybe low carb isnt for me OR MAYBE i am not eating enough calories..

because according to my weight, if i laid in bed all day i would burn around 1500 calories (believe it or not icalculated it from some BMR thing online)

now in the gym..i burn about a 1000 cals DAILY. I DO 60 MINUTES TREADMILL VARYING FROM SPEEDS OF 4.0 MPH TO 5.0 and 60 on the elliptical..same speed.

i think i eat around 1200. sometimes even less. i cant help it. i get full REALLY EASY WITH meats and salads. there is nothing else that i can eat on atkins thats calorie filled right?

i dotn know what to do. im considering going off of low carb for a month and seeing how inputing carbs back in my life style might helpme.



sooooo discouraged..sigh

[2big4mysize]

:wave hey I didn't know which one of your topics you were going to use this one or the one in the lowcarb not Atkins forum as your help topic.

Here is what i replied over in that topic if you want Atkins help too

First of all it is obvious you are not nor never did do Atkins. Buy yourself for $7 the book DR ATKINS NEW DIET REVOLUTION and read it and see why you must count carbs all of them if you are doing Atkins.

the Asians eat healthy/lack of activitiy weight gain is something Dr Atkins addressed in the book in Chapter 11. weight gain is based on your total cals in being greater then your total cals out from all sources period. He just felt his plan with the higher caloric burn from digesting the foods he allowed andthe good tasting meals along with the appetite suppression and the slowing of digestive emptying would be a bigger help then any other plan out there.

HAving said that you must if you want to do Atkins count your salad carbs. Yes exercise gives us many more carbs in our individual CCLL and you should be in OWL eating those healthy low GI veggies fruits nuts seeds and beans manybe even the grains.

Plug your foods into one of the free online website like www.fitday.com and I'd bet you are way over 1200 cals too if you are exercising like you say. Cause you should be building musle tissues and burning off body fat. We are all aware of BMRs and AMRs and for your Atkins to work you need to be eating between them.

Ask your mother the doctor, to explain to you how insulin controls the conversion of sugar to energy, stimulates the muscles and liver to make more sugars and stores fats. In order for your fat burning hormone glucagon to be outr in your blood stream asssiting in getting the body storage fats out of the fat cells and into fatty acids for betaoxidation for cells to create those ATP molecules you need for fuel insulin has to be low
and why Dr Atkins tells us to count our carbs. If your metabolism only handles 45 carbs then that is all you can have. Mine can handle 115 when I hit the gym for weight lifting and cardio 3 times a week and HIIT 3 times a week. Nowthat I'm swimming and not HIITing 3 times a week I'm doing good maintaining on 50 net carbs. it is the ratio of fats to carbs that controls the speed with which you lose scale weight on Atkins.

I'm sure since you are losing inches you are building muscle mass which you know is denser then fat so the fat mass is being burned up and the scales can't tell the difference. Next time you are in the gym check your body fat mass and see if you are not lowering it with your low carb eating.

As to weight counting who said that? When you walk in the room all buff and healthy nobody sees your scale numbers unless you tatoo them on your head. They see the slimmer healthier you and that is what Atkins is all about. I was underweight at 5'9" and 178 pounds cause I got from a dunk tank 142 pounds of lean mass. My BMI says I'm still overweight as do those height weight charts but my body fat is 14.9% and that is low even for female athletes. My doctor said I could and should stop losing weight.

You do what you think is best for your body with your doctor and parents advice.
Happy low carbing.

[cleochatra]

this wasn't exactly an atkins diet, but close enough

Did you ever hear the joke about two guys standing together in a room?

One man says to the other, "I invented rocket science!"
The other man says, "Really?!"
"No", replied the first. "But I was thiiiis close."

"Say!" chimed in man number 2. "I did invent a method whereby we could receive nutrition through our nostrils!"
"Indeed!" shouted man #1! "This is a miracle! Did you really invent a way whereby man can eat through his nose?"

"No", replied man #2. "But I was thiiiiis close."

[Anna7494]

I agree with the first response....you are not doing Atkins. You really need to read the book Dr. Atkins New Diet Revolution. It will help you a lot. If you follow the Dr. Atkins diet you will lose weight and be healthy...what you are doing now is not atkins and by eating so few calories while excercising so much your body probably thinks it is starving and holding on to the weight and you may actually be doing your metabolism more harm than good. And you need to make sure you are feeding your body enough fat and proteins or your body will start feeding off its own protein (muscles) for energy which harms your metabolism greatly and can be dangerous as there are vital muscles (your heart) that you wouldn't want your body feeding off of for energy. It makes me nervous that you are eating less than 30 carbs, 1200 or less calories, and excercising so much. where is your body getting all that energy? you might lose weight if you ate more actually... There are more things you can eat than meat and salad... You need to do some research, read the book, and start fresh...trust us you'll do much better. I tried doing the Atkins diet a year or so before reading the book and i failed miserably...once i read the book it was easy and i started losing weight like crazy...good luck hope that advice helps. :wave

[will7128301]

this reminded me of....


"If you don't follow the correct road, how can you expect to arrive at the same destination as everyone that took that road?"

moral of the story...READ THE BOOK!!!!

Now, try that for a month and then see if it don't work for you

Keep in mind:

A "well balanced diet" only balances one thing, and thats the scale "balanced" in the obesity range!