Why so many people successful on Atkins have to return after a weight gain?

[pinkfusion]

I see soooo many posts from people that have been very successful on Atkins only to go and gain some of the weight back. I really dont want this to happen to me! In a way I dont understand it because this way of eating has become so much of a lifestyle for me in the little over 2 months that I have been on it. Is there just something that happens to you when you have been on it for a year that a donut just looks good to you again? The thought of a donut is sometimes good, but if it came down to actually eating it I imagine I would not even want the whole thing.

Maybe I am overthinking this but it just seems weird to me and I also dont want to be a statistic! I guess this is just a vent. I hope that's okay

[Slapshot]

Re: Why so many people successful on Atkins have to return after a weight gain?

My opinion is because most people don't follow the rungs the way they're intended. They lose a bunch of weight on induction/extended induction, then jump to Rung 9 and beyond. That's a recipe for long term failure.

[msanjelpie]

Re: Why so many people successful on Atkins have to return after a weight gain?

I started THIS time at 250. I wouldn't be 250 in the first place without a major eating disorder. Losing all the weight with Atkins doesn't take away the disorder. It just gives me the means to an end. Once I'm at goal, at the end of the day, it's still me and my brain and the crazy thinking that goes on telling me that I should be able to eat a fried shrimp dinner with mashed potatoes once a month if I want...

So I eat the dinner and go back to Atkins maintenance and all is fine... except that little voice in my head, the same voice that got me to 250 in the first place... That little voice never ever shuts up. It says... well I had the shrimp and nothing bad happened... I should be able to have some chicken fried steak this week... and the time in between 'bad' meals slowly shortens and before I know it a brownie with walnuts slips in there on my son's birthday and then some chocolate covered cherries on xmas morn and time passes and the number starts to creep back up...

But it's ok because I can just hop back on induction and get that number back down, but well induction is so easy, I'll just do it next week... and on and on and on...

It's a brain game. And it all starts with ONE meal... one innocent meal.

THIS time, will I play the game again? Will I try to 'test' myself to see if my eating disorder is 'cured'? I hope not... But that's a year away from now... A year of highly motivated weight loss where I have a goal in mind. Not the skinny me that can dance around and think I can get away with anything at the end of the goal...

It really has nothing to do with the 'rungs' for me. It has to do with thoughts in my head... and no amount of 'teaching' good eating habits is going to make those go away... so in that regard it's totally a matter of willpower and wanting the 'new' me to be the 'forever' me...

[not2late]

Re: Why so many people successful on Atkins have to return after a weight gain?

I see soooo many posts from people that have been very successful on Atkins only to go and gain some of the weight back. I really dont want this to happen to me! In a way I dont understand it because this way of eating has become so much of a lifestyle for me in the little over 2 months that I have been on it. Is there just something that happens to you when you have been on it for a year that a donut just looks good to you again? The thought of a donut is sometimes good, but if it came down to actually eating it I imagine I would not even want the whole thing.

Maybe I am overthinking this but it just seems weird to me and I also dont want to be a statistic! I guess this is just a vent. I hope that's okay

Technically, you never go off Atkins because you should be maintaining your weight on the Maintenance Phase diet.

But I think the reasons for falling off Maintenance are many.

1. Never learning how to properly eat for your body, as Slapshot said. In a book by Fred Pescatore, MD (who was the Associate Director of the Atkins Center during the 1990s), he wrote that even after you lose the weight, you will always be that fat person. Meaning, if you want to remain at your goal weight, you have to eat in a way that keeps you thin. You can't go back to your old eating habits, which are the eating habits that helped get you fat in the first place. So if guzzling down quarts of ice cream or pounds of potato chips packed on the pounds in the past, then you better not revert to those old habits if you want to stay thin.

2. Never devising coping mechanisms to deal with trigger situations is another. If you know that driving home on the freeway causes you stress which causes you to stop at a convenience store to buy bad foods, then you have to devise a strategy to cope with that trigger. If you cope with it during Atkins by replacing a bad food with its low carb counterpart, that's not really solving your problem in the long run. When you get to goal weight, you might think "Well, I'm at goal so I can eat XYZ, and not worry about it....for now." Do that enough times and you'll be right back on Induction Phase Day 1.

3. Always using Induction as a quick fix for indiscretions. You'll see it if you read enough threads: people use Induction as their crutch. They'll go off the diet because they convince themselves "I'll be okay as long as I go immediately back on Induction". Do that enough times and you'll always be restarting and restarting and restarting Atkins. (These people typically never make it to goal or even out of Induction Phase.)

4. Self-sabotage. You'll see this frequently too. It's the person who always finds an excuse or a reason to screw themselves up. This is most likely due to a poor self-image: they think they are doomed to be fat forever, so they make sure they are fat forever by always messing up. The more they fail, the more the prove to themselves that they are unworthy.

There are others, but these are the ones I have seen repeatedly throughout my years on ADBB. If you avoid these traps then you'll find your Atkins journey very empowering and rewarding.

[Lollypop-]

Re: Why so many people successful on Atkins have to return after a weight gain?

I have often wondered that too. Are we destined to gain weight? Will we have to struggle with this all our lives?

MsAnjelpie, thank you for your honesty. I feel and share your struggle. It is difficult for me. I am glad to see we are not alone. I admire everyone's courage to do Atkins again after gaining weight.

[FwL]

Re: Why so many people successful on Atkins have to return after a weight gain?

It doesn't matter which "diet" you choose. If you go back to your old eating habits after losing the weight, you're going to rebound. It''s been shown that after a diet most tend to gain back more weight than they lost and do so rapidly.

In this respect, you can never go off a "diet" if you want to maintain your weight loss.

[CarbaholicJoe]

Re: Why so many people successful on Atkins have to return after a weight gain?

You can actually gain more; its very easy. Biggest issue for me was unlike a conventional diet your stomach doesnt shirnk as you eat smaller portions; atkins allows you to eat large amounts of food.

[liv]

Re: Why so many people successful on Atkins have to return after a weight gain?

I assume you are not worried about why they come back but why they gained in the first place? This is one of my worries too. And as I can understand it from reading lots of threads and following some peoples - maintaining is very very hard. I think sometimes people make the mistake of losing all or most of the weight while in ketosis and don't really learn how to control themselves in a ketosis free environment.

It looks like being at your ideal weight will take even more committment that it took to lose the weight in the first place. I am in the same boat as you, I am trying to find strategies so that I can be as prepared and as skilled as possible when I get there.

One of the things I have decided is not rush through OWL. And even if I have an item and do not lose I do not give up on it. I try it out again perhaps in a bit different combinations. I really want to know what I can eat and how much. We get smaller and we have to eat smaller.

I have decided not to worry about ketosis and let it go and work with foods still in a low carb environment to see if that helps.

I have decided to try to see what happens when I push the borders before I get to maintenance (that is what premaintenace is about I have decided) so that I do try things out while still in a losing mode.

Is all this going to help. I don't know. But I think what you are saying is very important and is something all Atkins travellers should be aware of.

[pinkfusion]

Re: Why so many people successful on Atkins have to return after a weight gain?

Thank you so much for all of the great responses.

Part of where it doesnt compute for me right now is that I feel no compulsion to cheat or do anything any differently. I feel like my appetite is completely under control. Is that the ketosis? But then the cravings are completely gone also.

Yes, I guess I am afraid and I want to deal with this right now before I ever get to that point. And I am one of the ones guilty of rationalizing an indiscretion. I guess thats just playing with fire.

I cant imagine ever not eating this way or going back to the old way ever again. I wonder if others felt like this during weight loss?

[bizzlekitty]

Re: Why so many people successful on Atkins have to return after a weight gain?

As someone who has slipped a few times, what not2late said covers it pretty well.

When you hit plateaus and stalls, or face real life problems that cause emotional eating, etc. it's too easy to just "cheat" a little as a treat and spin out of control.

This is not a diet, this is a Way of Life.

The program works if you follow it, and come here for advice.

[MelTin]

Re: Why so many people successful on Atkins have to return after a weight gain?

A lot of people fall off te diet because the weight loss is easy in the beginning but then it levels off. They are motivated with the losses but Atkins just doesn't work straight line. Most anyone who has done Atkins for any lenght of time has hit stalls and they can last from 4 weeks to many months. When you hit one of these stalls just be glad for what you have lost and remember Atkins is a way of eating for the rest of your life and not a diet.

[mizski]

Re: Why so many people successful on Atkins have to return after a weight gain?

I cant imagine ever not eating this way or going back to the old way ever again. I wonder if others felt like this during weight loss?

I've lost quite a bit of weight since Aug2008 doing SBD but after a while my weight loss slowed to a crawl. Although I think it was an excellent and healthy plan, I always suspected that it was too many carbs and so here I am on Atkins.

The reason I bring all that up is that I've had over a year to learn about healthy, whole foods and the importance of proper portions and exercise. I just needed a better plan for me.

This has become my WOL. I can't even imagine eating junky foods or huge portions of carb-heavy foods anymore. I'm still working my way to my goal weight and that will take a while. I wish I could just have a "do over" and go back to my thin self NOW. With all I've learned and am learning, I could and would never go back to being fat.

[chadcs]

Re: Why so many people successful on Atkins have to return after a weight gain?

Here was my reason. I lost from 249 to 190 on Atkins 4-5 years ago. I have had GI issues off an on. About that time my gallbladder stopped functioning and it took a year of nausea on a daily basis before they finally figured it out. In the mean time, I just ate any time I could and over time gained it back.

Going off Atkins is not what causes people to gain. True as you replace the glycogen you will retain the water that glycogen stores, but that is the only weight you directly gain going off a low carb diet. You gain the rest back after returning to unhealthy eating patterns.

[pinkfusion]

Re: Why so many people successful on Atkins have to return after a weight gain?

Well isnt eating excessive carbs unhealthy? I thought that was a lot of the push behind Atkins. We have diets with carb laden processed foods that no one was ever originally intended to eat. Its likely a product of industrialization to a certain extent. I believe this now that I have no desire to eat any of the foods that I used to. I feel like the chain has been broken by Atkins.

[FwL]

Re: Why so many people successful on Atkins have to return after a weight gain?

Well isnt eating excessive carbs unhealthy? I thought that was a lot of the push behind Atkins. We have diets with carb laden processed foods that no one was ever originally intended to eat. Its likely a product of industrialization to a certain extent. I believe this now that I have no desire to eat any of the foods that I used to. I feel like the chain has been broken by Atkins.

I think you've hit on another aspect to this diet. I don't believe that many people who "do Atkins" actually see it as a healthy eating plan. They see it merely as a means to an end. Once the weight is down, it's time to get back to "normal" eating.

I know, for myself, this has been the case. Before, while on this diet, I never really understood any of the science behind metabolism. I didn't much care about that. I just wanted to lose weight. When the going got tough, it was just too easy to slip back into old eating habits. Why should I restrict the foods I'm eating when I'm not losing any more weight, anyway?

Now, after getting educated on what those refined carbs are doing to my insides, it's a lot easier for me to make a long-term commitment.