atkins failure

[amazon1]

Re: atkins failure

I have actually seen her cheat at a wedding and at Thanksgiving. She said that she followed Atkins religiously and only took off one day in a month and a half to eat anything she wanted. But still, I asked her today, and she was on it from July through December and just lost the initial 10 pounds.

[atkinsgal08]

Re: atkins failure

>>She said that she followed Atkins religiously>>

That doesn't mean it was by the book.

I've known lots of people to say that ... and when they tell you what they're eating...

And taking a day off isn't Atkins either!

I think she should speak for herself ... nothing is being accomplished by this "she says".

It doesn't seem as if she wants help ... it's you who wants the help for her.

She has to want it herself.

Maybe you should write about YOUR journey.

[Georgiana]

Re: atkins failure

If you stopped losing weight on Rung 2 shouldn't you have gone back to Rung 1? Does this mean if you gain weight with dairy, you should never eat nuts?

If you stop losing weight on Rung 2 -- i.e. for all the foods you try on Rung 2, since you try one new food at a time -- and/or those foods mess up your blood sugar (use the Blood Sugar Symptoms Test in DANDR), then it only means THOSE FOODS don't work for you, not ALL foods in Rung 2 and above.

[Desertthorn]

Re: atkins failure

She isn't a failure, your absolutely right. Dr A tells us that in DANDR. This plan can be really frustrating. My good friend who lost 100+ pounds on Atkins, got about 3/4 of the way to goal and stopped losing, weeks went by, months went by and nothing. She could easily have just quit but she kept at it and finally started losing again. I would have quit, I would have been so frustrated at not seeing the scales move, I would have gone and tried something else.
Be there for her, she is probably miserable and probably really needs a friend. Ask her to go walking with you, and if she asks about Atkins, tell her, but otherwise remain silent. Your losing will say all that needs to be said. If she is ready, she will find a plan that suits her.

[wackielady]

Re: atkins failure

I have been on and off this board since 2008 (but was trying Atkins before this), have read and reread the book several times and really need to read it again. I do believe that if you follow the book, it will work. Maybe my belief is from my experience in working with the addictive population and the belief that you have to work it for it to work. I have lost over 40 lbs on Atkins in the past, but for numerous reason... and the busy life of a single mom, I stopped doing Atkins. I continue to come back here for support, inspiration, guidance and hope, just to name a few reasons. Just like any other addiction, I am addicted to food to make me feel better (not to mention diet cokes). And just like a drug, it is hard to kick the habit, especially when you HAVE to eat to survive, you can not just stop eating. And like addicts, our coping skills are shot to **** and back. I felt sometimes that being 100+ lbs overweight was just too overwhelming to ever think that I would lose the weight. Then I would just eat carbs and lots of them. Coming here allows me to see people who have actually accomplished losing more than the 100+ lbs. Seeing that gives me hope to stick with it.

I have read all 63 of these post on this thread and I must admit that reading some of them was very supportive and some of them left me with a bad taste in my mouth and a little discourage. Why? Because some of the post seem a little harsh to me for a newbie and could easily turn someone off and not come back to the board for help. I find that sometime a person can interpret the tone of a post wrong. Maybe this is not was meant, but it is how I perceived it.

Amazon1, I applaud you and your weight lose. I do hope that you can encourage and support your friend to coming to this board for support and encouragement. Also, I would suggest that maybe she does need to look to see if there is a medical reason as to why she can not lose the weight. If she overeats and eats out of stress, boredom, etc... has she considered talking to someone about this? Yes, I mean a therapist. There are therapist that deal specifically with eating disorders.

my new motto is: I have complete and total confidence that I can do this---and so can you, your friend and everybody else on this board.

[wackielady]

Re: atkins failure

She isn't a failure, your absolutely right. Dr A tells us that in DANDR. This plan can be really frustrating. My good friend who lost 100+ pounds on Atkins, got about 3/4 of the way to goal and stopped losing, weeks went by, months went by and nothing. She could easily have just quit but she kept at it and finally started losing again. I would have quit, I would have been so frustrated at not seeing the scales move, I would have gone and tried something else.
Be there for her, she is probably miserable and probably really needs a friend. Ask her to go walking with you, and if she asks about Atkins, tell her, but otherwise remain silent. Your losing will say all that needs to be said. If she is ready, she will find a plan that suits her.

HERE HERE.... I totally agree and can relate...I got discourged because I was not losing the weight. I am not going to get discourged this time.

[amazon1]

Re: atkins failure

I just looked at my fitday at my weights this week. 12/31 I was 133.6, Jan 4 - 130.4 and today 132.2. I don't know if everyone fluctuates this much but as I said, I lose under .5 pounds a week only noticeable over a period of time. How would I ever know if I am stalled? I actually didn't add or change anything this week but if I had, what could I learn by this? Just tell me how you do this ladder thing if you're only supposed to spend a week per rung.

[Georgiana]

Re: atkins failure

if you're only supposed to spend a week per rung

You are not supposed to spend one week per rung. Who told you that?

Have you read through the stickies in the OWL forum?

[cleochatra]

Re: atkins failure

I remember reading somewhere that some people do better on low-carb while others do better on low-fat. Has anyone else had that experience?

Atkins is definitely not for everyone. I know people who have fared equally well on Weight Watchers (low fat, high carb) or on South Beach (low fat, moderate carb) or on Stillman's (low fat, low-carb). Some people would fare better with a low glycemic load plan (high fat, moderate carb) instead, and I have recommended this plan to quite a few as well.

It really comes down to what you can live with for life and how you feel when following the plan you're following. You have mentioned being largely gluten and processed foods free for years, so for you, low-carb healthful eating is definitely the way to go!

In the long run, if Atkins wasn't for her, hopefully there is a plan that will afford her health and happiness for life. She just needs to find that plan.

BTW, congratulations on your successes and life changes! Even if Atkins ended up not being for her, I am positive you have encouraged a friend on her own journey to wellness!

[amazon1]

Re: atkins failure

The sticky guidelines definitely say one week. There's an example and it's one week per rung. Later on, it says if you're losing weight slowly, you can do a rung per month.

That's the problem here. You're acting like this is an exact science. Correct me if I'm wrong but no double-blind studies have been done on whether it's effective to add dairy products before legumes or exactly how long one should wait between rungs. I believe the theory is based on glycemic something or other but someone on this board said that Dr. Atkins probably would change this to glycemic load based on what we know today. Some people may need to follow a very rigid diet and others not. This is probably more psychological than anything else. I think doing things the way I am, losing my next 10 pounds on "extended induction" and then experimenting with adding more carbs will be just fine. It's too bad Dr. Atkin's isn't here to ask.

P.S. - many things that we thought we knew for sure, like that a high fiber diet helps to prevent colon cancer, or that vitamins prevent cancer turned out to be false when studies were done.

[Georgiana]

Re: atkins failure

Again, we're following DANDR 2002 here. You're promoting a different plan.

I know of boards that follow the plan you are talking about.

[mitzimarie]

Re: atkins failure

I just looked at my fitday at my weights this week. 12/31 I was 133.6, Jan 4 - 130.4 and today 132.2. I don't know if everyone fluctuates this much but as I said, I lose under .5 pounds a week only noticeable over a period of time. How would I ever know if I am stalled? I actually didn't add or change anything this week but if I had, what could I learn by this?

I only weighed once a week. There are many members who weigh everyday and are OK with that, but I only averaged a loss of between 1 and 2 pounds a week... that meant that sometimes I lost 2 pounds in a week, some times I lost 1 pound, and there were many weeks that I didn't lose any. Our body weight fluctuates so much for lots of different reasons, and watching that one or two pounds bounce back and forth all week would drive me batty! By weighing once a week, it was, what it was... I could get excited over a pound loss for the week, as long as I didn't ride the rollercoaster all week.

Just tell me how you do this ladder thing if you're only supposed to spend a week per rung.

It is a minimum of 1 week per rung. I spent a minumum of 2 weeks on each rung, and a lot longer on some of them. In fact, I like the idea of staying in Rung 1 for a while, and use that rung to start upping the number of carbs each week, so you can have more carbs to "spend" when going on to the other rungs. That way, you don't have to skimp on veggies in order to try foods on the other rungs. For example, I stayed on Rung 1 (more veggies) long enough to know that I could eat up to 35g net carbs and still lose at the same rate as at 20g. Then I started moving up the other rungs.

[Desertthorn]

Re: atkins failure

Not an exact science, years of being on this board and seeing the folks who succeed by doing it the way Dr A suggested. And I am sure there are folks who have tweeked it and lost but We just know what we see with our own eyes

[amazon1]

Re: atkins failure

Georgiana - the response to reasonable, non-abusive questioning of minor things in the diet should not be, "Get off this board unless you agree with every single thing in DANDR 2002". That would be the response if it were a religious cult. But we wouldn't be able to drink the Kool-aid...

[Georgiana]

Re: atkins failure

Georgiana - the response to reasonable, non-abusive questioning of minor things in the diet should not be, "Get off this board unless you agree with every single thing in DANDR 2002". That would be the response if it were a religious cult. But we wouldn't be able to drink the Kool-aid...

No. Actually it is, "your plan might work for you, but it's not the plan in DANDR 2002, so it is not the plan we follow at ADBB. Dr. Atkins has tested his plan on thousand of patients. If you think yours works better for you, then we can't force you to follow the book. However, the advice you'll receive on this board is based on DANDR 2002."