Metabolic resistance or just not much to lose

[verynervous]

Please nobody scold me. I'm sensitive.

I find it easy to keep track of my food, exercise, water, vitamins, etc. and easy to make adjustments when something's not working. I'm allergic to milk and shellfish, and I treat several illnesses with herbal remedies, so I'm very in tune with my body's response to food. With that said, I'm eating a great diet. I'm in ketosis, I'm going by the book, and I'm doing what I'm supposed to.

I'm a 5'7" 28 year old woman. I was 213 pounds a few years ago and went down to 155 by basically starving myself - it wasn't my fault, it was a medication side effect. (This has happened several times in my life- gaining a good bit, then taking medication that causes me to lose a lot). I started this diet about a month ago I think, at 148. I want to get to 125. But if I put myself in the lower range by making 130 my goal - the rules change, right?

I was 150 at the end of induction - which I admit cheating on with some scotch and some aspartame. I cleaned up and have had almost 2 weeks totally in the clear. Totally by the book and then some. Went off a lot of medication just to begin the diet. I cannot compromise on a few medicines - ADD meds, Nexium, and Keppra XR.

I notice that the only time I drop weight, however, is the day after I exercise, or when I get more carbs, or when I count my calories and make sure they stay relatively low - like 1500 or under. Today I'm at about 146.5/147. I'm happy to double up on my exercise if need be, and it's exciting to have lost a pound or so from my initial weight, but something seems wrong.

So my question is this. Does it sound like I have high metabolic resistance from years of barely eating? Or does it sound like I need more carbs to begin really losing? Or (this is the one I'm hoping) does it sound like because I started with somewhere between 18 and 23 pounds to lose, I'm just going to lose more slowly.

I want to go on OWL but since I haven't had the dramatic results with Induction that Atkins mentions, I wonder if I still have tweaking to do before I can move forward. What does anyone think?

[2big4mysize]

Re: Metabolic resistance or just not much to lose

move to OWL if you want to you don't need a dramtic weight loss to move.

I suspect you are over eating your atkins if you had to artificially brake your eating at 1500 cals.
We feed only our hunger and with atkins ketosis comes appetite suppression so many folk discover they forgot to have lunch and need to use the 6hr rule to eat something.

Are you feeding your hunger when you eat and stopping or are you eating cause you got food on the plate room in your belly and carbs in your budget?

how much exercise are you doing? are you doing both aerobic and resistance which are both madatory on atkins?

[verynervous]

Re: Metabolic resistance or just not much to lose

Thank you for your quick response.

I keep track of my diet on a carb counting program on my phone (it scans barcodes, it's very cool). I stay around 1100 to 1200 calories a day, or I have in the last 2 weeks since I got my phone. I'm feeding my hunger, I promise. I am having to curb hunger with Nexium twice a day. I had my gallbladder removed a year ago and my hunger is constant - I have a hard time distinguishing between real hunger and side effects of my surgery and GERD. I've seen my doctor about it and just can't afford the procedure to diagnose what might be wrong. I thought I'd give the diet an honest try and eat when I was hungry, but clearly I've got more going on in my stomach, so I guess I am just not someone who is allowed to feed their hunger. My salad veggies are very irritating and the only thing that really causes me hunger for a few hours afterward. I imagine it's the fake hunger but I drink lots of water and try to curb with celery and lettuce, which just starts the cycle over. (Last night I discovered that hot hot peppers curb my hunger and my heartburn, which is weird but very exciting. I've tried other natural cures like coconut oil, apple cider vinegar, as well as almost every available OTC medicine.)

For me, the book recommends high intensity exercise for 20 minutes 3x a week, which I make sure I do at a minimum. I use a Gazelle and make sure to do resistance and aerobic, as well as yoga-type stretching.

[2big4mysize]

Re: Metabolic resistance or just not much to lose

what book are you reading my DANDR 2002 in chapter 22 says 30 minute minimum daily in the how much to get section.

[verynervous]

Re: Metabolic resistance or just not much to lose

Somehow that paragraph about adding to it slipped by me. However, I've still fulfilled the requirements that the book says to do, just because I know that an hour of exercise a week is not enough for anyone, and because I like to exercise for the length of a TV show.

[verynervous]

Re: Metabolic resistance or just not much to lose

Not to look a gift horse in the mouth but do you or does anyone have any guesses in response to my original question?

[LilliStarr]

Re: Metabolic resistance or just not much to lose

"I stay around 1100 to 1200 calories a day, or I have in the last 2 weeks..."

It looks to me, although I am not an expert here by any means, that your cals are WAY too low! I'm guessing that if anyone here will be able to help you, then you'll have to post your menu to see where your cals are coming from. I'm also going to assume that you're not taking in anywhere near the amount of fat you should be.

I also wanted to add that we have about the same amount of weight to lose. My calories are between 1600 and 1700, and I lost 6 lbs during my Induction. So I don't think you're resistant, just perhaps not eating enough.

[ziggy]

Re: Metabolic resistance or just not much to lose

are you allergic to cheese? and try cutting tomatos out of your diet i recently found out they hurt my gut

and you may have been loseing alot more fat than you think did you measure yourself? thats a better indicator of fat loss

on atkins you gain muscle and lose fat and inches and sometimes people will stay the same weight but loseing alot of fat and inches off there body

but the starveing your body that you did in the past can cause many problems but once your body is no longer in starvation mode it should start geting better

[LilliStarr]

Re: Metabolic resistance or just not much to lose

Also keep in mind that during those first 2 weeks, much of the weight you will lose will be water. How much water have you been drinking? If you don't drink enough, your body will respond by holding onto water. You need to drink more water to flush water out of the body. Weird, but true!

[2big4mysize]

Re: Metabolic resistance or just not much to lose

Not to look a gift horse in the mouth but do you or does anyone have any guesses in response to my original question?

at 18-23 pounds to lose each pound represents 4-5% of your needed to lose weight you are doing just fine with your induction weight loss.4-5% for a suoer heavyweight like me would be 6-7 pounds.
If you want to move to OWL then move as you need to work your OWL before you get to 5-10 pounds to lose so you can move to pre.

betty a former admin here lost zero pounds for her induction but 10 months later was 40 pounds lighter and a goalie. She moved to OWL after 14 day induction.


since you know you need exercise to shed body fat and you need to do more then you were doing why don't you just up your exercise and see how you do either moving to OWL or staying in induction for another week.

Carbs will not make you lose faster. However the vits and minerals in the OWL foods could correct a deficiency you currently have and assist you in speeding up your weight loss if you have one from your poor food choices and lack of propersupplemts. Fitday could tell you for free if that was an issue or not.

[verynervous]

Re: Metabolic resistance or just not much to lose

Everything everyone said gave me a lot to think about. I am finally experiencing a change in my body shape after not stopping myself from eating a few foods I was craving. Some hi-lo cereal and 1g net carb soy milk...and I laid off the lettuce and celery. Thank you all very much, I'll continue to consider what you've said. You helped me through a rough patch mentally and emotionally with this thing.