I haven't been on the forums much this month. It's been too stressful at home, and I haven't felt very social. Things may be picking up though, so we'll see how it goes.

Well, last month I was happy with the weight loss I'd experienced so far. I'm somewhat less happy right now. On the 13th I went to my doctor and he said that since my BP was down that I could stop taking the ACE inhibitor prescription and stick to the diuretic to control my symptoms. Great, I thought. One down, two to go for my goal of being prescription free.

Two weeks later, with no other change in my foods, I'm nine pounds heavier.

I've been doing a lot of reading and research. I know to take web research with a mine of salt, but when I see some of the same commentary repeated in multiple sources (and I'm sure that they're not all quoting the same original source) I tend to start taking it more seriously. In this case I noticed a lot of comments (starting with Atkins himself) that diuretics were top of the hit parade for causing stalls. Now I'm not in a stall, I'm in full-moose-stampede retreat, but it was enough to make me take notice. So I decided to (with great trepidation) see if it is in fact taking the diuretic alone that is causing me to gain. I've been reading up on supplementation as a way to avoid taking diuretics, and have started on a regime of Co-Q10, L-taurine, L-carnitine and magnesium, and am monitoring my symptoms with great care. It seems to be working after a week; I'm back down to 256.5 from a high of 258.5 on Saturday. If the trend continues, and my BP stays down, I'm hopeful.

I need something to be hopeful about; it's week 10 without work and I've got some hard decisions to make. This month will either see me a) acquire some small-business financing to stay alive and b) find at least one contract, or else I may be forced to hang it up and call it a good idea at a bad time. It's really difficult to admit that the thing you want most to do isn't working.

Needless to say I haven't felt very successful the past few weeks, and that is why I've not been around here much. Caitlin has become a gung-ho forum resident; the terrific support she's finding here helped her to participate in Mischa's challenge and actually get started working out again, something I haven't found the motivation to do yet. (I even took pictures of myself thinking I'd go along, but until I get rid of the Thud Fairy I don't feel up to taking it on.)

I hold out hope that next month's check-in will contain much happier news.

I ask because I'm on lasix, and it doesn't cause that problem -- at least not for me.

Good luck on the switch to Taurene, etc., but do be careful and monitor yourself carefully.

Best of luck to you.

--Ruth

The diuretic prescription was for triamterene/hydrochlorothiazide. The concensus among the sources I found was that the thiazide-based prescriptions were almost certainly the prime suspect in weight loss stalls or weight gains, which I definitely ran into!

Hello, there, I'm sorry to hear of your busness woes, I was self employed for 15 years, hubby has been for about 25 years, I can relate to the stress involved.

Well then to the point, hydrochlorothiazide, is what stopped my weight loss dead in it's tracks. I was ordered by my Dr. to get back on them, so I did, for 3 weeks, no loss at all no gain either, I'm pleased to say. the week I went on LTautine( stopped the hydrochlorothiazide), I lost 2 pounds, 2 days later, another #, I have been checking my B.P. so far it's still down, like it was once I started the water pills again.
I'm also taking Cq10, Chrom, but i'm a bit nervous about them, I can't realy find to much to really back up Atkins findings on these, in regards to high Blood Pressure. I'm one case that the B.P. actually went up once I started Atkins.
I know it's been said here many times about the red meat and egg theory, but I don't think that is the problem.

Anyhow, I'd like to keep in touch with you regarding the L taruine,
I have had no luck with finding anyone here that has experience with it, other than one fellow, who said his wife thought it worked for her.

Cheers hope things improve, Kathy

Mm-hmm, that agrees with what I've heard, too. Lasix is a different kind of diuretic. You might want to keep it in mind in case the Taurene doesn't end up working for you.

When I tried the switch last summer it seemed to work pretty well at first, but I got into trouble a few months later. Hopefully this won't happen for you, but if it does, the information might come in handy. Keep us posted on how you do.

--Ruth