Hi guys. My sister finally decided to do the low carb thing. She is a MAJOR sweets & carb addict, so this is more difficult for her than it was for me (I wasn't a true blue carb addict, I was physically addicted to them only by circumstance; I don't enjoy or crave carbs much at all). She is fairly thin however, she only wants to lose about 15 "vanity" pounds.

Anyway, I am at a loss because so far her experiences with induction are completely different from mine were. The moment I began induction it was like a light went off, and I realized that the way I felt my whole life was abnormal because of my diet. I no longer craved food insatiably, I just felt physically "normal" in every way (normal moods, normal hunger, and what I now recognize as bouts of hypoglycemia went away). On induction I felt sick ( so much so that I could hardly eat without feeling as if I would vomit), my concentration was shot, and I was very weak, but that is all I experienced. I lost 12 pounds after 2 weeks.

My sister's experience is totally different. She doesn't find her appetite diminished, but it actually increased. Not only that, but she told me that she wakes up feeling "shaky". I told her that feeling is probably hypoglycemia. Other than that, she feels fine. She has way more energy than I did on induction, oddly. She even ran for an hour.
This confuses me; when she was eating carbs she never got a hypoglycemic episode like that, but why would she have them on atkins, upon waking up - a time when insulin should be relatively low and ketone concentration high?
Also, she is becomming discouraged because she's only lost a pound so far. I tell her just to stick with it, that it will work eventually, but I understand why she feels discouraged. I don't know how I can assure her that she will have as good of a time with this WOE if her experiences so far are totally different from mine.

I think the hypoglycemia might be caused by all the splenda sweetned drinks she's drinking. She drinks the diet soda all day, and I think the sweet taste might cause her body to release insulin. This didn't cause a problem before because her blood sugar was high from all the candies and carbs, but now that she's not eating them any more its causing her blood sugar to drop too low. This is just speculation though. To be safe, I told her to cut them out a bit and to only drink them with food.

As for why she is hungrier, I have absolutely no idea why that could be. The only thing I can think of is that her body is so anemic from lack of adequate protein and fat, that it is using what she is eating for repairs preferentially. She ate almost no protein and fat before. Again, this is just speculation.

Did anyone else experience these symptoms, and if so, what did you do about them? Did they go away eventually, and did you have a fair time losing weight? Are these problems indicative of any medical problem?

You can check with Kittenlady and Penelope. They have hypoglycemia, are both on the insulin resistance diet and losing well. CAD might be another option for your sister. A lot of people with carb addictions and/or hypoglycemia don't do that well on Atkins, especially not induction levels. She might want to skip induction and go to OWL. Whichever, she'll have to wean herself off the sodas. They're a nono for hypoglycemics and most of the carb addicted.

When I am watching portion size, I risk having all kinds of low blood sugar effects first thing in the morning. they include waking up shaky and weak, hibernation style sleep, and dificulty maintaining core body temperature in the last hours of sleep.

I've had this both on low carb and diabetic diets, and have made it go away by having a middle of the night snack timed for about 3 hours before I need to wake up. I used to even set a snack alarm.

When I do this, I don't have any morning low blood sugar feeling, wake easier, and can even exercise before breakfast with no shakes and plenty of energy. My low carb version of the snack is 1 oz of nuts. My diabetic diet version of the snack was 1/2 of a power bar. Makes a world of difference !

Lynda

Is she having anything with sugar alcohols or sweets at all? If it is low blood sugar, then eating freuqent smaller meals, all about equal in carbs can help. She should also try having a light snack before bed, and maybe having something near the bed for when she first wakes up. A piece of string cheese, or later maybe just a couple nuts. Tell her to be careful not to skip meals, and to make sure to eat breakfast soon after rising.

Is she still having low fat out of habit? This could be contributing to her hunger pains. What do her typical menus look like?

Also with only 15 pounds to lose, and the fact they are only vanity pounds, she may not need induction and will lose slower. Instead why not tell her to look into Atkins for life. It starts off at a higher level of good carbs and is more of premaintanance. It will also take adding in exercise to tone up and get the look she wants.

I got hungry when on Induction but the best part was that I could eat any time I felt that. So I did and still lost.

Remember that if your sister loses 1.5 pounds in the 2 weeks of Induction, that IS the usual 10% of the way to goal. So anything above 1.5 pounds is a gift.

Like anyone with only a small amount of weight to lose, it will take a long time and be slow.

When I did induction I didnt lose weight at all the first week. Talk about discouraging! and I had plenty to lose. I had a bit of hypoglycemia, but I was hypoglycemic to begin with. I had horrible headaches and I was constantly dizzy and tired. That all went away after the first week and I started doing much better.

I was a super sick carb addict sugar junkie. I didnt drink any diet drinks or have splenda on induction (I hated the aftertaste... funny how now I dont notice it)

My mother finally agreed to start as well, and is having a hard time, because she feels she needs a sweet taste in her mouth and then overdoes it. I think cutting out anything sweet for a while might help some and I think L-Glutamine is supposed to help some too.

Also salty foods like bacon and lunch meats tend to make me hungrier, she might want to cut back on thise and up the water intake or squeeze a bit of lemon into water and drink that instead of plain water if it can get her off the diet drinks.

I wish her luck!