Yes, I am sorry to say, it has come to this.

I feel great, my severe hypoglycemia (which used to make me faint) is non existant and my skin looks great, but I need to drop weight and I seem not to be able to on this WOE.
But I've done it all...anti-yeast, supplements, KISS, Fat Fast, Meat fast, etc.

I will go on the typical (hate!) DIET that I have always lost weight and suffer through what we all dread.

I am hoping only to drop some significant weight, say 30 lbs this way, then come back to this WOE and lose the other 20 I need to lose and then maintain and eat this WOE for the rest of my life, as I do prefer it.

But I have to lose weight, it is depressing me and limiting me in my work and I can't wait any longer.

I hope to see you again soon.


__________________
On Atkins since May 15, 2002
202/195/140 (5'6")

I read your post, and while my first thought was to talk you into staying, I saw that you've been on LC since May and lost 7 lbs. I can understand the frustration, because if that was my situation I'd probably quit and try something else too...or just give up. That kind of loss is too slow for me, except when I think that in the past I haven't lost unless I've stuck with it. It usually isn't the type of diet that I have problems with, but my own stick-to-it-iveness. I have a low frustration threshold. But that's me.

Yet, I can't help but wonder, if you are so depressed and discouraged, and plan to get off this WOL, why you posted this on Saturday with plans to get off it Monday. I mean, why not just get off it now instead of waiting? And why even bother telling anyone?

AJ

Hi Eileen,

Yes, I can't help but assume you want someone to talk you into staying with low carb.

So, okay, I'll give it a shot.

First of all, how about documenting exactly what you eat.

Secondly, your weight loss is slow, but it is happening!
I am in much the same situation as you, the little I have lost has taken all year. Mainly because I take 3 different medications (sometimes more) that are known to slow weight loss. But I plan to eat like this forever and, as I also plan to be on this earth for a long time yet, I want my health to be my main priority. The weight will come off eventually.

Yes, I lost weight more quickly on a low fat/low cal diet, but not only was I always hungry, but the weight charged back on as soon as I "finished dieting." The beauty of this WOE is that one simply transitions to a maintenance plan and the weight stays off.

I am also much healthier now. My IBS has virtually disappeared and my cholesterol, while still elevated is now fine because my HDL (the "good" one) is so high it is actually protective against heart disease.

Do you really want to return to your "severe hypoglycaemia?"
And remember that after low carbing, a return to a high carb diet will increase your weight for a while.

Please, reconsider.

All the best to you, Eileen.

Rosebud

We each must make our own decisions and live with the consequences - there's no escaping that.

I can't sit here and tell you that LC will eventually work for you - but consider that you HAVE lost SOME weight (you haven't been putting the pounds ON) and you are in much better shape in so many other ways.

I once asked myself the following question:

If a genie came up to me and offerred me two choices, which would I take:

#1) I could be all but guaranteed to lose 1# per month until I got to my goal and then stay at goal for the rest of my life.

#2) I could lose 10# a WEEK but have a high likelihood of failing before getting halfway there and, if I did fail, ending up 10# heavier than when I started.

With 200 pounds to lose, it would take me SIXTEEN years to reach goal under option #1. While option #2 would only take me anpit five months. Sixteen years is a long time - but I've been doing option #2 over and over and over for longer than that!

Option #1 is what I choose.

Whatever you choose - best of luck to you.

Quote

"I will go on the typical (hate!) DIET that I have always lost weight and suffer through what we all dread."

I am curious by what you mean to be a typical diet that will allow you to drop 30lbs quickly.

The words Yo and Yo come to mind.

Before you make the decision to quit, have you looked at other ways of measuring the changes in your body. Both Atkins and PPLP say that weight loss may not be the best gauge for the postive changes that are taking place. My theory is that protein builds muscle and this WOE melts fat, so it would make sense that the scale won't drop much we are building muscle while losing fat. You have had such wonderful results in other areas it seems a shame to give up now! ARe your clothes any loser or have you noticed anything else besides weight loss?
kat
ps. of course, in the end, only you know what is best for YOU!

I am rather curious as well. Which diet allows you to drop 30 pounds rather quickly? Is it perhaps a starvation diet where you eat 1000 calories or less?

Just some words of wisdom for you. If you think you have problems losing weight now, wait a few more years for your metobolism to age and become damaged by these "quick weight loss" diets.

As a few people have pointed out already you have lost some weight, and you haven't GAINED any. That should put you ahead of the game. If you hadn't been on Atkin's would you have gained?

You also state that "my severe hypoglycemia (which used to make me faint) is non existant and my skin looks great". What is the rush to get the weight off if you are enjoying these and probably more health benefits?

It does sound like you want us to convince you to keep low carbin, because you posted this. Why post if you are dead set on going off the diet on Monday?

How long has it taken you to gain the weight? Honestly? Were you this impatient with yourself during your gain as you are now in trying to lose?

I had to ask myself these same questions during my 8 month stall. I stuck with it because I felt great and for the first time in 10 years I wasn't gaining at a steady rate. Now a year later I am 50 pounds down. Quick weight loss may help you mentally but it wreaks and plays havoc on your metobolism. The only way to build up your metobolism once it's damaged is to lift weights and rebuild that precious muscle tissue.

Sorry if this sounds harsh, but I have been where you are. I wish you nothing but success in whatever you try.

Ya know, I have to second the whole "the scale is not the whole story' idea.

I went through about a 6-8 week period on this WOE where I didn't lose a single pound. Not ONE. However....

I was tracking measurements and body fat percentage.

In that time, I had lost about 10-12 lbs that were EXACTLY replaced by muscle. My sizes dropped, my measurements dropped etc, but if I had relied on only the scale, I'd have given up for sure.

Those 6 weeks were part of a 3 month CKD program (there's a forum for it under Exercise) that all in all saw about 25 lbs of fat loss, got me into size 12s (yes, 200 lbs and size 12), and dropped my bodyfat percentage by about 10 whole percent. Want to know what the net loss on the scale was? 9 lbs.

How about if you try this: write down your measurements, give it one more month and see what happens. In that month, follow whatever play you choose carefully, making sure you're giving your body everything it needs to function. If you don't have a journal, start one and we'll help you. Find a website that will let you use measurements to track your bodyfat percent. There are several listed in one of the BFL stickies, namely "LC and BFL". I use the one at Linear Software. Make sure you use the one for women and not men

Keep us posted.

Cheers,

Friday

It sounds like you have done alot of "tweeking", and shifting around your eating patterns in the last three months. (KISS, fat fast, meat fast)

After reading your post, my first thought is that you haven't given this WOE a fair chance. I, too have been discouraged about my slow weight loss, especially when I see some of the huge and fast losses around these boards. If you start a journal (right now--TODAY), so that everyone can see exactly what you are eating, I'll bet you'd get some good advice.

When I wrote everything down, I found that my PERCEPTION of how perfectly I was following the plan, was only that--my perception, and not exactly acurate. We all want to lose the weight immediately. But the fact is, you didn't gain the 60 pounds, or even thirty in only 3 months, so how can you expect to lose it all in that amount of time? In fact, when you gained, maybe you gained only 7 pounds in 3 months.

So you can quit if you want, and be at a Weight Watchers meeting Monday night. (Kiss at least $50 goodbye) And the point system will let you have those low-fat cupcakes, and a cup of pasta, and some toast with trans-fat spread on it. But you'll probably feel like crap, and you'll be hungry all the time. Only you know for sure, but in 4 or 5 weeks, will you be looking for another "diet"? One that makes you feel great, lets you eat wonderful, satisfying food, AND gets you healthy?

I predict you'll be back. I'll be here, plugging away. Losing slowly, (whining about it sometimes), but I'll still be here. There's a ton of knowledge and experience here, why don't you take advantage of it--instead of giving up?

I vote for the journal. What's it gonna be?

Patty

I'm stuck in time.

My plan is to update the pic every 20 pounds. That one was taken on Day 144 when I was 40 pounds down. I'm now on Day 239 but am only 49 pounds down.

That's right, Eileen, I've only managed to drop a net of 9 pounds in 95 days - for someone that STILL needs to lose at least 150 pounds. Six months ago, when I went for about five weeks without losing a thing, I was almost as frustrated as you. But I have learned to enjoy how much better this WOL makes me feel and be confident that, no matter how slow it might end up, if I stick to it I will eventually get there.

Since I started I've lost an average of 6 pounds per month - hell, my morning to night weight fluctuates by almost that much! I originally wanted to achieve 20 /mo and then settled on 10#/mo as a "realistic" goal. I've had spurts of rapid weight loss but that means that I've had even more periods with excrutiatingly slow weight loss. But, in the end, I am 49 pounds lighter today than I was eight months ago - and if I am 49 pounds lighter eight months from now I will still be 100 pounds overweight and have a long way to go but I will also be 100 pounds lighter than when I started and will be feeling a hell of a lot better than I did when I started.

Patience and Persistence.

Amen Bill.

At 17 months I am down 50 pounds. Which is a lot lighter than I was when I first started. It's coming off real slow but like I said for the first time in my life I am not fighting the scale in a losing battle upwards

Keep the faith.

Hi Eileen,

Have you considered a different carb control program like TSP or CAD? Atkins isn't the one-and-only; it's on the 'extreme' end of the spectrum.

Whatever you decide, do try to keep the principles of what you've learned from low carbing. Keep eating veggies and other unprocessed foods, and try to keep that sugar under control.

Best of luck to you...

Eileen,

I too am hoping you will give another clean shot at LCing. This is a wonderful network of supportive informative people, and I'm glad you chose to post, especially if it was to reach out...that's what we're here for, each other!

If you're seeing improvements in your health, and other things...this should signal to you that you're doing something very good for yourself. I'm not convinced that doing the lowfat semi-starvation quick fix diet is any faster than properly following a low carb woe. I see too you've stated you've tried many different versions of low carb... and have felt that they've let you down...why not keep things very simple here and try an experiment. Go back to square one: Atkins Induction, two weeks...clean clean clean.

Enter your meals in www.fitday.com to see exactly how many carbs you're eating, maybe you've been eating a few hidden carbs which have added up, sabotaging your efforts. See if you can incorporate just a little regular light exercise, like walking...for me that's when I was most successful in seeing the scale move. And, drink water till you float. I am doing this now. I've been lowcarbing for over a year...and have stalled many many times throughout...but induction can kickstart ya back if you're honest with it and yourself...and using fitday is a wonderful way of making sure you're doing it right.

My feeling is this...you're feeling healthier, you've not gained weight...try trusting in this for two weeks longer giving it all you've got ...and then if nothing is happening, well maybe it isn't for you. But at least you will know that it will not have been because you didn't follow the program to the letter, perhaps mistakenly eating too many carbs.

For myself, I couldn't imagine ever wrecking my metabolism again in the way I did with semi starvation, low fat, low taste dieting. I just last night sat with a friend who is doing WW and has lost 11 lbs, and I watched her pig out on all kinds of desserts counting points, talking about how she craves all sorts of sweets. Yup, uh huh....keep talkin lady....LC cuts those extreme cravings, and the overindulgences which turn one taste of something sweet into an entire carb feast!

Lastly, as I now am 41, and feeling suddenly "old"...I am so much more now concerned with health and how I feel. If this woe is helping you manage your hypoglycemia....uh "hello"???.....why mess with it? Life is too ~#$$~#!~# short.

Good luck, and I hope you accept my challenge to give it just 2 more weeks.

Muse

Yea I'm wondering what the typical "hate diet " is also.

Deffinetly has YoYo involved if you plan on doing this one, then going back to lowfat or something, then coming back...

I can tell ya from experince, you will probably gain weight and then get more depressed, and then give up, eat more..(cause you don't care) and then get more depressed and fat..=/

IF your other diet was so great and you lost weight on...

Why did you switch to low carb in the first place?