I used to do Atkins years ago (in the 70's with great success), then again in the late 90's with very little success. I'm about to try it again, but with new knowedge.

I think I know what to do to avoid stalls/plateaus this time:

1. Bovine hormones are in most dairy and non-organic meats and poultry. I think sometimes this is a big culprit people don't know about. Therefore, it's best to choose organic/hormone free dairy for your cheddar cheese, cottage cheese, milk and butter, etc. (which is available in most regular grocery stores now), and to choose hormone free meats and poultry (which can be expensive) - available at Whole Foods. Also, it will help to choose (low mercury wild, not FARMED) fish instead of (non-organic) red meats more often for your meat sources. After someone has been on Atkins awhile, the get a buildup of those bovine hormones in their system, and even though they are NOT cheating, they hit a stall/plateau and it doesn't make SENSE. It is necessary to get RID of those stored up (in our fat stores) bovine hormones we have ingested in the past. That is because they contain BAD estrogens (there are good estrogens, see #3 below). Those BAD estrogens sit in our fat stores and actually create more fat on their own! To get rid of them it's necessary to eat cruciferous veggies and/or take a supplement called DIM (Google it!). DIM is readily available and not that expensive (yet). Many women have thyroid dysfunction and so their cruciferous veggie intake should be steamed or stir-fried, not raw, as the raw cruciferous veggies will invalidate their thyroid meds or further slow their thyroid.

2. Fish has its own problems, namely the heavy metal mercury. Plus, everyone through the environment is exposed to many heavy metals which is unavoidable. Heavy metal toxicity (even slight) will make weight loss more difficult, sometimes impossible. It may be interesting to take a heavy metal "challenge" test available through a naturopath and some forward-thinking doctors to find out exactly what heavy metals you may have in your system. But no matter what kind you've got, you can benefit from a good round of oral chelation capsules. I happen to use some from Dr. Teresa Ramsey in Scottsdale, Arizona. Google her website if you wish. Many others are offering similar oral chelation capsules. They are also combined with a complete mineral complex (because the chelation therapy indiscriminantly removes lots of minerals at the same time). Another added source of good minerals is Seroyal brand Colloidal Multi Mins Liquid, which tastes fine in water, unlike some other mineral drops out there. Oral chelation therapy will make you feel noticeably great if you indeed had a heavy metal problem, and you'll notice your plateau lifting, realizing that was part of the problem.

3. Another issue, especially for women, is that they are UNAWARE they are going into menopause earlier and earlier these days, due to the bad estrogens in our food and environment, so they may not realize they need to go on HRT before they actually considered it yet. They can get a blood test panel to find out what hormones they may have out of balance, and then have a doctor or naturopath who can prescribe BIOIDENTICAL hormones (NOT THE OLD FASHIONED HRT), which will be compounded at a compounding pharmacy exactly to their hormone needs. Having your hormones in balance will aid in weight loss efforts, muscle building, insomnia, hot flashes, PMS, etc. Topical OTC progesterone cream may not be strong enough! Many doctors prescribe a testosterone pellet (to be renewed every 4 months), oral progesterone, and oral estradiol (the GOOD estrogen).

4. Women especially, on Atkins, are at risk for losing muscle when they follow a low carb diet. This alone can lead to a stall/plateau because the metabolism lives within their muscle mass, and they've lost muscle mass if they didn't pay attention to weight-bearing exercise while dieting on Atkins. That is why people experience less and less success when they use Atkins over time and hit more frequent stalls/plateaus, because each time they start again they are working with less muscle mass. Therefore, it's important they do muscle building exercise in addition to the aerobics. (Also, if they are low on TESTOSTERONE (see #3 above), their exercise efforts won't pay off as well, so it's important to get hormone levels checked to see if they can benefit from TESTOSTERONE (pellets are convenient). I also take an Amino Acid complex before bed each night (I happen to use Hi-Health's HGH 3X) (it's not HGH, it's just amino acids that help the body to create its OWN HGH...). That helps the body build muscle too.

5. I also take Relora, which lowers cortisol, and avoid caffeine. Caffeine will increase cortisol, which makes the body resist losing weight. Doctors can test cortisol levels, but you can tell if yours needs lowering if you have a weight distribution with a lot of belly fat, that is a good indication. If you take some Relora for a few days and your belly gets flatter and you start losing weight without changing anything else, then you know your cortisol was too high. You don't want to overdo the Relora, because then you'll start getting GROGGY (the bottle instructions will explain the correct dosage).

6. The emphasis on water intake is good, but many people don't realize that TAP WATER won't help and may hurt your weight loss efforts because of the toxins. I use distilled or reverse osmosis water only. Many water delivery companies now provide distilled in the big 5 gallon bottles for only about $1 more per bottle than their regular water.

7. Good fats must be introduced as well, such as flax oil, a GOOD fish oil with the least amount of mercury in it (I found out about xtendlife Omega 3 /DHA Fish Oil and started using it recently. Organic coconut oil is also great to introduce, especially if you are hypothyroid.

8. Some women are severely insulin resistant and on their way to Diabetes Type 2, and can benefit from a course of Metformin/Glucophage (been around for decades and inexpensive). In fact, many doctors believe in putting all their patients on Metformin/Glucophage after age 50 just because to avoid blood sugar problems.

9. I also take a product called Metagest by Metagenics. There are other similar products in abundance in the market that contain hydrochloric acid (HCl). Hyrdrchloric acid will help with digestion, sluggish colon, constipation sometimes experienced with Atkins. Even people who are not on Atkins need to have enough HCl.

I am confidently re-starting Atkins for the 3rd time in my life, but now I'm armed with lots more knowledge. I'll re-post with my progress! I'm currently 270 at 5'9" and am age 52. I also recently started on BIOIDENTICAL HRT for the first time, and began an oral chelation therapy program which is making me feel better (my test revealed I had high levels of LEAD). I take Relora and know where the bovine hormones in our food sources hide and how to avoid them. I also take DIM and use (steamed or stir-fried) cruciferous veggies to get rid of the BAD estrogen stores. NOTE: BIOIDENTICAL HRT does not contain BAD estrogens. I know I was hypothyroid already, and take something called Thyodine (similar to Armour) from www.greenwillowtree.com. I'm aware that the old ranges doctors used to use are way off and my free T4 is now great at something like .01 (that's from 6.4 in the past) without using Synthroid. I will probably find that I need less and less of my thyroid med after use of my oral chelation therapy, metformin and DIM, which can be the case because SOME of my hypothyroid symptoms can be caused by heavy metal toxicity, insulin resistance and BAD estrogens.

I've looked all over the internet and so far, haven't seen all this advice in one spot with regard to lo carb dieting stalls / plateaus. You may now benefit from years of my own experience and hours of research by simply following the above info. Having a Naturopath you see about twice a year (usually not covered by insurance) along with having a regular doctor (to order tests through your insurance company -- and to have on hand in case you break a leg or something) is a great way to go. Plus, a naturopath will spend more than 15 minutes with you. Mine will spend 2 hours with me. Regular doctors only need 15 minutes because that's all the time it takes to write a new prescription... The two of them don't have to agree on everything. Let your doctor run your tests, share the results with your naturopath, then do what your gut, your self-knowledge, and your naturopath says. Then present your regular doctor with your great resulting blood test results...read it an weep dude!

BTW, I believe more emphasis on naturopathic medicine is the real answer for our health care debate. Naturopaths need to start being covered by insurance, and the government needs to stop their lying "studies" and squelching scientific data that doesn't support their financial alliances with the AMA, AHA and the FDA, etc. If people start getting educated (the internet is a great tool) and stop believing everything they see on TV commercials and all the prescriptions their regular doctors try to put them on, and stop getting all their medical info from Dr. Oz and The Doctors show (which only give us tidbits of fast-paced fluff interjected with more commercials, and often leave out the most helpful info due to their financial alliances) and start eating more hormone-free foods and whole veggies, and help themselves and PREVENT a lot of problems, they WON'T NEED THEIR DOCTORS NEARLY AS MUCH. Then the excessive amount of regular doctors who won't tell us the truth (even though sometimes they know the truth) will be replaced with good naturopathic doctors who will help us help ourselves. Then a lot of the regular doctors will be standing on the corners with their white coats asking people if the'd like to buy a prescription. And don't even get me started on the pharmaceutical industry, which is in bed with your regular doctor. Then we won't all end up with diabetes and alzheimer's and heart disease and cancer, which only increases premiums and the healthcare burden on America, and puts money in the pockets of doctors and the pharma industry which are slowly killing us. Doctors make money when we visit them, when they prescribe multiple prescriptions to us, and when they give us wrong advice, which leads to our worsening health, then they make MORE money when we are eventually hospitalized (because of the bad care and bad info) and "treated" at great expense (and profit for the doctors/hospitals) there until we die (when we've outlived our financial usefulness to the medical industry). The solution to the health care debate is for Americans to take back their health through self-education, refusal to be put on unnecessary prescriptions, refusal to follow the wrong advice of their regular doctors, their decision to visit their naturopath despite it not currently being covered by insurance, demanding cheaper organic foods in their grocery stores, boycotting non-organic dairy at their grocery stores, by insisting that naturopaths be covered by insurance in the future, and boycotting the fast food industry 100% until it DIES.

Don't eat fast food, even the "diet" fast food, it still contains bad hormones and toxic chemicals that will slow down weight loss. Don't trust the diet industry with all its powders and shakes and pills (I don't even use Atkins products). Don't trust the FDA with all these new drugs that keep getting recalled, like Alli and Yaz, etc. NEVER take BCPs, even if you have PCOS. If you have PCOS, there are better ways to balance your hormones (see a naturopath). Not all naturopaths are created equal, so find a reputable one with a big practice and lots of patients. I just saved you $10,000.