Hi Everyone,

I am now beginning my second month on the Atkins plan and am looking for some advise. When I started testing using the keytone strips, the reading would always be in one of the last two zones.Now it has dropped back to the moderate reading. At first I could feel and see the weight coming off. I found a shirt in the wardrobe that I couldn't even get buttoned a month ago.I made the mistake of wearing this shirt to work and it was a little too tight. I felt uncombfortable all day and it has set me back a bit. I started to wonder if this was really working. I have been very strict with my carb intake. I have been eating a lot of protein. Lots of meat, but I thought I was allowed to do that.

Is my body still burning fat ?
Is it burning at a slower rate ?
Could I be eating too much protein or too few carbs ?

I also wondered what exercise I should be doing, and how often. I have been doing a little walking. I am not fit enough to do anything else just yet.

I would be really interested reading the journals of members who have lost a lot of weight to I could try and get an insight into what I could be doing wrong. I have a lot of weight to lose and know that I cannot expect instant results. I look forward to the day that I will be able to weigh myself on regular scales. At least that way I would know that I was shifting some of the weight.

Thanks in anticipation of your support.


Kenny

Hi,
Glad you posted and welcome. You will find lots of support and ideas here!
If you haven't begun keeping a journal yet, that might be a great way to start. Others can look at what/how/when you are eating and offers any thoughts and suggestions they might have.
Just don't get discouraged, this way of eating works! You'll feel better, have more energy, and lose weight, too!
Have a great day.
Lesle

Kenny,

Are you getting your carbs from veggies and drinking lots of water? Both of these are very important in getting the weight off and eating healthy. I drink about 3-6 liters of water and have at least 2 large servings of veggies each day. This has seemed to work out really well for me.

Have you given up caffiene and foods/drinks sweetened with aspartame? I did about 1 1/2 weeks ago and I have really been able to see the difference in weight loss. It seems to have jumpstarted my losses.

As far as excercise goes. Do what you can do. At first I just tried to get more active. Meaning when I got home from work instead of planting myself on the couch I would take my daughter to the park or to the mall. Then as I felt more active I started doing additional excercise.

Remember this is a WOL and lives aren't changed over night. Make small changes daily and you will be there before you know it.

Good luck

Kenny,

Welcome to the forum.

Last July, I started out about the same weight you are now. (I'm not sure of my exact starting weight because my doctor's scale only went up to 350 and I was above 350.) I found a lot of helpful advise and information in the Triple Digits Club, which is one of the sub-forums on this site (scroll down the home page until you see it under focus groups). That forum is for people with over 100 pounds to lose, and as you know, we folks with over 100 pounds to lose have different issues from the people who need to lose 30 or 40 pounds. Many of us who post in the Triple Digits Club keep journals. I don't know which ones you will finally particularly helpful for your issues, but if you start going through the Triple Digits Club posts and someone sounds interesting to you, you can click on the journal icon under his or her post to get connected to their journal. Given that you are male, and men react somewhat differently to this way of eating than women, you might want to look at Donald Wolfe's journal. Among other things, he keeps detailed logs of what he eats.

Please stay around and keep us informed of your progress. I always feel a special bond with other people who start out at over 350 pounds. We need to hang together and support each other.

Hi, i found myself behing in a ketosis roller coaster myself, and am really starting to wonder if behing in ketosis is even worth all the effort we make.

I guess i can say yes, i have done this diet 4 times now, and what i have noticed is that everything has to be in place for maximum weight loss.

Dont worry about the behing fit thing, i am on the bench right now and have been for a year, lower back pain and pelvic adjustement, i am almost finished with that unfortunate injury and ready to get back at it 150%.

The first time i did this diet the weight kept coming off like crazy, the second time to and the third time even faster.

But i was weight training 4 times a week and doing cardio tae-bo every morning.

Right now i am only swimming wish gets me into ketosis fast but my weight loss isnt near what the 3 other times did.

Dont worry to much about your fitness level, just go easy, i started swimming and add a really hard time in the pool at first, i was in the slow lane and now am in the medium.

If you can just add weight training and a bit more intense cardio you will see a big difference, i dont beleive in a diet itself but more in a complete diet and exercice program.

Low carb works really well when all is in place.

I have been training for 17 years and did a lot of diet and low carb was the one and only that helped me get shredded, it even burn that fat behind the abdominal.

If you need more help on training or cardio i will be glad to help you.

Few tips that help:

I use a fatburner 2 times a day, when i wake up and around 2pm

Drinking 3 cups of green tea a day will help you, accelerate your metabolisme.

Drinking a lot of water will also make a big difference.

And if you do weight train you will be burning calories just watching tv.

Good luck

Try posting a daily menu to get advice on what you're eating. Depth of color has not important, if you are producing ketones, your body is burning fat. It's normal to lose in fits and starts on this wol, you will have periods of time when the scale doesn't move. Don't worry, you're just fine. Nhah Levi

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for your kind words of advice and more importantly your support. I am the only one in my house with the willpower to change my diet for the better, so its good to know I am not alone. I have still been drinking those so called sugar free drinks because I was under the impression that they were OK. The label says Carbs = trace but yes they do contain asparatine. I will cut them out completely and stick to water only. I do drink coffee and tea. Both are decaffinated. Yannick, I appreciate your comments on excersise. I used to do a bit of weight training, so I will give it a go. Unfortunately I swim like a brick so I will give that a miss. I have also been limiting myself to only about 6oz veggies a day. In fact that is about my only source of carbs. Might give the old green tea a shot also.

Thanks again everyone,you have given me that extra lift I needed.

Best Wishes

Kenny

Hi Kenny... don't worry, the weight will keep comin' off. It's normal to fluctuate as your body adjusts to burning fat instead of glucose.

I took a peek in your journal and it looks to me like you may not be eating enough veggies. I bet your carb intake is falling short of 20 grams a day and you really need to keep it at around 20!

Have you checked out fitday.com? It's a great way to keep track of your fat/protien/carb intake. I only started this WOE a month ago and it really helped me get good at "eyeballing" how much food (and what kinds) would give me 20 grams a day. It's an excellent tool. Thank God for the Internet! ;-)

Anyway... welcome to the forum!
And good luck on your low-carb journey.

I guess you are all right. I really haven't been eating too much veg at all. I am a little aprehensive that I will eat too many carbs. I recently bought a carb counter book and have found that most veg is quite high in carbs. Last night I had some mangetout and courgette stir fried with garlic and I will try to eat more veg in the future. Another couple of things I have done is to drink lots more water. Now up to 3-4 litres per day. Have also decided to completely cut out asparatine from my diet. I was under the impression that foods containing asparatine were ok because they were low carb, but obviously not.


Kenny

Kenny... don't forget you can subtract the fibre count from the total carb count in all veggies. Fibre doesn't affect blood sugar.

You should be able to eat 3 cups of veggies a day without going over 20 grams.

Good luck!