Atlee, Coming from a woman with a 52 lb loss, those words are very compelling to me!

I agree, it's impossible to gain 7 lbs from one piece of cake -- and it must've been water weight. It was soooo discouraging though!

Some things I'm thinking of trying to compensate for the hi-carb meal: exercising a lot in the days following the meal so as to burn off the glycogen (I know the "Body for Life" guys do something like this once a week).

Also I've thought about returning to the "fat fast" after the meal. I've tried it before and you really do lose weight quickly on it -- and I felt fine when I did it before. It might help me not get discouraged by the inevitable weight gain.

Thanks for your reply, atlee!

I keep a controlled cheat in my back pocket that I take out (at the most) every 3 weeks but the few that I have had were closer to 5 weeks apart. The last cheat broke a 4 week stall, too and I lost 8 pounds in 6 days after I had the cheat meal. Granted I haven't lost anything since then (a week ago).

RHAZZ- If I was going to NY I would cheat like crazy. I LOVE the food there. What restaurant are you talking about (or did you already mention that)? If you like pizza, you have to go to John's Pizza on Bleeker st. There is no substitute, I promise you. Have a great time and enjoy yourself (but not too much)!

I have really enjoyed reading this thread. It seems to me that those who were in the midst of a stall lost when they carb loaded.

Others can successfully up the carbs or go crazy for a meal or an hour.

But I'm also reading that quite a few who were not stalled and fudged for one meal, a day, a weekend, had a weight gain.

I fall into the latter category. Was invited out for dinner at "moms" afte church one day. Didn't want to offend anyone, and there were no LC food in site with the exception of very dried out roast. I ate sweet potatoes, jello, veggies, and heavenly bread pudding for dessert.

Didn't cheat at all after this, went dutifully back on my LC eating by the next meal. I was not in a state of being stalled. This little meal put me into a 3 pound gain.

If I get into a prolonger stall, I will be heading to McDonalds,the Pizza Palace, and Dairy Queen - you can count on it!

Absinthe:

I re-read this and went back to your original post. That was the one I was most curious about - your 50-yr old policeman friend. Can you go back to him and find out what program he is following???

I'd be curious to know about it. I really like the thought of looking forward to a full blown cheat once every three weeks with the benefit of continued weight loss. That sounds like the best of both worlds to me.

I can believe it. I've been trying to take off this last 10 pounds for over a month! So frustrating!

Have fun in New York and let us know how you did.

Thanks guys! I definitely will let you know how the food was and how much I gained. The restaurant is called Babbo's. Wish me luck!

I'm doing Body for Life, which stipulates "Sundays off" to eat whatever and not work out. I have been doing Sundays off since starting BFL 7 weeks ago, and although I'm losing a bit more slowly, this may be more likely atttributable to muscle mass gain.
For now I like my Sundays off, but I wouldn't be doing it unless I was also doing BFL concurrently with a modified Atkins.

How much Apple Pie and Ice Cream could I eat in one hour?!?!?!? It does not bare thinking about...

And yes they are the only things I really miss...

I had a planned high carb dessert last night, raspberry pie, and am only up .5 lb this morning, and my sticks still show me in ketosis. I'll let you know if my weigh changes drastically for the worse or better in coming days

I have been wanting to post here but as I'm brand new to atkins...I was feeling hesitant.
I was on a diet last year called The Three-Day diet.
It was a very different sort of thing, extremely effective.

Mon-Tues-Thurs-Fri- around 50 carbs and under 900 calories, low fat as well.
Wed, Sat, Sun- under 100 carbs and around 1200 calories.
The diet was set up like a Chinese food menu, you got to choose from 3 comumns at every meal, one menu for On days one menu for Off days. And on Off Days you could have 2 Cravers, candy, ice cream cookies, donuts, fries etc.

I lost 30 pounds in 6 weeks, I would be in Ketosis overnight twice a week and calorie restricted the rest of the week. But still got to eat Pizza and burgers and ice-cream. In the end it was too hard to keep up with TOM would always blow me out of the water. I cheated ALL the time (and still lost weight) but it was making me neurotic. And you never get that metabolic advantage of not craving sugar hene you eat in every 3 days. Anyway, I think the metabolic shake-up kept me losing, I truly believe in it, Your body wants to be homeo-static. It wants to hold on to weight, losing weight is a battle against evolution. I fully plan on doing some carby days in the future, but right now i'm losing and feeling non-neurotic.

I am bumping this because it's interesting!

I've read that the best way to do a cheat day is to keep your food low-fat and start the day with simple carbs and then eat starchy carbs.

All this talk made me desirous of a carb-crazy day. So I took the test myself.

Ate every naughty thing I love from Wednesday PM to Thursday PM. I ate like two starved lumberjacks. The scale jumped up 7 pounds by Friday AM.

I was diligent to go very LC and was down 3 pounds by Saturday, and 2.5 more this AM. That puts me up just 1.5 pounds from where I was when I had my carb-crazed day.

I'm curious to see if I can keep dropping the weight quickly for the next week or so. If I can, then it was worth it.

I'm curious to hear other's results....

I have been craving my favorite meal but afraid to try it. I would love a plate of spaghetti and meat balls with a side of crusty bread. How bad would a couple of cups of pasta do me? I am losing weight slowly, but have been eating plenty of veggies every day. In fact, I cheat with some oatmeal every Saturday morning, but skip the brown sugar and only eat about a half a cup cooked. I have wine frequently and depending upon the event perhaps a few light beers, but that is rare. I want to attend the state fair later this month and was planning on perhaps an ice cream and fresh squeezed lemonade there and a pasta dinner on the way home, know a great place!

The carb cheat day has worked for me. I have one a week now, just avoid the sugars still. My pants went from tighter than skin to baggy and I just bought new sizes..down to a 14!! YEAH!!!!!!
(my weight needs to be updated as soon as I hop on a scale)

My only advice would be to pick a day that you can really enjoy your cheat and eat exactly what your craving. I will drive 50 miles for the perfect pizza and not crave it again for a long time.

Good luck to all who dare try.