[Satine]

Hello, I started eating low carb a couple of months ago …I never had that quick 5-10 lb loss the first week or two that others talk about …I’ve also been losing pretty slowly even though I keep my carbs around 20-30 grams a day. I was having occasional fruit ( blueberries, strawberries only ) but that was rarely, and I cut that off a few weeks ago…I am having cheese and cottage cheese ( I did notice yesterday the cottage cheese I’m eating has 3 sugar carbs in it ) quite often, and nuts …usually daily.

I notice a few things I have eaten have had 1-3 sugar carbs in them but I thought that was okay as long as I kept it under my 20-30 per day…should I avoid sugar carbs altogether ?

I don’t understand why I’m only losing a little over 1lb a week with this way of eating ? I’ve got a lot of weight to lose and I feel like this is going to take forever. I get frustrated when I hear everybody else losing 2-3 each week on my same eating plan.

Here was my food log yesterday :

B – scrambled eggs and 2 slices bacon
L – turkey and cheese roll ups, celery with ranch dip ( no carbs )
S – few almonds and a string cheese
D – pork chop ( butter sautee ) and broccoli

Any thoughts ? Or any helpful tips ?

Thanks,
Carri

[Satine]

Anyone out there ??? lol

[JerseyGyrl]

Originally Posted by Satine

Hello, I started eating low carb a couple of months ago …I never had that quick 5-10 lb loss the first week or two that others talk about …I’ve also been losing pretty slowly even though I keep my carbs around 20-30 grams a day. I was having occasional fruit ( blueberries, strawberries only ) but that was rarely, and I cut that off a few weeks ago…I am having cheese and cottage cheese ( I did notice yesterday the cottage cheese I’m eating has 3 sugar carbs in it ) quite often, and nuts …usually daily.

I notice a few things I have eaten have had 1-3 sugar carbs in them but I thought that was okay as long as I kept it under my 20-30 per day…should I avoid sugar carbs altogether ?

I don’t understand why I’m only losing a little over 1lb a week with this way of eating ? I’ve got a lot of weight to lose and I feel like this is going to take forever. I get frustrated when I hear everybody else losing 2-3 each week on my same eating plan.

Here was my food log yesterday :

B – scrambled eggs and 2 slices bacon
L – turkey and cheese roll ups, celery with ranch dip ( no carbs )
S – few almonds and a string cheese
D – pork chop ( butter sautee ) and broccoli

Any thoughts ? Or any helpful tips ?

Thanks,
Carri

Hi Carri,

Please keep in mind this is just my opinion and it is based on my experience with low carb eating (10+ years of doing Atkins).

Although cheese is permitted on low carb, it is known to stall or slow weight loss in a lot of people. You might want to consider limiting or eliminating it to see how things go. I would also limit the cottage cheese to maybe 1 or 2 times a week.

Nuts can be a slippery slope. If you are eating them, be sure you are only eating a small portion, as it is easy to overeat them. Again, I would limit these to only a couple times a week.

Your concentration should be on veggies & salads. A salad for lunch with cut up veggies in it and some type of protein makes a good lunch. Add another small salad with your dinner. Add butter to your veggies as fat is very important on low carb.

Be sure you are drinking plenty of water. Stay away from diet soda. Limit any artificial sweeteners. I personally don't drink coffee but, I do have decaf green or herbal tea.

I hope this helps. I know it can be frustrating to see the scale moving slowly but, with a little tweaking and perserverance, you will get there!

You CAN do this!

All the best to you!

[Satine]

Thank you so much JerseyGyrl, I've seen many of your posts and know you have been doing this for a long time so I respect your opinion. You confirmed what I was thinking. I am going to limit those things for a while and see if that helps me.

The one thing I can say I'm doing well is the water, I drink nothing but and drink a lot of it.

Thanks for your help.

Carri

[Brandis]

Losing a little more than a pound a week IS weight loss. No matter what plan you follow, with the exception of sawing off a limb(that's cheating), if you are losing weight it is working. Some people will lose weight slower than others no matter what plan they are following. I went over a month not losing a darned thing (I am not doing low carb by the way, just less carb), so I would jump up and down if I was steadily losing weight.

And remember, even if you do low carb, calories still matter. You have to create an energy deficit to lose body fat. You can turn protein into fuel just like you could carbs if you eat too much of it. I tried low carb a long time ago, and I was eating waaaay too much, so guess what? I didn't lose weight. I am not saying this is your problem, just playing captain obvious right now.

I agree with the dairy thing, because it seems that when I eat more of it, my weight loss is slower. Also remember that cottage cheese has a tremendous amount of sodium in it, potentially causing water retention. If your diet overall is lacking in fiber, you may be holding on to waste as well. Patience is hard, perhaps the most difficult part of the journey. But it is a journey, and we have to wait to see our results. A pound a week is awesome!!! There are people on this site that would love to lose a pound a month! Keep going! And if low carbohydrate is hard for you to maintain long term, experiment with other plans. It is better to be on a plan and trying than to give up from frustration and regain everything.

[sarahinparis]

Originally Posted by Satine

Hello, I started eating low carb a couple of months ago …I never had that quick 5-10 lb loss the first week or two that others talk about …I’ve also been losing pretty slowly even though I keep my carbs around 20-30 grams a day. I was having occasional fruit ( blueberries, strawberries only ) but that was rarely, and I cut that off a few weeks ago…I am having cheese and cottage cheese ( I did notice yesterday the cottage cheese I’m eating has 3 sugar carbs in it ) quite often, and nuts …usually daily.

I notice a few things I have eaten have had 1-3 sugar carbs in them but I thought that was okay as long as I kept it under my 20-30 per day…should I avoid sugar carbs altogether ?

I don’t understand why I’m only losing a little over 1lb a week with this way of eating ? I’ve got a lot of weight to lose and I feel like this is going to take forever. I get frustrated when I hear everybody else losing 2-3 each week on my same eating plan.

Here was my food log yesterday :

B – scrambled eggs and 2 slices bacon
L – turkey and cheese roll ups, celery with ranch dip ( no carbs )
S – few almonds and a string cheese
D – pork chop ( butter sautee ) and broccoli

Any thoughts ? Or any helpful tips ?

Thanks,
Carri

Jerseygirl offers great advice (as usual! I always love her comments too!)

I don't know your age, but I know that now that I'm in my 40s it's taking a lot more effort, a lot more concentration on both calories & carbs in order to lose at a rate that keeps me motivated (a consistent 1 pound a week would be enough for me, frankly).

The good news in what I see is that you seem to have the basics of low carb down and find it very liveable (I do too) but there are plenty of things to tweak

- Dairy : as Jerseygirl says, it's a staller for a lot of people, and some dairy products have quite a bit of carbs. Independent of the carbs though some people lose much faster with none or very very little dairy. Fresh cheeses (like cottage cheese) are more likely to be problematic than some other dairy products.

- Nuts : portions, and carbs too. I immediately portion nuts into 1 ounce servings as soon as I open a bag of them. I have little kids so I've taken one of their multi-compartment toddler snack containers for this, but baggies or anything will do - the key is to make sure they are measured and controlled

- Carb count : are you counting TOTAL carbs or NET carbs (without fiber)? I know the later versions of Atkins go to net carbs but his early books, and Eric Westman of Duke both use total carbs, and if you do that you'll cut back carbs significantly and avoid most of the frankenfoods that have weird things added to them to keep net carb counts low. I keep my eye on total carbs, but allow myself a little more than induction level carbs as long as most of the excess is coming from green veggies.

- Calories : calories do count, in particular for women over 40. If the other tweaks don't work to get the weigh loss at a pace you like, put a cap on calories as well. For me there is no question that low-carb, eat-whatever-I-want is very liveable and enjoyable but for me that works to MAINTAIN my weight. To lose, I need to cap both carbs and calories. It's like magic, I put a limit on the calories, and the scale starts moving again... The upside is that 1500 calories on low carb is a decent amount of food and quite satisfying. (1500 cal is just an example!)

- Higher-rung foods on Atkins : things like cottage cheese, nuts, berries etc are not on induction on Atkins and in his diet he advises adding them back in slowly. In my experience all the foods not on induction (basically anything that's not meat, fat or low carb veggies) should be treated with caution, and can be used in your diet to add variety, but RARELY. So if you're having many of these foods daily I think it's harder to lose weight. One clever strategy might be to give yourself an allowance of 4 or 5 servings of non-induction foods per week and limit it to that. (You might need to play around to find the right number for you). I've been at this for 8 months now and all these non-induction foods sometimes find a place in my diet, but at the edges, the fringe. If I let them take a regular, major place my weight loss slows or stops. And personally I put dairy into this category too, I've seen better weight loss without dairy than with it, I'm afraid.

You're doing really well though, and I'm sure you'll make your goal - your basic diet looks good.

Feel free to post day by day menus if you'd like more help figuring things out - and we have a couple of low-carb daily check in's running, please join us on the 5 pound challenge (which is not very competitive at all) or the group support thread running until Independence day - there are several of us checking in daily on those. (find both here: http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/atkins-226/)

[Satine]

Thanks ladies ...I didn't had very little cheese yesterday and I do feel better today...still haven't had any bathroom movement ( lol ), so hoping with cutting way back on the cheese ( and cottage cheese ) that I can get that moving. I also read I could take some magnesium to help for that?????

I try to only weigh in on Saturdays so I don't obsess ...I realize if I'm losing at all then it is a success, and I'm happy with that...I guess I just thought I would lose it a little faster...

Sarah - I just turned 40 ...and things are harder to get moving now then they were a decade ago that's for sure...thanks for all your great advice.
I'll check out those boards.

You too Brandis.

Carri

[kris2008]

Satine - I have to have lots of veggies to keep things moving. A big salad every day and veggies throughout the day. Along with the berries and lower carb fruit. Sounds like you are a good water drinker, that's my downfall! Cheese and nuts can constipate so eat sparingly.

[rich8ames]

Also, remember that metabolism really plays an important part of weight loss rates, and your metabolism may be very efficient (I have the same problem) and so weight loss may not come a quickly as others.

I went low carbs, but it wasn't until I cut out nuts that I was able to get the results I wanted. For you it might be something else.