I have been on the induction phase for almost a full month and I have not seen any loss since the first week. I dropped seven pounds in week 1 and since then have been hovering around that weight - sometimes 2 lbs over, sometimes 2lbs under.

I have been tracking more days than not online and I know I have not had more than 20 carbs and I've made sure about 75% of my carbs are from veggies. For the first two weeks I was drinking diet rite and fresca (1 or 2 a day) but then after seeing a stall I cut those out - still no loss. A friend who is also doing this diet was still losing was NOT limiting her cheese intake - so I tried that for the last two weeks - still no loss. My exercise levels have been 1 - 2 hours per week so not great but not terrible.

I've been researching like mad online to figure out what's wrong because I actually am sticking to this one! I love the program but not the results. In calorie counting I could point to one thing or another and say "That was not a good decision, thats why you're not losing!" but I can't figure this one out!

Is it possible for this diet just not to work for some bodies?

The only two things left I have to test are 1) eating enough calories - I was averaging between 1100 - 1500 just naturally but I read somewhere that my BMR is 1700 and I should at least be eating that. And 2) I am on a low dose birth control pill - which a site referenced being a staller. But I'd like to not get pregnant so I'm hoping that is not the culprit. I admit there is a third unknown factor, which is stress, but I don't know how to cut that one out of my life! lol

Any light to shed on this would be helpful! I don't mind the induction phase but I can't see moving on with this plan to any other phases if it's just not working.

my advice would be dont follow A DIET thats when things become unrealistic to modern day life and when we become depressed because we deprive ourselves or when we cant stick to it.
And it becomes to controling. Well thats whative found. Although ive just started out trying to lose weight i know what works for me its just motivation i lack.
I find that 3 square meals a day and exercise when u have the free time works wonders its just getting into a routine. Cut out the bad stuff (we all know wat it is) but have a bit of what u fancy somtimes , but in moderation. Any doc will tel u the same. I have weakness 4 takeaways and eating out. but once i get in my routine the pounds fall off.
their will never be a quick fix to weightloss longer it takes longer it stays off. Its a journey of self discovery. Thats y i know when i decided to get the weight off it has to be long term commitment.So i dont wana be unhappy in the process tormentig myself with strict unrealistic DIETS. Wishing i cud eat this and that them relapsing buy giving in to temptation (which is what i would do lol).
So shead the pounds happily and do it in moderation and ull see the sacles change positively ..............GOOD LUCK

I realized I forgot to mention my water consumption - which is LOTS! I have a water cooler at my house like the company water coolers and we get a delivery of bottles every month and I ran out two weeks early! I am ordering two extra of those gigantic bottles for next month.

Typically breakfast is two eggs and a meat ( bacon, sausage, or ham) - nothing with sugars all the packaging lists zero carbs and are not maple or sugar cured.

Lunch is either a salad (romaine, blue cheese dressing, ham cubes, bacon pieces, mushrooms, shredded cheese) or leftovers from the night before (I have been cooking a lot with chicken and ground beef from the Genaws low carb site). If I am in a hurry I will grab black olives and a throw a hamburger on the grill. I also have been eating broccoli on a regular basis - which I know is a "higher" carb veggie but the ones I get are 4 carbs 2 sugars 2 fiber, so a serving is two net carbs and I count them into my daily total.

I'm using butter and regular mayonaise to cook and prepare things.

For a snack I grab pork skins, pepperoni slices, or a portion of cheese.

I think my plate is public on the daily plate too for a REALLY detailed view lol, although there's not a full list of every day on there when I get busy.

http://www.livestrong.com/thedailypl.../who/pferde01/

thanks so much for your review and encouragement. As for the margerine, I ran out of butter and still had some left in my fridge. Believe me I am enjoying butter when I have it on hand , it's nice to have real butter back in my life.

This week I will go back to limiting cheese again, hopefully I will find the right combination here soon! And yes, exercise is something I need to re-incorporate into my daily schedule. I need to get my butt moving for sure. That will help my stress levels hopefully, too! The company I work for is failing and my mother in law just opened a restaurant that is also failing so my time is being spread pretty thin.

Are you losing inches while the weight is the same? I had a very similar experience of a good drop the first week and then several weeks of plateau. I kept with it because I was feeling so much better and the lack of hunger had me awed (I think I've felt 'hungry' all my life untile now).

I started getting more strict with counting carbs (and not NET carbs, just plain carb grams, although I gave myself a little slack if grams of carbs were high AND fiber was higher). I also killed all fake sugar (diet coke, etc). It took a few more weeks but the plateau busted and I've been moving down again.

During the weight plateau I did notice that I had clothes that were getting noticeably looser - so I figured it was m body losing fat cells and hanging onto other stuff temporarily.

My advice would be to hang in there a little longer and see what tweaks you can do before giving up.

You know when I started about 6 months ago I noticed the same thing. I just kept doing what I was doing and one day I started feeling lighter and lighter again. It is discouraging but don't give up it does get better. I never changed what I was doing at all I just waited for my body to catch up to what I was doing. Of course, I was having a hard time this last week BUT thanks to everyone on here I got through it! Just keep going! I promise it does get better!

I had a similar experience... Then I tried calorie cycling and it kicked me right out of my plateau. You should look into it and see if its something that interests you.

Best of luck!

~shauna~

Well to update, I'm sad to say I have actually gained since I've posted. I have not gone off plan as far as eating foods that aren't allowed. Limiting cheese has been tough. I have cut back the broccoli and other veggies. and now eat only romaine lettuce for my vegetable carbs hoping that would help.

I did go back to drinking diet soda, tried some with Splenda. Which I am cutting out again. I also still have salty snacks so I'm hoping that I'm just retaining water. I have fluctuated this same 4 pounds for so long , I can't seem to crack the 10 pound loss barrier ever. And right now I'm only down 6 pounds from my starting weight.

I'm really frustrated I guess! I'm in ketosis every time I read my pee sticks and I also kicked up my gym visits to 4 times a week.

I did measure myself finally so I am going to have to see whether the tape is moving just not the weight.

My friend is also bringing over her book, I bought an audio book for Diabetes and Atkins (my family is very high risk) but it turned out not to be based on the plan so hopefully that will help me clear up some things.

I quit tracking for a while too so I'm going back to that so I can really figure this out. I want to see the results but I don't know how many more things I can cut out of my daily eating plan without going insane!

I've been going through the same thing this week, hovering at 210-215! (208lbs was my lightest) I actually increased my food intake the other day when I was at 215lbs and today I went back down to 209lbs which is soooo wierd. But you should keep on measuring yourself more than obsessing over the scale. My experience tells me that even though I'm not losing weight, I'm losing inches which is better!

Hang in there.

I really like eating low carb, and I'm losing consistently about 1 pound a week (3 of 4 weeks, with 1 week of plateau usually), but I am not having the famed rapid weight loss - it's pretty slow and steady. I'm happy with it, but I think the hype of low carb is overdone - i'm sure there are people who lose huge and fast, even some who arent really really big to start with (or men) but that's not been my experience. I'm okay with a slower loss, it feels healthy and sustainable, but it has required setting my expectations accordingly.

Are you measuring your food? I havent done this except when I plateaued, but to get accurate carb counts you might need to. It sounds like you're doing things well and getting stricter. Hopefully with patience this will work - I do think our bodies like being heavy and resist mightily losing weight sometimes, you just have to be more stubborn than the fat cells!

I think in the Atkins book they talk about doing a fat fast where you eat only fat for a few days to kick your body into another mode. It might be worth looking into if you re-check everything and are still stuck.

I haven't been measuring - I started to now since I'm limiting my veggies even. I measure my loosely packed lettuce.

Thanks for the encouragement, I am also enjoying the eating style. I will be happy if I can show some steady progress.

I do now have a theory on my stall - I think I had mental block on caffeine, I keep seeing that it depends on the body so I feel like I might get away with it, lol. I have not successfully cut out caffeine for any length of time, a few days a few weeks here and there but I haven't stuck to it. Even when I cut out soda, I was drinking tea. I read the book and its very firm about not having caffeine. So I marked my calendar yesterday with Day 1 of REALLY dropping caffeine, lol. Here's hoping I'll see some loss.

Hope that is what works for you.

How are your calories? I've read a lot of different things about calories - I know Atkins says calories don't matter, but a lot of the more recent low carb authors say that they do -- I know that when I hit my next stall that's what I'll try to measure and change. 1800 cals of low carb is a lot of food, but if you go heavy on cream butter oil it can add up fast too...

Is 1800 an ideal number? Early in my atkins i was ending the day with 1300 calories which I think is way too low. I read somewhere online that 1700 would be a good calorie goal for my weight with low carb - but I don't remember the resource. I haven't been tracking and counting calories religiously but when I do I'm typically not going over 1500.