Hello All!

My name is Lisa. I live in PA. I have been reading through the posts for a few days now. You all seem very supportive. I just started Atkins earlier this week and I have a few questions.

It probably would be helpful for me to give a little history on myself. I am 5'5". I started having weight issues when I had my daughter 15 years ago. Since then, I have yo-yo'd. I've been as high as 176 and as low as 125. I have tried tons of diet/exercise programs. Most of which have produced some amount of weight loss. I followed Atkins a few years ago with some success but, at a birthday party, I had one piece of cake, which turned into tons of other off-plan stuff. I just couldn't get back into it and before long, I weighed more than before I had started. I stayed far away from the scale and one day I went for a physical and almost died when the scale read 176. I had never weighed that much. I joined LA WeightLoss and got down to 125. Needless to say, I was very happy. I followed their Maintenance Plan for a while but when little cheats here and there didn't affect my weight, they turned into bigger cheats more often. So I got on the scale the other day and it read 146. I decided I had to do something before I ended up back where I started or worse.

So I decided to try Atkins again. This time armed with the knowledge of what that one little piece of cake did to me the last time and the determination to not let that happen again.

I started Atkins on Monday (2/13) and have followed the rules of Induction to the letter since then. I have lost 5 lbs so far, which makes me happy. But I feel like I'm hangry and eating all the time. I don't remember this from the first time I tried Atkins. Is this normal? For example, I just ate a hamburger patty with a slice of american cheese and bacon (no bread of course) at about 12:15 and here it is 1:15 and I feel like I could eat again. I keep eating small amounts as I get hungry, I just feel like I'm constantly eating. Now, I AM losing weight, so I'm certainly not complaining. I'm just wondering, should I eat whenever I feel hungry or should I try to limit my consumption? I know that the Atkins book says that you don't need to count calroies just carbs - but I guess this just feels like it's defying logic. I'm eating more than ever and I'm wondering if I would be seeing the numbers on the scale drop faster if I weren't eating so much.

Another question I have relates to water weight vs fat loss. The scale I use measures water and fat %. When I weighed myself the first 2 days, I noticed that my fat % had gone up a little and my water % had gone down. I was expecting this. But yesterday and again this morning, it has reversed. My water % is still slightly less than it was before I started but my fat % has dropped to about 1.5 percentage points lower than it was when I started (which equates to about 3.75 lbs of fat). Is this possible that I am losing fat that quickly or is my scale just off?

I figure that the first question I will get about this is exercise. I work a full-time job, try to keep up with my teenaged daughter and help my hubby (he is starting up a new business). I usually get up around 5:45am and I'm busy all day until I give up and go to bed around 11:30pm or midnight. I am normally pretty active, running around doing errands, etc. I have not added any additional (structured) exercise to my routine.

Sorry this post is so long. I tend to be a little long-winded...

HHHHMMMM well let me give this a try. first actually one little piece of cake should not derail you unelss you were not in the right frame of mind and just was not able to find your way back. if and when you give int to carbs go with the idea that only this one piece of cake and no more. I know how you feel I have been derailed by less. but there are ways to get back OP and very effective if you are ready. also think about this when you have lost the weight ore you going to go ff plan?? yes so it is a matter of changing the way you think totaly and alowing such days of eating but knowing and holding back when it is time to stop. hopefully you will come here for support so that will not occur again. (let me tell you I know!!)

second do not let your self get hungry now or you will fall off plan especially if it is TOM (My down fall) if you up your fat intake and actually take in a bit more food... what you are doing now is filling up your stomach with what used to be the carb hole. so after a little while your body will realize that you are eating enough and you can slowly decrease your intake to a realistic amount. but for the first 3 - 6 weeks (I have just gotten to that point) eat.

Scale ??? do not do those readings now. there is no way in gods creation that you can lose that much fat in just that short time. actually think about it each lb of fat is 3500 cals and say you are 150 lbs so 1% of fat wlould be 1.5 lbs so to drop that in fat you would have to burn 5230 cals over what you have eaten in the day. I know what it takes me to burn 300 cals on the elipitical and there is no way I could burn that much in such a short time. especially if your scale is measrung water. is must be a bioelectical measruing the conductivity of your body from one foot to the other. it does a speed and the slower it goes the more fat there is as fat is not s elcetrically conductive as water or muscle is. so it would take if you were a bit dehydrated it would read as more fat and less water. now vary your salt intake and you will retain fluids or vary your potassium, magnesium and you will change the elecrical conductivity of your cells. so your bio impedence will change from day to day. as you are in a new state your fluids will be going all over the place. just remember to do all your water intake and do not go by those silly numbers. do it only once a month as theyre is no way it can realistically change much in week let alone a day. another example is the body fat % HOLY cow think about it. there really is no way to drop that much as fat .. it is all in t the fluid shift.

But any ways I hope I answered your question ok./ I do not want to discourage you when you are really doing great. dropping the fluid takes a while a some is stored in the musscle as well.

Absolutely, those scales are absurd. They do not measure fat percentages accurately and will adjust up or down depending on how much water you have in your body. When I lost water weight, it has shown my fat percentages to be higher etc.

I'm actually sorry I ever bought the silly scale. It really isn't accurate for fat percentages at all. All it can give you is a general range. And a general trend. If you saw one number one time and that is the highest number you've ever seen on the scale and now you never see that number you can assume you've lost some fat. How much? Who knows?

Use fat calipers or the body fat calculators you can find on the net, they are much closer to accurate. When I did Body for Life, I was specifically interested in what my body fat percentage was. So I had the scale, bought some calipers and also used the programs on line. My calipers and the programs were very close to one another as far as what they read. The scale was always WAY higher by 10 or 20 percentage points. So I just don't even trust it anymore for that part.

Regarding being hungry all the time? Eat. Enjoy. Stay on plan and just eat. But as your body adjusts, you will find you are less hungry. When that happens listen to your body, don't keep stuffing in more than you need.

I go through days when I have no appetite at all. I can go nearly all day without eating much or hardly anything. I accept those days and go with them. Other days I'm extra hungry. I eat on those days. I figure my body knows what and when it needs something. As long as I keep losing weight, I'm not going to fight the process.

About eating that piece of cake and going completely nuts? Oh yeah. I'm afraid of that. Us Carb Addicts have to be careful. On the other hand we do have to realize that if we want to stay committed, we have to realize that there will be times when we won't be perfect. But the very next meal we must get right back on track. One little slip isn't going to ruin things, unless we let it. A lot of that has to do with our attitude. Do we resent the deprivation we live with? Or do we welcome the weight loss and feel grateful that there is a way we can do it and have it succeed?

Once we get to the point where we feel "rebellious" against the process then nothing in this world is going to keep us moving forward in our efforts. We have to remember WHO it is that we are on this journey FOR. For myself, I got to the point where I didn't really WANT to stay on plan and my rebellion showed all over the place. Problem with that kind of rebellion? It punishes the person we want most to help. Ourselves.

No one cake, or one cookie shouldn't mean the end of our dieting forever, but we do need to know ourselves well, and we do need to make sure we WANT the weight loss more than we want the cake or cookies.

Sherry you deserve a standing ovation for that one. Very nicely said.

First off - Welcome to this wonderful list of support.

Second - Sherry.. well said.

I truly believe it has to do with personal control. I constantly tell myself, "You are in Control!" It's hard.. one of the hardest things to do when it comes to food. But the great thing is.. IT IS DOABLE. It's just up to you...

In fact - Falon (in Old Gaelic) means "In charge".. I am in charge of myself, my success, what I eat, what I don't, my growth (in a good way) and so on. I try and take that seriously. I am in charge of ME and no one else...

Good luck and I wish you lots of success. Utilize the great support here.. It helps to make the task a little easier.

Sherry - thank you for that - I needed to hear that right now too. I've been so far off any plan for about 4-5 days that it's not even funny.

Well having said it, I was off plan for yesterday somewhat. But I'm going right back on today. Like I said we aren't perfect. Expecting perfection or beating ourselves up for not being perfect is pointless. We are on this journey, not for anyone else but ourselves. Would we burn down our houses if we found that we weren't perfect housekeepers? Uhh that would be sort of dumb.

So would totally going off our chosen diet simply because we slipped a little. The process is only part of the picture. One slip or one day's slip isn't going to affect the ultimate goal by that much. But if we get perfectionistic, beat ourselves up, tell ourselves how BAD we are, wallow in our misery and keep on doing what we know is counter productive, then it is like burning down your house. Pointless. Let's just get back on track.