I am kinda surprised to have only lost 7 pounds so far and im almost done week 2. Im eating very on plan. Drinking a ton of water. No frakenfoods. What gives? Can you eat too few carbs? Does that make you retain the weight? Am i not eating enough food at all? I find that hard to believe.Or am i just being a big whiner? 7 pounds in 2 weeks doesnt suck. I guess I was just hoping for more.

It's different for everyone- but if you still have a few more days wait it out- you might lose a few more by the time the first two weeks are up

7 pounds is a lot....just keep on trucking.....from now on you may only see 1 or 2 pounds a week or maybe even 5 sometimes. This plan still takes time to lose weight but just stick with it! When i did this before I lost 30 or 40 pounds....I cant really remember so I usually say 30...I was smaller then too and was very busy so honestly I didn't weight that much towards the end of it cause I was so pleased with how clothes fit. But, anyway, that took about 3 months.

day 2:
3 eggs 3 slices bacon
tuna salad scooped up with cukes
parmesan cheese coated fried chicken tenders
shrimp in garlic butter

110oz water
tea with cream and 1 splenda

day 3:
cheese stick and cold grtilled chicken
small chef salad
crab and cream cheese stuffed mushrooms
more chef salad and chicken w blue cheese for dinner
slim jim
tons of water

day7:
4 eggs 4 bacon
tuna salad with cukes
garlic chicken thighs
asparagus and mushrooms
turkey avacado and bacon rolled into lettuce leaf
2 slices bacon for snack
128oz water
tea with splenda and cream


day 8:
quiche made with bacon broc cheese onion and mushroom
1/4 of it for breakfast and 1/4 for lunch
3 chicken tenders
celery w blue cheese dressing
big steak small salad asparagus
lots of water and iced tea

day11:
chicken strips dipped in blue cheese
huge salad with chicken and eggs
1chicken breast asparagus
128oz water
1/2 a dt dr pepper with cream over ice

I try to make sure im not eating tooo much cheese i have cut way back since day 7. edited to add: thank you kim for your time and advice in reviewing this i really respect your knowledge of atkins. Also I have been in ketosis since day 3.

Seven pounds of fat is over a gallon. Just go and hold a gallon jug of milk and you will see what that is like (liquid water weighs more, but a gallon of fat is about 6. something pounds). The only problem is that 7 pounds dosen't "look" like anything. The first place you lose fat is the fat stored inside your body-- If you were a cut of meat, it would be the "marbeling" that is the fat that is stuck inside and in-between your muscles. Then there is the fat that is attached to your heart, your liver, your kidneys and inside your abdominal cavity. This all goes first-- that's why people get frustrated. They don't see the weight come off, so they don't think they are really losing.

Seven pounds is nothing to sneeze at. I couldn't pull those kinds of numbers in two weeks if I ate nothing. Right now I have a respiratory virus (bad cold, or not-so-bad virus), and I've only lost 3 lbs since it began over a week ago (and I'm barely eating, although I'm also barely moving).

When I was in my twenties and tried Atkins for a very brief time (didn't stick with it because I believed all the B.S. about it being unhealthy), I weighed about 260 lbs, and lost 11 lbs my first week.

Now, I'm in my forties, and even on induction level, can lose no more than 4 lbs in a week (and usually much less).


Why the difference? Maybe age, health issues, a less active lifestyle, the metabolic damage of a lifetime of crash diets....


For me, low carb works better than anything else. It reduces crazy hunger, so I feel like a human being and not a half-starved animal. It also seems to reduce some of my troubling health symptoms, and I feel better physically and emotionally. In many ways, weight loss is just the bonus.

Remember too that weight doesn't always come off nice and smoothly. Many people lose weight in (to steal a phrase that's been floating around her alot) "whooshes." Some people have two no-loss weeks for every good loss week. Some people (women people, anyway) have one gain week a month.

There are so many patterns to weight loss, that you can't really judge much by anything less than an 8 week trial (and even that, I think is too short).

We're all impatient to lose the weight, but keeping it off, is a lot more important than how fast you can get it off.

Thank you all so much. You dont know how much better that made me feel! I was up 1# this am so i am trying really hard not to fret. In a life before Atkins I would have said frig it and used my gain as an excuse to bail and bingge and try something new after regaining the 7 i just lost. But not today. I stuck to the plan today and even if I dont see what Id like to on the scale tomorrow am I am going to remiond myself its just a number on a machine.

I have to agree with the veggies thing- you need more fiber at least, cucumbers and mushrooms have very little fiber. Cucumbers have less than 1/2 a gram of fiber per half cup (with peel). Mushrooms have less than 1 gram of fiber in one cup.

Here are some high fiber and low carb vegetables:

Collard Greens
1 cup chopped, cooked, 4 grams usable carb, 5 grams fiber

Avocado, Hass
1 medium avocado, 3 grams usable carb, 12 grams fiber

Spinach and Chard
1 cup chopped, cooked � 3 g usable carb, 4 g fiber
Frozen 1 10 oz package � 3 g usable carb, 8 g fiber
6 cups of raw spinach or chard=about 1 cup cooked

Broccoli
1/2 cup chopped, cooked, 1 gram usable carb, 3 grams fiber
1 cup chopped, raw, 4 grams usable carb, 2 grams fiber

Cauliflower
1/2 cup pieces, cooked,1 gram usable carb, 2 grams fiber
1 cup raw, 2 grams usable carb, 2.5 grams fiber

I eat a lot of cauliflower to help with my fiber intake.

Your menu does look pretty good......and one slight possibility I see may be that you could reduce the cheese but add more butter/mayo.

One issue with Atkins is that especially as we get older, we may have to tweak a few things. For me, personally (as compared to the first time I did Atkins years ago).....I had to severely limit artificial sweeteners (to only 3 packs of splenda, maximum, a day) and also to be cautious with cheese, sour cream, cream cheese. Not that I can't have them but I am cautious with them.

You must also get adequate fats in the form of butter, olive oil and mayo. Not enough fat, I've noticed, will slow down my progress. I love to eat raw fish but this has no fat....so make myself steam it with plenty of butter. Also get a yen for soup on occasion, but again, very low-fat, so I watch this.

And finally, the scale will tend to jump around a bit...totally out of synch with staying on plan. Bouncing up can be due to increased sodium or can also be due to water retention. It's the strangest thing, but the body will go into this compensatory water-retention mode shortly before you drop pounds, for some darn reason. After a while, you get used to these fluctuations and they don't really bother or alarm you.

BUT...if you are having consistent problems....the best thing to do is to post your daily intake for a week as it may possibly need some tweaking. Took me a very long time to figure out why I couldn't get Atkins to work for me this time.....but I was determined and finally figured out which tweak I needed.

deena

I've seen mentioned on several low carb forums that mushrooms are stallers for some people -- might want to see if that's true for you.

I've kept carbs very low since last March -- usually around 30 grams a day (including fiber) and the only time I lose more than one pound a week is if I was off plan & had bloated up from carbs in the first place. Otherwise I'm pretty steady at just under a pound a week of loss, quite steady, but no big drops really.

That said, I've NEVER been a fast loser, and this is faster than I've lost when I've done low fat/low cal in the past (also much more consistent).

From what I've seen, for most people except in the very early weeks, one pound (or max two) a week is normal for people who weigh under 200 or so. If you're bigger you might lose a little bit faster, but when you look at the period of "settling in" to a diet (so after the first 3-5 weeks) it seems that's what most low carbers lose.

Realistic expectations can keep you sticking to your plan MUCH longer than those yearned-for "150 pounds in 5 months" goals...

You're doing so great so far! Please don't be discouraged, 7 lbs. is actually a lot. How do you feel? Are you feeling not too hungry? If so, just think - you can keep this up long-term! And it will be even easier when you move on to the other phases. I've done the induction phase before (years ago) and I do remember it was kind of hard.

Congratulations to you for choosing a happier and healthier new you - you WILL make it! Please don't give up! I believe in you!