Hello! I'm a bit upset that I haven't seen any weight loss. I'm hoping you guys might know what's up.

I've been on Atkins before, and lost a significant amount of weight. I've recently began again, and I'm on my 14th day of induction. I've been counting my carbs carefully, and managed to have purple Ketostix results for 12 days straight. Still no loss!

I was just diagnosed with having painful gallbladder stones, and I'm wondering if that has anything to do with it, because they aide in the digestion of fat somehow. I've also been eating significantly less because of the pains, averaging about 700 calories a day. I know that's not enough, but I'm booking my surgery tomorrow, so it's not forever of course.

I've heard of 'starvation mode', but I've been at 700 calories a day for 2 weeks now, my body has to be using up SOMETHING for energy, right?

EDIT: And I know I'm not supposed to track calories, but I like to food journal.

Maybe ur not eating enough Hun

How's your fat intake? You need enough fat to lose fat. And did you take your measurements before and now? Your measuring tape might tell you more then your scale. How do you feel in your clothes?

Thanks girls.

I'm able to do my pants up again, but I figured it's a loss of water weight.

As for what I eat, in an average day I consume an ounce of cheese, and about 100g of chicken. It's not much fat but I tend buy whatever I can afford. I also eat eggs, some whey protein (1 net carb), and vegetables.

I'm going to try to eat at least 1000 calories from now on, since I'm babysitting a lot and can probably afford more food.

Does anyone think I might experience a whoosh? I've been hopeful. My sister thinks my body is storing fat from lack of eating, but fat can't turn into fat I thought. ??? I've also had dark purple Ketostix, which means I'm metabolising fat.

I wish this was simpler!

Hi
What I noticed while being on Atkins is I must count calories and carbs I tend to over do it n can actually stall forever! ...but I do eat enough cals for my body ie.1350 cals a day cause I workout daily ..starving myself did more harm than good I would lose two lbs and than binge ....

Thank you! I still have to wait for my surgery, but drinking tons of water before I eat really helps. I've managed to eat 1200 calories a day for the past few days. How long have you been doing Atkins??

Your body has slowed your metabolism to compensate for the lack of calories.
Follow Induction more closely--you are eating way way too little food.
You are allowed as much protein as you need to feel full (are you hungry?)...3 cups of non-starch veggies (tho I never measure, pretty much eat to my hearts content), 4 oz. of cheese plus dressings, sour cream.
You mention what you can afford...whey protein is VERY expensive. Eggs are very inexpensive form of protein. If your budget is this tight, do you qualify for food stamps, or whatever program Canada has?

I don't understand this concept of 'not eating enough.' Every bit of research on the subject I found that came from a professional, rather than a dieter, states that starvation mode takes months to set in. It's not an automatic thing.

People wouldn't starve to death if starvation mode kicked in this easily, guys...

I agree.

You're also well within the healthy weight range for your height. Weight is not going to come off as easily as it did in the higher weights.

And you should eat more. Not because of starvation as much as your body needs certain nutrients to function properly... and it's not getting them on 700 cals a day.

Ramra, going through this myself and thinking about your situation it finally dawned on me that the only change in my body had been having my gallbladder out. I truely believe this has something to do with how my body is reacting to "dieting" now as different than in the past. If your gallbladder wasn't functioning well before you had it out and now that it has been removed that could explain a lot! Talk to your doctor. BTW, I noticed that you had lost a lot of weight prior to having your gb out, my research shows that it is common to have gb problems after significant loss. I had lost 46lbs right before I had mine out too, even though looking back I had had issues with it for years it didn't get really bad until I had a big loss of weight.

BTW, how is the healing going?

It may also be water weight. Many people (even people with no health issues, and even if they used to lose differently in the past) will lose weight only in "whooshes."

That is they may go six weeks without a loss on the scale (but water weight is masking the fat loss) and then they'll drop several pounds or ten almost overnight.

This never used to happen to me, but now it does.

If you're eating only 700 - 1200 calories a day for more then 5 or 6 weeks and still don't lose, or lose only a pound or two, it's quite possible you have an underlying metabolic issue.

I used to be able to lose 8 lbs a week or more on the carb and calorie level I am now, and I've only bee able to lose a couple pounds a month "this time." Even with metformin (a blood sugar medication that can help with weight loss) my body just won't "do" the weight loss it did in the past, because of insulin resistance and a sluggish thyroid (just above the thyroid hormone level my doc is willing to medicate).

Also, illness and injury can dramatically increase water retention - so it's very possible, even likely that the fat you're losing, is being offset by the water weight you're gaining (water your body needs to use in the healing process).

I've been eating much more now. I'm happy there are people out there who don't think starvation mode switches on and off over a short decrease/increase of calories. It's hard worrying about eating too much, but worrying about not eating enough just makes me feel hopeless.

Gapeach, do you struggle with digesting fats now? I have to go number 2 about 4 to 6 times a day. Basically, every time I eat. I have an appointment with my doctor tomorrow so I'll ask him more about it. Before the surgery he told me that it won't impact my weight at all, and to eat a low-fat diet, etc. On the brightside, my sister went on Atkins AFTER her gallbladder was removed and lost about 90 pounds in about 8 months I believe. It's really hard to say what's gonna happen,

And my recovery is well, thank you for asking!

Kaplods, you're probably right. My weight loss used to be steady, like 5 lbs a week every week. I guess that changes and I have to wait for "whooshes" to come along (like Valrock mentioned, it gets harder and harder to take weight off).

I also lost my gb after some weight loss, and having my son. I sympathize for you on the pain... that was horrible to experience. I dont have the fat digestion issues, but i have ZERO tolerance for bread and pasta. It does very bad things to my stomach. I'm a horrible sugar addict so atkins has been a struggle for me. I also have a cyst in my spleen (thanks to my sugar issues i'm sure) so learning about atkins has been a blessing. You've done great, just keep trudging along and I'm sure you'll be at your goal weight in no time.

I really don't have many bathroom issues, the only thing is if I eat an extremely high fat diet, but really that was the case before so not really a change for me. I do remember the first few weeks after surgery being like that so it might change for you too.

What I have found is this, prior to I could lose weight very easily, but I also gained easily. In the past if I went on vacation or something like that I could gain 5lbs in a week, but when I came home and switched back to regular eating those 5lbs would come off in no more than two weeks. I didn't realize that I had gained about 20lbs back (over about 2 yrs) because it was gradual and I just thought I wasn't doing enough to take it back off after a splurge. Since I have been carefully tracking every bite for about a month now it has become obvious that my body is processing things much differently than before. I started digging and found a board for people that have had their gb's out and these problems are quite common. Some of the people expressed how some of the doctors helped make the connection for them and others expressed how their doctors seemed clueless about this issue. My thoughts are this, if you look at the actual function of the gb and then think about it being gone it makes sense that some people have digestive issues afterwards. The GB serves a real function. The liver takes over for the loss of the gb, but there is no way of measuring the amount of bile acids it releases so it sometimes isn't releasing enough. Anyway that is my understanding....some people suggest that taking digestive enzymes helps replace the function of the gb. Thats what I am doing now, in fact when I mentioned to the guy working in the health store that I had had my gb removed he immediately took me to them and said they are essential for you (even though I hadn't mentioned a product yet).

To be clear, I am not suggesting you (or anyone else) take them, however I am saying that if you don't think your body is digesting properly it is something to look into and talk to a doctor about.

That's really interesting, because I binged a few days ago. I'd normally be up 5-10 lbs from eating like that, but after I posted here today I finally had the courage to weigh myself and I didn't gain anything.

I never even heard of digestive enzymes, but that's another thing I'm looking forward to talking to my doc about tomorrow. I'm afraid with all the bathroom-going, I'm not really absorbing nutrients. He'll probably suggest I give it time, but if time doesn't help I really want to get rid of this uncomfortable problem.

And thank you Silhouette! (: