[Georgiana]

Originally Posted by Diver Down

My first time on Atkins lasted about six weeks (all induction). I lost 30 pounds or so. Then, due to family pressure, I attended a big dinner and devoured tons of food in a carb-heavy food at an Italian restaurant. It was like giving drugs to an addict...after that meal, in the weeks that followed, I went nuts for carbs and gained it all back in no time. I tried induction again, a year later, and lasted about three weeks (losing about 20 pounds in the process). But I couldn't last, and went back to carbs in full force.

This is why you should learn from your mistakes and do Atkins correctly this time. Not moving out of Induction is one of the most common reasons why we see people failing on Atkins. I read your other posts, so I am going to comment on everything you wrote, not only on what is written above.

The Induction phase of Atkins is a great way to get into ketosis and start to start losing weight. Unfortunately, because one is so limited in food options and the guidelines are so strict as to what you can and cannot eat, Induction does not teach one how to maintain the weight loss. This is why folks who never move out of the Induction phase almost always lose a lot of weight, but then stray off and gain it all (or a big part of it) back. It's not because they are weaker or because they had better reasons to go off track, but because their strategy was faulty right from the beginning.

During OWL and Pre-Maintenance, you will continue to lose weight. But besides losing weight, you will also learn what foods your body can handle and in what amounts, how many carbohydrates you can consume while still losing weight and how many you need in order to maintain once you've reached your goal. As we progress through the phases of Atkins, many of us find that we can eat things like a sweet potato or some beans or even pasta. However, if you never move out of Induction, you are never going to learn these things. You are also not going to learn how to change your food habits so that you maintain your weight loss and are not forced to restart Induction every X months. Starting Induction, falling off, then restarting Induction, falling off again, restarting and so on is just yo-yo dieting and it does no good to your weight or to your health.

So instead of doing what you have always done just to get the same results, do yourself a favor and break the yo-yo dieting cycle. Follow Atkins the way Dr. Atkins wrote it (going through all the phases, not feeding your sweet cravings with Atkins bars, etc.) and you will get the results Dr. Atkins promissed:

Originally Posted by DANDR 2002

Let me state one crucial fact that you should always keep in mind: For people who comply with all the phases of Atkins, failure to maintain weight loss is very rare.

Originally Posted by DANDR 2002

Success at maintaining weight loss is the great plus while doing Atkins. What most people know about it is that you can usually lose a lot of weight rapidly. And you probably can. But the key point is that the weight doesn't return.