I'm new to forum, following strictly I thought - ADVICE please!!

[Need2Doit]

Wish I had found this board a month ago. Read book over and over - researched on web, reading everything I can. Lost 4 lbs. in first week and now after a month my total loss is only 2.5lbs! I feel thinner, but I have to get a measuring tape like everyone says. What am I doing wrong? I've been doing induction for the past month - strictly! Not one bite of bread, pasta, processed food. Not even one M&M from my kid's easter baskets! I occassionally have an Atkins bar but am not overusing. I'm confused - I know I need to count all carbs, but on Atkins site and book it seems like I don't have to count meat and/or unlimited foods even though they have traces of carbs. Should I be counting carbs from every food group or just veggies, cheese, etc? Someone I know who did Atkins suggested that the reason the scale wasn't moving that fast is because my body is getting rid of all the sugar it had and once it kicks in, I'll see a big weight loss. Any truth to this?? Sorry, I'm rambling........Any advice appreciated!

Jenn
174/171.5/145

[Tired of Chub]

count the carbs of everything that passes your lips. (check out www.fitday.com if you havent already, its VERY easy to journal your foods there, they do all the work for you). And yes.... get a tape measure!!! What are you drinking? how much cheese are you eating? what sort of exercise are you doing?

[Need2Doit]

Thanks for response. I'm working out faithfully. Elliptical 4x/week 30 minutes. Upper and lower body weights 2-3x/week for 40 minutes. Drinking tons of water, water, water! And 2-3 cups of coffee. Keeping it around 4 ounces of cheese.
Jenn

[BellaCarol]

the cheese and the coffee might be stalling you.

[rissa]

if you cant cut the coffee cold turkey you should slowly cut it out of your diet. caffeine effects some people on how they loose weight. so does cheese. i can only allow myself one oz. of cheese a day or i start stalling.

but at least your 6.5 pounds thinner! thats great. and im sure if you had been measuring you would see a big difference also. so go run out and get that tape! hehe

[matawguro]

I'm betting it's the coffee.

[boonie stomper]

Have you put your menus into www.fitday.com yet? If so, what are the percentages of your total caloric intake/day of fat, protein and carbs? They should be around 65/30/5. If your protein is too great a portion of your diet, your body can magically turn it into >voila!< CARBS! Also, are you stopping eating before you're totally full and then waiting awhile to see if you are still hungry? And yes - count every gram; I'd suggest even counting as 1g those servings of items bearing labels that say"less than one gram" or that say 0% daily intake, etc., but lust a sugar or starch among the ingredients. A lot of them are just a hair less than 1g, so legally they can get away with it.

Perhaps share here what you are eating & drinking, including portion sizes, and how much exersize you are doing.

[ValidRouge]

I'd cut out the caffeine...it's a known staller. However, I suspect it's the exercise...especially if you're new to the exercise or have increased it dramatically. When you go from no exercise or light exercise to a regular or increased regime, your body will hold water while it's repairing the muscles...especially with the weight lifting. Just keep going and it will eventually release that water. What you need to do is get yourself a tape measure and use that. Also take some pictures now and then again in a few weeks. You'll see a HUGE difference I'm sure. When the scale doesn't move, usually the tape measure will.