Rung 2 - gained weight

[7Miriam]

I just completed my first week on Rung 2, and I gained .2 pounds for the week, and gained 1.8 pounds from where I was four days ago. I feel kind of down b/c so far I have lost every week. This was week 13 for me.

I didn't increase my net carbs, but ate more dairy. I ate cottage cheese, Marie's blue cheese dressing and a little bit of a yogourt cucumber sauce on some chicken. I didn't eat any of them more than 3 times. The cottage cheese was low fat - I couldn't find any with full fat in my grocery store, I'll have to look in some different stores next time - andI only ate 1/2 cup servings. Maybe I had too much salad dressing - I had about 3-4 tablespoons. Is this too much?

I am hoping it is just an early time of the month or something. I'm thinking of continuing on my same plan this week - keep up my exercise and eat the same things and see what happens before deciding if I have to cut out the extra dairy. But I'm not sure if this is the right thing to do. What do you think?

[Lyssie]

Did you eat all of those things in the past 4 days? Have you been exercising? Did you eat something salty? You already said maybe it's early TOM...

I think waiting a few days and seeing what happens is probably the best idea... you apparently *did* lose 1.6lbs the first 3 days of the week on this rung!

[7Miriam]

Thanks Lyssie - I did eat these things during the past 4 days, but I also had the cottage cheese and blue cheese dressing during the first 3 days. I did all the same exercise I've been doing, and I even increased it a little last week. I did eat bacon, which tasted very salty to me, and I usually don't have much salt. And now that I think about it, I think last time I at the bacon my weekly loss was less than usual - but it was still about 1and1/2 pounds.

[not2late]

Was the blue cheese dressing "new" to you? That is, was this the first time during the Diet you ate that particular blue cheese dressing? How often did you eat the dressing? Daily? Every other day?

How often did you eat the cottage cheese? Daily? Every other day?

Also, Rung 2 and Rung 3 (nuts/seeds) are the trickier rungs because these foods are high fat. During OWL, your fat % should decrease slightly. When you added these higher fat foods, particularly the dressing because the cottage cheese was lower fat, did you cut back on the other added fats?

[7Miriam]

I ate the cottage cheese and the dressing 3x during the week. It was the first time I ate this blue cheese dressing b/c it has milk and buttermilk in it. Some days I ate only one of the two, but some days I may have eaten both.

I did not cut back on other added fats. I did not realize that I need to do this. I will focus on paying more attention to this.

[ceemarie]

It most likely is nothing and only a pound. Could be TOM or just a reaction to changing your diet. Make sure you are getting enough water and exercise.

[not2late]

Originally Posted by 7Miriam

I ate the cottage cheese and the dressing 3x during the week. It was the first time I ate this blue cheese dressing b/c it has milk and buttermilk in it. Some days I ate only one of the two, but some days I may have eaten both.

Only add a new food one at a time. Adding two or more into your diet isn't the best idea because if a food affects you, you won't know which food did it.

So only add a new food one at a time. And be very mindful of the amounts you eat. It sounds corny and "obsessive", but you need to measure the amounts. During OWL, when you are increasing your carbs and trying to find your CCLL, measuring foods is important. If your CCLL is 40 and you eat above that number, you might stop losing weight and/or start gaining weight.

I have a set of metal measuring cups that I used during my OWL. So for things like cottage cheese, I scooped the cheese with the 1/2 cup measure, leveled it off, and ate that amount.

2 tablespoons is equal to 1/8 cup, so for things like dressing or dips, I poured it into the 1/8 cup measure and used that amount.

I did not cut back on other added fats. I did not realize that I need to do this. I will focus on paying more attention to this.

The protein % remains at 30 during your entire Atkins. Fat % slightly decreases as you begin adding carbs. There is a sticky at the top of this forum that talks about it. Remember, fat is high calorie. As you get a smaller body, you generally won't require the same amount of calories you did at your start weight. So you don't need to eat as many calories as you did when you started Induction. If you don't juggle the added fats and adjust your foods to your smaller size, you might end up eating more calories than you did during Induction. And while we don't actively count calories, they do matter because the Metabolic Advantage covers us for an extra 200-400 calories only.

[7Miriam]

Thanks for all the advice. The scale was still crawling in the wrong direction this morning, up another .2 lbs. And no early T.O.M. or anything to blame it on.

Unless there is a dramatic loss tomorrow morning, I am going to cut out the bacon crumbles on my salad which are salty (I've been crumbling about 2 slices on my lunch salads); eat a little bit less food - I may be eating a little bit more than I was eating during Induction and I weigh less now; and cut out the cottage cheese, blue cheese dressing and yogurt sauce. If I can start losing again I will add these back in later one at a time. Then if a few days of this does not work maybe I'll try going back to Induction for a few days - I really don't want to do this, but I can't think of anything else to try after these measures. Hopefully these measures will work.

[not2late]

You don't have to "go back to Induction" unless you are completely out of ketosis.

If these measures don't work, simply drop back to your Rung 1 plan for a few days and see what happens. Then try Rung 2 again.

[7Miriam]

I went back to RUng 1 as you suggested, and am down 3 1/2 pounds from before the scale went up. I'm very happy that the scale is going it the right direction now!!! I think I will stay on Rung 1 for a couple more days, and then try RUng 2 again, but only add one new Rung 2 food a week. Do you think this sounds like a good plan, or should I skip Rung 2 and go to Rung 3 instead?