Atkins Newbie

[papinok]

Hello everyone,

I am new to the Atkins diet. I was always very sceptical of the low carb idea. After the birth of my son at 40 I have found it almost impossible to lose weight so I thought what the heck, I have tried everything else. Anyway, I did induction and the keto stix showed I was in ketosis. I lost about 10 lbs and tried to keep up the phase one but the weight loss stopped and now I am going back and forth on the scales. I was really hoping to see more of a weight loss than I did. Although, this is the only diet that has shown negative lbs. on the scale.

I am in my 4th week of phase 1 and I am starting to see the lbs go back up again???

I suspect that it is the birth control that is keeping my weight on. I have never had this much trouble losing lbs. I work out cross training, aerobics, and weight liftng about 4 hours a week sometimes more. I guess I just need to keep with the OWL and keep praying.

I did have a question about the Atkins bars and shakes. I picked up some of those a couple of weeks ago and noticed they have sugar and 12g carbs. I know about the net carbs formula but I was wondering what everyone else thought about the breakfast bars and shakes.

Thanks,
Tricia W.

[Chef Kevin]

I personally stick to real food. Sugar alcohols really upset my guts.

Plus they seem to knock me out of ketosis. Not sure why, considering they are suppose to be made for this WOE.

For me, it seems that just regular real food works best and to avoid anything that I cannot recognize what it was made out of. When I look at those bars or shakes, all I see are chemicals.

Best wishes to you! Keep working on it. Maybe log your food into fitday.com, it's free and might help find a problem in your diet.

[papinok]

I wonder if this explains the stoppage of weight loss?? It seems to correspond to that time when I started eating them. I haven't been using the keto stix every day. I used them once last week and they looked light pink so I guess I am still in ketosis?

So if this messed up induction can I start over?

I guess I am a little confused about ketosis. Will I still be in ketosis during OWL? Is this the only time I will be losing weight, while I am in ketosis?

Thanks,
Tricia

[Chef Kevin]

anytime you are burning fat as your primary fuel source, you are in ketosis.

There are many threads on the board here about those bars and shakes. I dare you to go to the grocery and fine the ingredients in them....
Unless you have a white lab coat and safety goggles, you probably don't have access to the ingredients.

many people on here have written about stalling and weight gain because of the bars and shakes. I just stay far far away now.

It's like butter vs margerine. I trust a cow more than a guy in a lab for my buttery flavor....

[Chef Kevin]

And don't worry about starting over, because you aren't. Just move forward with this knowledge. You really haven't done anything wrong. Don't beat yourself up over it.

Just keep on going!! Just get back to eating real foods, keep exercising, keep up the water intake, and use a ketostix in a day or two. It'll be back in the pink in no time.

[Skeptika23]

If the stick is any shade of pink you're in ketosis, don't worry.

Are you measuring? I STRONGLY urge you to do so - I've "lost weight" relatively slowly compared to many since I started ten weeks ago this coming Thursday, but I've lost a lot of inches - 4 on my thighs alone, and I only started measuring three weeks in!

Yes, you will stay in ketosis in OWL for the most part- I understand the ketostix stop registering around 40-50 carbs/day (if I'm wrong someone please correct me)!

You can of course start over, but why not just start up the OWL ladder instead? It gets more interesting up here.

[papinok]

Thanks for the advice.

No I have not measured. I guess I need to start doing that.

How do you get the diet tracker info in your posts?