trouble with my low-carb diet... - Weight Loss Message Board

redsoxgirl2418 · 11-20-2004, 05:58 PM

ok, so I went on the atkins diet last summer. Lost about 35 lbs over 3-4 months. I'm in college, so once I went back to school, I wasn't as strict on it but continued to eat as low carb as possible. I wasn't losing weight at the same rate, but was still losing some and was ok with it. In January, I went on a trip (to ireland, the land where they serve potatoes cooked 3 different ways with your meal...lol...ahhhhh) and, it being a school trip where meals were planned out aka no menu choices, I had a lot of stuff I shouldn't have. After that, I never did climb totally back on the low-carb wagon for the rest of the school year. As bad as it may be, I was graduating in may and wanted to have fun, go out to eat with my friends, go out and have some drinks on the weekends, and didn't really want to worry. Still, I was eating well in between. My weight stayed pretty stationary through that. I noticed though, towards april or may, that I started gaining, and pretty quick, even though my eating habits hadn't changed much. Once I got out of school and back home, I started back strict on induction of atkins again. While I lost a couple of pounds at the beginning, that quickly stopped and I was stuck. Ever since, I am unable to lose any weight. It seems like my body has shifted and if I eat 30,40,50 carbs a day regularly, I'll gain some. Keeping it down under 20 will keep me where I am. I'm a results-driven person and can't stay on a diet when I'm not seeing the numbers go down, in pounds or sizes. My whole family eats low carb, and I stick generally to what their meals are. I have a hard time convincing myself to exercise because it's to no avail. Two different times this summer to now, I went over a month of keeping under 20 carbs a day, exercising at least an hour, and lost only 4 pounds each time. Has anyone had a similar experience? I don't know what to do, because changing to some other kind of diet that's higher in carbs, I feel will just make me gain even more as I eat things that aren't low carb. I don't know what to do, it's like my metabolism is stalled, my body is fighting me. help!

Z'sMom · 11-21-2004, 10:45 PM

It seems to be pretty common for women who do Atkins once, let up on it, & then go back to have real trouble starting the weight loss cycle again the 2nd time around, at least among those women I know (including myself) who've done the program.

For me, I had to really, really kick up the cardio in order to lose weight the 2nd time on Atkins. I was back on induction for a couple of months and had only lost a few non-water pounds.

Eventually, I decided to switch to modified plan where I avoided high glycemic index carbs (bread, potato, rice, banana, etc.) but started focusing on reducing fat calories. I eat more carbs now but they are all raw or steamed fruit & veg carbs. The initial weight loss was really gratifying but I have again hit a plateu. I'm going to kick up the cardio again & also do weights a bit more to compensate for the stalled metabolism.