stitchergirl

Rick, you are doing awesome, wish I lived closer so I could take you up on the walks.

RichardBuckner

I could use a little support now. I have not been getting the kind of support from my doctor that I feel would be appropriate. I am blue. Gained back a pound trying to get enough potassium. He will not give me a Rx for a supplement.

stitchergirl

Sorry your Dr is not being there for you, I'm sure you'll lose that pound plus tons more soon.

machine_x

Hi all. I'm new to fitday and I'd like to give you a quick rundown of my current plan.

Age: 38
Height: 5' 11"
Starting Weight: 362
Current Weight: 336
Goal Weight: 195-205 range

Here are my weekly losses to date (on Friday weigh-in schedule)

Start: 362 Plan: Warrior Diet
Week 1: 352 (-10) Plan: WD
Week 2: 347 (-5) Plan: WD
Week 3: 344 (-3) Plan: WD (started Atkins after this week)
Week 4: 336 (-8) Plan: Atkins

A started with the warrior diet for three weeks. In a nutshell it is undereating during the day and overeating at one main meal at night with food progression. Veggies, Proteins, Carbs last. Got tired of looking for food to cram in my mouth every night, so I switched to Atkins after the third week.

Lost 18 in three weeks with the WD, and lost 8 the first week with Atkins, sticking to 20 or less carbs per day. Since I have an incredible amount to lose, I can safely stay in induction mode for a while yet.

My workout regime include 40 minutes of cardio 4-5 times a week. Weight lifting 3-4 days a week for 45 minutes to an hour. This last week I have now incorporated interval training. One minute walk one minute jog on treadmill. So far only toing 10-12 minutes of this. I mix it up with some eliptical trainer, stationary bike and treadmill.

My long term goal is to reach 195-205 pounds (which ever my body prefers), so with 26 pounds lost after 4 weeks I am 131 pounds from my upper goal range. Putting a 12 month time table on that goal.

My short term goal is 286 by September 10th and to finish a triathlon on Sept. 18th which is 1/4 mile swim, 12 mile bike and 3.1 mile run.

I love reading these forums for the encouragement and inspiration from others. Happy dieting and God bless.

machine_x

RichardBuckner

I gave up on my doctor; no one in his office seemed to like the Atkins diet or me being on it. For 3 weeks I did not lose weight because my potassium was low and I felt like s***. To try to get it up (potassium) I ate potassium rich foods that were also richer in carbs. Dr. would not respond to requests to see him and review my nutrition data; wound not give Rx for potassium supplement. I changed docs; new one gave lose dose of potassium and I started it yesterday. Immediately felt better. Despite being upset about doc's office manager throwing me out Friday I maintained net carbs and caloric intake discipline, walked dogs, worked out at gym; it was hard. On my bathrrom scale I was 194 and at gym 196.5 clothed. Looks like I am finally losing again. Will weigh accurately this morning on the scale I have been using to track weight in fitday. Got a new diet buddy. I AM GOING TO DO THIS! I feel great. Rick

RichardBuckner

Down to 192 on bathroom scale and losing again on more accurate scale; feel great. Potassium intake now near 100% RDA. Walking dogs, going to gym, did not feel like doing more than 5 min on exercise bike. Starting more intensive work on yard. In a couple of weeks I will break 190 and start on pre maintenance. I have learned a lot. I put each supplement as a separate custom food so I can fine tune my total nutrition; using the More option of Custom Foods allows me to check boxes for all supplements and custom foods I am taking that day and add them all at once to the Foods list. What a learning experience. I am now nearly back down to my low weight of the last several years, not hungry except at meal time, am in control, and going to 50 net carbs per week. Yaaaay Atkins New Diet! Yaaay, me. Thank you all for your support.

davej323

So, I discovered this site based on a recommendation in the new Atkins book, and it has been an invaluable tool. Like others, I had done Atkins before, lost a bunch of weight (over 30 pounds in 3 months), but then switched back to my old ways and gained back that 30 plus another 40 or so!

There are some misconceptions that I need to clear up for you to help you truly appreciate Atkins (or any other ketogenic diet for that matter), and I can assure you that if you stick to it, it works for the long term.

1. Atkins and other ketogenic diets are not just carb restriction. Yes, the primary focus is on reducing carb intake to a low enough level so that the body starts using fat and protein for fuel. Once your body makes this switch (via starvation, carb restriction, or intense exercise), you are in ketosis and your body will "mobilize" its own fat stores to use for energy. In other words, you don't really need the carbs if you are getting a sufficient amount of fat and protein instead. One book I read (I believe it was "The Ketogenic Diet" by Lyle McDonald) actually suggested that an obese person could have enough fat stores to survive for a year

2. This is where this website comes in handy. Under the new Atkins plan, you not only restrict carb intake, but also try to keep calories and protein intake within a certain range. In my case (6' male), I eat between 1800-2200 calories a day. I have between 90-190g (most days it ends up 120-160g) of protein a day. I try to keep my fat intake at about 60% of my diet, and I take in 20g of carbs a day (12-15g from green vegetables, and the rest usually from toppings and artificial sweetener).

3. You don't need to buy Atkins brand products to be on the Atkins diet. As you will see from my typical food example below, I eat no packaged Atkins brand stuff, and the diet is working anyway. In fact, unless their packaged food has improved in the last ten years or so, it is disgusting anyway. The book does recommend a multivitamin and even gave the ingredients in the Atkins brand multivitamin. I took the book with me to GNC, and bought the GNC men's mega instead, which had almost identical amounts of all the ingredients in the Atkins brand.

I am still in induction phase. I have lost about 30 pounds in the last couple of months, and have another 40 or so to go. Because I am actually following the plan correctly this time, I will switch to the next phase of the plan once I get within ten pounds of my goal weight, and I will gradually start adding in more fiber-rich carb sources, 5g at a time until I am done with weight loss and figure out the level my body can tolerate.

Here is my food from a typical day:
4 or 5 cups of coffee, each with about 1tbsb of half&half and one packet of sweet & low (Atkins only recommends three packets of artificial sweetener a day, so this is an area where I cheat).
1 cup of scrambled egg/chorizo (a spicy pork sausage) mix
1 cup of raw broccoli
1 cup of raw cauliflower
6 to 8 oz of a barbecued meat cut (usually boneless beef shortrib or pork loin) covered with my own homemade barbecue sauce (reduced sugar ketchup + liquid smoke + splenda)
5 or 6 stalks of asparagus, pan fried in 1 tbsb of butter
2 to 4 oz of hard cheese (either sharp cheddar or pepper jack)
2 hamburger patties (cooked weight about 3 oz each), pan-fried with soy sauce
1 to 2 oz of chicharones (fried pork skins)
2 cans of diet pepsi
about a gallon of water

I never feel hungry, never get gas or heartburn, never feel bloated, etc. The only shocker that I did have was regarding the broccoli and cauliflower. If I ate all two cups of those with my lunch, I was getting a sluggish feeling and an upset stomach in the afternoon. Since then, I spread those items out between breakfast, lunch, and snacking, and that solved the problem.

Hopefully this is encouraging to you. Now my challenge is to encourage my doctor about it! In December I was diagnosed as a pre-diabetic with high blood pressure. I am on pills for both items and when I called my doctor to tell him I was starting Atkins and to ask if I needed to adjust my medication, his nurse called me back to tell me that he believes Atkins is bad for me (no explanation why), that he didn't want to adjust my medication, and that he suggested I visit a dietician. I have been overweight my whole life, and have been to a dietician before. They base their advice on USDA recommendations...no thank you! My hope is that when I go to see him next month my blood test will be proof enough that this diet is right for me. If that doesn't convince him to accept it and/or adjust my medication, then I will be convinced that another doctor is also right for me.

davej323

Hi Michelle,

I am using the "new" Atkins plan as well.

You and I are in similar circumstances. Back in December, I was diagnosed as pre-diabetic with high blood pressure. I weighed 285 at that doctor appointment. My doctor warned me that if I didn't get my weight, blood pressure, and glucose level under control, he would have to put me on pills. I fooled around with calorie restriction, low-fat food, and moderate exercise for a few months, only to find out in early April that I gained two more pounds (up to 287). My glucose improved a bit, but my a1c was still high and my blood pressure was still high, so my doctor went ahead and put me on the pills (metformin and lisinopril). That was all it took for me. I am only 37 years old, and being in a position where I have to take pills every day is disturbing to me.

I started doing carb restriction based on knowledge I had from doing the Atkins diet about ten years ago. After doing that for a couple of weeks I called my doctor to tell him that I was doing Atkins and to ask if he wanted me to adjust my medication. His nurse called me back with some shocking news. He said that the Atkins diet is not good for me, that he didn't want to adjust my medication, and that he wanted me to see a dietician. That is when I went out and invested in the new Atkins book (no way I am going to go to a dietician who will give me advice based on USDA recommendation). At that time, I wasn't really counting anything (not even carbs), but just eating meat, eggs, cheese, and an occasional green vegetable. I continued this until I got through the induction phase chapter of the book and realized all that I was doing wrong. I also found out about fitday in that book. I have been following the new diet correctly for a couple of weeks now, and fitday has been an invaluable tool for that. As a 6' man, I have 1800-2200 calories a day, 90-190g of protein, and 18-23g of net carbs a day (some days I go a few grams over because of too much artificial sweetener in my coffee).

If the industrial scale at work is anything close to the medical scale at my doctor's office, I am down almost 30 pounds from that April visit (down to 258.5 as of Monday this week). Now I am starting to think forward to the possibility of being under 220 for my September wedding! Yay! As for my doctor, I see him at the end of next month. I am confident that my weight, glucose, a1c, and blood pressure will all be lower as a result of adhering to induction phase so well, and I will expect him to lower or completely cancel my medication. If not, I will expect him to have one less patient!

My food logs are public, so feel free to check them out if you like. Good luck with the plan!

Dave

davej323

I wanted to respond to your final paragraph. I use the ketostix. I check myself once a week, but I might stop that altogether because I am deep in ketosis now and that shouldn't change unless I cheat. Through experimentation, I found that they don't read as well when you are well hydrated. For that reason, I get the best indication first thing in the morning. As far as supplements, I found a GNC multivitamin that closely matches an Atkins one, and I intend to pick up a big bottle of fish oil capsules the next time I am at Costco. About the scale, I had the same fear. For that reason, the only reference I have for my starting weight (unfortunately) is the scale at my doctor's office. I couldn't bring myself to voluntarily weigh in for a couple months. After clothes started fitting better and my weight loss started showing, then I decided to weigh myself and, if the industrial scale at work is anything close to my doctor's scale, I am down about 30 pounds in the last two months. Now I really wish I had taken a comparison reading after my last doctor appointment! Maybe you can use that as your motivation to weigh yourself (you need a reference to know where you are starting).

jackanddanika

hey dave,that is great news i would love to see the look on your dr.face when you go see him.the adkins diet get's a bad rep but we know it works.