YAAT - Sorry. Atkins question for people trying to lose < 25 lbs with this diet

[squirtle24]

I'm actually satisfied with my diet and exercise routines, but I've recently hit a plateau that's lasted too long. So I want to temporarily change my diet to shock the body and break the plateau. I'd be going from around 60% carbs(no refined carbs/sugar)/30% prot/10% fat to Atkins induction/diet and then back out in five or six weeks, depending on how things are going by then.

However, I was curious as to how much success you Atkins followers have had while trying to lose 20-25 lbs, not 50-100 lbs. I see a lot of wild numbers thrown around(like 10 lbs in 5 days), but people don't really say how heavy they were to begin with. Does Atkins really do a huge amount for you if you're not trying to lose a ton of weight(though 20 lbs is not a trivial amount 😛)? Regardless, I'd expect the diet(combined with my workouts, obviously) to bring me back to my usual 1.5 to 2 lbs/week level, at a minimum. Any people in the same boat who have done this the Atkins way?

 

[Jugernot]

See my sig for a better place to talk about this as you don't have to deal with all the ignorant people that tend to pipe in with name calling that low carb threads tend to cause here. Just a suggestion...

http://www.lowcarbsweb.com

 

[Wingznut]

Do a search for Riprorin's posts on the subject. He wasn't a lot overweight, and did a somewhat modified version of Atkins to get in better shape.

 

[amnesiac]

I'm going to pimp my favorite diet again:

http://www.southbeachdiet.com

Similar principle to Atkins -- i.e. restricted carb, but much less restrictive, more balanced (i.e. less sat. fats), better for your heart, and you can skip induction if you want.

 

[squirtle24]

I'm no South Beach expert, but I think I'm basically already doing something borderline to that, except I consume less protein. The only significant carbs I eat are from oatmeal and multigrain bread. And yet this plateau...I have no doubt that it will pass eventually, since they always do. Lately, though, as I get up to ride my bike at 5AM(I am SO not a morning person) and see no change in weight/fat% after weeks of diet, weights and cardio, it just makes me more and more frustrated. So I want to do something to make my body a little less complacent, if only for a month.

Sounds like Riprorin did much the same thing, although it seems like he's on Atkins for life. For reference, he wrote " 20 lbs in 6 weeks" in one of his threads. That's higher than I expected, actually. I will go back to a South Beach-ish lifestyle once I'm done with Atkins.

On a side note, let me just say that if you start playing a MMORPG with every minute of your spare time, you will end up like me. 😛 First, you start snacking. Then, you stop exercising. Then comes the dazed realization several months later. Of course, if you have the self control to eat properly, exercise, work, and play MMORPG chars to max levels, then I grovel before your discipline. 😛 Me, I have quit those useless timesinks forever.

 

[StageLeft]

The 10 lbs in 5 days that people experience are doing it at the start of the diet. Most of its water weight. If you're in a dieted state now you'll never lose 10 lbs in 5 days without surgery.

I don't know what routine you've been following, but you could try upping your calories for a week (just a bit) to get your body used to a good bit of calories. Or, you could lower your calories further and/or increase excercise output. Atkins/ketosis is fine to lose as little as one pound. It really just depends how long you want to stay on it.

Your expectations of 1.5-2 pounds/week may not be realistic. If you weigh 400 lbs you can expect it for a long while, but if you're, say, under 200 lbs and you've been going for a while and your bodyfat is really starting to come down you simply can't hold that weight loss up to the end without an ever-increasing amount of work. You know the saying "the last 10 lbs are the hardest"? Well it's very true.

On a side note, let me just say that if you start playing a MMORPG with every minute of your spare time, you will end up like me. First, you start snacking. Then, you stop exercising. Then comes the dazed realization several months later. Of course, if you have the self control to eat properly, exercise, work, and play MMORPG chars to max levels, then I grovel before your discipline. Me, I have quit those useless timesinks forever.

Been there done that. I don't know what it is but my personality + MMORPGs does not mix. Ultima Online (best game ever made) semi-destroyed me, and I have not touched a MMORPG in years. I feel no desire anymore because I know how evil they are.

A few weeks in a row without losing anymore weight is not good. I've lost a good bit this year (wasn't that big to start with though really) and from week to week there was a definite and consistent significant loss of weight. Do you know how many calories you've been taking in?

Basically my approach (I'm currently 180-185 lbs, 5'11", above average muscle mass with a body fat in low teens) has been to do my weights and limited cardio (I simply don't enjoy it) and 1700 calories/day spread over 5 meals with a minimum of 30 grams/protein per meal. Then 1-2 week I'd have a cheat day. Really it should be one, but often it has been two, and I'll eat a crapload of calories. Following this approach I was able to lose quite a bit of weight. A month ago I was about 10 lbs away from my final goal (10% bodyfat or so), but having been on the "diet" for so many months I was getting bored, and also jealous of a friend on creatine, so I went on it and jacked my calories up to 3000 or so/day (200+ grams protein). I'm going to continue like this for another week or so, and then finish what I started with the weight loss by doing 1700 calories/day and probably do more cardio than before.

 

[squirtle24]

I pretty much eat the same things everyday, so the calories don't really vary much. Oatmeal, sandwich, light dinner with meat/bread/veggies, and one or two protein shakes for snacks. I aim for 1500-1600 calories per day. From what I've been reading, some people stay on a plateau for a week or two, and some will stay for well over a month. The advice is usually to change exercise and diet routines, since your body has adapted to the diet and exercise. I'll change my cardio from biking to rowing, maybe mix up the weights, but I feel the diet has to be significantly different for a while, too.

Actually, the cheat day that you've incorporated sounds like it would help prevent plateaus. I'm not sure I could handle a cheat day, though. I'd probably go overboard and eat a whole pizza plus a pint of ice cream, or something equally horrible. 😀

 

[StageLeft]

My cheat days would blow your mind. Average of 4000-4500 calories. seriously just all out and you'd think it would destroy progress but it doesn't (well it back tracks it for a day or two, but you make it up). It's sweet because I know that at least one day a week I am not dieting and I can do whatever I want. that's how I was able to continue on it for so long without the diet getting to me at all and not really tiring of it much. I was more tired over my lack of muscle than anything else.

 

[squirtle24]

rofl, you make it sound so good. I may have to give it a go if this change in diet doesn't do anything for me. Actually, as a normal lifestyle, it doesn't sound too bad, either. Eat conservatively Sun-Fri, then eat anything you want on Sat. I'll definitely try that when I'm off the diet.

 

[yellowperil]

I've been trying to lose weight since July (5'9" 180 lbs. when I started). I lost 10 lbs since but it's all been in the first 2 months. Since then I've been stuck at 170 lbs., even though I started doing cardio (treadmill/elliptical) 4x a week and reduced my caloric intake pretty significantly. I'm not sure what's up, I've always viewed dieting as a numbers game (intake less calories than expend) but maybe the extra weight is muscle gain. I set my target at 160-163 by the end of the year but it looks like it's not going to happen (still have a lot of 'junk in the trunk').

 

[StageLeft]

Originally posted by: squirtle24
rofl, you make it sound so good. I may have to give it a go if this change in diet doesn't do anything for me. Actually, as a normal lifestyle, it doesn't sound too bad, either. Eat conservatively Sun-Fri, then eat anything you want on Sat. I'll definitely try that when I'm off the diet.

Yeah I think it's something a person can stick on long term. It's really a bastardized version of the body for life ideal of being strict 6 days/week then doing whatever for a 7th.

Some people can eat sensibly all the time but I'm not one of them. I can't keep cookies in the house because I'll eat all of them. I can't have just one serving of cake - I need to get full on it. My personality is such that I can't eat sensibly all the time and just "eat until full". So, for 6 days of the week I have to be vigilent and merciless on calorie intake. I have no problem with that. I just don't eat anything bad and I log my calories. But doing that indefinitely isn't fun at all, so the 7th day for me is a let-loose day and it gives me something to look forward to on the other 6 days. The cheat method is the best thing I've found for myself.

 

[StageLeft]

Originally posted by: yellowperil
I've been trying to lose weight since July (5'9" 180 lbs. when I started). I lost 10 lbs since but it's all been in the first 2 months. Since then I've been stuck at 170 lbs., even though I started doing cardio (treadmill/elliptical) 4x a week and reduced my caloric intake pretty significantly. I'm not sure what's up, I've always viewed dieting as a numbers game (intake less calories than expend) but maybe the extra weight is muscle gain. I set my target at 160-163 by the end of the year but it looks like it's not going to happen (still have a lot of 'junk in the trunk').

I assume you're weight lifting then...? I would document your calories and if you're not lifting weights start to do so for the metabolic benefits.

 

[yellowperil]

Originally posted by: Skoorb

Originally posted by: yellowperil
I've been trying to lose weight since July (5'9" 180 lbs. when I started). I lost 10 lbs since but it's all been in the first 2 months. Since then I've been stuck at 170 lbs., even though I started doing cardio (treadmill/elliptical) 4x a week and reduced my caloric intake pretty significantly. I'm not sure what's up, I've always viewed dieting as a numbers game (intake less calories than expend) but maybe the extra weight is muscle gain. I set my target at 160-163 by the end of the year but it looks like it's not going to happen (still have a lot of 'junk in the trunk').

I assume you're weight lifting then...? I would document your calories and if you're not lifting weights start to do so for the metabolic benefits.

I do dumbbells (15-20 lbs) while I'm watching TV, but nothing too intense. When I started cardio on an exercise bike, I used pretty high (for me 😱) resistance settings, so maybe the muscle gain was in the legs (still pretty pitiful up top).

 

[squirtle24]

Sounds like you may have hit a plateau as well. Either that or you're gaining muscle and just staying around the same weight. If you're not sure, just mix up the exercise and make sure you're being challenged. You could try interval training or another type of cardio, too.

Also, losing the last five to ten pounds(to get like 6-8% body fat) takes the longest time, so it may be that you are just losing a pound of fat every 2-4 weeks. Hope you're hanging in there.

 

[StageLeft]

Just remember that if it slows to a total grind it doesn't mean you can't reach your goal; merely you need to switch something up 🙂

 

[Blackroot]

Originally posted by: squirtle24
I'm actually satisfied with my diet and exercise routines, but I've recently hit a plateau that's lasted too long. So I want to temporarily change my diet to shock the body and break the plateau. I'd be going from around 60% carbs(no refined carbs/sugar)/30% prot/10% fat to Atkins induction/diet and then back out in five or six weeks, depending on how things are going by then.

However, I was curious as to how much success you Atkins followers have had while trying to lose 20-25 lbs, not 50-100 lbs. I see a lot of wild numbers thrown around(like 10 lbs in 5 days), but people don't really say how heavy they were to begin with. Does Atkins really do a huge amount for you if you're not trying to lose a ton of weight(though 20 lbs is not a trivial amount 😛)? Regardless, I'd expect the diet(combined with my workouts, obviously) to bring me back to my usual 1.5 to 2 lbs/week level, at a minimum. Any people in the same boat who have done this the Atkins way?

I started last friday, kept pretty good on the 20 carbs or less a day, i've lost 5 or so in this week, all i do for exercise is 1 hour of Tae Kwon Do 2 days a week.

 

[Riprorin]

Originally posted by: squirtle24
I'm actually satisfied with my diet and exercise routines, but I've recently hit a plateau that's lasted too long. So I want to temporarily change my diet to shock the body and break the plateau. I'd be going from around 60% carbs(no refined carbs/sugar)/30% prot/10% fat to Atkins induction/diet and then back out in five or six weeks, depending on how things are going by then.

However, I was curious as to how much success you Atkins followers have had while trying to lose 20-25 lbs, not 50-100 lbs. I see a lot of wild numbers thrown around(like 10 lbs in 5 days), but people don't really say how heavy they were to begin with. Does Atkins really do a huge amount for you if you're not trying to lose a ton of weight(though 20 lbs is not a trivial amount 😛)? Regardless, I'd expect the diet(combined with my workouts, obviously) to bring me back to my usual 1.5 to 2 lbs/week level, at a minimum. Any people in the same boat who have done this the Atkins way?

I lost 25 lbs (about 20 lbs in 6 weeks) to go from 5'8" 175 to 150. PM me if you have any questions.

 

[gogeeta13]

I am down 19lbs in 3 weeks.

I havent even been too strict with atkins either...i have cheated a bunch, and still lost weight.

One thing is tho, I work out 5days a week, both weight lifting and running/cardio.

I have been losing like 3-4 lbs a week, but as I said, I cheat 2-3 meals a week.

I am 181, looking to get down to ~150, but my final weight may be more or less due to the amount of muscle weight.

 

[yoda291]

Originally posted by: Jugernot
See my sig for a better place to talk about this as you don't have to deal with all the ignorant people that tend to pipe in with name calling that low carb threads tend to cause here. Just a suggestion...

http://www.lowcarbsweb.com

Yeah you crazy carby floozy! 😀 <- not really an insult