Re: What to do When the Atkins Diet Fails You (for Jo)

[Guest guest]

Hi Jo,

So presumably he went back to what he was doing before you made the

changes, but it no longer worked for him?

Has anyone suggested that if Atkins isn't working, it's the wrong

diet for him?

Atkins himself said that his diet is an extreme diet, and is

designed to bring people back into balance. Maybe your husband came

into balance and then no longer needed a high fat diet.

Atkins isn't right for everyone. Have you checked out metabolic

typing at all? There's stuff on Mercola about it, or check out my

write up at

http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/rwgully/theories/metabolic_diets.htm

Does he drink much coffee? If not, there is a simple test that gives

most people a good indication of their type. Just drink a cup of

coffee on an empty stomach. People who are well suited to an Atkins

type diet will feel pretty bad on only a small amount, people who

suit a more Carbo type diet will feel good - alert and energised.

Mixed types will feel Ok on half a cup but nervous or agitated after

a whole cup.

Of course, heavy coffee drinkers won't get an accurate reading,

because of their addiction. They need to go off it for 7-10 days

first, and will have withdrawal symptoms for the first part of that.

I;m not regularly on the board at the moment, so if you post in

reply and I don't answer, email me.

Cheers, deb

> Hi

> Thanks for your suggestions, but we have tried them all...

>

> He lost 140lbs in 18 months on Atkins - he ate high protein, very

low

> carbs, and the rest was fat. I came along and said he needed veg,

> and forced spinach, cabbage and the like on him. I also decided

he

> should be eating less protein and more fat. He stalled, then he

> gained back everything over 2 years.

[Guest guest]

There was also a very interesting post on one of the Sonlight forums

about 's Disease. It resembles a thyroid problem, but all

thyroid tests will come back normal. Sonlight is a homeschooling

curriculum company, BTW, and don't have anything to do with

nutrition, so pardon her errors. ;-) Their forums are for support.

Here's the post: --Tracey

After 10 months I may FINALLY be a FIRM success story

----------------------------------------------------------------------

----------

Ok....go get yourself a cup of your favorite no-calorie beverage and

sit back to relax. I intend to leave very little out of this long

story in hopes that perhaps someone out there will recognize her

experience in mine and get herself some help sooner than I did.

Last year in August, my gyn, bless his heart, noticed for me that I

had put on a few pounds over the last year. He HASTENED to add that

even though I was well within the normal range and that I looked

good, he just didn't want me to end up on a downward slope that would

end up making me unhappy and frankly be hard to conquer as I aged. I

blushed, agreed, and realized that I hadn't been eating as well as I

could have even though I didn't think I had been 15 pounds worth of

bad. Nevertheless, I was determined not to end up there a year later

at the same weight. I also knew that exercise was going to be

essential for the happy senior years I was planning and the lighter

exercise I had been engaging in was simply not enough. I decided that

after years of looking at it, it was time to take on the FIRM.

I went at it whole-heartedly. I made up charts. I tracked my weight.

My measurements. The number of workouts I had done. I was faithful. I

lost nothing. I joined the FIRM Believers club, I learned that

sometimes it takes six months for the results to kick in. I stuck

with it. I lost nothing.

The months came and went. I would try to work harder and find myself

exhibiting symptoms of overtraining almost instantly. If I injured

myself, it seemed to take FOREVER to recover. I limped through

Thanksgiving and Christmas with a knee injury and did Upper Body

Sculpt a LOT. I was consistent though. The only time I missed a

workout was for a migraine or symptoms of overtraining....and by

golly that seemed to happen to me pretty easily. I chalked it up to

age(42). I lost NOTHING.

The six-month mark came and went. I braced myself to begin melting. I

lost nothing. I melted...NOWHERE. It became increasingly difficult to

stick with it, because discouragement was setting in. I was stronger.

I had gone from a size 12 to a size 8 I could feel the muscles

underneath everything but the 'goosh' on the top was the SAME. And I

don't mean nearly the same. I mean the SAME. That part of my body

wasn't changing no matter WHAT I did with my diet and exercise

program. I upped my ab workouts. I lost nothing. I was discouraged. I

tried to listen to the 'number on the scale doesn't matter " crowd but

there was the 'goosh' on top of everything and I KNEW that was going

to have to go and that would mean weight loss. I knew that when

the 'goosh' went...the number would change. I wanted that lean body I

saw on the instructors and I made plans to get a belly-button ring

when I got there.

I tried Fitday....I didn't learn anything new about my diet other

than confirming my suspicions that I was doing well in that regard. I

dropped my caloric intake to 1500/day. I began waking up at night

from bone-deep hunger. I lost NOTHING. My mother pointed out to me

that for whatever reason, my body refused to use the fat stores that

were there as fuel. She suggested Atkins to give my metabolism a kick

in the pants. I refused. I was NOT going to cut out veggies. She

suggested South Beach. I refused to even consider it. I KNEW I was

doing everything right. So WHY wasn't I getting the results I was

working so hard for?

Spring came and I remodeled my kitchen. During the remodeling

process, I kept exercising the best that I could given the chaos

level in my house. And given that I had no kitchen, I ate as well as

I could. I tried not to worry about it. I lost NOTHING. Worse...my

measurements had stabilized as well. I wasn't getting smaller THERE

either.

Finally at the beginning of May, in desperation, I researched the

South Beach Diet. When I learned that vegetable intake was measured

in terms of a minimum....I knew I could do it and I decided to try.

Now I knew that at the beginning people feel bad. I expected it. And

I did. I also lost 5 pounds in the first week. HOSANNA! Only one

problem. I couldn't work out. I don't mean it was hard to workout...I

was used to that. In fact, I had been wondering why things still

seemed so HARD for me when others were making such progress. I

figured it was my age. But on the South Beach Diet I working out as

long as 20 minutes took real willpower and at 30 minutes there was

nothing left. I HAD to quit and no amount of willpower could keep me

going. I had also stopped losing weight. I lost 5 pounds and then I

hit a wall...I know this may sound weird but I felt my body hit it. I

KNEW that I wasn't going to lose any more on South Beach. I decided

to quit phase one early, so that I could resume full-strength

workouts. Only my strength didn't come back. I quit South Beach all

together and went back to just plain balanced healthy eating....and

still nothing got better. NOW I couldn't work out more than 20-30

minutes AND I wasn't losing weight. And all of a sudden I knew there

was nothing left for me to try. I had given it my all and there was

literally NOTHING left for me to fix and I couldn't try harder. I

finally had to admit that PERHAPS, just MAYBE, something else was

wrong. I also cried a LOT.

You may stop snickering now....I am sure YOU all figured it out WAY

before I did. I have nothing to say in my defense other than

stubborness runs very strong in my family and sometimes when we run

into a wall we must back up, get a running start, and run into it

HARDER just to make sure it really IS a wall and not our imagination.

(And my mother once actually DID that.)I started to take a hard look

not only at my exercise and diet program but the other parts of my

life that weren't going so good but that I was ignoring because if

you ignore the problems, you don't have them. STOP LAUGHING!! I was

cold. All the time. And I live in Houston. I was LIVING for the warm

weather of summer and no, 85 degrees is NOT warm...95 is warm. I kept

the thermostat in my house set at 85 during the day and kept blankets

on my lap. I was unable to sit in an air conditioned room for more

than 20-30 minutes without massive shivering. I was tired. I

was " burned-out. " Between joint pain, muscle pain, and head pain I

was in pain all of the time. I routinely got up, took ibuprophen and

went back to bed to let it take effect before getting up. I couldn't

concentrate. I was cranky and irritable and sound hit me like a

baseball bat upside the head. My poor children....I took chunks out

of them regularly. Now if you know much about thyroid disease, you

know that I am describing the classic symptoms of hypothyroid. I had

always " resisted " the idea that I might be hypothyroid because my

bloodwork was always normal. I decided that not withstanding

previously normal bloodwork, it was time to talk to an

endocrinologist. (And I must also confess, that I might have suffered

still LONGER if I wasn't worried that I might not be up to speed for

my FIRM trip in July....kids don't try this at home. This is STUPID

bebavior you should go to the doctor WAY sooner than this stupid

woman.)The endocrinologist, bastion of medical sympathy that he was,

told me that my weight gain wasn't an issue because I was

still " normal " even though I protested that it wasn't normal for ME!

He did think though, that a complete metabolic workup was in order

and he ordered that. Then, gave me a book on thyroid disease and sent

me home. A week later the results were in and they were 100% NORMAL.

Yes ladies, you heard me right. In spite of the fact that I was a

walking symptom factory for hypothyroid I tested NORMAL. I wasn't

even to the edges of normal....I was smack dab in the middle of it.

So...I said to this endo.... " What's wrong with me? " and he gave me

this look like " Sweetie, you are just complaining about nothing. " and

suggested that we check my testosterone levels. I said, " Messed up

testosterone levels would make me cold? " and he said, " Well it

might. " " What about the weight gain? " He said, " You are normal. " And

he wasn't inclined to listen to any more of my sad story.

ARRRGGGHHHH!! I went home and cried some more.

Several hours later, I remembered that I knew of someone in Australia

(long story that I will leave out) that was being treated for

some " weird " thyroid condition. I remembered that she had mentioned

the name one time and I went and looked it up. She called

it " 's Thyroid Syndrome " (and any of you out there that are

exhibiting symptoms of low thyroid but have been told by your doctor

that you are " normal " or that it is " all in your head " need to be

writing this down.) I did a Google search and found a website:

http://wilsonssyndrome.com/

It was like reading about myself AND it explained that just because

your body is making enough thyroid hormone, if you body isn't using

it correctly, it won't matter. You will still exhibit all the

symptoms of hypothyroid and still your bloodwork MAY BE COMPLETELY

NORMAL. (There are other variations so anyone who is reading and has

ANY thyroid problems, I would encourage you to look at the website

and see if maybe visiting a doctor that has expertise with this

syndrome might not be a good idea for you. They are listed on the

website.) Anyway, I made an appointment with one of the listed

treating physicians...he was 170 miles away. ly I didn't care

how far I had to drive, I had suddenly come to grips with how sick I

really was and I would have CRAWLED that far for help. If nothing

else, these doctors are going to be inclined to LISTEN to you and not

chalk it up to being " all in your head. "

I started treatment on Tuesday. On Wednesday afternoon, it was like

switches started being thrown in my body. I am improving so quickly

that I can't describe it any other way. I have blood in my hands and

feet. I sat in the movie theater and didn't leave on the verge of

hypothermia! My brain has cleared. I feel better than I have in the

last five years!! In the name of taking things slowly, I started back

to working out slowly by doing FIRM Yoga for the last two days but

today I did Complete Body Shaping today and I made it to the END!! I

have lost a lot of ground. I was winded but I didn't have to quit!!

And yesterday, I couldn't resist. I KNEW it was too early for

anything of substance to be showing but I stepped on the scale

anyway. I may just have already begun to lose weight as well....the

scale said two pounds worth and for now, I am going to believe it.