Atkiners...please help my DH!!!

[phorsenuf]

My hubby and I have been doing Atkins for about 2 weeks now. I have lost 6 pounds, but he has only lost 1 and that was after he went up 3!
He has cut back on his coffee consumption (1-2 cups in the AM). Usually has a salad for lunch (a chicken BLT salad from Wendys with his own bleu cheese dressing from home). Has a low carb dinner that I prepare and then usually will snack on some nuts or slim jims and will have a carb smart ice cream bar for his treat. He drinks lots of water too.
Pretty much the only thing he doesn't do is regular exercise. Although he is pretty active in his job.

Any thoughts? Is it possible Atkins isn't the way for him? He's getting real discouraged but refuses to give up. I think he's getting annoyed with me too 'cause I am losing

Help....help.....

 

[ZerasPride]

Hi!

I'm not an Atkid (I'm on South Beach) but I do frequent an Atkins board and they have lots of threads about people that are slow losers or not losing at all. One common theme seems to be for many people that they cannot eat the low carb treats. There's something about the sugar alcohol that stalls them. Your husband might want to consider giving them up for a while. You mentioned him snacking on nuts or slim jims. Both nuts and the slim jims can have lots of sodium and that could cause him to retain water. He might want to watch his portions with the nuts. I have a snack of nuts every day and I eat only 7. We are allowed double that but I don't want the extra calories.

You didn't mention breakfast. Is he eating anything or just drinking coffee? I know on my program, breakfast is very important so if he is not eating breakfast or eating very little, that could be part of the problem.

Have you tried entering his food intake on fitday.com? A lot of people use that and find they are surprised at just how many or how few calories they are actually eating. Of course if he is eating too many calories, then he can cut back on the snacks or his portions and if he finds he is eating too few calories then his body is in starvation mode and he needs to up his calories.

Of course, exercising would help. Even 20 minutes per day. I've finally gotten my DH to exercise several times a week and he uses our exercise bike for 20 minutes 3 or 4 times per week.

Low carbing does work and I hope it works for your husband. He just may need to tweak what he is doing to get the results he wants. I really do hope what I have said helps him out!

 

[Mom of Sleepy Bashful and BabyDoc]

Couple questions:

1) Is he counting his carbs to see what he has in a day?? You didn't say what he has for breakfast, but I'm assuming it is relatively low in carbs.

2) Is he sure he wants to have nuts during induction?? I'm also assuming you are doing induction because you said you have been doing it for two weeks. 1/4 cup of most nuts have more than 5 carbs. Do you realize how little 1/4 cup is? So that leads me to the next question........

3) Is he measuring?? I know this is a pain, and you won't have to do it forever. You just have to do it until you get to know how much of an amount is.

4) Is he going over (ounces-wise) on his protein at dinner time?? About how many ounces of meat is he having??

5) What, besides meat, is he having for dinner??

6) And I don't think that low carb ice cream is really a good thing during induction. Maybe once a week for a reward. And even after induction, it probably isn't a good idea to have it everyday. The "fake" sugar stuff can really stall your weight loss, as MANY on this board can attest, me included!

I don't know if this plan is for your DH or not?? He has to make that decision. But, I know a lot of men love this plan because they can still have their meat and they don't have to do low fat anything (which if your DH loves blue cheese dressing as much as I do?.......... )


I hope this helps. I really love this WOE and think it can yeild great rewards.

Any other questions, feel free to ask or pm me. Glad to help.

 

[FreshTressa]

Do you have the atkins book??

If you look in there, there is a section on people who are resistant to the weight loss and have to go on a "Fat Fast" or something like that.

If you read the book, there is a whole section that addresses that issue.

 

[my3princes]

Get the book and stick to the induction diet. I know that it is hard to stay strictly within it, but you need to get your body aclimated to the new way of eating. Many of the things your hubby is choosing is not appropriate for induction.

 

[Lynn CC]

I agree with the others if he gives up the nuts and the ice cream for a couple of weeks (induction) then he should be O.K.
Do slim Jims have hidden sugar in them? I don't know what the ingredients are, but maybe something he's eating has some sugar in it that he's not aware of.
I think he will really see great results if he gives those things up and replaces them with something else....How about an Atkins Low Carb Bar instead of the Low Carb Ice Cream. I know myself that the ice cream treats don't help with my weight loss. I only eat them if I have lost enough in a week and don't want to lose more, so they are a treat!
I'm glad he's hanging in there, I haven't met anyone yet that hasn't started to lose once they get the hang of eating right!

 

[nativetxn]

He should stay strictly on induction and that means no low carb ice cream or slim jims.

Do you have the book? If you don't, I would be glad to email you the rules for induction, just send me a pm or email and let me know.

Do you use a scale to weigh cheese and measuring cups to measure vegetables?

I think that what is keeping him from losing weight may well be that Wendys salad, even though he uses low carb dressing. I looked up the nutritional information on the Wendys site. Here is the description:

Cool, crisp and refreshing.

Freshly prepared throughout the day, it’s a delicious mix of cool crisp salad greens, crunchy vegetables, sweet, juicy grape tomatoes and tender pieces of marinated chicken breast fillet with shredded cheddar, real pieces of hickory smoked bacon and <b>garlic croutons.</b> Delicious with our creamy Honey Mustard or one of our lighter dressings

If he is eating the croutons he will not get into ketosis and he will lose very, very slowly.

Even if he is avoiding the croutons, I imagine that the volume of vegetables in the salad itself, exceeds his daily allowance. He is allowed one cup of lettuce and one cup of select vegetables, I believe, each. Between the lettuce, grape tomatoes and "crunchy vegetables" I think he is pretty close to getting that allowance at one meal. So, if his low carb dinner includes more vegetables he is exceeding this allowance and eating many more carbs than he realizes.

Add in the sugar alcohols contained in the ice cream, which can stall weight loss completely and the carbs contained in the almonds and I think he over 20 grams of carbs allowed on induction.

How does he measure his almonds? Does he weigh and ounce, count them out or "guestimate"? It is so easy to eat too many almonds. I speak from experience

I think I may have to get one of these salads, bring it home, take it apart and measure the salad and vegetables. I'm very curious about that part now.

Katholyn

 

[nativetxn]

One more thought about that salad. The description of the chicken says that it is marinated. You need to make sure that there is no sugar in the marinade or that will keep your husband from getting into ketosis too.

 

[Tiger Lily 03]

Once Katholyn has figured the breakdown of the salad, I echo the recommendation of FitDay.com. It may tak a little to get used to using the site as it is labor intensive in the beginning, but gets less so as you learn to manipulate your way through everything.

Exercise is so important. That may be another problem. Even in the Atkins book some sort of exercise is stressed. As said earlier, perhaps even 20 minutes might help kick it down a bit.

Good luck and whoo hoo! for not giving up on all this.

 

[nativetxn]

Is your husband doing any better, now?