What you are about to read is my quest for understanding of why stalls happen. While most of this topic will be referring to the Atkins Diet. that I have been on, it is still relevant to anybody on any diet. When I first started Atkins, I was quite successful, I lost 70 lbs the first 8 months on the plan, but then the weight loss stalled for the next 8 months. During this time I didn’t lose any weight, and would go up and down the same 5 lbs. This became very frustrating, and I was on the verge of quitting. However, I was lucky, I had the Atkins forum members, my support system, who refused to let me quit. In addition, Colette Heimowitz, Atkins nutritionist, helped save me from myself. She helped me come up with a plan, tweak my program, and explained to me about stalls, plateaus, and set points. With her guidance, I was soon losing again, but I wasn’t satisfied with knowing how to make changes, I wanted to know why stalls happen. Thus, the journey began. I spent several weeks pouring through books, and countless web pages on this subject; the problem was I could never find a definitive answer in one place. Therefore, I had to piece the puzzle together, and as I did, I gained a clearer understanding about why the body eventually refuses to let the weight go, and how to get things moving again. This puzzle is by no means complete; there are numerous medical reasons for a weight loss stall that I won’t be going into. Instead, I will be focusing on how set points affect us mentally and physically. In addition, I’ll be talking about the importance of knowing your Basal Metabolic Rate, (BMR), and the role these numbers play in helping reach your goals. Also, I’ll be talking a lot about starvation mode on the body, and why eating less is not always the right solution when it comes to losing weight. In addition, I’ll show how hunger and compensatory behaviors sabotage our diet. Finally, I’ll provide 25 tips and strategies that I used to help break my stall. More
Why Do Stalls Happen Part 2: Introduction: Plateaus Defined, and The Truth about Ketosis
06 Dec 2010 Leave a comment
in Atkins, Why Do Stalls Happen: Part 2, Why Stalls Happen Tags: Atkins Diet, Atkins Tips, Breaking Weight loss stalls, dieting, ketosis, Low carb diet, Plateaus defined, Weight loss, weight loss stalls, What is Ketosis
Living The Atkins Style
12 Aug 2009 17 Comments
in Atkins, Atkins Songs Tags: Atkins, Atkins Diet, Atkins lifestyle, Diet, Giligans Island theme song, Low carb diet, On Going Weight Loss, OWL, Parody, Theme songs, Weight loss
In the style of Gilligan’s Island
Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale,
A tale of a weight-loss trip
That started on the Atkins forum,
A board with many tips.
Atkins was a mighty fillin plan,
Good suppers that’s for sure.
The dieters signed up one day
For a weight loss assured
A weight loss assured.
The craving started getting tough,
The Atkins plan was lost,
Thanks to the food choices on this plan
The dieters showed who’s boss
The dieters showed who’s boss.
The tips they found on the Atkins forum
gave them all a smile.
Meet Grami Cin
And Georgie too
Here’s Jennifer and Fit 4life
A movie star
The moderator and
Adriane
Livin–the Atkins Style.
So this is the tale of the waste-a-ways, they’re here for a long, long time.
They’ll have to make the best of things,
Up through owl they climb.
The first-rate friends are chipper too,
They’ll do their very best,
To make you all as comfortable,
On the forum I like best.
No toast! No grains! No Demon Carbs!
Not a one thing sugary,
Slowing down the Glucose,
You’ll lose fat you’ll see.
So join us here this week my friends,
You’re sure to get a smile,
As you watch the weight melt off…
Livin—the Atkins Style.
As always, comments are welcome and encourage.
Terry (whyguy)
Fat, Bloated and Ugly: Maybe Not
28 Mar 2009 7 Comments
in Atkins, Atkins Tips Tags: Atkins, Atkins Tips, bloated, Body maps, bulimia, dieting, Fat, Low carb dieting, Phantom Fat, Poor self image, self image, self loathing, Weight loss, Why do I still feel fat, Whyguy, Whyguys Blog
I read a story about a woman, on the Atkins forum, whose weight loss was slow. This woman mistakenly believed nothing was changing about her body. However, when she tried on a dress that recently didn’t fit, she discovered that even though she hadn’t lost weight she had lost inches, and the dress fit beautifully. This got me thinking of how we sometimes mistakenly believe one thing about ourselves when in reality who we are and what we look like is much different. More
Why Do Stalls Happen: Part 1: Opening Comments
06 Dec 2010 1 Comment
by Whyguy in Atkins, Why Do Stalls Happen: Part 1: Opening Comments, Why Stalls Happen Tags: Atkins Diet, Atkins diet stall, Compensatory behavor, Diets and stalled weight, Low carb diet, set points, starvation mode, Tips to break a weight loss stall, Weight loss, Weight loss plateau, weight loss stalls
Has your weight loss stalled, peaked, and puttered out? Have you reached a point in your diet where the scale just won’t budge no matter how hard you try, even though you know you are doing everything right? If you’re anything like me, you’re probably so frustrated you’re ready to chuck your diet and scale out the window—I almost did. But if I would have given up, and not taken the time to learn why these things happened, I never would have broken my 8-month stall, and gone on to nearly reach my goal of losing 100 lbs. As of this writing, I’ve lost 94 lbs.
This blog post is a culmination of my journey to figure out why stalls happen, and what can be done to get the weight loss moving again. I had originally posted this information on the Atkins forum on a thread titled, Why do Stalls Happen: What I’ve learned. The thread became very popular, but it also became very long, and was soon embedded with so many comments that the post grew to over 240 pages. It wasn’t long before I got numerous requests from people to condense this information into one easy to understand post without comments. The original thread got so discombobulated that only the very brave, and perhaps foolish, took the time to sift through the post to get to the heart of the information. Thus, because of the requests I’ve had, I’ve decided to posts this thread on my blog, but not in its entirety. Therefore, if something seems missing in my blog post—it is, I left out the comments. Consequently, some of the information might seem out of place, and repeated often. In editing this, I did my best to keep the flavor of the thread without changing it much. But it is my hopes that you will find this information readable, and as useful as the many others who have used these techniques to break their stalls have—including myself. More
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