I need some help concerning weight loss issues with the Atkins diet.
I started out on the Atkins a week before New Years. My roommate and myself decided to do this together.
We didn’t want to weigh ourselves because we didn’t want to know, but later on the 7th of Jan I was curious to see how much I weighed.
Then again, last night I weighed myself again, and acording to the scale it says I lost 42 pounds. I thought there might have been something wrong with the scale and asked someone at my gym if they could look into it. So I come back to work tonight get this email that the there is nothing wrong witht the scale. So I go back to weigh myself in the gym and it still tells me I lost 42 pounds.
My question is this…Is it possible to lose that much weight in such a little time? I kind of looked on the internet and found something to the affect that men lose more weight quickly than women do. Is this true?
Deep down I want it to be true, but I’m not believing it at all. I think I made a mistake in weighing myself earlier, but its the same scale.
I completely cut out all sugars, fruits, any foods that may contain carbs etc. I’ve been eating chicken, beef, eggs, bacon, fresh vegetables, and pork links. And I do cardio, weight train and walk for long hours on a recreation trail. I can understand losing this much on 3 months or more, but 42 in almost a month?
It’s been my experience with Atkins that a 42 pound weight loss in only three weeks or so would be more than a little unusual. My guess is that you somehow misread the scales you used when you originally weighed yourself. One way you might check, however, would be to assess how much more tightly you have to fasten your belt now. It’s been my experience that each ten pounds of weight loss results in approx. one inch shrinkage in waist size. This seems to be true pretty much without regard to one’s height. Most of the people I’ve discussed this with over the years have said they noticed the same thing, even though there has been a wide range of heights and body types involved. If you are having to cinch up your belt approx. four inches from where you were on the 7th, or if your pants are approx. four inches larger around your waist, I would say you’re safe in assuming a weight loss of approx. forty pounds. If not, your true weight loss could be fairly accurately gauged by the number of inches you have taken off your waist.
I agree with Starving Artist. If you’ve lost 42 pounds, your clothes should be hanging off of you. Your pants would be falling right off when you pull them up.
And people should be commenting on your weight loss. Forty-two pounds is a lot of weight. It would be really noticeable.
Before I could pass judgment I would need to know your weight either before or after the diet. 42 pounds from a 98 pound person is not the same as 42 pounds from a 250 pound person.
That kind of weight loss in one month would be unusual, but not unheard of if you are male, and were extremely obese to begin with. For example, I have a BIL who weighs over 500 pounds. The one time I can remember him dieting, he lost about 40 pounds in his first month. And, contrary to what BiblioCat says, if you started out at over 400 pounds, your clothes would not be falling off of you after losing 42 lbs. That’s only 10% of your body weight. When I started my carb-controlled diet, the fit of my clothes didn’t radically change until I’d lost about 50 lbs. This is because I started out weighing over 300. If someone who weighs 240 loses 40 lbs., that’s quite substantial and noticeable, but if you’re very large, it takes a lot more weight loss to really see a difference.
Yeah, I guess you’re right, but there should still be a noticeble difference in the way his or her clothes fit. EhhMon, what did you weigh when you weighed yourself the first time?
42 is a lot of weight, especially if it comes as a surprise to someone. Impossible? No. A mistake? Maybe. Just how much excercise?
FWIW, I started Atkins just before New Years and have lost 22 lbs even as of yesterday. I started out on the wrong side of three bills. The excercise has been light.
If I were to guess at EhhMon’s starting weight, I wouldn’t peg it at much more than 300, for the simple reason that it is hard to get a scale for home use that measures more than that. At 42 lbs you would definitely notice a change in clothes.
I agree that there should be a noticeable difference, just not that his clothes would necessarily be “hanging off of him”.
Actually, although most bathroom scales only go up to 300, there are some available that go up to 400, plus he could have been going with a starting weight from a doctors’ scale or scale at the gym, etc. which regularly go above 300.
I didn’t weigh myself when I first started in December. Back on the 7th when I was curious I came in at 375. Then when I weighed myself on the 26th the scale read 333.
Since I work the midshift and we have our own gym on the compound. I’ve been using it reguarly now as well as the scale machine to weigh myself. The only reason I weighed myself is because people were starting to see the difference and asking me what I was doing or if I was on a diet. They said I lost a lot of weight on the face and my clothes look very baggy.
Coming from good bone structure you’d think I weigh 250. I only stopped exercising about 2 and half years ago due to hectic work schedule and a new baby.
I was told that since I was athletic before, that I shouldn’t have a hard time catching up to my usual exercise routine. I’m able to do weight training as before and am slowly getting back into jogging (but with a lot of walks in between).
Instead of driving to work. I’ve started to walk which takes about an hour and 30 minutes each way. At work during lunch I do an hour of wieght training (switching from arms one day, legs the next day, chest the next day, stomach and cardio the next night) I only rest on the days I’m off.
When I get home in the mornings at 7am, I’m so full of energy that I can’t sleep, so I go and walk on the recreation trail for an hour each way. Whats good about walking the trail in the morning I’m able to catch a game of volleyball and play until I start to feel tired and then make the way home.
And now that my clothes are looking baggy on me and people at work are noticing its really revved up my ego and giving so much energy. That I really want this significant wieght loss to be true. But still have a hard time accepting it.
42 pounds since January 7th? Starting at 375 and doing hardcore Induction? As a man? Exercising 5 hours a day?
That’s only about 2 pounds a day, so yeah, it could happen and you’re one lucky #%#%#%(#% and I’m jealous.
The current rule of thumb for Atkins Induction is most people lose 10% of what they want to lose during the first 2 weeks. It could well be that you are blessed with a very low metabolic resistance to Atkins. Either way you need to hoof it on over to www.lowcarbfriends.com and report this on their message boards. Maybe this has happened to somebody else, or maybe the people there can confirm or tell you you’re nuts, whichever
When you remove carbohydrates from the diet the body relies on glycogen stores for access to glucose. When glycogen is broken down quite a bit of water is released, so the initial rapid weight loss will have a significant contribution from water loss, not fat.
When you start eating a healthy diet again the weight will return. So keep exercising.
