Diet Harbor

Things have not been going well on my diet lately. I run the risk of regaining everything I lost the first 6 months, which wasn't that much to begin with.

I need some sort of change of pace, but not sure what to try next.

doug

 

Wow. Two weeks in a row with losses. :)

I was down 0.6 kg = 1.3 kg this week for a total loss of 9.6 kg = 21 lb so far.

My average weight loss because of the long plateau is just 1.1 lb/week.

This week I changed the way I'm eating again. Previously I did an experiment with less carbs - almost Atkins-ish. But it's just nonsense. It doesn't work.

So I decided to say, "rice is not bad for you after all" and instead cut back on most dead animals, except for fish, and reduced the portions of those while increasing the portions of rice, vegetables, tofu and fruit. And in the last few days I also stopped drinking artificially-sweetened drinks again and am drinking just water and plain green tea. 

Basically all the weight loss came over the last few days.

I'm going to try this for a while.

doug

In the up-and-down dance around approximately the same weight for the past

6 weeks I'm down 1.2 kg = 2.6 lb for the week. No real breakthrough yet though.

doug

 

OK. This is getting ridiculous already!

Up until Wednesday, I was actually down 1.2 kg for the week. Then on Thursday I had gained 1.8 kg overnight! This morning I lost 0.2 kg of that gain, but I end up with a net gain of 0.4 kg = 0.9 lb for the week.

That's two weeks in a row of gains now!

(sigh)

doug

 

An ad from this morning's Japan Times mail:

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http://www.mochioyaki.com/ctl/jptm0001/
=====================================================================

I really don't think that's a diet food!

doug

Hi, people. I was here a few years ago. Some of you may remember me. Everybody was very friendly and supportive, but I'm afraid Atkins just wasn't working for me.

 

I tried it for 7 weeks, but at the end didn't lose weight. I think the problem was that I was simply eating too many calories. That is, just following the low-carb rules did not bring my appetite down enough to restrict my calories enough so I could lose weight.

 

Some people suggested adding more carbs, so I added a tomato in - about 6 extra net carbs per day. 

 

When that didn't help the nutritionist here chimed in that tomatoes were a "nightshade" vegetable and it could be blocking weight loss.

 

While I appreciate her taking the time to give personal advice, at that point I just gave up. I mean, after all, a tomato is just about 24 calories. If that is blocking my weight loss I figured this is just plain too difficult. I just didn't believe it anymore.

 

Fast forward to 2010. On January 1 I started a low calorie diet, sticking to an average of 1700 calories/day with an extra 1000 "bonus" calories to spread over the week.

 

Since January first I've lost 9.2 kg = 20.2 lb.

 

Also all my blood values have returned to normal. My blood sugar was particularly high, with an HbA1c of over 10! But now, just by restricting calories and losing a bit of weight my HbA1c is down to 5.3 in just a few months. All my cholesterol levels and everything are smack in the normal range. Blood pressure and everything are completely normal.

 

But... my weight loss has really stalled. Basically for the past 5 weeks or so my weight has gone up and down and I've not lost any net weight. I feel I could do better.

 

I do notice that on days where I have extra carbs (particularly white rice or snacks with a lot of carbs), even though I am sticking within my calorie limit I seem to not lose weight, or even gain weight.

 

On the other hand, on days where I have extra protein or fat (like fish or pork or even meat) I seem to lose weight, even if I am eating some extra calories.

 

Right now I'm thinking that neither Atkins nor a low-calorie diet are 100% right. That difficult as it may be, maybe restricting both calories and carbs are what is needed. And maybe I can be a bit more liberal on the calorie side if I am a bit more restrictive on the carb side.

 

But nobody on earth is going to convince me that there is any science that says that a tomato will wreck a diet! There are just too few calories!

 

And I'm not finding tomatoes to be the problem anyway.

 

Anyway, I'm still struggling, and trying to decide how best to balance calories and carbs.

 

The reason I'm writing today, in addition to getting in touch again, is because I received a "free sample" package Atkins starter kit in the mail today.

 

I immediately gobbled down all three included snack bars. Bad Doug! I properly counted the calories (450). But they weren't that tasty. And I got very ill a couple of hours later. Lesson learned: don't keep snack bars around - I can't portion control. And there is something in them, like the artificial sweetener, that makes me ill.

 

I also have a question about the "Atkins Quick-Start Guide" that was included with the package. Something in the guide did not make sense to me.

 

For Phase 2 (OWL) it says to increase daily carb intake in 5 gram increments per week as long as weight loss continues. Then stay in Phase 2 until you're about 10 lb from goal.

 

But then for Phase 3 (Pre-Maintenance) it says to increase in 10 gram increments as long as you gradually continue to lose weight.

 

That doesn't make sense to me. If in Phase 2 you stopped adding carbs in 5 gram increments after you stopped losing weight, how are you all of a sudden going to be losing weight if you go beyond that and add carbs in 10 gram increments?

 

What point am I missing here?

 

Anyway, hello again everybody.

 

doug

p.s. You can see my weekly diet journals, graphs, etc. since 1/1/2010 at my little diet site at http://dietharbor.com.

Well, that's disappointing. I gained 1 kg = 2.2 lb this week!

That brings me back to my weight of 3/27/2010, meaning I've basically not lost anything in nearly an entire month!

This is very frustrating. I have to re-think how I am doing my diet. I must be counting some calories wrong. Or maybe some foods with too high a glycemic index like white rice affect me differently.

On a more positive note, my latest blood test results show all my blood values: HbA1c, total cholesterol, good and bad cholesterol, etc. all smack in the middle of normal ranges. So the diet has definitely helped with all those values these last few months.

But there is something wrong with my current weight-loss strategy.

doug

 

Refer to the Week 13 report, because that's exactly where I'm back to this week. :)

I did pass the 100 day milestone though. This morning is day 107 on the diet.

doug

 

I stayed on my diet all week, but my weight fluctuated wildly every day. This morning's weigh-in weight turned out to be 0.6 kg = 1.3 lb higher than last week. Since I lost 0.6 kg last week, this brings me back to my weight of 2 weeks ago.

It's like having two weeks of diet just wiped out!

Well, I hope I make better progress this week.

doug

My week-to-week loss this weight-in was just 0.6 kg = 1.3 lb. This is the same as the other day when I mentioned my new milestone.

So my total weight loss so far is 9.2 kg = 20.2 lb.

doug