Going on week 4 and still gaining weight Help Please

cedarsidefarm

OK, its been 40+ days and I've lost a pound (at least I've stopped gaining) and I've lost an inch off my waist (I actually have an indentation where my waist is suppose to be, yeah!!!). I've been very, very busy and really don't even think of food until after the afternoon chores. So, I eat a quick lunch and a bigger dinner. I can't force myself to eat breakfast anymore. It's just turns my stomach to have to eat in the mornings. I think I will go with 2 meals a day, until I get hungry in the mornings again.

I really wont believe this is working until a lose about 5 pounds so I'm going to give this a few more months. I think I need to get my carbs back down to below 30 total carbs. I noticed they were creeping up to 81 total carbs this week. I found some low carb Tortillas and was eating too many. Each day is a learning experience.

cedarsidefarm

Sorry I didn't respond to your post sooner myprimal. I'm still learning the ins and out of how this message board works.

But you are absolutely right. It's not cut and dry. Because after 44 days on this diet, I got on the scale and I lost 2 more pounds in one week. I'm now where I was before I started gaining weight on this diet. So, though in some respects I'm right back to where I started, in other ways I'm much better off. I'm happier, I'm losing inches around my waist and I have an indentation where my waist is suppose to be that wasn't there before. The swelling and pain in my wrists and ankles is reduced and my finger nails are not brittle and breaking.

I know I can lose weight on a low calorie diet but the fat would NOT be coming off my waist. It would be coming off my flat butt and skinny thighs and then after every last bit of fat were off those areas, and only then, would my belly fat start coming off. And I would be sooo hungry and be living around when my next meal would be.

So, the scale can affect how you feel about your success. But, and this is a big but, it can also be a lying liar that lies to you.

DittoDan

cedarsidefarm wrote: »

Hi, I'm new here and am looking for advice. Ok, I didn't expect to lose any weight while my body adopted to a lifetime of caloric restrictions but to gain 3 lbs is that normal? I'm on day 23. I started out on the always hungry diet, then moved to stage 2 and don't use his recipes as much because I lowered my goal for carbs to below 50. He gives you a goal of percent of carbs in the diet in the book but I found that a plain number was easier to aim for. My goal each day is to eat less than 50 carbs. If/when I go over it is usually because I miscalculated the carbs in what I had planned to eat, not because I cheated. I have not had any bread, rice, potatoes, cake, cookies or bread (I said that already) and bread for 23 days. Bread was a big part of my life. I made it from scratch and developed different flavors for different soups and proteins. But I gave it all up because I gained over 45 pounds. I'm almost 180 and can't afford to gain much more weight at a heigt of 5' 4".

I quit smoking by chewing nicotine gum 2 years ago. I gave up the gum a year ago. I have not smoked since I started chewing the gum. I still chew from 3 to 5 sugar free pieces (not nicotine, plain gum) a day. Yes, they have 1 to 2 carbs per piece and I count them. I'm perfectly healthy, no diabetes, no thyroid condition, no high cholesterol, no high blood pressure.

I am a 57 year old female (keep it a secret, even my Mom doesn't know my real age). my husband and I run a small organic farm. So, I get plenty of exercise. Here's why I think I may need some time to get my body back to normal. For most of my life, I have smoked and eaten only one meal a day, except when I was pregnant. I gained a lot of weight with each pregnancy but it came off as soon as I went back to smoking. Now that I quit, it seems like nothing I do helps me lose weight. My Mom is over 200 lbs and I've watched her struggle all her life on low calorie diets but they never worked. So, I know I have to do something different.

Is this weight gain something to worry about? Should I go back to counting calories and carbs and/or fasting? Should I get those strips that use urine to determine if I'm in keto? Are the strips useful? How long is it advisable to stay on this diet while gaining and not losing weight? Should I lower my carbs even further?

Since I cut carbs, I feel better and for the first time in a really long time, I am NOT constantly hungry. The swelling in my joints has gone down. If I could lose some weight, this would be the perfect diet for me. I've done the weight watchers thing and I have lost a lot weight. But I was so absolutely hungry all the time with the hunger getting worse and worse the longer I staid on the diet. And my finger nails got dry and brittle and I never had any energy. I finally gave up weight watchers and went back to smoking and eating one meal a day.

I don't want to ever pick up a cigarette again. Please, let me know if what I'm experiencing is to be expected considering how badly I treated my body with the smoking, caloric restrictions and fasting, or if you think I should change something.

Do you have any digestive issues? Diarrhea, constipation? Do you have a bowel movement 1-2 times a day? If your gut is messed up, and/or you have a "leaky" gut, there could be low grade inflammation preventing weight loss.

Try some bone broth for your gut health. Try making some fermented foods (YouTube).

It all starts in the gut....

I hope this helps,
Dan the Man from Michigan
Keto / The Recipe Water Fasting / E.A.S.Y. Exercise Program

SamandaIndia

@MyPrimalLife I hear you. I am healthier and I put on 5lbs in 2 weeks when I stopped calorie tracking. Will check measurements shortly. I catch up with my good friends in 2 weeks and I was hopeful I would look as awesome as I felt and looked in January or better. It is disappointing to see the scale go the wrong way, especially given the effort required to not eat my fave fruit n veg. Intellectually, I know there are health benefits and I know men in many studies can ignore calories and intermittently fast with success but given women have different hormonal responses, I still have nagging doubts that those choices are going to work for me. Wish it was as easy for me to have faith and believe in the way @Sunny_Bunny_ does.

For me, I suspect stress level is a major overlay on whatever I am doing plus the ineffective lifestyle choices that I tend to default to when stressed: eat faster, eat more, drink less water (forget to leave desk to get it), drink more coffee (meetings), seek snacks to force self to keep going, work without breaks for 8 to 14 hours, sleep poorly, forget to exercise do yoga nor meditate, neglect to connect with others (too focussed on job that I percieve has to get done), shrink time for relaxing hobbies to zero (no time!!), forget almost to breathe etc. When I list it like that, no wonder my body figures it better hold on to what it has!

Here's cheers to a day off (now if I can just keep my mind off of the work that I need to do on the data and decisions that I am submitting next week that impacts the lives and careers of 1000 people). Other major deliverables next week too. Need to not take my job so seriously!