Getting emaciated and gaunt

[Motorama]

I was suffering from unstable blood sugar and energy swings.
I have been shown the test Atkins proposed for sugar instability and was positive to it. That hooked me on Atkins. I was getting lethargic after a carb meal, irritable in the morning before eating, spacey and lightheaded in the afternoon, tired and weak in the evening. I wanted that to end and that's why I did Atkins.

I did three weeks of induction and 7 levels of OWL
I'm now up to 50 grams of carbs per day and my symptoms have improved but at the same time I'm getting emaciated. I looked myself in the mirror and didn't like what I saw. As a baby faced guy of 20 with a face (I'm told) which reflects my inner positive, joyfull and playful attitude, I was shocked to see I have now gaunt cheeks, sulken eyes, an angular and tough/sad looking face and I look older as well.

I'm not sure why my face is getting so drawn and flat compared to the rest of the body. My BMI is 19 and I have a small teen like frame.

I'm really torn between stopping the weight loss which is making me emaciated (and I'm sure there's some muscle loss there too) and not going back to the energy roller coaster I used to suffer from.
I don't want to ruin all the work I have done so far but I can't really lose anymore.

Your opinion?

[CindyCRNA]

First, how tall are you and what do you weigh?

[Motorama]

Originally Posted by CindyCRNA

First, how tall are you and what do you weigh?

I'm 5.8 and 125 pounds

[Sharis]

It sounds like you are too thin so call goal, start upping your carbs to find your correct level to maintain your weight and work on continuing that as a lifestyle. You may want to put on a few pounds. A BMI of 19 is very thin IMO. You certainly seem unhappy with how you look and that should not be.

You never have to go back to your life before. Just work on finding where your body seems level and happy and you feel you are looking a bit better. Take your time and just play around a bit until you find the place where you and your body are happy.

[Motorama]

Thanks for your reply
I want to avoid carbs that have an high impact on my blood sugar and could trigger the sugar swings again. Big triggers for me were bananas, rice, honey, bread and even oats. What low impact carbs you suggest to add back to increase my carb intake? How many carbs from my base of 50 grams should I add to experiment with stopping my weight loss and maybe adding a pound to my frame?

[peanutte]

I'm 5.8 and 125 pounds

Adding a pound? At that height and weight, for a guy, you are VERY thin. A woman at that weight would be extremely skinny and guys have generally more muscle than women do.

You may wish to start trying more calories along with cautiously adding carbs. How many calories do you eat a day, and how much do you exercise?

I'm just baffled as to how you did not notice it was getting to this point?

What about lifting weights and eating more protein? I have no basis for asking that--I'm just grasping at straws.

[Motorama]

Originally Posted by peanutte

Adding a pound? At that height and weight, for a guy, you are VERY thin. A woman at that weight would be extremely skinny and guys have generally more muscle than women do.

I guess I am what they call an ectomorph, I don't have more muscle than the average girl and my wrist circumference is smaller than my mother's.

You may wish to start trying more calories along with cautiously adding carbs. How many calories do you eat a day, and how much do you exercise?

I have no idea how many calories I eat daily, I never counted them as the book said it was not necessary. I'm not exercising much I have to admit, exercising tires me so I just walk daily and play randomly with my basketball outside of the car box trying to hit the beasket.

I'm just baffled as to how you did not notice it was getting to this point?

It didn't happen gradually.
I was feeling better and losing extra fat in my abdomen and looking okay. Then I had a woosh and after few days I saw I was getting emaciated.

What about lifting weights and eating more protein? I have no basis for asking that--I'm just grasping at straws.

Will extra proteins turn to glucose? I'm really afraid of the sugar swings I used to suffer from and I need to be cautious to prevent them from hitting me again.

Thanks for your support

[peanutte]

If you feel that this happened rather suddenly, you might be dehydrated.

Can you post a few typical daily menus for us?

If you're concerned about blood sugar, then maybe adding more of the very lowest-carb vegetables will help. You're correct about eating too much protein, but since I don't know how much protein you are currently eating, I don't know if you have room to add more.

You might want to think about using Fitday or a similar site to track your food so that you really KNOW what you are eating, and we can better advise you if we have concrete information.


I'm sorry that I don't have better answers for you. I hope you figure it out so you can feel great and look a little more like you want to look.

[flourchild]

Originally Posted by Motorama

Thanks for your reply
I want to avoid carbs that have an high impact on my blood sugar and could trigger the sugar swings again.

If I were you, I'd head straight to Maintenance and increase my carbs by at least 20% to start. It's spring; perhaps sweet fruits eaten with fat to slow their impact (like apples with peanut butter) could be an easy way to test your limits. Ezekiel bread made with unsprouted grains might be an option. Try a few nuts - something like cashews, which are higher in carbs. Sweet potatoes. You don't need to try huge servings, and if you combine quality higher-carb choices with fat they are less likely to be a trigger.

Welcome to the boards, take care of yourself and let us know how it goes, okay?

[peanutte]

It's spring; perhaps sweet fruits eaten with fat to slow their impact (like apples with peanut butter) could be an easy way to test your limits. Ezekiel bread made with unsprouted grains might be an option. Try a few nuts - something like cashews, which are higher in carbs. Sweet potatoes. You don't need to try huge servings, and if you combine quality higher-carb choices with fat they are less likely to be a trigger.

I think these are good suggestions, flourchild.

[LoraJR72]

Originally Posted by Motorama

I'm 5.8 and 125 pounds

You are at goal.

[2big4mysize]

if you are at level 7 of OWL then you are justbelow other fruits and grains. try adding abck the foods you already eat in 10 grams a week blocks like 10 more grams of nuts and seeds a day that should add calories to your eating and good for you nutriants too.
and you know you can always add more fat as it has very little blood sugar increasing effects.

So what you eating all day give amounts too please?

[karenann33]

My dh is 5'8" and his ideal weight is 175 so this does seem incredibly thin to me. He weighed 136 when I met him but he was a smoker.

I agree with trying to get more calories in. Extra cheese, nuts, etc.

[vee716]

EAT! MORE!

It doesn't have to be carbs, just eat more calories. Counting calories may be unnecessary according to Atkins, but if you are losing weight and you don't want to, you need to eat more. Don't count calories if you don't want to, but eat more food! And make it higher calorie foods like nuts, fattier meats, cheeses, seeds, that sort of thing.

[Motorama]

Originally Posted by karenann33

My dh is 5'8" and his ideal weight is 175 so this does seem incredibly thin to me. He weighed 136 when I met him but he was a smoker.

Are you sure about this?
175 and 5.8 is a BMI of 27 which is overweght.
I have read the ideal BMI is no more than 22 for females and no more than 21 for males. Officially it is no more than 25 but I've read it is too "kind" of a figure. Maybe your husband has big bones or lot of muscles.
Forgive me, I'm not trying to put your husband down just trying to put my low weight into perspective.

[Motorama]

I'm willing to admit my faults.
I haven't drunk enough water, skipped breakfasts here and there, indulged on the OWL phase with just 10 pounds to lose, not exercised enough, not slept enough.

I'm not too worried. I've witnessed that a BMI of 19 is too little for me. I will aim to a BMI of 21 and see how I look and feel. I will exercise more and will drink more water as I might have got dehydrated. I will sleep more but it's not easy when you have chronic insomnia.

My question is. A person who starts with 20 pounds to lose, what kind of Atkins path should he follow? Skipping induction? Doing induction and switching to pre-maintenance. Or directly maintenance?

I'm afraid of grains. I thought I was fine with them but since I'm on Atkins, any time I try to eat whole grains I get stomach distress and bloatedness. So i would rather find other carb sources.

With adding 10 grams of carbs extra a week, I will be eating 70 grams within two weeks. How will I know wether that's enough for me? Is there someone out there who needs more than 70 grams of carbs, is that possible? What if my unstable blood sugar symptoms strike again at a certain carb intake?

Can you share few maintenance-like low glycemic-impact meal ideas that would be compatible with my needs?

Thanks

[2big4mysize]

when I was hitting the gym 6 days a week I was losing on 115 net grams of carbs and I know several others who did too.

You will know when your weight loss stops that that is your carb level for your current body size and activity level. since you are adding exercise to your current level you may be surprized how many carbs you will be able to eat of the healthy low glycemic type found on the OWL carb ladder.

if your blood sugar becomes unstable at a higher carb count back it down 5 grams and see if it stabilizes there. if so that will be your level as long as you don't increase or decrease your active lifestyle ( that is Dr Atkins terms for exercise and moving around) or add more protein to your eating since protein will also cause blood sugar increases.
Once you find your level you can control your weight gain or drop by lowering or raising your fat intake. Note it doesn't take much fat increase or decrease to shange scales as Dr Atkins talks about them in teaspoons not cups.

About your grains did you try just gluten type like wheat rye and/or barley? if so try some nongluten type of grains and see if youget the bloating and pains. Could be you are gluten intolerant and ahve been your whole life but it was the norm for you so you didn't notice the bloating from it before.

since you are level 7 you already have enough carb choices to make your maintnenace meals from. Since the level one foods are very low carb per unit eatten you will want to have some legumes nuts seeds mixed in with your veggies and fruits. You could also experient with the starchy veggies as part of your new add making 5 grams of those carbs from that list and 5 from your already consumed foods list. sweet potatoes and winter squashes are very nutrtionally dense so a small 5 gram serving would fit right in with your healtheir Atkins eating.

Just divide your foods up so you have some fat some protein and about 1/4th of your carbs at each meal if you eat 3 meals with snacks and then have some fat and carbs as snacks with youyr remaining 1/4th of your carbs. at 60 grams that would be 15 each meal and then 7-8 at your snacks ifyou war a 2 snacker and 5 if you are a 3 snacker.

We don't know what foods you like so it would be hard to tell you what to have. I love southwest flavors so I have eggs with chopped, sausage, peppers, onions smothered with refried beans and cheese and salas or a taco salad with beans cheese veggies salas and a protein source for breakfast some days. other days I have flax/oats hotcakes with yogurt and a fruit spread.

I love creamy spicey soups so as I progressed from induction to goal I added more carb stuff to my pumpkin curry soup and more side items like corn bran muffins or chips.
I did the same for my pepper pot soup too. My gumbo grew from induction legal thickened with okra to be more like traditional gumbo. Same for my pasta sauces.

SO figure out what you have enjoyed eating and then expand on it with a few more bites of carbs until you find your stopping point.

[peanutte]

Hey, how are you doing this week, Motorama?

[quiet_observer]

You don't need carbs to put on weight. You need more calories. You need to do some weight training. Eat about 25% more per meal for a while. Get some vitamins and veggies in there and make some low carb protein smoothies using plain yogurt and protein whey powder (pure, nothing that's been sugared), with splenda and low carb berries for flavoring. And drink water to remove any possibility of dehydration. Make sure to get 8 hours of sleep a night. You will feel tons better.

[TheWitcher]

First off, I just want to say that I think the BMI thing is kind of bull...that thing says everyone is obese. I remember when I was younger and was only 115 pounds I was tearing myself up because the BMI said that I was borderline overweight. I wore a size four!!
A man 5'8" and 175 is not overweight, so please don't become obsessed with the BMI scale. It probably says that Angelina Jolie is overweight.

I will also say that you seem to be dangerously close to becoming obsessed with your weight loss. You're already underweight and you were talking about how you might have to stop the weight loss because you're becoming emaciated. I realize that the internet is not the best place to get to know someone intimately, but based on my own personal experiences it seems like from the tone of your posts that you sorta like the idea of being "emaciated" and I can tell you that that can be a dangerous road that can lead to anorexia.
You lost a lot of weight, you reached your goal and then decided to push past it and you were able to do it. Now you're too thin and maybe you like it. Just don't become addicted to being skinny.

That's my only advice. And congrats on your success. Forget the BMI!

[peanutte]

I realize that the internet is not the best place to get to know someone intimately, but based on my own personal experiences it seems like from the tone of your posts that you sorta like the idea of being "emaciated"

I'm inclined to agree, Witcher.