stall...

[chasemama23]

I can't seem to get out of this stall I'm in. I've made sure my portion sizes aren't too big, Ive drank lots of water and even increased my exercise! I think it comes down to one of the two new foods I introduced into my diet (nuts and flaxseed meal) or maybe both. Has anyone ever experienced a stall from either of these foods? I know I probably shouldn't have entered them both back in at the same time, I got a little ahead of myself. I've decided to cut the flax first and see how that goes. I hope its not the nuts, I so love them!

Edit: I just remembered also that last Saturday I went off plan a little and had a small piece of flourless cake (it still had sugar) for my anniversary. It wasn't really something I had planned on doing, just a moment of weakness. Do you think this could have kicked me out of ketosis and prolonged the stall?

[CurlsNCuffs]

Do you track daily what you eat? Fitday?

Where are you calories? Protein and fat amounts? What do your ratio looks like?

Why modified Atkins? Why not Dr. A's plan?

[chasemama23]

Originally Posted by CurlsNCuffs

Do you track daily what you eat? Fitday?

Where are you calories? Protein and fat amounts? What do your ratio looks like?

Why modified Atkins? Why not Dr. A's plan?

I was tracking what I eat on fitday...perhaps I should go back to it!

I'm pretty sure I don't eat too many calories. I either have an egg cream shake for breakfast or a couple slices of bacon and a scoop of all natural almond butter, lunch I have been having a scoop of chicken salad and a green and tomato salad with ranch dressing (the dressing is one carb), dinner is generally some kind of meat with sauteed veggies and sometimes cheese. I have the occasional cup of coffee or the occasional small glass of diet soda but thats about it.

A few days I have been having flaxseed meal as a breading and I also made a flax muffin one day.

I stopped following atkins because I did not really want to wait to have foods that were considered higher on the owl rungs while other foods that were lower I didn't really care for. I haven't had any trouble with this until now.

[Leo41]

What are you calling a stall? How long?

If you've added foods to your daily menu without subtracting anything, you're also adding calories. For example, I stopped making flax muffins because they added more than 300 cal.

In addition, nuts are very calorie intensive, and it's very easy to overeat nuts without even realizing it.

You probably should do an audit of your menu on FitDay or something to see how it compares to how you were previously eating.

[peanutte]

I stopped following atkins because I did not really want to wait to have foods that were considered higher on the owl rungs while other foods that were lower I didn't really care for.

Hi chase! It's been a while--we used to post together on the Induction forum back in the day, didn't we?

I hate to tell you this, but I think the nuts are the first thing you should try eliminating, just to see if they are the culprit--for the reasons Leo mentioned. I only use nuts as an emergency stopgap measure if I am traveling or in some weird situation where I need easily portable, quick-to-eat low-carb food. They are just too high in calories to fit into my current plan.

Now, as for Atkins and the OWL rungs, you said:

I stopped following atkins because I did not really want to wait to have foods that were considered higher on the owl rungs while other foods that were lower I didn't really care for.

You do not have to eat any of the rungs at all if you don't want those foods. If you're not interested in berries and melon, that's fine. Skip that rung. If you don't care to add more dairy to your daily menu, fine; skip that one. Certainly many people skip the alcohol rung because it's a recreational item, not a nutritional necessity.

So let's say you did want to do the Nuts and Seeds rung (which obviously is a rung that appeals to you). You still need to mind your portions and only have 5 grams worth of carbs from those new foods in order to determine whether it is the food itself OR the level of carbs that is causing a problem. It may well be that you could eat a very small portion of almonds three times a week and it wouldn't have any negative effect. But if you have ten grams worth of flaxseed and almond butter a day (for example), and your weight loss is stalling, then it might be you cannot continue losing weight on the level of carbs you are eating. Does this make sense to you?

I don't know how much a "scoop" of almond butter is. Do you measure it? Once you actually put 2 level Tbsp of almond butter on a little dish and see how small that portion is, you might realize you've been having twice that, easily.

Also, you already know this, but that cake was out of left field. Not a good idea.

[chasemama23]

Originally Posted by peanutte

Hi chase! It's been a while--we used to post together on the Induction forum back in the day, didn't we?.

Hi peanutte, sorry to say that wasn't me, I wish it was though!


I do only have 5 carbs worth of almond butter or nuts a day, I always measure them because I know how easy it is to overdo it on them.

I realize the cake was not a good idea but I firmly believe that the occasional (and I mean very occasional) off plan treat helps me make this a life change and not a diet. Although I do need to be more aware that this will slow my weight loss down and not be mad when it does. I think this had a large part in extending the stall.

[peanutte]

Okay, it's good that you do measure your food. That way you know exactly what you're eating.