20 carbs a day & fat loss

well if someone is on 20 carbs a day
and is losing inches but not weight on the scale
is it fat loss or water loss
how can one tell
have been doing this for 49 days
but now i'm unsure if its water or if it's fat
started at 215 then 211 then 194 then 200
started at 52 waist then yesterday was 47 1/2
so
water loss
or
fat loss

Water loss typically only happens over a span of a week or so...maybe even
less. So, if you're staying LC and still losing weight or inches, then it
is very likely fat loss.

As to why inches by not scale weight -- I can't say for certain. It could be
muscle gain if you are moving more and were inactive before LCing. I've
lost almost 120 lbs and I've never seen inches go down but not scale weight.
However, many people do report such.

marli wrote:
:: well if someone is on 20 carbs a day
:: and is losing inches but not weight on the scale
:: is it fat loss or water loss
:: how can one tell
:: have been doing this for 49 days
:: but now i'm unsure if its water or if it's fat
:: started at 215 then 211 then 194 then 200
:: started at 52 waist then yesterday was 47 1/2
:: so
:: water loss
:: or
:: fat loss

120 that is so great
how long did it take you?
what did you start at?
and how did saggy skin affect you/
sorry that i'm so nosy but it helps my mind to stay focus and know that it is possible to get down to a smaller weight.

marli wrote:
:: 120 that is so great
:: how long did it take you?

I started in October 2001. I'm not in a big hurry as I'm trying to make this
stick.

:: what did you start at?

367 lbs.

:: and how did saggy skin affect you/

Well, it is hard to tell. Right now it is not too bad, but I still have
more weight to lose. Mostly, the skin has strunk to fit me. However, I
still look like a fat guy nekkid

:: sorry that i'm so nosy but it helps my mind to stay focus and know
:: that it is possible to get down to a smaller weight.

Sure thing. The only dumb question is the one not asked.

marli wrote:

well if someone is on 20 carbs a day
and is losing inches but not weight on the scale
is it fat loss or water loss
how can one tell
have been doing this for 49 days
but now i'm unsure if its water or if it's fat
started at 215 then 211 then 194 then 200
started at 52 waist then yesterday was 47 1/2
so
water loss
or
fat loss

You're losing inches. So what's the problem again? If I lost
another belt notch I wouldn't give a bleep if I gained pounds
in the process.

Many folks alternate between the immense but hard to deal
with victory of size and the lessor but easy to measure victory
of pounds. Don't know why. Just don't deny the reality of your
victory. You have lost inches. Say that again to yourself
until it sinks in.

Why have you stayed at 20? You know that on the average loss
is better if you move on to the phase of Atkins that has "weight
loss" in it's name, right? Step out in faith! Phase one worked
great for 14 days, and in the core plan it is supposed to last
14 day. Funny how that works, isn't it? Go a head, move on to
OWL.

so your saying that if i move to owl i would lose faster
weight and or inches
duh i'm alittle confused

marli wrote:

so your saying that if i move to owl i would lose faster
weight and or inches
duh i'm alittle confused

Let's phrase it a different way so it's easier to understand.
Here's what your question really was:

So you're saying that if I *follow the directions*, really
*all of the directions*, it will work better than just
following a *portion* of the directions and ignoring half of
the book?

Yes, that's exactly what I said. The whole plan works better
than any portion of the plan. Converting Atkins into a fad
diet just because you desparately wish that a fad diet would
work better is *extremely* common so you're sure in plenty of
company. "Eat sh*t, a trillion flies can't be wrong" is nonsense
reasoning, though. All the emotional newbies in the world
can't outthink 30 years of objective experience.

When it finally comes down to it, thinking beats feeling but it
is the feeling that makes people Start in the first place. That
gives us quite a conundrum. Newbies automatically want to do
the wrong thing because they are flooded with emotion. So there
are folks several years in who hang around to point newbies to
doing the right thing. Your emotions are pushing you to treat
Atkins like a fad diet, so I'm here to remind you that the real
four phase entire core Atkins process works better than that and
to push you into following the four phases.

Step out in faith! The first 14 days worked great, and phase
one is a 14 day phase. So the rest of the phases will work
great as well.

So many inches lost, what victory.

(Doug Freyburger) wrote in message om...
marli wrote:

well if someone is on 20 carbs a day
and is losing inches but not weight on the scale
is it fat loss or water loss
how can one tell
have been doing this for 49 days
but now i'm unsure if its water or if it's fat
started at 215 then 211 then 194 then 200
started at 52 waist then yesterday was 47 1/2
so
water loss
or
fat loss

You're losing inches. So what's the problem again? If I lost
another belt notch I wouldn't give a bleep if I gained pounds
in the process.

Many folks alternate between the immense but hard to deal
with victory of size and the lessor but easy to measure victory
of pounds. Don't know why. Just don't deny the reality of your
victory. You have lost inches. Say that again to yourself
until it sinks in.

Why have you stayed at 20? You know that on the average loss
is better if you move on to the phase of Atkins that has "weight
loss" in it's name, right? Step out in faith! Phase one worked
great for 14 days, and in the core plan it is supposed to last
14 day. Funny how that works, isn't it? Go a head, move on to
OWL.

Atkins states that in the weight loss phase you add 5 grams of
carbs a week "until you stop losing." I can't speak for the
original poster, but I've been staying below 15 carbs since early
September because when I add more than that I gain weight. If
I gain a pound or two when I hit 20 carbs on a particular day,
how could I lose weight if I eat 25 or 30? (And, no, I'm not
losing inches either).

Seems to me that there are some bodies--like mine--who cannot
really move on to OWL. Perhaps the original poster is the
same....

dragon

"Dragon" wrote in message
om...
Atkins states that in the weight loss phase you add 5 grams of
carbs a week "until you stop losing." I can't speak for the
original poster, but I've been staying below 15 carbs since early
September because when I add more than that I gain weight. If
I gain a pound or two when I hit 20 carbs on a particular day,
how could I lose weight if I eat 25 or 30? (And, no, I'm not
losing inches either).

Seems to me that there are some bodies--like mine--who cannot
really move on to OWL. Perhaps the original poster is the
same....

OWL is about more than just upping the carbs. It's also moving off of
the restricted food list. It makes a difference.

Some people can eat 1500 calories, 35 carbs daily (for instance) so
long as they do not consume any portion thereof in nuts (or dairy or
beef, etc pick one or maybe two)and continue to lose, yet if they add
those foods to their list while not changing anything else, they stop
losing. This is also what OWL is about, and the carb level, while
important, is not the only factor.

revek

Dragon wrote:
Doug Freyburger wrote:

Why have you stayed at 20? You know that on the average loss
is better if you move on to the phase of Atkins that has "weight
loss" in it's name, right? Step out in faith! Phase one worked
great for 14 days, and in the core plan it is supposed to last
14 day. Funny how that works, isn't it? Go a head, move on to
OWL.

Atkins states that in the weight loss phase you add 5 grams of
carbs a week "until you stop losing."

Among doctors, Robert Atkins was a brilliant doctor. Among authors,
Robert Atkins was, uhm, a brilliant doctor. If you select one of
the parts of the book that has the most misunderstood and confusing
wording, and try to do a literal interpretation of his words, you
are toast. Worse, there are a fair number of parts of the book
where his detailed wording are not just confusing from lack of
editorial skill, they are downright contradictory. Attempt to
treat the plan as a huge set of instructions and you will become
gradually more and more bogged down in details. You'll lose the
simplicity of the process.

It works better to attempt to understand the process so you can move
past the confusing parts. Grasp the utter simplicity of the two
halves of the process.

Dr A used "ketosis" and "weight loss" interchangably as if they
meant the same thing on all time scales, but they bluntly mean
different things on most time scales so they are not interchangable.
Remember that he insisted on a monthly time scale by defining a
stall as 4+ weeks in ketosis with neither a new low nor a lost inch.
And then step back and view "the entire book" to see if it was
phased better in another place. Sure enough the 1972 edition is
clear that it is entirely about ketosis. Bingo, when he writes
"weight loss" he means ketosis.

I can't speak for the
original poster, but I've been staying below 15 carbs since early
September because when I add more than that I gain weight. If
I gain a pound or two when I hit 20 carbs on a particular day,
how could I lose weight if I eat 25 or 30? (And, no, I'm not
losing inches either).

Ah, that's your game. Atkins is a fat loss program not a water
loss program. You have assumed that since both water and fat
register on the scale as having pounds, they must be the exact same
thing. Utterly false. Simply put, if you have stayed in ketosis
you have not gained a gram of new fat unless you spent weeks eating
an entire stick of butter daily as a snack. You've been fighting
water retention which is of course as futile as trying to stop the
tide from coming to shore.

But there's yet another reason why Dr A could not have possibly
meant a scale reading with the words "weighty loss". Dr A was
perfectly aware that water is not fat and that his process is a
fat loss one not a water loss one (after Induction with its water
loss, carbs are stored in the liver dissolved in water).

So drop the "weight loss" nonsense. The fact that you use the
scale to track your water swings doezsn't mean you are gaining
"weight". It means you must completely avoid the scale at all
until you have found your CCLL. Do not set foot even once on that
scale until you've spent a week out of ketosis. That way you will
not be able to confuse yourself with meaningless nonsense scale
water swing nonsense that has nonthing to do with fat loss.

Seems to me that there are some bodies--like mine--who cannot
really move on to OWL. Perhaps the original poster is the
same....

As I discussed above you don't have the slightest sign you fit in
that category.