Mjgh06's Journal, 04 November 2013

What is pickled sausage? Is it possibly causing water gain? For me - it is counterintuitive that eating too little causes weight gain or stalls. But as you said, the Atkins site and other weight loss sites say this is the case. Maybe it is more prominent when you eat 11oo cals one day and 550 the next. Maybe that fluctuation causes the body to hold to the weight or water. I don't know the answer but that seems to be it for me. I love the weight loss shows. I like extreme weight loss possibly the best. In one episode, the person got so obsessed with hitting the goals that he (I think it was a man) stopped eating almost and they had to have an intervention. They ended up changing the goal to eating a specific number of calories and getting a specific amount of expercise and allowed no weighing. The person actually met the unwritten goal because he was not starving himself. My point is - it seems that everything says that you have to eat enough or your body will revolt. Also - every outlet that I have ever seen will tell you to weigh at the same time when you weigh because the scale can fluctuate up to 2 pounds in a day. 2 POUNDS A DAY!!!! Obviously the scale is measuring something that you don't intend to measure. Many of the fine folks here on this site will tell you that the scale is the devil and you should stay away from it. I totally agree with that. I use it as a tool to know that I am on track. It depresses me and causes me to need to eat for comfort. I am an ugly mess of a person every time I weigh (Sunday is the day for me). If I don't lose I am upset and need to eat because I am depressed. If I lose a little I am angry because I did not lose more and need to eat for comfort. If I lose a lot I am really happy but need to eat to celebrate. it is best to not have my mood and need to eat stimulated by the darn scale so I do my best to stay away from it. Atkins folks will tell you that the ketostix are no longer recommended because they were simply not accurate. I can be in ketosis and gain weight. Much of the problem has to do with hydration I am told. I can't say for certain. I like them but because they did not seem to be a real indication of if I would gain or lose - I stopped using them. I realize I have not really helped because I don't think there is an answer. Just remember - when you are eating your meals every day - this is a lifestyle change. you can never go back to eating normal. Can you survive on 700 calories a day for the rest of your life? Is it going to be something that you can do and be happy with? It is much better to find a reasonable meal plan and lose the weight slowly. If you don't, and if you obsess over the scale, you will just put the weight back on.  

alex, I obsess over everything...lol really I do. But it is more of a I got to figure this out and pinpoint the why, when, how, where, etc. I have read so many different viewpoints on all of this that to me anything can be right. You just have to figure out the right for you. If that makes sense. The scale is just another way to help me figure things out. I wasn't weighing but once a week. But I got to thinking (bad, bad, bad) and wanted to track more to see if I could pinpoint my optimal performance measures so to speak. So I started weighing - same time, same clothes, same scale - every day. Then when I seen the big fluctuate this morning, that's when I said okay let's see what it does all day. I don't see it as the devil but I do see it as a conundrum. Why the fluctuations if there is no outside changes including BM? The only thing I got from it today was intake/loss of fluids throughout the day. Something I may delve into more later. I definitely do not have an issue with eating to much. When I first started fasting came natural as I have absolutely no appetite. I ate as much as I could force down one day and didn't eat the next because I was still so over-engorged from eating the day before that I needed the break. Now I have been forcing myself to eat on the day I used to fast because I allowed everyone to convince me fasting like I was was bad. So to me yes, it could be that I am eating the additional 500 or so calories on a day after I eat for me high calories. As for the ketosticks, I know they can be misread when you are dehydrated. But if you are taking in plenty of fluids and th esame amount daily, they should be able to be used as a more accurate guide of ketones and burning fat. At least that is how I see it. I am one that always stays between 14x8 to 16x8 water daily. So I see them as useful for me. As long as I am burning fat - in ketosis, the weight will drop. As a matter of when is what I am currently trying to determine. What makes the weight for me come off quick or slow if variables are the same? Or in my case what is the exact variable difference causing the change? I can most definitely survive on what I have been consuming, and much less for that matter. I have for years on a 500cal day diet, gained as I was doing it as well. I know I defy odds. I was hoping with this week's trial that I would be able to prove increasing my calories (not fasting) would encourage more weight loss, but I seem to be proving the opposite imo. Maybe next week I will try keeping calories as close to the same each day and see what that does. I really am not looking at this as I must lose weight, but more of a research project on myself and how my body reacts. 

Oh yeah - the pickled sausage is just like anything else pickled - eggs, okra, etc. It is something recently I started eating because it had no carbs, no sugar to try to up my protein/fat. I will not eat that anymore this week and see what happens. From all the Atkins books and ketosis books I have read it usually takes 72 hours for your body to react to what it has eaten/drank. That is why when so many people cheat on the weekend, they don't see the gain until Monday-Wednesday. AHAHA moment, let me look back 72 hours from my gain...duh.  

okay 72 hour from this morning - I had McDonald's cheeseburger, a polish sausage from the Auction. Then at the 48-60 hour mark, I had another McDonald's cheeseburger and the pickled sausage. I didn't eat th ebread just burger and cheese but that could have done it! I hadn't eaten fast food since I started. 

Salt could be the culprit. But just remember - our bodies are living organisms. They are scientific miracles not eact machines. What works this week may not work next week due to a multitude of factors. Understanding the exact how and why for your body is likely not possible. You should certainly do what works for you. You know your body best.