Conversion from atkins to w.w.

I have been on the Atkins diet for a while. Lost a good bit of wieght but
decided to try Weight Watchers for a change of pace and more variety. I have
no problems with this diet, as a mater of fact I really like this diet.I
love fruits and eating a couple of grapefruits a day. Here is my delimma. My
points are 28 points a day, Alot of days I have only been eating 22 or 23. I
have never gone over the 28 points. My usual daily eating routine is Oatmeal
in the morning, around 10:00 am I eat a grapefruit. Usually a small Wendy's
Chili at lunch. Then a smartones meal at night with green beans and maybe
some Corn on the cob. Might snack on a bag of popcorn at night and I always
eat a apple right before bed. I love my apple at night. I have gained 2
pounds since I have been on this diet. I really like it but I sure did not
want to gain wieght. Any ideas?
Thanks in advance.

Welcome to the group John. It sounds like you may not be eating enough.
Try eating at least your 28 points and drink your water. I know it sounds
kind of scary, but try it for two or three weeks, it works! If you feel as
though you aren't able to eat any more than you arenow , try adding olive
oil, or nuts to your diet to increase your points to 28. Good luck!

Brenda

"John" wrote in message
...
I have been on the Atkins diet for a while. Lost a good bit of wieght but
decided to try Weight Watchers for a change of pace and more variety. I
have
no problems with this diet, as a mater of fact I really like this diet.I
love fruits and eating a couple of grapefruits a day. Here is my delimma.
My
points are 28 points a day, Alot of days I have only been eating 22 or 23.
I
have never gone over the 28 points. My usual daily eating routine is
Oatmeal
in the morning, around 10:00 am I eat a grapefruit. Usually a small
Wendy's
Chili at lunch. Then a smartones meal at night with green beans and maybe
some Corn on the cob. Might snack on a bag of popcorn at night and I
always
eat a apple right before bed. I love my apple at night. I have gained 2
pounds since I have been on this diet. I really like it but I sure did not
want to gain wieght. Any ideas?
Thanks in advance.

You don't say how long you've been trying WW? Nor how long ago you
may have stopped Atkins.

I am not a nutritionist but theories of Atkins are that a lot of water
weight is lost when the sugar stores in your body are depleted and
when you first start up with carbs/sugars your body might reverse that
process and retain water to store the sugars. So it might take a bit
to balance out those changes.

WW does encourage folks, as Brenda suggests, to eat their minimum
points. Altho, one week of less probably would not kill the entire
diet and you may need to adjust to this new way of eating.

I tried Atkins about 4 years ago. Frankly, I did lose weight on it
but I could not give up fruits mostly and I had no energy to hike.
And what is interesting, is that on WW, I lost weight just as quickly
as Atkins those first weeks.

WW does work. Portion control is an important element.

Good luck

Fred
219.2/160.0/164.0 (Lifetime July 2003)
Started WW: Oct 29, 2002



On Wed, 3 Mar 2004 22:53:06 -0600, "John"
wrote:

I have been on the Atkins diet for a while. Lost a good bit of wieght but
decided to try Weight Watchers for a change of pace and more variety. I have
no problems with this diet, as a mater of fact I really like this diet.I
love fruits and eating a couple of grapefruits a day. Here is my delimma. My
points are 28 points a day, Alot of days I have only been eating 22 or 23. I
have never gone over the 28 points. My usual daily eating routine is Oatmeal
in the morning, around 10:00 am I eat a grapefruit. Usually a small Wendy's
Chili at lunch. Then a smartones meal at night with green beans and maybe
some Corn on the cob. Might snack on a bag of popcorn at night and I always
eat a apple right before bed. I love my apple at night. I have gained 2
pounds since I have been on this diet. I really like it but I sure did not
want to gain wieght. Any ideas?
Thanks in advance.

Welcome to the group, John. I'm hoping our resident expert (Ray, I think???) will
come along and explain things to you - as I know I'm going to botch it all up in
the process. But I'll try anyway (and just confuse the heck out of you). Grin

It is not uncommon when changing from atkins to ww, to at first see an increase in
your weight - actually it is expected. I believe it has something to do with the
ketosis process that the body goes into when on the high protein diet ... sugars
being converted into something, or muscles/body getting rid of extra stores.
Within a few weeks of sticking to the newer plan, you should start seeing a
decrease once again.

Secondly, It sounds to me like you may not be eating enough - especially if you
are also exercising. Believe it or not, you do have to eat to lose weight. If
you consistently eat low, you're body will go into starvation mode - thus hanging
onto every possible ounce it can in an attempt to keep things functioning.
Whenever I got stuck, I went back to review things ... added a bit more *good*
food and after a week or so the declines started up again. Also cutting too far
back on fats can have an adverse effect on weightloss ... another thing I am very
guilty of. Add good fats (olive oils, fishes, etc.) and you may also see more of
a decline. If your usual routine includes that daily wendy's chili and frozen
prepared dinner, chances are your sodium levels are much higher - which will cause
you to retain water, thus upping the scale results. Any way you can get away from
the prepared meals and instead fix yourself fresher meals? The change of pace
will be good for the system.

Like I said, hopefully one of the guys will follow along shortly and give you
better information as to what your body is currently going through. Keep the chin
up though, it is only a temporary increase.

Joyce

On Wed, 3 Mar 2004 22:53:06 -0600, "John" wrote:

I have been on the Atkins diet for a while. Lost a good bit of wieght but
decided to try Weight Watchers for a change of pace and more variety. I have
no problems with this diet, as a mater of fact I really like this diet.I
love fruits and eating a couple of grapefruits a day. Here is my delimma. My
points are 28 points a day, Alot of days I have only been eating 22 or 23. I
have never gone over the 28 points. My usual daily eating routine is Oatmeal
in the morning, around 10:00 am I eat a grapefruit. Usually a small Wendy's
Chili at lunch. Then a smartones meal at night with green beans and maybe
some Corn on the cob. Might snack on a bag of popcorn at night and I always
eat a apple right before bed. I love my apple at night. I have gained 2
pounds since I have been on this diet. I really like it but I sure did not
want to gain wieght. Any ideas?
Thanks in advance.

My oldest girl was on Atkins, started at the same time I started WW. I lost more
weight than she did (actually had more to lose) and reached my goal. She gave up
before reaching her goal, said she got to the point she missed too many foods, and
started having horrible cravings. I won't say one is better than the other, guess
it is finding which program works best for each individual .. on a permanent
basis. I know myself and my daughter, could not follow a lifetime of the Atkins
philosophy.

Joyce

On Wed, 03 Mar 2004 22:17:10 -0800, Fred wrote:

snipped

I tried Atkins about 4 years ago. Frankly, I did lose weight on it
but I could not give up fruits mostly and I had no energy to hike.
And what is interesting, is that on WW, I lost weight just as quickly
as Atkins those first weeks.

WW does work. Portion control is an important element.

Good luck

Fred
219.2/160.0/164.0 (Lifetime July 2003)
Started WW: Oct 29, 2002



On Wed, 3 Mar 2004 22:53:06 -0600, "John"
wrote:

I have been on the Atkins diet for a while. Lost a good bit of wieght but
decided to try Weight Watchers for a change of pace and more variety. I have
no problems with this diet, as a mater of fact I really like this diet.I
love fruits and eating a couple of grapefruits a day. Here is my delimma. My
points are 28 points a day, Alot of days I have only been eating 22 or 23. I
have never gone over the 28 points. My usual daily eating routine is Oatmeal
in the morning, around 10:00 am I eat a grapefruit. Usually a small Wendy's
Chili at lunch. Then a smartones meal at night with green beans and maybe
some Corn on the cob. Might snack on a bag of popcorn at night and I always
eat a apple right before bed. I love my apple at night. I have gained 2
pounds since I have been on this diet. I really like it but I sure did not
want to gain wieght. Any ideas?
Thanks in advance.

first of all, coming from low carb to WW will cause some weight fluctuation.
Second you MUST eat your target to lose, I know, I have trouble eating my
points most days, but it must be done to keep your body out of starvation
mode. Third, WW is not a diet in the traditional sense. It is a way of
eating that you work with until you can live with it for life, Welcome to
the group and best of luck, Lee
John wrote in message
...
I have been on the Atkins diet for a while. Lost a good bit of wieght but
decided to try Weight Watchers for a change of pace and more variety. I
have
no problems with this diet, as a mater of fact I really like this diet.I
love fruits and eating a couple of grapefruits a day. Here is my delimma.
My
points are 28 points a day, Alot of days I have only been eating 22 or 23.
I
have never gone over the 28 points. My usual daily eating routine is
Oatmeal
in the morning, around 10:00 am I eat a grapefruit. Usually a small
Wendy's
Chili at lunch. Then a smartones meal at night with green beans and maybe
some Corn on the cob. Might snack on a bag of popcorn at night and I
always
eat a apple right before bed. I love my apple at night. I have gained 2
pounds since I have been on this diet. I really like it but I sure did not
want to gain wieght. Any ideas?
Thanks in advance.

John wrote:

I have gained 2
pounds since I have been on this diet. I really like it but I sure did not
want to gain wieght. Any ideas?
Thanks in advance.


As mentioned before, that is most likely water retention do to the
return of carbohydrates into your diet.

Keep going for a while and see how your body react.

Cheers
Marc

welcome to the group john
"John" wrote in message
...
I have been on the Atkins diet for a while. Lost a good bit of wieght but
decided to try Weight Watchers for a change of pace and more variety. I
have
no problems with this diet, as a mater of fact I really like this diet.I
love fruits and eating a couple of grapefruits a day. Here is my delimma.
My
points are 28 points a day, Alot of days I have only been eating 22 or 23.
I
have never gone over the 28 points. My usual daily eating routine is
Oatmeal
in the morning, around 10:00 am I eat a grapefruit. Usually a small
Wendy's
Chili at lunch. Then a smartones meal at night with green beans and maybe
some Corn on the cob. Might snack on a bag of popcorn at night and I
always
eat a apple right before bed. I love my apple at night. I have gained 2
pounds since I have been on this diet. I really like it but I sure did not
want to gain wieght. Any ideas?
Thanks in advance.




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On Thu, 04 Mar 2004 00:46:47 -0600, Joyce wrote:

It is not uncommon when changing from atkins to ww, to at first see an increase in
your weight - actually it is expected. I believe it has something to do with the
ketosis process that the body goes into when on the high protein diet ... sugars
being converted into something, or muscles/body getting rid of extra stores.
Within a few weeks of sticking to the newer plan, you should start seeing a
decrease once again.

Hehe. I'm no expert but I do like to research things. If you want to
know all about this stuff google for "lyle Mcdonald ud2" The UD2 diet
is a cyclic ketogenic diet that is extremely complicated but very
effective.

When you do Atkins the body goes into ketosis. One important aspect of
this is that the glycogen in the muscles is depleted. Glycogen is
associated with a lot of water, so you lose up to about 10 pounds of
water (and glycogen) in the first fortnight.
Unfortunately when you come off atkins and start eating carbs again
the glycogen is immediately restored along with the water, and you put
on a good few pounds in a few days. This makes it seem like atkins is
really good and ww is really bad. Interestingly this lack of glycogen
is why Fred found that he didn't have energy for hiking.

As others have said, you should eat your points. There are some good
ways to add a few calories without hassle. Add olive oil to your
cooking or if you want to go the whole 10 yards eat peanut butter
sandwiches!

Ray
--
rmnsuk
273/202/182

Thanks to everyone that answered my post. I lost a ton of wieght on Atkins,
but I just am so tired of it. I don't think Atkins would be as freindly as
far as maintenance. I don't even feel I am on a diet now. I can eat so many
more things than I could on Atkins. I love fruit and missed it so much. I
was eating very little on atkins and guess I got use to not taking in much.
Thanks again to everyone that took the time to answer.