South Beach Diet Phase 1....ready to give up. Help please!

I AM SO FRUSTRATED. I just finished week 1 of Phase 1 of the program, weighed myself...and lost a measily 2 lbs. TWO POUNDS. I have followed this diet pretty much to the letter and am ready to give up.

Two things:

1)I have a horrible cold this week and have either been at work or in bed and thus unable to exercise.

2) I have been perpetually nauseous since starting phase 1. It's at the point where the thought of eating another egg, piece of chicken, or piece of cheese makes my stomach turn. I force myself to eat, then feel sick to my stomach after. Pre-south beach I had my morning oatmeal every day and really looked forward to it...now I wake up in the morning ready to vomit (no, I am not pregnant).

My story is that I hit my goal weight over the summer when I was studying for the bar exam. During that time I did not exercise, drank buckets of coffee, and ate fast food (albeit healthy fast food, no french fries or milk shakes or anything like that). Since the summer my weight has steadily crept up from 123 to 132 and I am literally at my wits end. Every trip to the scale is filled with fear and trepidation.

I exercise at least 3-5 times a week, keep a diligent food journal, but unfortunately have a desk job. I try to take the stairs every where, park far away so I can walk, etc. The SBD was my last ditch, "enough is enough", effort to get down to 125. Needless to say I am disenchanted...I know that once I move on to Phase 2 the weight will come right back on and that I am pretty much destined to never be my goal weight and struggle for the rest of my life to manage my weight.

I am so sorry for the long post but I am really at the end of my rope here.  Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Jane

You could always ditch the South Beach Diet and start calorie counting. I think you would feel much more comfortable, and you could have your oatmeal. Unless your doing low-carb for some health reason, you can lose weigh and eat carbs.

And did you say you've been doing this for 1 week? 2 pounds is an excellent weight loss for 1 week. The healthy range is 1-2 pounds. Some people who lose a pound per would would kill for 2, so be proud of yourself.

How are you cravings doing at this point?  If your cravings are under control, which is the point of Phase 1, why don't you go to Phase 2 where you can have your oatmeal for breakfast?

I know that on South Beach you aren't supposed to count your calories, but if I were you, I'd log my calories here.  Then you can see if you're eating too much to lose.  If you lost 2 pounds, you're probably fine though.

I know that the book says you'll lose 8-13 pounds doing Phase 1.  However, having only 7 pounds to lose means that does not apply to you... it's for those of us who have a lot more to lose.  I am in phase 1 and lost 5 in the first 3 days.... but I have 40 pounds to lose: that's 12% of what I need to lose.  2 pounds for you is 28% of the way to your goal.  In 1 week, you are 28% of the way to your goal!  I think you're well on track.

All phases aside, you've been journaling.  What's your deficit?  For the weight lost it sounds like you're at the cc recommended upper limit of about 1000 calories per day.

Thanks for the support, guys.

Mars_0112, Pre-SBD, I was a dilligent calorie counter and logged everything I ate. The plus side to the SBD is that I am always satiated. When my diet was 50% carbs, though I never ate sugar or white bread or pasta, I was always ravenous by the end of the day. Trying SB was just a way to shake my body out of this weight gain/plateau.

Swirlything, My cravings are definitly under control, though when i am sick (as I am right now) I tend to yearn for things like ice cream and oatmeal. However, I am not craving these things, I just feel sick to my stomach and am having a hard time looking forward to my next high-protein meal. You're right, since I have about 7 lbs to lose, i shouldn't complain about 2. I might have to start Phase II soon, since I really dont feel well and can't stomach any more meat. My fear is that the moment I eat taht oatmeal...BAM! Two pounds right back on. But I guess if I am not feeling well I have no choice.

Thhq, this week I have not worked out at all since I have been battling a terrible bug. I've eaten between 1200-1400 a day since starting. If I ahd been exercising, that would probably have amounted to a 500-700 calorie deficit, depending on the intensity of my workout. However, since I have not exercised, we're looking at a 200-400 calorie deficit.

You need to remember that you need a 500 calorie per day deficit to lose 1 pound per week.  So 2 pounds is actually pretty good with what you're doing.

Just make sure that when you add the oatmeal, that it isn't the instant or quick type.

i think what is likely bothering jetlee (and correct me if i'm wrong), is that phase 1 of south beach usually results in way higher than average weight loss.  for example, i lost a pound a day for the first 7 days. 

but then i also went a little nuts and bailed on the diet. 

jetlee, maybe south beach isn't for you?  if you took your old diet and incorporated a bit more protein, you'd likely be satiated like you are presently, without feeling like vomit everytime you think of the current south beach breakfasts.  i don't tend to agree with most things containing the word "diet" in them for that matter.  just a thought...

Yes, but that 'higher than average' weight loss is usually a drop in water weight because the person has cut out a lot of sugary salty crap from their diet.  If jetlee had a relatively healthy diet before starting South Beach and is only 7 pounds away from her goal weight, she's likely not carrying so much extra water.  It's not all that surprising she didn't see the huge drop - but it's a good thing; it means she was eating healthy before.

And I tend to agree with your advice.  Not everyone is cut out for a low-carb diet.  There's a really good thread in this forum on different metabolic types.  Some of us actually do best on a good-carb-rich diet (lots of veggies, fruit and whole grains).

You must remember your body is been "sick". Been ill does weird things to your metabolism.   I'd say you should be consulting medical texts to see if you are perfectly normal for a "sick" person before been upset about a 2lb loss.  to loose only 2 lb when your body is desperately tyring to retain body reserves while fighting your "illness", I would say is a perfectly logical thing for your body to do.   (one silver lining- if you are sick like that again and seem to loose weight be suspicious your body is acting weird and you illness may be more than "flu").  where your weight is near "normal" it is possible your body KNOWS it does not have excess reserves of fat to use to fight your illness and may be trying to retain as much of the food you are eating as body stores. Why do you think "fat" people recover from an illness better- they have body reserves that can be used by the body when their "illness" is disrupting their digestion and metabolism. They can afford not to eat  so as to keep down the nausea and let them do their regular "work" with  a better spirit. (work may be nothing more than been abed letting their body fight the "flu"quickly)  Myself I'd say if you are nauseated, do not eat - your body is telling you its not happy about "food" during the course of this short illness. Just have nourishing liquids your stomach can tolerate, maybe get a supply of good pro-biotic yogurt ( kifer is considered excellent)  to help your digestive system recover faster once you stop been nauseated.   Diets for losing weight are usually designed for healthy people - you cannot expect them to work the same for unhealthy or chronically ill people.

looks like once you finish with Law exams, you should start educating yourself in biology. It is appalling to think anyone smart enough to write law exams be so deficient in medical knowledge that you do not immediately suspect your "flu" is interfering with your weight loss program. Look up the physiology of the body when confronted with stomach upsetting diseases like cholera, etc. Diabetes, chronic bowl syndrome and chemotherapy will give you insights on how differently your digestive system respond to illness.  Just like Dr and lawyers seem to know little about investing or car mechanics, lawyers seem to be clueless about Biology- from recent news reports- Bill Clinton seems to be clueless embryos are a result of fertilization, and Barak Obama seems clueless what the term "clone" implies when he babbled about not allowing cloning when signing a bill to open up stem cell research( the whole point of stem cells is to figure out a way to "clone"-in other words copy an organ as compared to true cloning which copys an animals DNA to the point a that Dolly the sheep is born - the first known cloned animal (mammal)). Both presidents are lawyers and obviously never took (or rememberd anything from) high school bilogy.  (excuse the rant- Obama reminds me of my-know- it- all- I'm-always- right older brother and mother who thinks her precious oldest son is "perfect".  All Obama had to do talk to a medicaly knowlagable high shool bilogy student before displaying his crass ignorance of basic biology to the world. It is scary to think such an ignoramus is reforming Health care - I do hope he consults people with more medical knowlege than the biology he knows.  How can anyone so ignorant (obviously he is no polymath) make sense of line by line approval  of bills he signs)

Does that mean that you are upset that you only lost 2 pounds in a week even though you've been sick?  Jetlee, 2 lbs. a week is a good thing.  In fact, in most cases more than 2.5 lbs. a week is a bad thing; it indicates muscle loss. 

I'm more concerned with you feeling sick on the South Beach Diet.  I'm going to recommend a book that really helped me: "The Metabolic Typing Diet" by William Wolcott and Trish Fahey.

And here's some information on metabolic typing:
http://altmedicine.about.com/od/popularhealth diets/a/MetabolicType.htm

2 pounds a week is considered optimal, so you did really well.  The standard reccomendation for safe weight loss is 1/2 to 2 pounds a week.  That's backed up by most experts on diet and nutrition. 

Thanks for writing everyone.

It does seem rather crazy that I was following SB during a flu bug. The struggle to manage my weight has been all consuming for a long time and it never relents. This is obviously  a deeper issue that I have to deal with. The immediate issue at hand for me is finding a safe, manageable way to get down to my GW and then maintain it. Given my reaction, it might not be for me.

The metabolic typing diet looks interesting. "Carbo type" describes me perfectly...does this mean I can eat carbs again ;)?

I really do need to figure out a way to come to grips with my weight-I understand that people often fluctuate between 5-10 lbs but getting down to 125 has become my obsession. I feel like I will not be satisfied until I hit that number.

I happen to have the similar hazy, less than thrilled with options on phase one. I have lost 1-2 lbs the first week. I workout 3-5 times a week. Frankly i could probably do this on calorie restriction, but i use phase 1 to jump start myself.
EG. the last 2 days i have worked out for 45-70 minutes lifting, biking, running.  Today i feel like total ****. Headache, spacey, stomach knotty. I call call it the low carb blues. Phase 2 is a better feeling for sure.

I think good carbs (non white in small portions) are your answer on calorie restriction and more resistance training. I am doing a 25 minute routine at the gym and i have lost waist sizes, can see my waist stomach flattening and my claves thighs starting to rip. PM me if you want a copy, its really basic but it works and you can do it every day if you want.

But guess what, the number has not gone down, but i look way better. I actually am getting the second looks from ladies, and my wife is commenting as well.

i have desk job and sit around a fair bit like anyone else....

Seriously?! Two pounds is great! I did SBD after my son was born, and in phase 1, I lost no weight the first week, and almost 5 pounds the second. After 3 months I had lost almost 50 pounds, and felt great.

That being said though, you should reevaluate your decision if it is making you physically ill. I was miserable during phase 1, but like cranky miserable (carbaholic here).

I love SBD and recommend it to all my gfs for a diet jumpstart. It does help you reevaluate the types of foods you eat.

I wish you better luck the second week if you stick with it.

I have to say yesterday was shocking, headache etc.....50#s thats is so good....can you tell me if you exercised? and what carbs did you eat, and finally any suplements, vitamins?