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I am thinking I need to eat less cheese. I think I thought I could eat more than I can. I haven't been counting calories lately, since I went on low carb thing. Basically, it's been steak and eggs for breakfast (say .4 -.5 pounds meat and two eggs), a cup of greens, 4-6 oz chicken and maybe 3 tbsp grated cheese for lunch, and maybe 1 lb of meat for supper, with say another oz or two of cheese, and maybe a 1/4 cup of low carb tomato sauce.

I am 5' 11", 177-179 pounds. My daily routine consists of 50-100 pushups in the morning, plus 25-50 crunches. At lunchtime I go to the gym and do 25-35 minutes cardio on the bike, then another 100-200 crunches in sets of 25.

I drink maybe 4-5 1pt 8 oz bottles of water a day (that's like the medium sized bottle.) I have one cup of coffee in the morning and maybe 2-3 cans diet coke at night.

And I have sugar free jello with redi whip for dessert. Maybe a full cup of redi whip--yeah, that's the other culprit, methinks.

Any advice? before all this I was drinking slim fast shakes and eating buckets of salad every night. the slim fast approach got me from 228 to 173. Atkins is like something new to try because I have stalled out at high 170's. I think I am not doing a rigorous enough job of induction. Looking at it, I think I need to cut back cheese and rediwhip.

Two things.. Not enough water. 64 ounces at the least. Cut out the Diet Coke. Caffeine is bad for you because it prevents weight loss.

Get rid of the Redi-Whip. It has sugar in it. Use Cool Whip. (The folks at Atkin says it makes a difference)

The slim fast and salad approach will enable you to lose weight, but most likely you lost a significant amount of muscle at the same time. The human body doesn't seem to prefer losing one over the other, unless you are causing muscle growth through weight training and high protein diet as you attempt to lose weight.

Considering the fact that you are well below the danger zone in your weight, I'd let the mirror be your judge. What fat to muscle ratio are you happy with?

If feasible, I'd increase the resistance training significantly. That many pushups and situps are good, but to build real muscle you'll need to decrease the reps and increase the intensity. Instead of push-ups, try bench press or dips. Add in some leg exercises - lunges or squats. Be sure and do pull-ups for your back and biceps. Keep the cardiovascular work going.

It may be that you don't need to weigh 170 to be happy with how you look.

Keep your protein intake at about .8 to 1 gram per pound of bodyweight. No less than 140-150 grams per day. Keep the carbs low, and get them from vegetables as you are doing.

If you are doing induction you really need to do it properly. Either you have not read the book or you have chosen to bypass some of the rules, I can tell by what you are eating. If you can't get to a bookstore, I urge you to go to the link posted below to get the "skinny" (pun intended) on how to follow the rules of induction. I have been on induction for nearly two weeks following these rules with great results.

Induction Rules

Any advice?

Cut down on the cheese, as it averages about 1 carb an ounce. Use it as a condiment - sparingly.

Rediwhip - about 1 carb per 2 tablespoons, or about 8 carbs in a cup.

Don't forget - coffee and tea also have carbs - about 1 carb per 10 ounces. Many people forget about that!

Calories do count and eating more than 10-12 calories per pound of body weight (or 12-15 if you're very physically active) may cause a stall in weight loss. Don't cut down too much though - or that can cause a stall, too (starvation mode).

Try this place to plug in your daily consumption, so you can see how many calories/carbs, etc. you've eaten:

FitDay

Maven