[airspirit]

Hold on there, Tex: it is NORMAL to lose in big drops. You will NOT dip into your muscle weight at all. If you don't believe me, here is the reason:

When in a glucose metabolism, your body requires your blood sugar to maintain a certain level or it will begin breaking down muscle protien through glucogenesis to raise the blood sugar level. Why normal dieting causes muscle loss is that when you begin to starve yourself (well, that IS what you are doing) your body goes into a starvation mode, causing even more pronounced insulin releases after meals to trap as much sugar into fat as it can. This causes your blood sugar to plummet and your body will start furiously breaking down muscle mass to compensate.

When in a fat metabolism, your body uses very little glucose, and therefore your blood sugar stays normal. Since no significant amounts of sugar is introduced into your system, your body never releases significant amounts of insulin, so your body never goes into "emergency glucogenesis". The energy that 95% of your body is burning is strictly based off ketosis, and uses no glucose/protien at all. The small amount of glucose your brain requires to function is derived from the small amounts of carbs you eat along with extremely minor glucogenesis that is easily replaced through normal body functions. Typically, even with the most drastic weight loss on a low carb diet, there is absolutely no muscle mass loss.

Don't worry about losing muscle mass. There is no way your body is going to start glucogenesis.

Just to give you an idea, I'd sometimes do the same thing at first ... I'd stay within .2 lbs for a few days and then drop three pounds. To risk sounding a bit gross, it could have something to do with food retention ... you sure you're getting enough fiber? It takes a few days to get rid of everything ....

The above is why many people take additional fiber and/or CLA (conjugated lipoic acid), which seems to cause quicker size loss of the midsection. I suspect that CLA isn't really a fat loss agent, but is a form of diuretic, accounting for the smaller waistline while you take it. Just a thought. I would not recommend CLA, however, as it has some rather nasty side affects in a small portion of people, and there are a couple extremely tenuous links to cancer.

Oh, and yes: coffee is a pretty efficient diuretic as well (as is smoking). Combine that with the sudden drop in fiber, if you were a heavy coffee drinker before you are probably as backed up as all hell. That would explain the strange weight figures. Some of the weight a smoker gains when they quit is weight from food because they aren't getting rid of it as quick ... when the conveyer belt slows down you get a bit heavier. Don't get discouraged. If necessary, get some psyllium husk pills, or even better, find some low carb tortillas. They typically have like 20g of fiber per tortilla, so have a third of one per meal and you'll be all set. That would add 6g carbs per day, but would be worth it in results.