Atkins anyone?

I tried it for two weeks to jump start my fat loss once. I don't reccomend "Atkins", because the guy's missed the point. He's trying to sell the "eat whatever you want", when the scientists he based his research on have been quoted saying he totally misrepresented their findings. They were suggesting "low carb/low fat", "not low carb, but a steak breaded in pork rinds is okay".

The low carb idea works, but you have to watch your fat and cholesterol.

And my experience. After the two weeks was over I switched to my own diet of a bowl of granola with a half cup of Fiber One Extra Fiber for dinner for a week. I think I lost more weight when the fiber cleaned all that meat out of my poop shoot.

Fiber, nature's broom.

My mother had been struggling to control her type II diabetes for five years and was loosing the battle. Her blood sugar levels kept slowly increasing despite diet and exercise and her doctor would have to routinely increase her medications. An interesting side effect of many medications for diabetes is weight gain. With the medications over five years on medication her weight problem only worsened, she went from being about 40 pounds over weight to being 120 pounds overweight.

A year ago she went on the Atkins diet and she is still on the diet. While she has lost only 18 pounds in the first ten months she thinks it is worth staying largely because of her diabetes. Her blood shugar levels stabilized within three days on the diet and over the next two months dropped from an average of 215 a day to 101 a day (a fasting blood sugar level of 100 is considered normal). Mom is off most of her medication and expects to go off ALL her diabetes medication in October. Without the medication she is starting to loose weight and has lost 10 additional pounds in the last 2 months. She pretty much expects to loss more weight after she is off medications.

This spring I found my jeans to be tighter than they should be and went on Atkins. I lost 20 pounds in about six weeks. The diet was easy to follow and after the initial shock of almost no carbs wore off I didn’t suffer in the least. Interestingly enough I had no constipation troubles like some people report.

I don’t think it is for everyone however. I don’t think there is a one size fits all diet and you need to do what works for you. I have three co-workers who do weight watchers. And they are all happy with the program and loosing weight. Do what works.

My sister is on Atkins right now and has lost a lot of weight, she still has some more to go. She was also having problems with all the fat, it was stessing her gall bladder or something. She cut out a lot of meat, and I guess that helped.

I was going to attempt it because it is an EXTREEMLY effective diet but it is also very difficult. Its not a temporary thing that you lose your weight and thats it you hjave to follow the diet all your life meaning that all you life you need to be counting your carbs to make sure you dont go over your limit in carbs, this may not sound THAT bad but consider how many carbs you have in an average day and imagine never being able to eat a bagle or something for the rest of your life...I couldnt handle that... If it is effective, yes, is it easy to maintain, no.

My dad and I went on the diet about 6 months ago.....it was easier for my dad because he works, but while he was there lifting walls and walking, driving fork lifts, etc. I was at school where the main staple of diet is pizza, fries, chips, soda, etc. I lost about 10 pounds but struggled in my 3-4 weeks on it..but I stopped. It was just too hard being at school and fighting temptation...my dad stayed faithful though and I must report that I have never seen him so skinny in my life....he says he hasn't been this thin since '79 so that's saying something....over 30 pounds and going. It gets alot easier if you stick with the initial 20g of carbs a day for the first couple weeks..then you slowly add more carbs, about 20 a day every couple of weeks....you can eat a bagel if you stick on the diet for I'd say 6-8 weeks. And the thing with this diet is if you're gonna do it you have to stick with it...you can't have a cheeseburger and all this meat, cheese and eggs one day and then totally binge on potato chips and fries or whatever the next day. You'll just gain weight. Truth be told, I don't know how overweight I am, alls I know is that I need to lose weight. I'm 5'8" and I heard that women 5' tall should weigh about 100 pounds....you add ten pounds for every inch after that, but I could be mistaken. Anyways I need prayer....I need motivation, patience, strength and support for my weight loss...any advice would really help. Being fit is great....but having something to show for it is what I want. If I can be a healthy 190 instead of a flabby and unfit 180 than I'd be happy. Being overweight is something I've struggled with my whole life and I'm at a point where food is starting to take a hold of me. It's a huge struggle right now for me and I'll admit that I need help with it.

Heh......do you have the book? Cause there's a healthy and unhealthy way to do the Atkins...if you're pounding on cheeseburgers and then adding fruit (has alot of natural sugars.....mind you it still turns into glucose in the end) it may not be a good idea. If you're going to modify Atkins, I'd stick with lean protein (chicken, fish, turkey, etc.) and work in those fruits in if you really want them. Just an opinion though, I'm starting my own diet (not tonight though...I just had pizza ) But I'm kicking it off with a nice long hike tomorrow with plenty of water and maybe a salad for lunch.

Hey, sr. scholls, can I PM you? This is DOTF 777.

I tried to go no carb once and I lasted 1 day. I felt like I was dying. In my opinion any diet that says you cant eat an apple can not be healthy.
However I do have a friend who was on it and she lost a lot of weight, a low carb diet is just not for me...

amie said:

I tried to go no carb once and I lasted 1 day. I felt like I was dying. In my opinion any diet that says you cant eat an apple can not be healthy.
However I do have a friend who was on it and she lost a lot of weight, a low carb diet is just not for me...

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How about a Dr. Oetker diet?

Oetker...I know that name from somewhere but I cant place it...
ghaaaaaaaa!!!

Diet works if your calorie intake is less than your energy ouput. There!

I am on my own diet... It's a low carb diet (Because my intake was a LOT of carbs on a daily basis) but it's not a 20g carbs per day! (With that about all you can eat is eggs, chicken and 3 cups of lettuce a day...

rantcliff said:

Anyone here tried the Atkins diet?

Successful?

Painful?

Dangerous?

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Hi there!

I have been on some form of "low carb" diet for years because I am a hypoglycemic. I rarely eat bread, rice, noodles, potatoes, fruits, juices, etc... and there have no problems.

Normally, on any low carb diet, the blood pressure will be lower, the triglycerides will be normal, and the "good" cholesterol will balance out the higher points you will have from "bad" cholesterol because of the higher intake of protein.


Of course, better than the atkins diet is using a low fat, low carb diet whereas there is little consumption of red meats with a focus on poultry and fish and green vegetables.

Sometimes, when on a low carb diet, the energy level gets too high, and sleep is hard to attain.... that's when you need to add carbs just before bedtime to put you to sleep.


If you have any specific questions... ask




~malaka~

rantcliff said:

OK, I'm learing. (thanks Dr. Scholls)

There is fruit and there is fruit . There are vegetables and there are vegetables .

I am transitioning from my modified Atkins to a real Atkins because I started reading the information on the amount of carbs in the fruits (and fruit drink) I was adding and realized I was completely blowing the whole low carb premise .

I have been on the diet for for four days and have lost zero (and gained zero). I had added consistent excercise to my routine which probably balanced out the bad modification I was making.

I must also say that I have been very full, so we'll see if that changes without the bad fruits and veggies (I still will have good fruits and veggies).

Thhhhats all folks.

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YOu do know that you can subtract all the fiber grams off the carbs when you are counting carbs????

There's a lot of foods you may eat on a low carb diet...


Fruits: melons, berries, plums and apples (because they are high fiber) and tomatoes (yes, they are a fruit)

Vegetables: everything green except peas.... beans and legumes because they are high in fiber... and especially soy.


You can eat as much as you want of popcorn, pork rinds, macadamea nuts (sp), and desserts made with cream cheese and sweetener (cheesecake)


Now... atkins will tell you ... no popcorn... but that isn't necessarily true... the fiber in popcorn is so high that the carbohydrate consumption is slowed to a crawl ....


Questions?

~malaka~

I'm on Atkins (week 2) - I was on it for most of last year but got tired of it after awhile because it's hard to keep up as a vegetarian. It IS possible, but difficult. It is very effective though.

I have used two modified versions of the low carb diet, the targeted ketogenic diet (TKD), where small amounts of carbs are consumed pre- and/or post-workout to provide energy for training and promote muscular recovery, and the cyclical ketogenic diet (CKD), where the muscles are specifically glycogen depleted, then replenished over a very short period of time.

Both modifications of the low carb diet require greater attention to detail than the traditional ketogenic diet. And the CKD is not for the faint of heart, as the regimen is quite brutal. For those of you who have done the Atkins induction phaes, imagine forcing yourself through this every week in as little time as possible.