The Atkins Diet

Off-topic
1

I’m not hugely overweight, but I am definitely overweight, so I’m going to try the Atkins Diet for a while. I’ll decide later whether I want to stick with it. It looks like a great way, when combined with physical activity, to quickly lose excess pounds.

I’m surprised there’s really no mention of Atkins here, since we talk about just about every imaginable topic (including some topics that are so hard to imagine that only Billy can think of them). I guess there aren’t a lot of overweight unicyclists? Or maybe people feel inhibited talking about weight issues on a forum populated with skinny, athletic people?

Has anyone had any experience with Atkins? Success? Failure? Did you stick with it? Did you feel good on it? Did your energy level increase when you cut out all the processed foods? [edit: and what did you eat?]

Since I’ve done my fair share of bashing the vegetarians, I invite criticism from all!

While I haven’t yet researched enough to become convinced of the long-term benefits of Atkins, I do however advocate a high-fat diet, staying away from polyunsaturated vegetable oils and of course trans fat. I eat plenty of butter, eggs, bacon, cheese, and cream. I obviously overindulge in relation to my activity level, but I don’t believe fat makes you fat and I don’t believe that fat is unhealthy. By the way, my cholesterol level is ridiculously low, in spite of my high-fat diet (I would actually love to find a way to raise my cholesterol level).

2

The only Atkins I know is
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_EiOkoEee0

3

I think that all those diets are bullshit.
You don’t need to stop eating carbs or to stop eating chocolates or stop eating whatever you like.
Everybody knows what makes us fat: the excess of calories.
In order to lose weight, you should eat less calories than the ones you burn.
So, actually, you can eat carbs and all that crap, just don’t eat A LOT. Eat more vegetables and fruits, cause they have fibers and will keep you satisfied, and then you can eat junkie food like chocolate or ice cream or whatever because then you will eat much less of these foods because you are already satisfied.
I don’t think Atkins diet is the best one. I know it works, but don’t go too ‘extreme’ on that… Because then you can get some disfunctions on your body and, I don’t only mean cholesterol but your liver and your kidneys will suffer! As well as your brain.

So, just eat healthy food (salads, vegetables, fruits, etc) and then you can eat junkie food too (chocolate, ice cream, french fries). And EXERCISE!
:wink:

Edit: I don’t know if I made myself clear but what I wanted to say is that you NEED carbs, you NEED proteins and you NEED fat in order to be healthy. Don’t stop eating ANY of these groups, because your body will suffer. You have just to learn how to balance the amount of carbs/proteins/fats you eat.

4

I ferment and consume Kefir. Only home fermenting will produce Kefir with a high variety and population of the healthy probiotics. Store bought probiotics are weak by comparison. There’s a lot of info on the web about Atkins, both pro and con. Be careful, but I think you are on the right track.

5

The Atkins diet kinda sucks in that while you will lose weight fast, it is not something that can really be done long term, and it’s likely that you will just end up eating the same way and gaining back all that you lost. Really, it’s hard to change the way you eat in such a dramatic manner. Carbs aren’t bad, they are a good source of energy, and you will not feel energized when doing physical activity if you eliminate them. Cutting down on fat calories is a bit more effective.

But really, the best way to lose weight is just exercise. Better to not change the way you eat too much, and just use up all that you eat.

Please note that while I do not have much experience in the matter, my mother is quite the expert in nutrition (she’s a personal trainer), and I’m just saying what I’ve learned from what she has said on the topic.

6

I tried eating Atkins and he didn’t taste very good.

7

Atkins does not eliminate carbs. In the first most restrictive phase, which lasts a minimum of two weeks, you must restrict your carbs to 20 grams per day (just 0.7 ounces). But this tiny amount still allows for eating a salad and a cup of cooked vegetables every day. That’s more vegetables than I normally eat! Then you gradually increase your carb intake, adding back foods that were eliminated in the first phase until you are eating a balanced, though high-fat, diet. They emphasize traditional fats and unprocessed foods, avoiding refined sugar and bleached white flour and all the yummy products made with it.

So far, I’m only committed to using Atkins as a quick fix. Summer is approaching and although I’ve lost 15 pounds just through increased activity (hiking and canoeing), I haven’t reached my goal yet. A friend is doing Atkins and he’s lost 30 pounds, so I looked into the diet, excuse me, the Atkins Nutritional Approach (ANA). It’s not as bad as I thought it would be. I think they’ve tweaked it over the years. Or maybe I just never understood the details in the first place.

I’m not usually a person that looks for the quick fix or the easy solution. I don’t mind doing the hard work. But this time, I want the quick (but not easy) fix. They say – and my friend confirms – that the pounds melt off (beyond the initial water loss) and you are full of energy. I have no problem eating a high-fat diet, although eating too much protein concerns me a little. A high-fat diet that says eat vegetables but don’t eat processed, refined junk seems compatible with my thinking.

My long-term goal is to build muscle mass and increase my activity level so that I can eat whatever I want. At least in terms of not gaining weight. Atkins is right, of course, about avoiding refined junk food and excess empty carbs. So eventually, I’ll just pick and choose my poisons and how often I eat them. For now, I’m sticking with the diet. To me, it’s a technique. A tool. I doubt it will become a life-long way of eating. A die-hard Atkins person would tell me that I’ll just regain all the weight I’ve lost if I go off the diet, but I have a plan to avoid that, as I said in the beginning of this paragraph.

Well, that’s all for now. Thanks for reading. I’m at the end of day two of Atkins. My metabolism should be switching from glucose-burning mode to fat-burning mode soon. We’ll see if the pounds really do melt off like they say…

8

Here’s another Atkins, pretty tasty, actually. But I couldn’t imagine staying on an Atkins only diet for more than a few hours.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQC-mZivibQ

9

Where Atkins succeeds is in getting people off highly refined carbs, especially sugar. Sugar is addictive leading to consumption of more sugar, yet gives no satisfaction, only empty calories.

It also has people eating foods that are highly satisfying (foods high in fat and protein).

What’s nice about protein is that it is highly satisfying AND has a high thermal effect. What this means is that about 30% of the calories consumed in the form of protein are spent processing the protein.

Where it fails is in having people eat a high fat diet. Fat, while satisfying, is very high in calories, and has a low thermal effect (our bodies are VERY efficient in converting fat to…fat. We only burn about 3% in the process)

Also, eating a diet very low in carbohydrates will result in having a lowered amount of energy. Not good for us athletic types!

What has worked for me in the past, is lots of whole foods, limited sugars, limited fats, and moderate amounts carbohydrates from unrefined foods and moderate amounts of protein.

Actually, the ultimate tool of success for me has been my diet & exercise diary. Measure everything and write it down.

When everything that moves past your lips has to be quantified and documented, its simple to see where your diet gets blown.

Read EVERY label, and use measuring cups to accurately measure serving sizes. A fun game is “guess the calories” in a food. Especially with restaurant food. Often you’ll guess that something is 500 calories when its really 1200. Avoid restaurants that don’t give nutritional information.

Keeping a diary of calories burned vs calories consumed, will show you exactly which way your weight is moving and why.

It really does simply boil down to calories in/calories out.

Track this and eat only foods that are satisfying and you will lose weight.

10

Try the Phelps diet! This guy ate his famous 12,000 calorie breakfast in FIVE minutes! On a humorous note, he quickly suffered a massive coronary and died minutes later! :stuck_out_tongue:

But serioulsly folks:

Good diet and EXERCISE! That’s how to lose weight and get FIT. Simple fact. Forget all the diet books that make the authors rich, and get off your butt and lose weight the old fashioned way! :slight_smile:

11

My mother did the Atkins thing when it first came out. She wasn’t properly overweight, but at ~50 years old she was developing a bit of fat around the belly that she couldn’t shift and thought Atkins might help, which it did. She lasted about 3 weeks on it which was enough time for it to start to take effect, and enough time for her to realise that it was totally unpractical for her; The reason being that she couldn’t eat enough. Once she hit the stage of burning through nothing but fat she needed to consume food constantly or risk passing out. Scoffing chops all day just wasn’t an option for her given that she had a total of 35 minutes break in a 10 hour work day. There were some other side effects, such as terrible breath and a bit of an odour following her around; this went completely without comment since everyone was being supportive - Don’t be surprised if you find people giving you a little extra space.
The lesson I learned from this is that Atkins is effective but strictly a short-term solution.

A friend of mine is currently on a variation of the Kellogs diet, he’s mostly eating Bran Flakes (side effects include sitting down for long periods with a newspaper and feeling like you’re eating cardboard) and it seems to be working for him - he topped out at around 95kg recently. He was looking healthy at about 75-80kg when we met 10 years ago. He’s only been on it for a fortnight and he’s already looking a lot slimmer - which could be Kellogs and it could be that he’s cut out the alcohol!

And on a more comedic note, I know a particularly dimwitted lady who was really perplexed by the lack of effect that the Atkins diet was having on her. After a couple of weeks she had seen no change whatsoever. The reason: She thought nothing but meat included sausage sandwiches! :smiley:

12

I agree with your sentiment MuniAddict, and while I think that good diet and exercise is always better than binge dieting, and that staying fit never did anyone any harm; I do disagree with the “Simple Fact” part of this. I know a few people who are built fat and no amount of exercise and dieting will change them, one close friend in particular is terrifically active but his shape is terrible. He’s fit but fat. It’s easy to forget when you see a hambeast waddling around feeding her butterbaby with a supersize happy meal that a lot of physique really does boil down to genetics. My parents were scolded by a nurse for putting my brother and I onto solid foods too soon as babies and she was shot down by a doctor with this wonderful phrase: “Greyhounds do not give birth to elephants.” My experience is that the opposite is equally true.

13

Simplest diet out there:

Eat exactly the same crap you’ve been eating, but less of it. A.k.a. portion control. I know someone who has lost about 100 pounds just by doing that! Of course if you eat better crap and add exercise you’ll do even better…

14

I got down to 123 on the veg- bean-fish diet

I’m 190 now. I don’t know if I am bragging, but I am not lying.

The veg diet totally works, if you are an experimental nut. It was in 1994, I ate all the vegetables I wanted. No oil. A choice of fish or beans to add in the needed protein. Maybe 1000 to 1300 calories/day.

I am not recommending crash diets. So I guess I am bragging LOL.:slight_smile:

Seriously, not lying and with nothing to sell, I will tell you how I dropped weight.

1 Buy a lot of different vegetables, and almost nothing else. Fruit is high in sugar(calories), so fruit is out.

2 You can only eat only so much beans or fish. This must be measured to a calorie limit.

3 Eat all of the low calorie vegetables you want. Potatoes or high calorie vegetables must be counted separately. But in general, you can stuff yourself with most kinds of vegetables, and still easily stay under the daily calorie limit.

I was stupid to drop to 123. I lost a lot of muscle and honestly I think I just got into being a nut. You know, when you start doing something and get excited that it might be a record for your life.

The “stuff yourself full of veggies”, no oil , and a measured amount of protein diet, does work. The no oil, no sugar, extremely low calorie aspect is what drives the weight loss. A belly full of veggies is a full belly and with adequate protein is the best weight loss diet I have tried.

The “stuff yourself full of veggies” diet is easier to stick to then some diets, because there is a lot of different veggies to try. Money saved on some fatter foods must be spent on a big pile of varied veggies, to make this diet work. It is kinda fun to eat all those different foods and you really get to stuff yourself. It’s not about starvation so much, more about getting used to eating large volumes of different vegetables. Oddly, under the “stuff yourself with veggies diet”, you must get used to eating more, not less, by volume.You would eat twice as much (volume) while consuming 1/4 the calories of a fast food meal that would produce the same satiation of hunger.

15

:astonished:

Probiotics cause cancer, don’t they?

Antibiotics are the antidote for probiotic overdose.

16

I still believe the simplest approach is best. If you take in more calories than you burn, you will gain weight. A lot of people think that just lifting weights will help them shed fat and extra pounds, they are wrong. It will build muscle, but you need to maintain your target heart rate for at least 30 minutes every day, via a good cardio workout, and MUni is one of the absolute best and effective ways to do that.

There really are no shortcuts, unless you consider stomach stapling, liposuction or other extreme methods a shortcut. Granted, there are many people who have a very hard time losing weight, and even if they do they often gain back that weight and sometimes more.

But in today’s world of instant gratification, people don’t have the patience and will to see things through because they want to see results yesterday. Not gonna happen, but they just keep hoping for some magic bullet. Just eat less, and exercise more. Unless you have a medical issue, it usually never fails.

17

Amen to that.

18

^^^ Terry, I’m already doing that (minus the MUni). But summer’s coming, I have a deadline, and I want to pick up the pace. I eat a high-fat, high-protein diet anyway. The later phases of Atkins, which I probably won’t bother with, do emphasize eating plenty of vegetables. If I ate the Atkins way, I would probably eat a more balanced and better diet than I previously have. But a life without bread and pastries and pasta and pizza has no joy. Eventually I will go back to eating all that “healthy” stuff that Atkins cuts out. Not for nutritional reasons, but just for enjoyment.

For once, I want the quick fix. Simultaneously, I want to build muscle mass which will increase my metabolism. These added pounds of muscle will burn additional calories every day, just by existing. That, plus increasing my activity level until it becomes a lifestyle change, should prevent me from regaining all the weight I’ve lost when I go off the diet and resume eating junk food.

As I said earlier, I see Atkins as a tool. A technique. A way to turbo-charge the results I’m already getting. My current plan is not to use it for more than a month or so. Does that sound reasonable and safe? What could be the harm? Clearly I think what I’m doing is not an obviously bad idea. And that it’s not a substitute for making lifestyle changes. But I hope it’s also clear that I remain a bit skeptical about what I’m doing. So I do appreciate all the comments. Keep them coming! I’m listening. Unlike the religious threads (and those that approach it, like the vegetarian threads), my opinion can be changed. Your voice can make a difference!

19

I’ve been told one way to speed weight loss is to avoid heavy meals near bed time… actually, to avoid heavy meals altogether. We don’t burn much energy when we sleep, so most carbs / fat eaten before bed time gets converted into fat. Not good for weight loss!

I’ve modified my diet to avoid all carbs at dinner, and to eat my biggest meal at lunch time. I’m working against my learned habit to eat until I’m stuffed, and slow down when I eat, so I can stop as I begin to feel full. I’m not totally religious about my diet, though, so I haven’t seen the full results yet. I’m just a month in right now.

Just curious, Terry, have you ever had to lose more than 20 lbs? I don’t get the impression that you’ve ever needed to diet… especially from reading your post here.

Some people need to follow specific eating and exercise regimens in order to lose weight, as not everyone has the same metabolism, nor does everyone’s body process the same foods in the same manner.

What do you expect to accomplish by giving the “eat less, work more” advice to someone who’s already tried that?

P.S. Can someone quote me so Terry actually sees my post? I’m pretty sure I’m on his ignore list.

20

It’s basic Physics, man. You can’t get something (i.e. ATP, energy) for nothing (i.e. no food intake or completing the respiration process). If you keep pushing yourself on, your body will hit up its food reserves to meet your energy demands. As you burn up those reserves, you lose weight.

Are there good diets that work with a particular person’s body type and metabolism to catalyze the weight loss? Absolutely.

But saying that decreasing energy intake while increasing energy demand will not make you lose weight is crap.