Has anyone here used the Atkins diet?

Be careful with the Atkins diet. A massive increase in animal-based fats and proteins sounds great, but while it will help reduce weight in the short-term, the minute you leave the diet, it all comes back.

And you cannot remain on this diet for long periods of time particularly if you have a history of heart disease or blod clots in your family. You can't really stay on it for a long time anyway because the diet itself is SO bad for you in the long run.

Every legitimate heart, cancer and long-term illness study shows that high levels of saturated fat, choleserol and protein have an EXTREMELY deliterious effect on long-term health concerns.

I wouldn't necessarily suggest going the other way either - the all-out vegan diet. It just doesn't work for 90 percent of people.

However, one thing you should try is Dr. Andrew Weill's 8 Weeks to Optimum Health. It combines vegetables, grains, some meat, low sugar and exercise. He is a Harvard-educated physician who has a health clinic at the University of Arizona. He is very well-respected.

I've known numerous people who went on the Atkins or The Zone diets who dropped pounds but immediately gained them all back as soon as they stopped. My father saw his choleserol level skyrocket as well after he tried to use Atkins to lose weight.

It's popular because it says you can eat all the crap you like, but it doesn't tell you that you can't live on it forever and your weight will return along with, possibly, some serious health side effects.

 

Jeff you are my hero.
Youre the BBS wiseman.
Three cheers for jeff!
hip hip horray
hip hip horray
hip hip horray

 

what have you heard about the Carbohydrate Addict's Diet?

Rocket River

 

Jeff covered a good bit...but I just wanted to add a few things to keep in mind:

When the ads or infomercials talk about your body becoming a "fat burning furnace" that really means that your body is going into a kind of state of shock and is reacting. This is not good for you in the long run and can cause some side effects - really bad breath being a humorous one.

Any "diet" out there that talks as much about not working out as Atkins does should be avoided on principle. No competent doctor, nutritionist, etc would say that exercise is a waste or no good.

Also, to add to Jeff...there is a well known doctor and cardiac researcher, Dean Ornish, who has also developed a program that is like Weil's. The more credible doctors who have written books all are pretty similar and much healthier. There is also the Omega diet - based on a diet followed on the island of Crete.

RR,

Isn't that carbo-addict diet similar to Atkins in that it talks about how bad they are? It is silly to cut out carbohydrates - they are an essential source of energy.

 

I have read several diet books and their critiques, and The Zone is very different from Atkins.

Read The Zone by Dr. Barry Sears and see for yourself. If you follow this plan correctly, you will lose 1 to 2 pounds a week, you will increase your muscle mass, you will balance your insulin levels, and you will eat more leafy greens, fruit, and veggies than ever before. This is a balanced diet that asks you to ingest high volumes of low calorie and healthful foods. The reason people gain weight when they leave The Zone is because they revert to a higher calorie diet.

Think of The Zone as a vegan plate plus a small chicken breast. It is also very close to Dr. Weil's plan, but Sears doesn't promote eating grains. Sears' theory revolves around the "caveman diet concept". He contends that we should mimic the diet of man as our species evolved- eating nuts, berries, fruits, leafy greens, and meat.

Atkins' Diet is dangerous in my opinion. Put the word ketosis in your search engine, and see what the Atkins' diet produces.

 

The best thing I have found so far is to just count your calorie intake every day. Yea, I know it's a pain in the a$$ writting it down every day but it does work. My wife & I have lost quite a bit of weight since we've been doing this.

There's this web site (can't remember name of it, I''ll ask my wife if your interested) (or somebody here may know) it asks you your height & current weight & then spits out how many calories you consume per day, then asks you how much do you want to weigh? Then it tells you how many calories you should be consuming.

Now here comes the success part. Since Feb of this year when I started, I have gone from consuming 3800 calories per day & weighing 185 lbs. to consuming 2300 calories per day & I now weigh 155 lbs. I have lost over 6 inches on my waist/stomach area & have gone from a size 38 to a size 32

Oh, & my wife? She started this program a year before I did & went from a size 20-22 to a size 8. Also, we have done no exercising, just counting calories. I'm sure if we did some kind of working out the results may of come faster. Just my .02

 

I went on the Atkins diet twice. Both times I lost 20 pounds. Both times, within 3-4 months after going off the diet, I gained the weight back. The lack of carbohydrates almost drove me insane.

"No beer and carbohydrates makes VesceySux go something something..."
"Go insane?"
"Don't mind if I do! Aaaaaaaarrrggghhh!!"

Nothing beats pure exercise for losing weight, IMO. During college, I worked out 4 times a week, ate nothing but sandwiches for lunch, and had a sensible meal for dinner (i.e. nothing too bad for me). After the first 2 weeks, I noticed a tremendous difference in look and feel. Best... weight loss... scheme.... ever... But, I stopped working out after I graduated, and, well...

 

rimbaud: The problem with Ornish, although I respect the hell out of him, is that his diets are REALLY austere. They push for vegan diets and cutting out nearly all sugars, etc. That is a tough road to go down if you are used to a Western diet. I'm not saying his diet isn't good for you. It obviously is. But, better to take on a diet you can actually stay on than one that is good for you but you can't manage.

I think both Ornish and Atkins go that direction. For the majority of people, those diets are simply unmanagable.

Weill is a lot more austere than most but it is manageable for most who like Western diets. People can hang in with that diet a lot longer if not permanently.

 

The real question here is why backwardhead is going on ANY diet. Anybody seen this guy? He's really doesn't need to lose any weight.

 

I'm reading the book now
It is basically saying control ya carbo intake more
than eliminating it.

Mostly it seems to say save it for the end of the day

I will get back to you when i finish

rocket river

 

Here's some science:

There are three basic types of metabolites: protein, carbohydrates, and lipids (fats). The difference between complex carbs (bread, potatoes, starches) and sugar is that the complex carbs are polymers of simple sugar molecules. They are cross-linked, and it takes a while to break them down.

A balanced diet is best, with proper proportions of each metabolite. I wouldn't be concerned about getting enough lipids; on any Western diet, you get plenty, and if you ever eat fast food, etc. (which most of us have to sometimes) you get more than enough. Protein and carbs are both necessary. Protein is the only one of the metabolites that includes nitrogen (necessary for DNA among many other things); also, 50% of amino acid types are not readily synthesized in the body and must be obtained directly from protein in the diet. (this is necessary for muscles, enzymes, all the little protein molecules that perform all the little tasks in your body)

Carbohydrates are used by the body as a <B>primary fuel source</B>. They are broken down into two-carbon acetyl units (attached at the time to coenzyme A, to make "acetyl-CoA"), which go into the Krebs cycle. Some energy is derived from the breakdown process. If the body's supply of "energy currency", the ATP molecule (used to provide energy to do work), is low, the body will continue to run the Krebs cycle. On the other hand, if the body's hormonal signals tell it that there is plenty of ATP, the Krebs cycle will not be used. Instead, the two-carbon units are stored for future energy needs. Protein, carbohydrates, and lipids alike can be broken down into these two-carbon units; however, once metabolism has gotten this far, there's only one way to store the excess two-carbon units - as fat. You can't make carbs or protein from fat, but you can make fat from excess carbs or protein in the diet. In our diet, it's easy to fill up on excess carbohydrates. Thus all the concern.

<B>Carbs</B> do have their uses; simple sugars are broken down more quickly than other metabolites and provide good short-term energy. Also, the brain runs on glucose, a carbohydrate (that alone is enough reason to keep a fair amount of carbs in your diet). Bread, potatoes, and pasta get stored as starch temporarily in the liver; of course, when the reserves are full the rest goes into the metabolic cycle and will become fat if your body decides it doesn't need it right away. Once the fat molecules are stored, your body won't resort to breaking them down until it's already used most of the stored energy in the bloodstream and the liver.

The <B>Atkins diet</B> takes drastic steps to remove carbohydrates, which work best as the body's primary fuel source (in moderation). Normally the body senses the amount of glucose in the blood (blood sugar) and that triggers hormonal signals for the fed or starved state. With little glucose in the blood, the body will go into starvation mode. There's a last-resort metabolic pathway where fats are broken down to "ketone bodies" and used for fuel that way instead. An accumulation of ketone bodies can potentially lower the blood pH to dangerous levels. The bad breath I've heard some people brag about (as a sign they're sticking to the Atkins diet) comes from acetone and related bodies from ketone metabolism. This is not supposed to be something you do if you have other alternatives.

So, how <B>do</B> you lose weight? 1) I recommend exercise, exercise, exercise. It burns calories, you get in shape, and your body creates lean muscle mass, which not only makes you look good but uses up more calories than fat tissue. 2) Burn more calories than you consume; do this by eating less (very tough for me ), especially less fats (yes, fat is still bad for you) which are densely packed with metabolic energy. 3) Try to change your basal metabolic rate. Regular aerobic exercise is the best way. I find that, if I can get my metabolism set properly, I can get away with eating a lot more. The problem is getting it to do that. As a former athlete, my body still expects to get the level of exercise and nutrition it used to back in high school. Therefore, we gain weight more easily.

In terms of <B>diets</B> (and I'm a total hypocrite: I need to lose 10 or 15 pounds); first, exercise. Second, lifestyle modifications. (think of what you eat that's bad for you that you could live without; cut out one thing at a time.) Gradually reduce portion size. It's no fun being hungry... usually I try to exercise to burn off what I eat. Many people recommend fruits and veggies because they make you feel full without actually having that many calories. It helps to drink more liquids (not full of sugar or alcohol), eat foods that contain water (soup, oatmeal, even pasta) so your stomach will be full, and try not to eat late at night when you won't burn it off. Skipping breakfast will slow down your metabolism for the rest of the day. I recommend eating things like PowerBars that are at least full of nutrients and make you feel full. Focus on eating fish and white meat chicken. Keep away from traditional fast food (this is one I'm not good about - I let people take me to those places - but I know a guy who lost 75 pounds in a year, largely from cutting out fast food).

If you actually made it down here, thanks for taking the time to read...

 

PowerBars may not be the best food if you want to lose weight. From another website:

Power Bar Chocolate
Calories: 230
Fat: 2 grams

3 Musketeers
Calories: 260
Fat: 8 grams

Candy bars are also much cheaper.

 

I used to work with a guy that cut out all of his carbs and he claimed he lost 30lbs, well he didn't lose them for long - they found him again.

I think this diet works for some, but for me I lose the most weight from cutting out junk food, beer, sodas(non-diet) and fast food. Plus I exercise 4-5 times a week (swimming and basketball).
Since Memorial Day (about 6 weeks ago) I have went from 254 lbs down to 223lbs this morning. I am 5'11. I feel much better and my clothes are loose. (I can also grab a 10ft room now!)I want to get down to 190-200lbs or so. There is a Body Mass Index scale that says I am supposed to weigh 179lbs or less (you have to be under 25 to be consider normal weight) My BMI is down from 35.4 to 31.1. I don't put much faith in this though because I am a big guy and 179lbs would make me look anorexic.
Calculate your Body Mass Index

Ideal Weight Calculator By this scale I am supposed to weigh 161-184lbs, still have 40lbs to go!

I would say NO to the Atkins diet - like Jeff said the health risk are too high. The whole reason I changed my diet was because my cholesterol was high (225) and the Atkins diet would only make that elevate. How good is weighing your ideal weight if you are just setting yourself up for a heart attack?Just cut out the crud from your diet and write down what you eat for the first week to make you realize what you are really eating. The hardest part is changing your mindset.

Good luck to you backwardhead and congrats AJ22.

where is drapg?

 

My first week of the deepellumrocket/Subway diet has produced outstanding results-I've lost 4 pounds.

Oatmeal for breakfast.
Subway 6 inch, 6 grams of fat or less for lunch.
Grilled chicken and vegetables for dinner.
Fruit for a snack.

I've probably been drinking about 12 glasses of water a day, no more cokes.

 

I started eating oatmeal for breakfast last week as well. I also cut out caffeine, as it is supposed to make it easier to gain weight.

 

Here is something that Jeff left out (my apologies if anybody added this that I missed). According to Dr. Weil's website, protein is a very complex fuel for your body. When it is broken down there are compounds left over which must be broken down by your liver and kidneys. The implication is that too much protein in the diet can potentially harm these vital organs.

 

The American diet contains far more nitrogen than we need, which is consumed via protein (and caffeine). The kidneys filter blood to remove excess nitrogen, packaged as urea molecules, in the urine. I can see how too much protein might stress them. (This is also why coffee dehydrates you and causes more visits to the bathroom.)

 

Too much protein also robs the body of calcium...

bwhead,

If you had slightly high cholesterol before, then you definitely do not want to go on Atkins.