i don't buy any diet that leads to more than 2lbs of weight loss a week. you want the weight you lose to be fat and only fat, and anything more than that and you're dropping muscle which is ultimately hurting your fat-burning capability. a low-carb diet is just fine, but an extreme atkins diet just seems ridiculous.
I've been off of refined sugar for some time now, but I tell others who are trying to cut sugar from their diet to replace some of the regular sugar cravings with dark chocolate or bittersweet chocolate. Generally the higher the percentage cocoa in one of these darker chocolates, the less amount of sugar. When I was cutting out sugars, I first switched to low sugary snacks like a Rice Krispie Treat. Those things have around 5-7 grams of sugar at most. You can try the Splenda sugar free items, but I'm not sure if those are 100% better than eating regular sugar. Just make sure you never eat Aspartame. This is the vilest substance one can put in their body.
I figure if I cut out breads, soft drinks (which I really didn't drink too much), and french fries I'll be off to a good start. My doctor did tell me to stay away from the sweet fruits, oranges, grapes and bananas. In other words, the best fruits. Apples are ok. I've been eating eggs or low sugar oatmeal for breakfast, with an apple. I had been getting bad about hitting the vending machie before going home from work. I'd get a huge sugar craving and I'd go there almost every day and get something. I bought an Atkins diet kit a couple of years ago and never used it. I plan on looking through it and maybe using a few ideas from it, mostly to get a better example of some really high carb foods to avoid. I go back to the doctor in 3 months which is good because it gives me a target date to have made some sort of improvement.
i think that atkins is a good place to start and i know you can get results but after a few months, a solid routine of exercise and a balanced, healthy diet (even including some carbs) is all you need. i undertand the idea of limiting carbs, but to the extent that some people take it is overboard in my opinion. Have a little pasta and just take your butt for a jog basically, move around more... eat less.
For folks needing to lose 30 lbs or less, 2 lbs a week is a good rule of thumb. But for people more than 50 lbs overweight, they will easily lose more than that at the beginning. What folks should understand is that huge weight loss at the very beginning is often just body fluids and doesn't represent true weight loss. That's why these "14 lbs in two weeks" diets are scandalous IMO. There is a 100% chance it will come back. A friend of my wife's lost 6-7 lbs/week for the first 8 weeks. Eventually she lost a total of 100 lbs and has kept it off over 3 years.
Interesting that this thread has been bumped today. Just last night, I was thinking about going back on Atkins for a few months. I don't think there's anything bad about it as long as you don't use it as a life plan. Also be smart about it. Eat egg whites, tuna, chicken, and fish instead of cheese, beef, sausage, and bacon. What's the difference between Atkins and South Beach? Anyone?
I am about to start again, to lose the weight but this time, when I get down I am not having any more cokes...those things are HORRIBLE for you...but until I go back on the diet.....well gonna have one more. DD
Switch to Coke Zero. I was a Coke (acola) junkie a few years ago and switched to diet coke. For a couple of days it sucked, but then I got used to the taste, and the caffene was the same. I lost about 10 lbs in two weeks after that, too. Coke Zero is even better that diet Coke. Now Coke tastes like syrup and I would never go back.
Atkins is NO carb diet. South Beach is a NO bad carb and NO bad fat diet. I think Atkins is fine as long as you are losing weight => burning all of the fat you eat in that diet. South Beach is the way to go if you are looking a diet for the rest of your life. All diets work by eating less calories than you burn. The trick with the low carb diets is that the food you eat makes you feel full. Google on 'Glycemic Load'. Walking 20/30 minutes a day will also burn another 200 calories or so (and it is good for health as well).
only the induction phase of atkins which is about 2 weeks is no carb. AFter that you can start introducing good carbs from vegetables and whatnot. It's great to jumpstart your diet. The results will be quite a confidence booster and hopefully will start your road to better eating for the rest of your life. I lost 35lbs on atkins and continued to lose another 35 after learning more about nutrition. Of course all with excercise. Atkins is pretty tough though if you play sports, but if you do light excercising atkins isn't so bad. I just don't think you can eat that way for the rest of your life. It's basically a meat and veggie diet. You can pretty much get sick of that fast.
as someone who has used the atkins diet before with great success, i would never, ever recommend, nor let anyone i cared about go on it if you're more than 60 pounds overweight then maybe, but otherwise no south beach is a lot more tolerable but also has its flaws in the end it comes down to movement and consumption.. cals in vs. cals out atkins diet eats muscle, destroys your ability to burn calories... which is why it is not a long term solution
