DaDakota has stock in Atkins cuz the man's been preaching it like crazy. Anyway, I'd like to see what the cholesterol levels of these Atkins practitioners are after a couple of months.
just stop eating when you're full. in other words, you shouldn't feel obligated to finish a whole meal at Chili's jsut b/c you paid for it. put the rest in a doggy bag and save it for later. or if you're a good sumaritan, give it to the homeless guy on the corner. overeating is really the problem. i think it's our parents' fault for making us feel guilty about people in ethiopia not having food. hell, if i eat all my food, how is that gonna be any diffirent from me throwing it away...they're still gonna starve.
I'm sure we all eat too much. I was OK until those years in college when I started running out of money... then it was like, "I paid for it, better eat it." Some people take half of it home, but usually I did want to eat more than half at the time... there's that point where it's not enough to take home, but still more than you should eat. And, especially while you're waiting around for slow friends to finish their food, you eat it anyway before you know it. Portions are way bigger than they used to be... make people feel like they're getting more for their money. The problem is, now I feel hungry if I have what used to be a "normal" portion size. (at least, normal for years and years ago)
I thought we were discussing the Atkins diet. You just referenced a reply about a low fat veggie diet. If that's what you were talking about, say so. Also, it's pretty cavalier to just say "exercise and the body won't store the carbs as fat". Some people have better things to do than spend the hours in a gym it would take to burn all the carbs in the average diet.
That may be the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. This isn't meant as a personal attack at you, but I find this type of thinking to be absolutely ludicrous and stupid. If you're not willing to put in the time and energy, you don't deserve the reward.
To all of those that say that the best way to lose weight is to eat healthy and exercise, you are absolutely correct. That is the best way to lose weight and get healthy. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to completely change to a healthy lifestyle for many people that are 30, 40, 100+... overweight. When I was younger, I was raised to clear my plate and eat until I was full. This was great because I was heavily into sports and athletics to the point that I could barely get enough calories to fuel for the things that I was doing. 18 years of eating that way is difficult to change. I would love to have football two a days to make me get back in shape, but I don't have that any more. I have tried to change to a healthier lifestyle which takes something more than pure willpower. About five years ago, I went on the Atkins diet and went from 198 lbs to about 165 (I'm 5' 7). That took about two months and I felt great. Once I got off the diet, I maintained about 170-175 for a few years until I settled into my regular lifestyle again. I'm around 190 and considering the drop back down with the Atkins. The best part of the Atkins that I found after I quit the diet is that I no longer had a taste for things that are really sweet. If you are on the diet for a month and then taste a Dr. Pepper, it tastes like pure syrup. I still don't drink sodas today. Even though it hasn't been an overhaul on my lifestyle, it did help keep me from gorging myself on sugary foods. Right now, I've put back on the weight because I love pizza and pasta way too much. DoubleDave's buffett is killing me. Before I go on the Atkins again, I'm going to try to break my addiction from eating out and just try to eat in from now on. I don't think that Atkins is a good permanent way of life and I know that it is a diet, but I do know that it works to get the weight off. There are people that are losing 30+ pounds that would never have lost that much any other way because of the psychological committment that it takes to adopt a healthy lifestyle. I just hope that we don't find out in a few years that Atkins diet has a long term negative effect on health.
What ever happened to the days where you just take the bread off your freakin burger? try a knife and fork.
Like I stated in a n earlier post....my wife's levels are much lower than beforre she started it...I dont know mine since I havent had them checked lately.. but just the fact that I dont feeldrained and want a nap in the middle of the day tells me that it is doing me good.. you people that are slamming it just dont know anything about it,.
I have seen first-hand that this is a good solution to take off the pounds - HOWEVER - through research and talking to doctors, this diet is only good if you are severly over weight. There are some severe health risks to your heart and other concerns when individuals are not educated on how to perform diet or they stay on it way too long.
tozai - let me ask you something. When you go to the gym, the common thing you hear is that you have to ride your bike for 20 minutes to get into fat-burning mode, right? That's because your body's first energy store is the glycogen stores in your cells that come from carbs. If you burn that off, then you start burning fat. I'm in fat-burning mode ALL DAY LONG! Not having to burn off of my glycogen stores before I start to get the benefit of exercise makes my workout routine and lifestyle much more effective. Additionally, I'm in pre-maintenance mode right now, so I eat plenty of carbs - it's just that the carbs I eat (spinach, lettuce, turnips, rutabega, jicama, green peppers, mushrooms, onions, grapefruit, strawberries, etc) are good for me. I also eat quality protein from eggs, steaks, fish, chicken, pork and seafood. I also eat macadamia nut, almonds, and sunflower seeds. I also take some essential oils, multivitamins, and a fiber supplement. I'll stack that diet up for quality nutrients and general healthiness against your diet loaded with carbs from bread, low-fat foods, juices, milk, cereal and sugar any day. I've lost 25 pounds on this diet and when my insurance company did my blood work, they put me in the elite class for the lowest possible health risk. Still don't believe me? Why don't you try cutting bread, sugars, and starches out of your diet and replace them with green vegetables?
I agree that it is important to do it correctly - unlike what some people think, it's not a diet where you just eat meat and fat forever. I think the sugar and high-fructose corn syrup and partially hydrogenated vegetable oils in the standard American diet are much more dangerous to our health though.
Haha. Actually I try to replenish my glycogen stores as fast as possible post-workout. I don't know where you got the idea that I recommend lots of breads, low-fat foods, juices, or whatever. What you were doing is actually what I do recommend. Get lots of protein from lean meats, eggs, and fish. Carbs primarily from vegetables and fruits and some whole grain bread and oats. Good fats from flax, fish, and olive oil. It's not that hard. Eat natural food instead of the processed and refined crap and fast food and people wouldn't be so fat and looking for the next trendy diet or getting fake-healthy fast food.
Someone nailed it when they said it is a "diet craze" not a "health craze." Ultimately, there is no scientific evidence to suggest that eating that much fat and protein is healthy for you down the road. In fact, there is quite a bit of evidence to the contrary. I agree that, for some, this can be an option. The problem is that far too many people in America jump on diets because they think they should. People want a magic weight loss pill and it doesn't exist. The only way to change your body type and level of health is to change your entire lifestyle. Is it tough? Hell, yes. But, that is part of what it takes to be healthy. What concerns doctors is the same thing that should concern everyone when it comes to Atkins. It, in and of itself, is not a choice for a healthy lifestyle. You cannot live on Atkins for the rest of your life unless you intend for your life to not last a particularly long time. This is a diet option, not a health choice and that distinction has been blurred far too much through careless reporting and misrepresentation.
Atkins has certainly worked well for me, aside from helping me lose alot of weight it has made me realise how much junk i ate, especially things like take-away foods, chips, lollies and beer. Into maintainence/better way of eating now, which really is my old diet without the crap, bread, rice and pasta and things high in processed sugar and more vegetables and protein. Have recently started adding things back in the have high GI, there is increasing evidence suggesting Glycemic Index is better than the traditionally Atkins carb counting and soem say Atkins himself would have found this out if he was still around. Have recently added organic yoghurt with organic museli and grains as a breakfast and am loving that.
also have new comprehensive journal article on long term effects of high protein/low carb diets, if anyone wants a copy send me an email
If anyone's interested, the latest issue of Discover magazine has an article on glycemic load/index and a few of the diets (Atkins is among them).
