How did I miss this thread..... Atkins ROCKS !!!! It works, it is healthy, and the medical community is coming around. I have been at 175 for 4 months now and am back to eating what I want, just watch my carb intake.... Simple...and for life. DD
Im actually thinking about giving this a shot even though i find the marketing of the fast food chains annoying. Can you still drink when you are on atkins? I am guessing that beer is out but what about red whine? Aslo is there a good website that any of you can reccomend for info (atkins.com?)?
man...I was wondering when you were going to chime in...I've been in here tryin to defend it...but everyone thinks it is just some unhealthy fad diet. I'll tell ya whut... from 287 to 253 in a little over two months. and since I just started a workout program last week...I should drop a few more soon. I hope to get down to 220-ish so I can go on maintenance. Trout, you can drink lite beer.. and Im not sure about wine since Idont drink it...but at atkins.com they have a listing of all sorts of stuff and the carb amounts..go check it out.
Never mind. I really want to give it a shot but I just looked around on the internet and found that i would have cut out both coffee and alcohol. The food wouldnt be much of a problem but im in law school and dont think there is any possible way i could give up coffee or alcohol.
aahh...but thats the deal...I never cut out caffeine...I did cut down from 6 DP/Cokes a day to one diet Vanilla Coke in the morning...and a few bottles of water a day.. they recommend that you sut out caffeine cause it is suspected that it inhibits weight loss...but I havent found that to be true. at least in my case anyway..
Speaking for myself, that would be an oxymoron. If "what you want to eat" happens to be nothing but meat and eggs, then you might be OK. This may work for some people, but I'd prefer to try just about any other approach first. It just sounds miserable. And it's pretty much a life commitment, unless you want the weight back. maybe I just don't have much willpower, but at least today I've done over an hour of cardio and a bunch of weights.... oddly, the more you exercise, the more you want to. (works the other way, too, if you get out of the habit of exercising)
i didn't complete cut out coffee either, have less, and also went to blend of half normal coffee and half decafe
If coffee makes you gain/retain weight, why are there so many skinny people who drink lots of coffee? Of course, it keeps you awake longer, which does make you gain weight. Because you're up and know you're hungry.
It isnt just meat and eggs.. true about the exercising..I didnt look forward to starting...but since I have...I look forward to that hour and a half I spend inthe gym..gotta switch the machine Im doing cardio on tho...my feet are tired of doing an hour on the damn treadmill.. but I absolutley love pushing myself on the weights...fun fun.. btw...nice to see you actively posting again...we missed ya.
I'm with Dakota. After almost a year on Atkins I'm healthier now than I ever have been. It changed, if not saved, my life.
Atkins works. I went down in weight (still am going), and waist size (still am)... and I can do it easily. It's not a bondage of counting carbs either... it just becomes second nature, or a common sense issue after awhile. Call me brainwashed. But when I saw my mother-in-law lose 37 pounds and 8 dress sizes, and correct her cholesterol readings and get of the meds for it (doctor's approval), and saw her get off meds for other things... I really took notice. That took her about 8 months. I did it religiously for the first 4 weeks (sort of the induction phase of my choosing) then began eating some of the same crud again, but only put 4 lbs. back on over 6 months, and for the first time in my life in a while was able to buy the same size clothes (not bigger ones) after a 10 month period. If I notice my clothes get snug, I just re-evaluate my carb intake and use my noggin' more. The fast-food atkins thing is just for convenience when you can't be at home preparing your own meals. It just gives you an option of a place to eat without throwing away heaping mounds of bread. Sure, when in Houston I'll still visit the Shipley's on North Main off I-45. Some things are still a must. But Atkins works... and my doctor agrees. Just ask your doctor, if they say "no" get a 2nd opinion.
BTW - our local Ci-Ci's in Plano now makes an "Atkin's Pizza" based on how many carbs you want, per your request. Found that out by accident, sort of, when a fellow Atkin's-er saw my pile of dough and crust. Very good too. I think most of the flavor of Pizza must go into the breading. The "Atkin's Pizza" this Ci-Ci's has is very, very flavorful.
A doctor told me the other day that your organs take a major hit if you go on Atkins too long, and also, in the future your joints will be much weaker than they should be. I didn't really ask him why, but I know he's a real actual doctor and he wouldn't lie to me - he has nothing to gain from it. I went on Atkins for a while, and that's how I think it should be done. Go on Atkins, lose some major weight, then when you're close to your target weight, switch to a healthier lifestyle eating good, natural, and wholesome food. No matter which way you go, always get the exercise in. If you go on Atkins and don't exercise, you WILL lose weight and WILL look smaller, but your body will look like an empty sac of potatoes at some point. I'm planning on going back to Atkins for a short while - I want to lose 9 more lbs from Atkins - after which I plan on beginning a weightlifting program and eating proper and healthy food. Hopefully, building up some muscle will put me in a position to be in good shape the rest of my life - not just the next few months.
Exactly. And Jeff is right too. Atkins is a diet craze, not a health craze. I put on some weight recently, and almost put it down to the fact that I'm getting older. Then I realised I was eating a lot of processed food whilst I was at work (which I never used to eat), and that I wasn't doing the level of exercise that I used to. I cut out snacking at work, and made sure I went to every basketball training session, and worked hard[/]. I'm back to my normal, 5'11", 160lbs.
Sane... sure, it isnt good to stay in induction for too long...even Atkins himself said that you should only stay on induction for no more than 6 months. Induction is good for shedding some of the pounds....but at some point you have to get some of the carbs flowing again.. but after you have done induction for a while....then you are no longer hooked on high carb, heavily processed foods. It teaches you to get your nutrients from veggies...one of the things that got me so overweight was my dependence on quick processed foods...I loved starches too much..pasta..lots of bread and potatoes.. if nothing else..this experience has shown me that I can eat and feel full from eating various meats and veggies instead of filling starches. There are still plenty of doctors that dont agree that this is a good way of doing things..but then again...there are doctors that dont agree with them.. it comes down to the personal feelings of the doctors..some still feel like others have said in this thread...that there must be some bad effects from doing Atkins..but Ill tell ya one thing for sure...my better half's heart doctor is impressed with her lowered cholesterol and the lowered blood pressure she has achieved from doing atkins..he is even taking her off of some of the meds that heart patients have to take. I plan on getting my blood work done soon to see what effects it has had on mine. BTW...diet crazes normally are short term things....Atkins has been around since the late 70's I believe...kinda long lasting for a fad...
It sounds like you are are eating pretty healthily as well then. I feel just as strongly about you about staying away from processed and refined foods. However, before I went on Atkins I ate so much fruit that it made me fat. Atkins helped me control the carb cravings. What a lot of people don't get is that Atkins isn't about going on it to lose a lot of pounds and then getting off of it - it's a lifetime program that gradually puts you on a moderate diet that is very healthy - if you follow their recommendations. The thing is, some people are more sensitive to carbs than others. What you eat might cause some people to gain weight, or it might give them cravings for sweet food because of a spike in blood sugar from doing something as simple as eating an apple. Atkins helps people learn what they are sensitive to, what gives them cravings, and just how many carbs they can eat without gaining weight. I agree that many people use Atkins as a fad diet, and that's not what it's for. That can be harmful to them. However, if you follow the good doctor's recommendations carefully, it can be very beneficial to your health. Many people have made dramatic changes to their lives using Atkins, and I hope people will continue to have success on it. By the way people, don't take something for gospel just because your doctor says so. They aren't lying, but they are just saying what they were taught in medical school. That does not necessarily make them an expert in diet or nutrition or it's impact on your body. The medical profession has a very strong resistance to change, and the food industry (wheat, bread, high fructose corn syrup producers) pushes our current high-carb diet as much as they can.
Gutter Snipe, I disagree. I think Atkins should be more of a short term thing (a month or two). if you do it long term, even if you moderate, it's going to affect you long term. The worst thing about Atkins is when your'e done with it you consider everythign fattening, and you just go crazy trying to think abotu hwta to eat. When I came off Atkins, I decided to just eat GOOD food, steamed rice, grilled chicken, salads, fruits, etc... However, there was something in my head that told me not to have rice or certain fruits and I wasn't about to eat oily foods, so I was stuck in between. Same thing happened with my brother. IMO the best way to do it is to get on Atkins with light exercise, lose some weight while your metabolism gets going and your confidence goes up, then get off it and switch to a new healthy diet with slightly more exercise. To my surprise, you can have LOTS of good food a day and still be losing weight because you wouldn't reach the minimum calories needed for your body to function (assuming you do not move all day). Atkins has no short-term effects, but everything points to it having long-term effects. If your body NATURALLY uses stored fat as the 2nd source of energy, then there must be some ill-effects of beginning to use it as the first source for the rest of your life, and that's EXACTLY what Atkins does. It changes your system to a mainly body-fat burning one from a system that burns the fats/carbs you currently eat. Sort of a LIFO vs. FIFO thing for those who studied business.
I was on Atkins and lifting weights 3 times a week. I wasn't really making any progress, so I decided to hire a personal trainer and he told me if I was trying to build muscle while doing Atkins, I was just wasting my time and energy. You can't build muscle without lots of complex carbohydrates (brown rice, whole grain breads, oatmeal etc). I'm not sure what you want out of your weight program, but I've made amazing progress since scrapping Atkins and adding lots of complex carbs back to my diet. BTW, I'm by no means an "Atkins hater". I lost 60 pounds on in back in 2000. I just think the only way you can lose weight, and more importantly keep it off, is by changing your lifestyle, which is what I've done.
actually...right now...it isnt as much about gaining muscle mass..as it is just keeping the heartrate up there for the entirety of my time in the gym. I get bored easily just doing cardio on treadmills, or stationary bikes and stuff like that....When I push myself on the weights...it gives me something else to do while keeping the heartrate up there. WHen I shed another 20 or so...I will start taking in enough to give me what I need for muscle building.. even then...what I take in will not be bad carbs..I have learnd to stay away from those. I plan on keeping it that way for life. as someone else said...using Atkins to lose the weight...and then maintaining with healthy food is the way I intend to go.
