Who has done Atkins?

[warch]

Dr. Miriam Nelson of Tufts weighs in (doh!) on Atkins. I tend to believe her.

Basically, the Atkins diet, and all the other very high protein diets (less than 20% of calories coming from carbohydrates), is not one that I would recommend. Yes, you do lose weight on these diets but you do so in an unhealthy way and it is very unclear whether you can keep the weight off. If you cut carbohydrates drastically and add a corresponding amount of protein, your body is forced to turn to an inferior fuel source: protein metabolites called ketones. Your kidneys go into overdrive to flush them and the excess nitrogen from the protein out of your system. In the process, you drain water from your body and you become dehydrated (and lose weight). There’s good news on the scales, perhaps, but bad news for your body. You’ve lost mainly water - along with calcium from your bones and protein from your muscle and not as much fat as you might think. Moreover, your kidneys and heart muscle are under stress. People often become light headed and weak when on very high protein diets, and they develop bad breath! In addition, you are missing out on all the health-promoting elements of fruits and vegetables, not to mention fiber from whole grains. Finally, all that saturated fat is not good for your heart or arteries!

The weight loss diet that I recommend (and outlined in Strong Women Stay Slim) is one that is comprised of about 55% of calories from carbohydrates, 15% from protein, and no more than 30% from fat. For the carbohydrates, focus on whole grains, fruits, and vegetables - with as few refined and processed grains as possible. Fat calories should ideally come mostly from unsaturated fats - from olive and canola oils, and especially cold-water fish, which contain health-promoting omega-3 fats. Foods such as poultry, fish, lean meat, and low-fat dairy should comprise the majority of calories from protein foods. This basic diet is safe, wholesome, and health promoting. If weight loss is necessary, the structure of the diet should stay essentially the same, with a decrease in the number of calories consumed from snack foods and refined grains, along with a focus on reducing portion sizes.

[aerion_13]

Show of hands who all is still on Atkin's diet and it's six months later. And not "kinda sorta." But on like you were the first two months of your diet.
And how much weight have you lost?

[Slartibartfast]

I've been on Atkins since Jan 1st, and I've lost at least 20 lbs, maybe a little more and am still losing weight. When I reach 240lbs which should be in less than two weeks, I'm celebrating with some pizza, then back to the diet. My goal is to get to under 200. In all this time, I have only cheated on one dinner at a resturaunt.

The only thing I miss on this diet is good pizza.


Anyone else out there? If you've left Atkins, what are you doing now, are you on another diet? Have you gained any weight back?

[wolf]

I'm on South Beach since late January (started after Chinese New Year) and have lost 32 pounds (as of yesterday).

I have experienced some mild backsliding involving some homemade chocolate dark & white-chocolate chip cookies, but the dial on the scale keeps creeping anti-clockwise.

Oh yeah. I did have some pizza last Friday night ... chicken cordon bleu flavor, didn't eat the edge crust.

Damn, but that tasted good ... and I don't even like pizza that much.

I've pretty much had it up to here (*holds hand three inches above head*) with All-Bran Cereal, but otherwise, I'm holding up okay.

[Beestie]

Dr. Miriam Nelson of Tufts weighs in (doh!) on Atkins. I tend to believe her.

Me too.

Excess protein is converted into enzymes which tend to destroy nutrient stores in the body and do other undesireable things.

Also, on the subject of high-fructose corn syrup ("HFCS"), there is are two interesting studies about it. One traces the first instance of the spike in the percentage of obese Americans to 1971 - the first year HFCS was introduced into the food supply.

Secondly HFCS seems to have the ability to bypass (or suppress) that part of the brain that signals "I'm full." Basically, the study showed that one could eat a hell of a lot more food when also consuming a coke sweetened with HFCS than one can eat with a coke sweetened with sugar.

And I'll be damned if I understand how a diet that throws the warnings about saturated fat out the window makes any sense. How is having bacon grease globules slogging through one's arteries supposed to be not unhealthy?

To me, a healthy diet is complex carbs (the more complex the better), low-fat protien (fish (I eat a ton of canned tuna and salmon), chicken (skinless but not boneless), beans & rice, etc.) veggies and fruit. Basically, avoid simple carbs (turns to sugar immediately), avoid sat fat and avoid HFCS (switch to Gatorade or water and consider green tea over coffee+cream- tea has caffeine too - esp green.).

[SteveDallas]

http://www.thebostonchannel.com/heal...81/detail.html

[lumberjim]

i started atkins right before haloween. I did not weigh myself because I didnt want to know how fat i was. I guess i was around 300 lbs. Im 6'2" I have taken a couple of days off of the diet for holidays, but for the most part, I'm faithful. I still don;t have a scale, but I figure that I'm somewhere around 240 or 250 at this point. I can see my willie when i pee now.

[kerosene]

Did my own sort of diet thingy. I started back in August and made the following changes to my eating patterns:

- Stopped drinking pop with HFCS
- Stopped eating cakes, cookies, candy, etc. while at work, no matter what my coworkers brought in.
- Began eating breakfast every day, usually around 8:30
- Cut my portions by about half.
- Ate little snacks about every 2 hours
- Didn't eat after 7pm

The cool thing was, I didn't cut out pizza, fast food, spaghetti, etc. I didn't cut out carbs...I still ate bread and pasta and sometimes potatoes. But I have been reasonable about these things, so instead of having a burger, fries and a coke, I would have a burger some fruit and water. I still do it this way. I lost a total of 42 pounds so far (went from 182 to 140) the bulk of which came off from August to December. It was slow and is really slow right now, but since it was something manageable for me, it works and I can stick with it.

Oh yeah, I didn't increase my activity level on purpose, but I found that as I lost weight I had more energy and actually felt like getting up from my desk to walk around a little bit. It sort of naturally increased a little bit, which probably helped.

[russotto]

Originally posted by Beestie
Excess protein is converted into enzymes which tend to destroy nutrient stores in the body and do other undesireable things.

Destroying nutrient stores in the body is exactly the point.

Secondly HFCS seems to have the ability to bypass (or suppress) that part of the brain that signals "I'm full." Basically, the study showed that one could eat a hell of a lot more food when also consuming a coke sweetened with HFCS than one can eat with a coke sweetened with sugar.

The problem with this theory is that sucrose (ordinary sugar) gets broken down into glucose and fructose in the digestive system. So if HFCS doesn't make you feel full, how can sugar?

And I'll be damned if I understand how a diet that throws the warnings about saturated fat out the window makes any sense.

Well, if you're only going to pay attention to conventional wisdom, you're only going to get conventional answers.

[Radar]

I couldn't do Atkins while in Vietnam and when I got back it took me a few weeks to catch up on a months worth of bills. Atkins is slightly expensive due to the amount o fmeat.

Today I started back on Atkins Induction. I had forgotten how uncomfortable the first 3 or 4 days are. But that's alright, I feel even more uncomfortable being fat.

[LabRat]

I've been wondering what the status of your success has been, do tell!!

[busterb]

I traded the book to library for a sealed boxed Adobe Illustrator 7.0. Yes I'm haveing as much luck learning that as the diet!