Anyone try the Atkins Diet?

[HamSupLo]

I'm asian and I can't even imagine not eating rice or noodles. I also can't imagine how funky your farts and sh!t will smell like with the diet.

 

[Miramonti]

I talked to my dog and she said that she's tired of her high carbo dry food diet and would like to go on this too. 😀

 

[rickn]

<< I also can't imagine how funky your farts and sh!t will smell like with the diet. >>



no different than anyone else. of course if you go days without going it is gonna smell like something crawled up there and died regardless of what you eat.

 

[MrChicken]

It works, just like rickn says, read the whole book.

From personal experience, it kept me from being diagnosed as a diabetic, I lowered my avg glucose level from ~180 to ~110, after 3 months my total cholesterol was ~140. In 6 months I lost 30 pounds. My Dr agrees that it is a good diet.

I actually lost more weight than I wanted and slowly added carbs back in. My glucose levels are up to the 120-130 range now.

Like any diet, you will put the weight back on when stop, if you do not take any other action to keep the weight off.

One thing that works well, and it is in the book, is to cycle diets when you get tired of the one you are on. So if Atkins is getting tiresome, switch to a low fat diet and grab those carbs. It really is all about calorie restriction.
On atkins you will probably find after a few days that you cant eat enough to gain weight, and you'll burn all the fat calories you take in, that's why (IMHO) that's why cholesterol does not rise like most people think. Switching to a low fat diet does the same thing.

As on any diet, if you break it for a day or more, just go back on it.

Get some exercise... IMHO, weights are better than aerobics for permanent fat loss.

 

[Peetoeng]

<<

<< If you find Atkins diet is too extreme then you might want to try yet another diet: circadian diet.
The idea is based on the rythmicity of bodily process, day and night, and seasons. Do some google search.

1. Daily food regimen:
- Breakfast/lunch: eat high protein diet (40-60% protein), little amount of carb.
- Dinner: eat normal portion of carb, other starchy or sweet food, but less protein.

Most vegetables (corn and potatoes are starchy) are considered circadian neutral, so you can eat them for every meal.

2. Seasonal food regien:
- eat fruits (sugary) / carbs during summer
- eat more protein in winter
The basic premise is that the body has been in sync with what/how nature provides (harvest during summer, famine during winter).

3. Cut down on processed food, especially the low-fat ones. >>



thats sounds really hippie >>



There is a reason junk food is called as such. The part of eating non-processed food may sound hippie, but that doesn't limit you from eating meats. Reserving the carb intake for dinner, from what I understand, is to limit your insulin rise in the evening. Limiting carb intake is more than for how you look but also to prevent adult onset diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.

I've tried this diet and I think I can make it stick. Growing up in asia, I am used to having egg, tofu/tempeh, and rice for breakfast (pretty high protein meal). I don't eat cereal since I am lactose intolerant. I just need to cut down my rice for breakfast, but I'd have my regular portion of rice, beans, pasta, or whatever my carb of choice for dinner that day. I usually have apple or orange for lunch if I don't do buffet where I'd load mostly on meat/fish and vegetables.

 

[Nefrodite]

your gonna love this.

atkins author suffers heart attack!!! http://www.cnn.com/2002/HEALTH/diet.fitness/04/25/atkins.diet/


lol🙂

 

[Alienwho]

Ok i haven't read any replies yet so I don't know if this is what said. In my health science class my teacher went over the atkins diet and this is pretty much what he said.

When you're on the atkins diet and not eating any carbs, your body goes into a process called "Ketosis" where it burns fat for fuel, rather then taking carbs for fuel and leaving the fat. But carbohydrates are addictive, and once you go back to eating them you blow up like a balloon.

 

[MrChicken]

Cardiac Arrest, not a heart attack.....

From the article:
In Atkins' case, cardiomyopathy was caused by an infection that spread to his heart muscle.

"I have had cardiomyopathy, which is a non-coronary condition and is in no way related to diet," Atkins said in a statement.

A statement by The Atkins Companies also said the hot weather in New York may have been a factor in the cardiac arrest. Temperatures last week in New York were in the 90s.

"We have been treating this condition, cardiomyopathy, for almost two years," said Patrick Fratellone, Atkins' personal physician and cardiologist. "Clearly, his own nutritional protocols have left him, at the age of 71, with an extraordinarily healthy cardiovascular system."

 

[MrChicken]

"When you're on the atkins diet and not eating any carbs, your body goes into a process called "Ketosis" where it burns fat for fuel, rather then taking carbs for fuel and leaving the fat. But carbohydrates are addictive, and once you go back to eating them you blow up like a balloon."

That's pretty much correct, just the same as every other diet. You stop and go back to your old ways and you blow right back up, and usually you end up fatter.

If it werent for advertising, common sense would be that eating "diet" foods low in protein and fat for more than a decade, have made the population much fatter than it was. People keep buying the "low fat" foods that are high in sugars and the studies keep coming out how americans get fatter every year.

 

[911paramedic]

<< Cardiac Arrest, not a heart attack.....

From the article:
In Atkins' case, cardiomyopathy was caused by an infection that spread to his heart muscle.

"I have had cardiomyopathy, which is a non-coronary condition and is in no way related to diet," Atkins said in a statement.

A statement by The Atkins Companies also said the hot weather in New York may have been a factor in the cardiac arrest. Temperatures last week in New York were in the 90s.

"We have been treating this condition, cardiomyopathy, for almost two years," said Patrick Fratellone, Atkins' personal physician and cardiologist. "Clearly, his own nutritional protocols have left him, at the age of 71, with an extraordinarily healthy cardiovascular system." >>



Cardiomyopathy is an enlargement of the heart from working too hard for too long (years). Usually leads to a condition called CHF, or congestive heart failure. Simply put, the heart cannot move the blood through the lungs like it should, and you start drowning in your own fluids. It is a nasty condition.

What Atkins had was cardiac arrest. (sounds like) Although I do not see how his assistants "got his heart going" again. The heart will not start "going again" without (a) voltage, "CLEAR!" (b) IV medications (epi, atropine, lidocaine, betryllium, etc) (c) a combination of the two. I think there may be more to that story than was printed. Unless his assistants were ER docs with all their ACLS equipment.

😉

 

[Angrymarshmello]

Getting in shape is a lifestyle change - it is not something a diet will take care of. In fact, most diets are useless - you eat less, so not only do you lose fat, you lose muscle. When you go off your diet, you balloon back up to your previous weight - none of that weight you gained back being muscle, so you are fatter even though you weighed the same as you did before you went on that diet.

 

[Pabster]

The Atkins Diet is just another money laundering ploy, brainwashing consumers. Depriving your body of a necessary, fundamental building block (carbohydrates) is very, very bad. Of course, guess what. You can purchase all kinds of really great carb-free and low-carb products at the Atkins Store. They cost 4x as much, come in smaller portions, and you can pay shipping too! 😀

Seriously, stay far away from this diet. Ketosis is not a good thing. Inundating your body with fat and protein while neglecting carbs is going to cause serious trouble down the road.

Now excuse me while I finish my bacon, pork, steak, ham, eggs, and macadamia nuts. 😀

 

[Jfur]

My Dad has threatened to go on this diet, so I was reading about it. One thing I notice is that -- despite all the fats and protein, it ends up with a caloric deficit (therefore, weight loss) -- so why not just do it by restricting calories and exercising?

 

[DevilsAdvocate]

It does work, and it is really easy to follow.

It is not as much a diet as it is a lifestyle change. 🙂

 

[Pabster]

Jfur wrote:

"My Dad has threatened to go on this diet, so I was reading about it. One thing I notice is that -- despite all the fats and protein, it ends up with a caloric deficit (therefore, weight loss) -- so why not just do it by restricting calories and exercising?"

Tada! Finally, someone notices the myth of the Atkins machine. You are consuming less total calories daily, even though you are eating those "bad" fatty foods. The problem is, the Atkins way encourages an unhealthy lifestyle. All fats are NOT equal. Eating foods high in saturated fats, which the Atkins Diet encourages and promotes, is putting you on your way to an early grave. Stick to the good, unsaturated (healthy) fats found in nuts, olive oil, peanut butter (natural), etc.

 

[MrChicken]

<"My Dad has threatened to go on this diet, so I was reading about it. One thing I notice is that -- despite all the fats and protein, it ends up with a caloric deficit (therefore, weight loss) -- so why not just do it by restricting calories and exercising?"

Tada! Finally, someone notices the myth of the Atkins machine. You are consuming less total calories daily, even though you are eating those "bad" fatty foods. The problem is, the Atkins way encourages an unhealthy lifestyle. All fats are NOT equal. Eating foods high in saturated fats, which the Atkins Diet encourages and promotes, is putting you on your way to an early grave. Stick to the good, unsaturated (healthy) fats found in nuts, olive oil, peanut butter (natural), etc.>


First part of the above, it has been no secret that you are calorie restricted on Atkins. Proteins take longer to digest than carbs, if you fill your gut with protein it will stay full much longer that it will with pasta. Eating protein/fat also avoids the sugar rush that causes the insulin rush that leads to being hungry an hour after you eat. Fat sends a signal to the brain that there is no need to be hungry, this also helps curb an appetite.


Part two. Atkins doesnt encourage eating bad fats, not in the way you portray it. If I remember correctly, he simply does not discourage it unless you are not follwing his diet. His claim is something like if you are not in ketosis, the fats become harmfull. Which if you understand what happes when in ketosis, it makes sense. When in ketosis, you burn fat for fuel, since you are in calorie deficit, you will burn all fat you take in and then some. That is why after a bout 9-12 weeks your cholesterol levels plummet.

 

[Chaotic42]

Regarding the high protein part, couldn't you just substitute protein rich foods like tofu, beans, and peanuts for the meat? That would make it vegetarian.

FWIW, I lost 60 pounds in 3 months by becoming vegan.