New to Atkins diet
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xrachypx
Posts: 17 Member
Hi
Just wondering if any of you are following or have followed the Atkins diet plan? Be great to add some friends for motivation, tips and chats
Just wondering if any of you are following or have followed the Atkins diet plan? Be great to add some friends for motivation, tips and chats
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Replies
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Oh yes, been there and done that. It was part of my 15 years of yo-yo diets. Never again. Although I have some low carb meals now, and cherry pick from all those fat diets for a meal or a day, I'll never deprive myself like that again. Ever. We all learn from our mistakes and I'm thankful for those painful years of Atkins for those valuable lessons.0
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Oh, that doesn't sound positive then. Im only doing this for two weeks to give my body a kick start.0
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I'm doing keto, which is basically permanent Atkins induction.0
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How are you finding it? Have you had success with weight loss as yet?0
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Oh, that doesn't sound positive then. Im only doing this for two weeks to give my body a kick start.
I didn't mean to squash your motivation. It can be a great strategy in the short term.
For the most part you don't need to do any "kick start". All you need is a calorie deficit. Really and truly. The depriving is so painful and even one week or 3 days of that can set you on a carb binge.
I really recommend just following a calorie budget on here, eating what you like, focus on proteins and veggies, add a serving of carbs and a tablespoon of healthy fat and it all falls into place. It's sustainable and gives you life long skills that way. AND you'll just plain feel better!!!!!
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See the thing about Atkins and a lot of those fad diets is they give the illusion that you can eat however much you want by depriving of some specific foods. Since you are on here (MFP) you don't need that illusion.
MFP and the entire concept of a calorie budget takes away the illusions, so you really don't need any of them. You just need to look at your food intake like a budget, for life. Isn't that why you joined?0 -
I did Atkins for 10 years. I lost and keep 40 lbs off. You will lose 1/2 per day on avg. More at first, if you follow it carefully. No calorie limits. Atkins works by body chemistry, not calorie intake. Problems: Constipation (you need to drink Metamucil, etc in large qtys) carb cravings, (they disappear after about 3 days) and long term disease tendancy (cardiac, intestinal mainly, but also breast cancer in men and women) Reading The China Study got me to try plants (which added 20 lbs back on, now losing via calorie method here on MFP). If you are morbidly obese and need to get slimmer fast, Atkins works wonders, but it is not a healthy long term answer.0
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Reading these comments has totally put me off now! I just need a boost to kickstart my weight loss!0
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californiagirl2012 wrote: »See the thing about Atkins and a lot of those fad diets is they give the illusion that you can eat however much you want by depriving of some specific foods. Since you are on here (MFP) you don't need that illusion.
MFP and the entire concept of a calorie budget takes away the illusions, so you really don't need any of them. You just need to look at your food intake like a budget, for life. Isn't that why you joined?
Very true! I don't know what to do now
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I've been on Atkins before and it worked well, as long as I stuck to it. What I learned, though, is that I would crave carbs, and after induction and losing 10 pounds or so, I would gain all of that back and then some if I started eating carbs again. So what I learned was to use veggies more, limit fruit to once a day or small portions twice a day (part of an apple, not the whole thing, for example), eliminate breads and buns and wraps (since aside from the carbs they are processed so they are low in fiber and high in some sort of sweetener), and use unprocessed things like pumpkin and chia seed, hemp hearts, for fiber, usually mixed in yogurt. I don't really enjoy red meat and eat it rarely. If I weren't so carb-sensitive, I'd be a vegetarian, but carbs and starches really do put weight on me and I'd have to starve to lose any weight. And I can't give up yogurt, but I eat small portions of whole-milk yogurt without added sugars, and just add berries. So I go for balance: in one week alone, eating things like tuna or chicken salad for lunch on a bed of mixed greens with grape tomatoes and a few olives, a boiled egg with a quarter of an apple and a cheese stick for breakfast, and a big serving of vegetables with about 4-6 ounces of poultry for dinner, I lost 6 pounds. One of the things I learned was that after breakfast, by 11 am, I was craving something sweet, so that's when I have yogurt with berries and chia seeds/hemp hearts. I learned to listen to what my body was craving when, and found healthy ways to respond, and spaced out small meals all day. The new Atkins program doesn't advocate eating all the meat you want; it also includes whole grains, but induction is still the same. I guess if you compare what I'm eating to the Atkins stages, I'm not in induction, I'm in the second phase. You don't have to start with induction and after that stage, the diet is pretty balanced. I also got Andrew Lessman's cookbook for soups made from scratch with vegetables, and it is surprising how low-carb those recipes are, using everyday vegetables (there's even a cucumber soup, and a really nice turkey chili recipe, although I leave out the beans). Essentially what I do is make vegetables the center piece of the meal with a small portion of meat to ensure that I feel full and satisfied. Beans and legumes don't do that for me. Now, I should say that I had my gall bladder out in 2010 and that has created a whole host of issues for me (I gained 25 pounds), and some people post gall-bladder removal who experience digestion issues either go very veggie and low-fat or go high protein-low carb.0
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Why do you need a "kickstart?" You are not a motorcycle. Just make a good, sustainable plan that you can keep up with forever by satisfying both your physical and emotional needs. And then just keep doing it.0
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There is no such thing as kick starting your weight loss. That sounds like a fad term. Kick start with a calorie budget this week. The calorie recommendations MFP gives you is a great place to start. REALLY!!
Focus on lean protein and veggies that you LIKE, add in one tables spoon of olive oil, butter, or coconut oil. Have 1-2 small servings of complex carbs of your choice. That's all it takes. Really and truly. That is what MFP is all about. It's about avoiding those silly fads.
The focus on Veggies and Protein will make you feel satisfied and full, give you fiber, and really it's just like Atkins without the torture, because you can actually add a serving or two of carbs and FEEL BETTER while you lose the weight.
Trust those of us who have been around here awhile and WALK the TALK. I know I am not the only one, there are thousands and thousands of us.
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The reason people feel deprived on Atkins is because they don't follow the plan correctly, have never read the book and get hung up on induction. If you do Atkins 20 (Induction), after 2 weeks you begin adding carbs back according to the carb ladder. If you do Atkins 40 (new plan since last January, there is no induction and you get more carbs from the beginning. I've been on low carb for many years and am very healthy. Low carb is now recommended for Alzheimes, diabetes, epilepsy, PCOS because the scientific research has been done and it is effective. Don't listen to the naysayers but give it a try yourself.0
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A kick start can make you feel like you're making progress, and it can motivate you and encourage you. But remember the Weight Watchers commercial with the Queen song "another one bites the dust"? That's kind of a shame, since that song is about people dying of AIDS, but the point is, slow and steady wins the race. I love Atkins and find that I learned how much bread and wraps and wheat and grains sabotaged my weight loss, but I think the point is not finding a kick start, but finding something you can sustain, that you can live with without being bored. I'm not sure what people mean when they say to have veggies and protein and 'add carb,' since the veggies have carbs. I consider the veggies the carbs and rather than induction, I do about 40-50 grams of carb a day; the point is they are good carbs, not processed wheat or pastries with no nutritional value. The challenge of doing Atkins is that you have to be prepared to make good choices, even if that means preparing your own food, but there are options. At work I can get an omelet from the cafe, or a hamburger and not eat the bun, but it is hard to find prepared food without wheat and refined grains and potatoes, all of which turn to sugar in my body. It's tempting to grab a tuna-salad sandwich and a bag of potato chips, but I'm always sorry when I do. I had a friend who lost weight eating 100 grams of carb a day, but the crucial issue was what kind of carbs. She would pass on potato chips and bread but she would eat veg. Dr. Weil's anti-inflammatory diet recommends whole grains but in unprocessed form. And I tried the resistant starch diet, a protein, a veg, a starch, and a MUFA (an added Omega-3 fat). I just gained weight on that too. The point I finally came to was to realize that all my experimentation led me to understand what kinds of things my body would metabolize and what it wouldn't. I even tried Sherry Brescia's food combining program, and the interesting thing is, if I combined starches or breads with veggies, which is one option, I gained weight; if I combined proteins with veggies, I lost weight. Technically the weight-loss was supposed to come from not mixing proteins and starches, but I learned, or just affirmed, what had already worked for me in the past. There was an old saying at Weight Watchers: nothing tastes as good as thin feels. More importantly for me, I learned that nothing tastes as good as a happy stomach feels. If you are carb-sensitive and wheat and grains are an issue for you, your stomach will thank you and you'll feel a difference right away, regardless of how fast the weight comes off. But if you can lose weight and feel great by eating a variety of foods in reasonable portion sizes, good for you, and enjoy the bounty!0
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Thank you all so much for your input on this. I am going to continue with the atkins plan but not as low carb as 20g a day, more like 40g. Thats still a dramatic drop for me.
Today has been my first day and ive enjoyed the foods ive ate and my tummy is nice & full.
Thanks again 0 -
Thank you all so much for your input on this. I am going to continue with the atkins plan but not as low carb as 20g a day, more like 40g. Thats still a dramatic drop for me.
Today has been my first day and ive enjoyed the foods ive ate and my tummy is nice & full.
Thanks again
There ya go
The key is to pay attention to how you feel and change it up accordingly. Base your decisions on that. Your body is the end game, not what any of us says, any guru, chart, book, theory, or calculator says. This applies to what you eat, when you eat, when you don't eat, the amounts you eat, all of it.
That goes for fat loss over time, muscle building, all of it. Your body is the end game and if you listen it will give you the true answer far better than any of us. We are all different. Contrary to what one user wrote here - that it didn't work because we didn't read the book or follow it correctly - it just plain does not work for all of us even when we followed it correctly.
Even if you feel some uncomfortableness from the calorie deficit (it is temporary corrective action to fix a health problem after all - like taking medicine), if you sleep well, feel well, are strong in your workouts, recover well, have a general feeling of well being, and have enough energy to accomplish all of your responsibilities --- those are the indicators that you are doing okay.
Best of luck.
Roberta
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I did South Beach at one point which is also a carb restricted diet. Did I lose weight? Yep. But it had nothing at all to do with the carbs. Instead of eating a bunch of rice with chicken and a vegetable I was eating some chicken with a bunch more vegetables. This naturally reduced my overall calorie intake and THAT is why I lost weight. It was 100% because I was eating less calories as the vegetables I was eating was no where near as calorie dense as a serving of rice or pasta. Period.
That said, I didn't stick to it and as soon as I went off, I gained the weight back. Why didn't I stick with it? Because the number one way for ME to fail is to tell myself I could no longer have something. Then all I do is crave and wish I could have it. Not the way I want to live my life!0 -
I never did Atkins, specifically, but I have been eating low carb for over two years now. Helped me lose 40 lbs (now I'm pregnant, so not working on losing or even maintaining, obviously). The food is delicious and cutting carbs definitely helped me with appetite control and getting rid of cravings (once I stopped eating bread I stopped wanting to eat it.... now I don't regard grains as "food" so much as what one might put food on, lol). That said, when I cut carbs I went at it kind of backwards - reducing the amount over the course of a week or so, rather than dramatically cutting all at once. No "low carb flu" and it was much easier since it wasn't as strict. While I was losing I ate 60-100g of carbs per day (total... I never bothered with "net"), and in maintenance I ate 80-120 g per day. I've continued that thru this pregnancy (except the 1st trimester - nausea and fatigue sent me off the rails for a while.... I paid for it by gaining too much, but then again the 1st trimester is simply about survival!). I tend towards insulin resistance (family history of type 2 diabetes and I'm getting old so losing weight by simply cutting calories has gotten a lot harder), so low carb makes a great deal of sense for me - I'll probably eventually develop diabetes and need to watch the carbs anyway... might as well start now and be used to it!
Carb counting can absolutely be a tool to help, especially in terms of reducing appetite and cravings. But calories still matter. I did find I could get away with eating far fewer calories on a low carb plan than I ever could on a low fat plan, so that was nice. And yes, if you cut carbs you will lose a crap-ton of water in the first couple weeks, which can motivate you, but then the loss slows down to a normal rate. If you decide to do it, be prepared for that.
I personally don't find it restrictive (butter, steak, and heavy cream... oh, and did someone say BACON?.... hardly what I would regard as "restrictive"), but that's really a matter of personal perspective. When I went low carb I simply decided to give it an honest try for 6 weeks - I figured if I hated it, or it didn't work as anticipated, or if I felt like crap, at the end of 6 weeks I could always go back to eating shredded wheat and skim milk instead of eggs fried in butter if that's what I wanted to do. Obviously I didn't want to do that, lol. But your mileage may vary. My thought - try it. If you like it you can keep on doing it. If you don't like it you can always go back. The pasta isn't going anywhere.0 -
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