Atkins Diet Revisited
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ON HERE, Atkins and low carb eating plans are shunned because it's apparently bad to do anything other than IIFYM. I've been doing keto for over a year. I find eating this way easy and delicious. If I know I'm going to be going out to eat, I look up the menus online and pre-select a low carb meal. SOME people can't sustain this way of eating and that's fine. But for some to say that it can't be sustained in general, that is just not true.0
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independant2406 wrote: »I did Atkins for several years about 8-10 years ago. I lost lots of weight and kept it off fairly well. The problem was I did get very bored of the limited food options. I don't eat seafood because it grosses me out so that limited my options even more. It also felt like the minute I decided to splurge on something sweet It set me back by 2-3 weeks.
I think if I'd tried a little harder to stick with it as a lifestyle and learned how to cook more dishes with variety of flavors I would probably have been fine... but after several years of eating the exact same thing every day I just couldn't do it. Even now many years later I pretty much want to throw up at the site of bacon, pork rinds or heavy whipping cream.
(My fault for not creating other stuff or experimenting with new flavors)
With that said. I think Dr. Atkins was a genius and I will always give him props for proving there's another way to lose weight... (people around here will argue with you till their last breath that you cant possibly lose weight eating MORE calories and It makes me smile). Even now 30 years later a lot of studies trying to disprove the low carb lifestyle end up showing its just as good, if not better for you, than low calorie/low fat lifestyles.
These days I'm keeping my carbs low-ish (shooting for 75 and below) so I can still have a bit of fruit and the occasional bit of bread and it seems to be working. Its tricky balancing the numbers but I can have the variety I need this way. Plus, keeping the carbs low and protein up has definitely helped with appetite on a low calorie plan.
That's the key thing that I really enjoy about it, I'm not always craving carbs anymore the way I used to. I think there is still quite a bit to be said for the low-carb diet if you can come up with a variation of interesting dishes and create options whenever you eat out with friends. You don't have to always observe the induction phase stage of the diet, especially if you are already a really active person.
If you do any kind of circuit-training or high-intensity exercise getting some carbs in your diet is just a must.
75 and below is really good all things considered; I think it's generally smart to try and avoid really high-carb foods if you're conscientious of your weight.0 -
My whole family did the Atkins plan together after my first child. It worked really well for initial weight loss. I also had no problems maintaining a fairly rigorous work out program.
I learned alot about portion control, different types of carbs, different types of fats, and about different types of proteins and how they affected my body. I stayed on a relatively low carb lifestyle for about 10 years.
I didn't feel restricted most the time, I still had treats, made cookies, ate out, and even made bread on occasion. I monitored my weight and made adjustments when I started eating too many processed foods.
Ultimately my downfall was a second hard pregnancy with some absolutely awful cravings that I gave into every time. And beer. Beer is a luxury that I enjoyed way too much for a few years as well. And I didn't keep up my workouts for a few years.
I don't feel like going through the first 2 phases again as strictly as I did then, if I plateau in reaching my pre baby self, I might consider it again. I did give up beer, it was sad, but ultimately I don't need it. I am going with calorie counts for now.
I still monitor my processed foods pretty closely, and will typically choose full fat over low fat. I try to get enough fiber and protein as they make a huge impact on how I feel. I try to stay away from sugar treats, but an occasional brownie makes it in there.
Overall, I always thought if it as a lifestyle choice and not just a diet to lose weight. The maintenance part was stressed to me as well as getting rid of processed foods.
If it works, you feel good, and can maintain a healthy balance, then it might work for you.
An augmented version of the Atkins diet seems best; if you try to follow it to the letter for years at a time I think it'll be really hard to keep up because everybody has a beer and a brownie every now and then.
I've never been pregnant but I do see myself having children at some point in the future. Whenever I'm hormonal I tend to crave salty meats; I'll have to chuck the book then but hopefully it won't be difficult to return to this lifestyle choice of eating.
It's neat to hear from someone else who also came from a generation of Atkins users. I know it was very popular whenever I was in high school.0 -
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Alana Tedmon Personally I think it is different strokes for different folks. You need to find what works for you. I am a diabetic and so far doing a low carb diet has helped me immensely. Can't say I am losing any faster but I do feel better. My son has been doing Atkins with his girlfriend and they both have lost considerably. You can use lower fat proteins to keep it healthier, and they do have cheat days, which may be what helps them losing pretty consistently. Atkins was known for being high fat protein but I do not believe they still push for example excessive amounts of bacon etc. like we used to hear about. I also don't believe anyone can stick to a food plan or diet whatever you want to call it, without on occasion indulging a little, keyword being a little. So who cares if others think Atkins isn't the best, if it works for you then do it, over time you will see if you can stick with it.0
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AlanaTedmon wrote: »I think it's generally smart to try and avoid really high-carb foods if you're conscientious of your weight.
Why?
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AlanaTedmon wrote: »I'm curious to know where the Atkins diet gets so much flack sometimes. I started it this week and I love it. You don't get cravings inbetween meals and you always feel full and happy! High-fat and high-protein is awesome! I'm burning off fat while eating cheese and mayo. What's not to love?
For me, it's talking to people who are on the Atkins diet/low-carb. And the cult like mentality a lot of people on the diet seems to adapt.
A coworker of mine and a friend use low-carb, and they talk about their diet constantly. From talking about what they can and can't eat and how it's helping them lose weight or maintain their weight. And it's great that they have found something that works for them,but I've never mentioned my diet to them, even after I changed it to lose weight.
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lemurcat12 wrote: »It's this kind of thing that actually turns me off of the diet even more than the idea that I'd have to cut carbs heavily (although that too, as I like the level of carbs I'm at). I really don't understand why you'd want such a prescriptive diet.
Dr Atkins ran a weight loss clinic, it was prescriptive as that is what is called for in those situations - many people need to be told precisely what to do. The sort of person that is nearing or just had some medical catastrophe and claiming they can't lose weight at 300 lbs for example.
Limits on things like mayo, cream or nuts are there to stop the patient from filling up on "free foods" that are calorie dense and preventing weight loss.0 -
As in my long post, the only way to lose weight is to spend time in the fat-burning mode while running a calorie deficit. You can get there through fasting, through exercise, or through a totally or predominantly fat-protein diet.
Very simple.
If it's "very simple", why do you keep getting it wrong?
Your body is ALWAYS in fat burning mode. The bigger your deficit, the more fat it'll burn. The bigger the surplus, the less fat it will burn.
There is no switch.0 -
AlanaTedmon wrote: »I've heard people complain that right after they did the Atkins they fell off of it afterwards. Maybe diets don't generally work for some people but if it's something you like doing I don't see it being a big issue. I could honestly see myself eating meats, veggies, eggs and cheese for years.
I have been on Atkins the past 2 weeks and am finally seeing some results. It all depends on your food preferences. Personally, I don't miss processed foods or starches at all. Ignore the haters and do what works for you. Good luck.
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I have been on Atkins the past 2 weeks and am finally seeing some results. It all depends on your food preferences. Personally, I don't miss processed foods or starches at all. Ignore the haters and do what works for you. Good luck.
That's awesome! So you must have already gotten past the induction phase, right? Did you do the ketosis sticks and such? I'm glad you're seeing results! The first 14 days are pretty rough.0 -
ladymiseryali wrote: »ON HERE, Atkins and low carb eating plans are shunned because it's apparently bad to do anything other than IIFYM. I've been doing keto for over a year. I find eating this way easy and delicious. If I know I'm going to be going out to eat, I look up the menus online and pre-select a low carb meal. SOME people can't sustain this way of eating and that's fine. But for some to say that it can't be sustained in general, that is just not true.
What does IIFYM stand for again? I'm sorry, I'm still a little new to the community and learning all the lingo.
That's pretty impressive that you've been doing the ketosis thing for over a whole year. I hear mixed things about how healthy it is to be doing it for very long because high levels of ketones are toxic to the body and ketosis itself has different interesting side effects that I'm still learning about. It hasn't prevented me from following the induction portion of the diet, however.
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Personally, I don't miss processed foods or starches at all. Ignore the haters and do what works for you. Good luck.
I love that I've been able to wean myself off of noodles and breads finally. I was pretty addicted to sweets and pastries. I had a hard time showing any kind of self restraint whenever coworkers brought brownies and cake to the break room.
Thanks a bunch, likewise!
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Because they're addictive if you have a sweet tooth like me, lol.AlanaTedmon wrote: »I think it's generally smart to try and avoid really high-carb foods if you're conscientious of your weight.
Why?
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lol.............I guess you showed him with all that cell volume talk.......trillions, very scary.As in my long post, the only way to lose weight is to spend time in the fat-burning mode while running a calorie deficit. You can get there through fasting, through exercise, or through a totally or predominantly fat-protein diet.
Very simple.
If it's "very simple", why do you keep getting it wrong?
Your body is ALWAYS in fat burning mode. The bigger your deficit, the more fat it'll burn. The bigger the surplus, the less fat it will burn.
There is no switch.
Well, obviously we are talking about the aggregate metabolic characteristics of the majority of the human body's 100 trillion cells at any one point in time.
But I suppose if you want to be difficult, that is as reasonably post as any.
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AlanaTedmon wrote: »What does IIFYM stand for again? I'm sorry, I'm still a little new to the community and learning all the lingo.
If It Fits Your Macros - the concept that any old mix of foods and drink is OK providing it turns out to have the right % of carbs, fat and protein in total.
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AlanaTedmon wrote: »
Atkins is now my way of life. When it is done correctly, there is no food that is off limit. You climb up the carb ladder adding them back slowly and seeing how you react to them. I occasionally have cereal for breakfast (I'm on Pre-Maintenance, Phase 3) or a potato with dinner. The key is to do it correctly and find your personal carb limit.
Why is it when people try to eliminate junk like bread, bagels, chips, candy, baked goods they are looked at ascance? It's a far healthier lifestyle without them.0 -
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QuilterInVA wrote: »Why is it when people try to eliminate junk like bread, bagels, chips, candy, baked goods they are looked at ascance? It's a far healthier lifestyle without them.
I had no idea bread, bagels and baked goods were junk...
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Point of clarification.
You can be in the fat burning mode by eating only fat and protein. If you ingest enough calories through the protein and fat that you eat, then you will gain fat.
So you can be in the fat burning mode and gain weight.
Wether you fast, exercise or eat a predominantly fat-protein diet... fat burning mode or not, if you are not running a calorie deficit you will not lose fat. At the end of the day, calories are still King...0 -
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I learned that u can eat anything. The keyword is 'moderation'. There r times where I go to reno for a whole weekend and I'm off the diet because i'm pigging out at the buffet and whatever else restaurants are around. I don't even do any extra cardio exercise to burn off the cals. When I get home I just return to my diet like nothing ever happen and I'm still losing weight.0
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I following a hi protein, moderate carb diet not a hi-protein-locarb diet. I eat a good 130g of carbs per day. Low carb would be 60g of carb per day.0
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Most people have been raised in an age of lies from everyone and everything they read. The human body is conditioned for a high protein high fat diet with some ruffage thrown in. This is why the paleo diet is similar to Atkins. Our Human ancestors did not have the ability to refine sugar and up until 1900 or so, sugar was expensive, so, it wasn't in most store bought foods. Thats why Granny got good at making desserts, they weren't pre-made in store's. Sugar was a reward back then. Now, it is a constant part of most people's diets.
When you read the comments you have received, what is the common reason people say they don't like Atkin's?? Because once you go back to a regular diet, you gain it all back. Well, Atkin's isn't a diet, it is a life long lifestyle change that requires a life long commitment. Once you are finished with the weight loss portion of atkins, you enter into maintenance. You then are allowed SOME carbs back into your diet. Some meaning any carb you want, just in moderation. You slowly add carbs back into your diet at first, in maintenance, until you stop losing or gain a pound. Once you know how many carbs you can eat a week without gaining anything back, that is your number from then on.
The people responding to you that don't like Atkin's, don't like the idea of not being able to go back to the foods they love. You say you were raised on the Atkins diet, so, those are the foods you like and crave and you will find it easy to stay on it. The others most likely will yoyo diet all their life, because they keep trying to get to where they can go back to a 6 pack of coke and whole pizza in one day, along with cookies and ice cream. We humans aren't meant to eat that much refined sugar and all those carbs.
If you subscribe to evolution, you understand that humans were hunters in our earlier hominid forms, we were just about 100% meat eaters with fruit and veg in our diet when it was growing wild, meaning available seasonally. Then, our ancestors shifted to growing food and still hunting, our diet became a bit more balanced, whole grains were the main supplement to our meat. We stayed that way for a long long time, until sugar became cheap and abundant.
Scientists, one in particular, developed the food pyramid. He did so while being funded by the Government. He pretty much over night changed how our optimal diet was perceived by most scientists and more importantly, the Government. From then on, starches and grains were the most important part of our diet and fats were out. This is when sugars were introduced, to help make a grain based diet more tasty, this is also when we as a whole, started getting fat. The weight epidemic is immediately traceable to the development of Government food guidelines. There is a great movie that covers the subject and more on youtube, called "Fathead the movie" watch it, its educational, common sense and informative. It was made to be a response to that idiot morgan spurlock and his film that bashed McDonald's, in doing research for the film, he learned a lot and proved Spurlock lied about eating McDonalds daily killing you. Spurlock doesn't mention a few things in his film, like he FORCED himself to drink a supersized coke EVERY meal and ate a dessert every dinner and large sized his fries or hashbrowns every meal. Nobody eats like that every meal, so, of course it would kill you, your eating damn near 10k calories and using not one iota of common sense.
Watch the film, it explains how low fat, low protein diets many vegans and vegetarians try to eat, can cause depression. This is because the brain is mostly fat and the fuel it uses is saturated fat, the kind you get from meat. Without these fats, people get depressed and turn to sugar to get a pick me up, its like a drug, it increases dopamine and makes you feel better. It also increases your insulin, insulin breaks down sugar and makes it turn IMMEDIATELY into fat.
This is why, IF you can get onto a low carb diet and make it work, you will lose weight and be happy and feel good. No sugar is allowed on Atkins and as we all know, starches are carbs and also forbidden when in induction and in weight loss phase. This is because starches convert to sugar in the body, which are converted into fat by insulin and other enzymes.
I myself was on Atkins for 7 weeks and i lost 41 pounds, I was killing it!!! Then I stopped, got to drinking beer and liquor with friends and leading a party lifestyle. I gained it all back. It works, so keep on if you like it. I am just getting back to trying to lose and I have a long long LONG way to go. Gotta start somewhere, learn to crawl before you walk, yadda yadda.... I'll be fighting for my life now, it's do or die, I am that big and in that bad of health. I'll be doing my own hybrid low carb diet where I avoid lots of carbs, but not all and try to avoid ALL sugar.
The movie is "Fathead" check it out!0 -
Most people have been raised in an age of lies from everyone and everything they read. The human body is conditioned for a high protein high fat diet with some ruffage thrown in. This is why the paleo diet is similar to Atkins.
Stopped there. The human body is conditioned to eat whatever is available around. Be it meat, fat, vegetables, grains, fruits.. etc. If doughnuts grew on trees I'll bet my hat that our human ancestors would have eaten them.
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You can be in the fat burning mode by eating only fat and protein. If you ingest enough calories through the protein and fat that you eat, then you will gain fat.
So you can be in the fat burning mode and gain weight.
If heart rate stays below (say) 120 bpm are we not always oxidising fat to some extent ? Doesn't the resting RER tend to be around 0.85 (+/- 0.05) ?
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