Anyone doing Atkins Diet? Need to start ASAP!
Replies
-
Forget the advice from Danp and others like it. There is a difference in diets. The studies prove that low carb diets like Atkins or Keto have a better effect on weight loss.
For the original poster, I would suggest just using MFP to track what you eat at first. Don't try to do it all at once because sustained weight loss takes time and is essentially a lifestyle change that has to stick after your goal weight is reached.place
You've taken the first step in recognizing that you are overweight. Now realize what got you there in the first place...most likely poor eating habits and little or no regular exercise.
Start by removing all the crap. Cut out fast food, processed packaged food and start making your own meals and snacks. Try to avoid refined sugar in all it's forms (corn syrup, dextrose, sucrose anything ending in -ose). Stay away from soda and fruit juice. Diet soda is okay as long as you have only one serving (8oz) per day.
Find an exercise routine that you can enjoy and stick to. Walking is a good start. Humans were designed to move and so the more you move the better you feel. Added weight can be a burden for exercising so consider weightless exercise at the local swimming pool - water walking, water calisthenics, swimming, water aerobics etc..
And lastly don't expect the weight to come flying off. It will take time to lose 50 - 100 lbs. just keep trying and keep moving forward.
Ultimately keeping your carb intake below 30-50g per day will go a long way in aiding your weight loss. Low carb diets like keto have enough evidence to prove they work fundamentally better for people with health related weight issues.
Carbs are not the devil here. Excessive calories are.
OP - choose your way of eating, whether it be simply calorie counting whole eating what you like, or Atkins, or anything else. Use a food scale to accurately weigh (estimated portions can be wildly off) and measure what you need to, log everything accurately.
If you find your chosen way of eating doesn't work for you, for any reason, then try another. It takes time, and you'll refine what you're eating as you continue on and the weight will come off.
I would suggest ignoring any advice other than from medical professionals that say that you HAVE to eat a certain way to lose weight. It's about portion control and unlearning old eating habits.
Best of luck to you and your wife. And haunt the forums/ask questions. Lots of good support here.5 -
you could probably find a cheap copy of the book at the used book store. Or even the library
0 -
At the time of his death Dr. Atkins weighed 258, had serious heart problems and high blood pressure.
Sign me up!
As we've all learned from our own n=1 experience with physicians, they don't always practice themselves what they preach in the office. He was a human after all. We seem to have trouble with doing what we know we should do even though we know better.
That's not saying Atkins is some sort of magic bullet. But it's a perfectly legitimate tool to achieve calorie deficit long term. Consistency over time is what yields results. There's more than one road to get there.4 -
At the time of his death Dr. Atkins weighed 258, had serious heart problems and high blood pressure.
Sign me up!
Thanks to his death certificate, we know Atkins was 258 pounds at the time of his death. Yet according to a copy of his medical records, as turned over to USA Today by the diet guru’s widow, Atkins weighed 195 pounds upon admission to the hospital 8 April 2003 following his fall. He died on 17 April 2003 after having been in a coma for more than a week.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/death-of-a-diet-doctor/3 -
Forget the advice from Danp and others like it. There is a difference in diets. The studies prove that low carb diets like Atkins or Keto have a better effect on weight loss.
For the original poster, I would suggest just using MFP to track what you eat at first. Don't try to do it all at once because sustained weight loss takes time and is essentially a lifestyle change that has to stick after your goal weight is reached.place
You've taken the first step in recognizing that you are overweight. Now realize what got you there in the first place...most likely poor eating habits and little or no regular exercise.
Start by removing all the crap. Cut out fast food, processed packaged food and start making your own meals and snacks. Try to avoid refined sugar in all it's forms (corn syrup, dextrose, sucrose anything ending in -ose). Stay away from soda and fruit juice. Diet soda is okay as long as you have only one serving (8oz) per day.
Find an exercise routine that you can enjoy and stick to. Walking is a good start. Humans were designed to move and so the more you move the better you feel. Added weight can be a burden for exercising so consider weightless exercise at the local swimming pool - water walking, water calisthenics, swimming, water aerobics etc..
And lastly don't expect the weight to come flying off. It will take time to lose 50 - 100 lbs. just keep trying and keep moving forward.
Ultimately keeping your carb intake below 30-50g per day will go a long way in aiding your weight loss. Low carb diets like keto have enough evidence to prove they work fundamentally better for people with health related weight issues.
Carbs are not the devil here. Excessive calories are.
OP - choose your way of eating, whether it be simply calorie counting whole eating what you like, or Atkins, or anything else. Use a food scale to accurately weigh (estimated portions can be wildly off) and measure what you need to, log everything accurately.
If you find your chosen way of eating doesn't work for you, for any reason, then try another. It takes time, and you'll refine what you're eating as you continue on and the weight will come off.
I would suggest ignoring any advice other than from medical professionals that say that you HAVE to eat a certain way to lose weight. It's about portion control and unlearning old eating habits.
Best of luck to you and your wife. And haunt the forums/ask questions. Lots of good support here.
Right. It's all about finding a plan that suits you well enough to sustain long term. Consistency + Time. Dogged perseverance is key in this equation as well.
Low-carb may be the thing. I find it helpful to aide me in not overeating foods I have trouble moderating and to prioritize micronutrient-dense carb sources. But cutting carbs isn't what makes you lose weight, it's eating less than you burn to create the calorie deficit necessary to lose weight. The best tool for job that depends on the person, their lifestyle, and preferences.
And you don't have to stick with the same plan. I did keto to lose all my weight, with calorie counting of course.
Then I switched up to just low-carb (100ish grams) with don't-give-a-darn on weekends in maintenance. Still doing fine. I have friends who just used MFP with no other plan and are doing great and making progress as that strategy on its own works fine for them. 3 -
baconslave wrote: »At the time of his death Dr. Atkins weighed 258, had serious heart problems and high blood pressure.
Sign me up!
As we've all learned from our own n=1 experience with physicians, they don't always practice themselves what they preach in the office. He was a human after all. We seem to have trouble with doing what we know we should do even though we know better.
That's not saying Atkins is some sort of magic bullet. But it's a perfectly legitimate tool to achieve calorie deficit long term. Consistency over time is what yields results. There's more than one road to get there.
There's also quite a bit of controversy about his actual health status at the time of his death, so none of us can really make any conclusions about if he was healthy or not.
0 -
baconslave wrote: »Forget the advice from Danp and others like it. There is a difference in diets. The studies prove that low carb diets like Atkins or Keto have a better effect on weight loss.
For the original poster, I would suggest just using MFP to track what you eat at first. Don't try to do it all at once because sustained weight loss takes time and is essentially a lifestyle change that has to stick after your goal weight is reached.place
You've taken the first step in recognizing that you are overweight. Now realize what got you there in the first place...most likely poor eating habits and little or no regular exercise.
Start by removing all the crap. Cut out fast food, processed packaged food and start making your own meals and snacks. Try to avoid refined sugar in all it's forms (corn syrup, dextrose, sucrose anything ending in -ose). Stay away from soda and fruit juice. Diet soda is okay as long as you have only one serving (8oz) per day.
Find an exercise routine that you can enjoy and stick to. Walking is a good start. Humans were designed to move and so the more you move the better you feel. Added weight can be a burden for exercising so consider weightless exercise at the local swimming pool - water walking, water calisthenics, swimming, water aerobics etc..
And lastly don't expect the weight to come flying off. It will take time to lose 50 - 100 lbs. just keep trying and keep moving forward.
Ultimately keeping your carb intake below 30-50g per day will go a long way in aiding your weight loss. Low carb diets like keto have enough evidence to prove they work fundamentally better for people with health related weight issues.
Carbs are not the devil here. Excessive calories are.
OP - choose your way of eating, whether it be simply calorie counting whole eating what you like, or Atkins, or anything else. Use a food scale to accurately weigh (estimated portions can be wildly off) and measure what you need to, log everything accurately.
If you find your chosen way of eating doesn't work for you, for any reason, then try another. It takes time, and you'll refine what you're eating as you continue on and the weight will come off.
I would suggest ignoring any advice other than from medical professionals that say that you HAVE to eat a certain way to lose weight. It's about portion control and unlearning old eating habits.
Best of luck to you and your wife. And haunt the forums/ask questions. Lots of good support here.
Right. It's all about finding a plan that suits you well enough to sustain long term. Consistency + Time. Dogged perseverance is key in this equation as well.
Low-carb may be the thing. I find it helpful to aide me in not overeating foods I have trouble moderating and to prioritize micronutrient-dense carb sources. But cutting carbs isn't what makes you lose weight, it's eating less than you burn to create the calorie deficit necessary to lose weight. The best tool for job that depends on the person, their lifestyle, and preferences.
And you don't have to stick with the same plan. I did keto to lose all my weight, with calorie counting of course. Then I switched up to just low-carb (100ish grams) with don't-give-a-darn on weekends in maintenance. Still doing fine. I have friends who just used MFP with no other plan and are doing great and making progress as that strategy on its own works fine for them.
"Dogged perseverance" is an excellent way to state it. I love my carbs, but like you, I actually seem to feel better and maintain easier on lower carbs. Not keto, but low. 100-120ish is my sweet spot.
I just didn't do the "don't give a darn" weekends because when I don't give a darn, it's a full blown way over calories darn that I'm not giving.
0 -
My 2 cents. You want to lose weight. You need to change your lifestyle to represent that. You have to make choices that are in alignment with your mission. Train hard, stay consistent, go see a reputable dietitian, stick to the plan. It will be a two year journey, fraught with setbacks, breakdowns, but, also, victories and life saving achievements. Plans are nothing without commitment and fad diets of any kind will always lead to failure in the end. Why, because you never truly changed your way of life. Do it right and get the results you are looking for.1
-
baconslave wrote: »At the time of his death Dr. Atkins weighed 258, had serious heart problems and high blood pressure.
Sign me up!
As we've all learned from our own n=1 experience with physicians, they don't always practice themselves what they preach in the office. He was a human after all. We seem to have trouble with doing what we know we should do even though we know better.
That's not saying Atkins is some sort of magic bullet. But it's a perfectly legitimate tool to achieve calorie deficit long term. Consistency over time is what yields results. There's more than one road to get there.
There's also quite a bit of controversy about his actual health status at the time of his death, so none of us can really make any conclusions about if he was healthy or not.
Quite true.
But I didn't feel like arguing with that poster about those disputed particulars. Some sources claim he had those cardiovascular issues due to a chronic infection. We can't know really, as you said. Whether or not Atkins was following his own diet, in my view, doesn't really matter to us. We all know that evidence is emerging that low-carb (higher fat) diets are safe to use, if not the best for everyone everywhere due to preference and also genetic issues for some individuals. What's best is probably to achieve a healthy weight.
0 -
baconslave wrote: »Forget the advice from Danp and others like it. There is a difference in diets. The studies prove that low carb diets like Atkins or Keto have a better effect on weight loss.
For the original poster, I would suggest just using MFP to track what you eat at first. Don't try to do it all at once because sustained weight loss takes time and is essentially a lifestyle change that has to stick after your goal weight is reached.place
You've taken the first step in recognizing that you are overweight. Now realize what got you there in the first place...most likely poor eating habits and little or no regular exercise.
Start by removing all the crap. Cut out fast food, processed packaged food and start making your own meals and snacks. Try to avoid refined sugar in all it's forms (corn syrup, dextrose, sucrose anything ending in -ose). Stay away from soda and fruit juice. Diet soda is okay as long as you have only one serving (8oz) per day.
Find an exercise routine that you can enjoy and stick to. Walking is a good start. Humans were designed to move and so the more you move the better you feel. Added weight can be a burden for exercising so consider weightless exercise at the local swimming pool - water walking, water calisthenics, swimming, water aerobics etc..
And lastly don't expect the weight to come flying off. It will take time to lose 50 - 100 lbs. just keep trying and keep moving forward.
Ultimately keeping your carb intake below 30-50g per day will go a long way in aiding your weight loss. Low carb diets like keto have enough evidence to prove they work fundamentally better for people with health related weight issues.
Carbs are not the devil here. Excessive calories are.
OP - choose your way of eating, whether it be simply calorie counting whole eating what you like, or Atkins, or anything else. Use a food scale to accurately weigh (estimated portions can be wildly off) and measure what you need to, log everything accurately.
If you find your chosen way of eating doesn't work for you, for any reason, then try another. It takes time, and you'll refine what you're eating as you continue on and the weight will come off.
I would suggest ignoring any advice other than from medical professionals that say that you HAVE to eat a certain way to lose weight. It's about portion control and unlearning old eating habits.
Best of luck to you and your wife. And haunt the forums/ask questions. Lots of good support here.
Right. It's all about finding a plan that suits you well enough to sustain long term. Consistency + Time. Dogged perseverance is key in this equation as well.
Low-carb may be the thing. I find it helpful to aide me in not overeating foods I have trouble moderating and to prioritize micronutrient-dense carb sources. But cutting carbs isn't what makes you lose weight, it's eating less than you burn to create the calorie deficit necessary to lose weight. The best tool for job that depends on the person, their lifestyle, and preferences.
And you don't have to stick with the same plan. I did keto to lose all my weight, with calorie counting of course. Then I switched up to just low-carb (100ish grams) with don't-give-a-darn on weekends in maintenance. Still doing fine. I have friends who just used MFP with no other plan and are doing great and making progress as that strategy on its own works fine for them.
"Dogged perseverance" is an excellent way to state it. I love my carbs, but like you, I actually seem to feel better and maintain easier on lower carbs. Not keto, but low. 100-120ish is my sweet spot.
I just didn't do the "don't give a darn" weekends because when I don't give a darn, it's a full blown way over calories darn that I'm not giving.
Oh I'm with you there. I make sacrifices on weekdays to minimize the carnage from the weekend.
It is hard sometimes though. But my life and family are ridiculously unpredictable those 2 days of the week. I got tired of having my whole week ruined because people changed plans last minute and the only available things to eat blew my calorie budget all to hades. So I fixed the problem. I eat low during the week, then I can have a little bit of what I want and absorb the nonsense from my family's actions. I get full quicker than I used to before I lost the weight, too. It works for now. 1 -
TheOldBallCoach43420 wrote: »We just want to make sure we are doing it correctly to get us started because both of us have quite a bit of weight that we both need to lose. Is it really as simple as making sure you stay below 20-25 net carbs per day? We haven’t really found “the plan” anywhere. We have found the list of foods that have zero net carbs but does that mean you can eat them freely? Seems odd.
No, it is not as simple as keeping it to 20-25 net carbs per day. Keep a real calorie deficit and you will lose weight. Most people who do Atkins or some other extremely restrictive diet lose weight quickly and pile it all back on later. Learn about nutrient dense real food and eat those in moderation. Weigh your food and log it. Move more. Atkins or some other kind of low carb diet isn't going to save your life. Learning how to eat properly is and will help you sustain a healthy lifestyle in the long-run.0 -
Forget the advice from Danp and others like it. There is a difference in diets. The studies prove that low carb diets like Atkins or Keto have a better effect on weight loss.
For the original poster, I would suggest just using MFP to track what you eat at first. Don't try to do it all at once because sustained weight loss takes time and is essentially a lifestyle change that has to stick after your goal weight is reached.place
You've taken the first step in recognizing that you are overweight. Now realize what got you there in the first place...most likely poor eating habits and little or no regular exercise.
Start by removing all the crap. Cut out fast food, processed packaged food and start making your own meals and snacks. Try to avoid refined sugar in all it's forms (corn syrup, dextrose, sucrose anything ending in -ose). Stay away from soda and fruit juice. Diet soda is okay as long as you have only one serving (8oz) per day.
Find an exercise routine that you can enjoy and stick to. Walking is a good start. Humans were designed to move and so the more you move the better you feel. Added weight can be a burden for exercising so consider weightless exercise at the local swimming pool - water walking, water calisthenics, swimming, water aerobics etc..
And lastly don't expect the weight to come flying off. It will take time to lose 50 - 100 lbs. just keep trying and keep moving forward.
Ultimately keeping your carb intake below 30-50g per day will go a long way in aiding your weight loss. Low carb diets like keto have enough evidence to prove they work fundamentally better for people with health related weight issues.
Bro science. There is no right or wrong way to lose weight. Cut calories so you're losing 1lb a week (if you're bigger you'll lose more at the beginning). Atkins is just a way to cut calories. Keto is another way to cut calories. Paleo, yet another way to cut calories.
Most of us here just eat less, weigh our food and log it.
Find what you can sustain for a lifetime. If you can eat so little carbs for the rest of your life then Atkins might be for you. If you find it too restrictive, then try something else.
It's all about trial and error but don't let someone tell you there is only one way to lose weight and that restricted carbs will keep the weight off (If I ate 30-50 grams of carbs a day I'd lose my job due to hangriness. I eat 150-200g of carbs a day and lose easily and have maintained as well)
Losing weight will aid in health related weight issues.
Good luck. You seem to be motivated and have the right mindset to want to do this.6 -
TheOldBallCoach43420 wrote: »Been there, did that.
Looking for THEE actual plan itself. Want to do the Atkins 20, but feel there is more to this than simply making sure we are eating less than 20 net carbs per day.
Every website has slightly differing information, but no real outline of the actual diet itself. Does that make sense?
The atkins.com website shows everything you need to know. You just have to look around a bit.1 -
-
kenthepainter2 wrote: »I follow the South Beach Diet , it is a variation of the Atkins Diet but allows for certain carbs and you wont be eating "all the bacon and cheese you want" . Low carb works well for me but I also stay within in a max calorie limit per day.
South Beach is not (or was not) a variation of atkins. Atkins is not eat all the bacon and cheese you want.1 -
Forget the advice from Danp and others like it. There is a difference in diets. The studies prove that low carb diets like Atkins or Keto have a better effect on weight loss.
For the original poster, I would suggest just using MFP to track what you eat at first. Don't try to do it all at once because sustained weight loss takes time and is essentially a lifestyle change that has to stick after your goal weight is reached.place
You've taken the first step in recognizing that you are overweight. Now realize what got you there in the first place...most likely poor eating habits and little or no regular exercise.
Start by removing all the crap. Cut out fast food, processed packaged food and start making your own meals and snacks. Try to avoid refined sugar in all it's forms (corn syrup, dextrose, sucrose anything ending in -ose). Stay away from soda and fruit juice. Diet soda is okay as long as you have only one serving (8oz) per day.
Find an exercise routine that you can enjoy and stick to. Walking is a good start. Humans were designed to move and so the more you move the better you feel. Added weight can be a burden for exercising so consider weightless exercise at the local swimming pool - water walking, water calisthenics, swimming, water aerobics etc..
And lastly don't expect the weight to come flying off. It will take time to lose 50 - 100 lbs. just keep trying and keep moving forward.
Ultimately keeping your carb intake below 30-50g per day will go a long way in aiding your weight loss. Low carb diets like keto have enough evidence to prove they work fundamentally better for people with health related weight issues.
LOL! Looks like my Woo Stalker has stepped out of the shadows. Cute!
Look OP, you'll get a lot of great, useful and sage advice on this forum from people who are very experienced in successfully managing their weight. You'll also find a lot of information based on conjecture, anecdotal fallacies and misinformation so you'll need to evaluate what you're reading and decide for yourself what you take away.
I'll suggest when evaluating the advice you receive here, a great indication to help separate the wheat from the chaff is to see which posts garner likes from the community and which posts get smashed by the 'Woo' react to indicate that the community is in disagreement with the information provided.
So consider the advice I and others have provided, or not. That's up to you to decide and makes no difference to me, so I wish you all the best however you go about getting the results you want.7 -
TheOldBallCoach43420 wrote: »We just want to make sure we are doing it correctly to get us started because both of us have quite a bit of weight that we both need to lose. Is it really as simple as making sure you stay below 20-25 net carbs per day? We haven’t really found “the plan” anywhere. We have found the list of foods that have zero net carbs but does that mean you can eat them freely? Seems odd.
You have to have a calorie deficit, as well as low carbs. Often people will lose without tracking calories, at least at first, because they have to cut out so much of what they used to eat and it takes a while to find replacements (but you easily can!). Many people find that as they adjust they start filling in calories with low carb/no carb foods and then end up eating as much as before. But some find that eating that low carb kills the appetite or otherwise that they lose without tracking calories.
I believe the diet has changed over the years in some respects, but don't know how the "new" Atkins is different.
I believe at one point it was recommended that the available carbs be used mainly on vegetables, which seems sensible to me for health reasons. I'd personally not just eat 0 carb foods freely, as I could easily go over on some of them, but plan some low carb breakfast, lunch, and dinner options and start eating them. As well as the veg, you'd obviously want some protein source and then some kind of fat (dressing, sauce, cook veg in butter or oil).
If you want more structure, consider tracking on MFP and looking at calories too.3 -
Forget the advice from Danp and others like it. There is a difference in diets. The studies prove that low carb diets like Atkins or Keto have a better effect on weight loss.
This is false. In studies where calories are monitored, low carb does not do better. In studies based on ad litem eating where diets are paired to have equal protein and to prioritize healthy foods, again, no difference. In some studies where people are monitoring their own calories and the low carb people have MORE protein and the supposedly low fat diet is basically the SAD (30% fat gets defined as low fat), there is a SHORT TERM advantage to the low carb (which could be water weight but likely is that changing your diet a lot and increasing protein will of course help with cutting cals in the short term). This advantage is gone after 6 months to a year.Start by removing all the crap. Cut out fast food, processed packaged food and start making your own meals and snacks. Try to avoid refined sugar in all it's forms (corn syrup, dextrose, sucrose anything ending in -ose). Stay away from soda and fruit juice. Diet soda is okay as long as you have only one serving (8oz) per day.
Why are you acting like you are the expert on what OP eats and how he should eat?
When I decided (in 2014) that I needed lose weight, your advice would have been useless to me, as I never ate fast food, ate very little highly processed stuff, cooked mainly from whole foods, never drank calories. I added in more of some packaged foods (smoked salmon, cottage cheese, greek yogurt, canned beans, for a while oats, and frozen fruit and greens), which was helpful to me. I also eventually decided to include in my diet about 200 cal of ice cream a few days a week and continued to eat out (nice/interesting restaurants) about once a week.
IMO, a much better way to put this, instead of assuming OP eats tons of fast food or telling him he must never ever eat fast food is recommending that if he does not eat a balanced healthy diet, it would be good for his health to do so, as well as figuring out where the excess calories were coming from and addressing that.
Some people find it easier to make small changes to the diet over time. Some apparently like a huge overhaul (but for many that makes it harder to stick to). Some prefer to focus on a simpler component like seeing if low carb will work. Low carb for some can be a helpful tool, especially since often foods that are overeaten are high in fat and carbs and thus low carb forces change while still allowing some more indulgent feeling foods (and giving the more calories for them without the carbs). It's about personal preference and knowing oneself, the same advice doesn't work for everyone and reciting a list of rules as if they are, in fact, rules and requirements, and you can't succeed without doing them doesn't make sense to me, since it's not accurate.7 -
baconslave wrote: »That's not saying Atkins is some sort of magic bullet. But it's a perfectly legitimate tool to achieve calorie deficit long term. Consistency over time is what yields results. There's more than one road to get there.
Yup.1 -
Atkins/Keto may work well for you. Or it may not. I tried it once and couldn't maintain it. I lost 11 pounds but I stayed exhausted, achy, and foggy. I knew there'd be an adjustment - Keto flu, it's called - but it was supposed to have happened by day 6 or 7 at the latest. It never happened. I felt as bad on Day 14 as I did on Day 3. Nowadays I eat a little bit of everything and just count calories. It's slow but it's working and I feel well.0
Categories
- All Categories
- 1.4M Health, Wellness and Goals
- 391.3K Introduce Yourself
- 43.5K Getting Started
- 259.7K Health and Weight Loss
- 175.6K Food and Nutrition
- 47.3K Recipes
- 232.3K Fitness and Exercise
- 388 Sleep, Mindfulness and Overall Wellness
- 6.4K Goal: Maintaining Weight
- 8.5K Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
- 152.7K Motivation and Support
- 7.8K Challenges
- 1.3K Debate Club
- 96.4K Chit-Chat
- 2.5K Fun and Games
- 3.2K MyFitnessPal Information
- 22 News and Announcements
- 909 Feature Suggestions and Ideas
- 2.2K MyFitnessPal Tech Support Questions