Is anyone doing Atkins or Nutritional Ketogenic Diets

camoani

If you are doing the Atkins or Keto diets, how is it going? Do you count your calories? Are you doing 80/15/5=fat/protein/carbs?

GreatDepression

I would recommend a keto diet over Atkins. What's the difference? Atkins diet includes and recommends the brand-name Atkins food items which are really processed and heavily salted. Try moving towards a low carb diet from whole foods.

mnashp

been there done that. Lost weight, but even modifying it, it contributed to horrible excruciating and debilitating gout and episodic painful swelling of my right kidney.

i know there are true believers. I was once too.

since restructuring my diet for less protein, it took three years for the gout to recede to tolerable levels without medication, and i haven't had a kidney attack for years now. Still have a hard time buying good shoes though, since the first toe affected is stubbornly hanging onto it, and i don't know if it will ever go away. At least i can walk now.

we're all lab-rats though. Free to experiment. But if you don't want tiny shards of uric-acid crystals lacerating your toe joints and kidneys, i would be careful.

ps: no prior personal or family history of any kind of kidney problems OR gout.

mulefeather

I am on the ketogenic diet and have been for the last 17 months. I love it and it's had a lot of nice side effects other than just losing weight, namely helping me with my ADHD. Right now I'm sitting at 62 pounds lost during that time (I got wishy-washy with it in the latter half of last year due to life changes and then holidays). I'm steadily creeping closer to having lost 70 lbs inside a year and a half, I have only really been counting calories for the past 25 days though. I did Atkins at one point when I was 19-20 and lost a whole bunch of weight very quickly, but obviously in my 30's "fast and easy" are no longer in my vocabulary!

camoani

Thanks. However, I am doing Keto from whole foods. I just wanted to know if there were any others out there doing the same or Atkins. You can do Atkins without the processed foods. I just know that I am carb sensitive, and I am going lower (than 20g) in my carbs depending on how my body feels. It's been four days. So far, so good. I just never realized how many hidden carbs were in various foods.

mulefeather

Keto does not cause gout, but high protein intake can definitely cause it along with many other factors like going crazy with eating meat and certain vegetables. Keto is not a high-protein diet but a moderate protein diet. Gout has to do with your body's insulin response, and insulin affects your kidney's ability to excrete uric acid. Many people go NUTS with protein in the first few weeks/months and if the conditions are right, it can bring on gout. If you are doing keto properly and getting most of your energy from fat, it shouldn't be an issue. If overeating is an issue for you on a high carb diet, it's going to be an issue on a low carb diet too.

camoani

Congrats Mulefeather! I know what you mean. I'm 54 and "fast and easy" left my vocab awhile ago. I'm also looking forward to the benefits of the KD. I've been doing a lot of research. It makes sense to me. Teaching my body to burn fat, and trying to get rid of the chronic pain that I suffer with on a daily basis (lupus, necrosis in my hip, osteo.), I would be crazy if I did not give it a try. Can I add you as a friend? Please add me. Thanks!

camoani

Mulefeather, thanks for that information. It's nice to find people whose research is current!