Calorie counting vs atkins

Adsnwfld

Atkins is a diet (and a bad one at that) not a lifestyle. Exercise and watch your calorie intake. It is the only responsible way of losing and maintaining your weight.

ekbwk

Thanks everyone! Lots of good points that I never took into consideration. Wish me luck on my calorie counting! Goodbye Atkins and feeling like crap! Hellllllo normalcy!

Laurieannfanelli

I agree plus no carbs ,you don't have the energy to workout. Doing it slow and being acountable for what you eat and how much excersise you body NEEDS is the way you will keep it off. You want a well balanced muscle and fat and eating the right amount of fat, protien and carbs will give you the look you want. Take it from someone who has done it before and see where I am now doing it again. I gained the weight back when I started eating normal again. It reallly messes your body up rather then helps.

labgirl3

Well, I guess I'll put in my 2 cents in quasi-support of Atkins, although I don't really "do" Atkins. I eat Primal / Paleo (you can find more info if you're interested in www.marksdailyapple.com) - but I do eat pretty low carb, high protein, and high fat. My totals for about 1400 calories are roughly 70 g carbs, 70 g fat, and 120 g protein. I don't eat any sugar or flour (or gluten) - carbs come strictly from veggies, fruit (1-2 a day), and greek yogurt.

There is a LOT of research out there that supports a higher fat, high protein, low carb diet, especially for obese people (which I was, and as of yesterday, am no longer). Gary Taubes has a great book called "Why We Get Fat" that addresses the myth of low-fat, higher-carb (even "good" carbs like whole wheat) diets.

As for limiting an entire "food group" - meh. For me, carbs are trigger foods. I can't just eat one Girl Scout cookie and be ok - I needed the entire box. Now that I simply don't eat them anymore, I don't want them anymore. And oddly enough - now I CAN eat just one, because they're just not as tasty anymore! Yes, the first few weeks were hard and I felt pretty blah. Now though - I have more energy than I have in the past 10 years. Seriously. I've lost over 50 lbs eating this way. I don't see a reason to go back. Why woud I? Cookies and cakes and buns and bread provide nothing, nutritionally speaking, that I'm not already getting. My bloodwork is excellent - cholesterol HDL 43, LDL 101, triglycerides - 49.

As for exercising - I exercise plenty, and while I'm sure that more carbs would probably give me more energy in the gym, I'm more focused on weight loss right now. Once I'm closer to my goal weight I'll look at increasing my carbs more (not with grains - probably just add more fruit).

Links for more reading, in case you're interested:
Gary Taubes article in NYT about Atkins and the fat "myth" - What If Its All Been a Big Fat Lie? http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/07/magazine/what-if-it-s-all-been-a-big-fat-lie.html

And his blog - he was just on Dr. Oz and wrote a good summary / rebuttal here:
http://www.garytaubes.com/blog/

From Mark's Daily Apple: Why Grains are Unhealthy
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/why-grains-are-unhealthy/

Edited to add: in true Primal fashion (striving for about 80% perfection), I am not perfect! I have a little honey with my greek yogurt, and I don't panic about accidentally ingesting a crouton in my caesar salad! I might have a bite of dessert if it's a special occasion (my mom's 70th bday was last week for example). But I don't order or intentionally eat bread / tortillas / rice / chips / crackers / desserts.

cinderswella

Okay I know this is an old post but for anybody coming here like I am now please don't believe what these people are saying about the Atkins diet! They clearly have no idea what they are talking about! If you want Atkins you really hurt if the book and do the plan as instructed. People get hung up over the idea of no cards, but that is not really the basis of Atkins! You start off with a very limited amount of carbs for only 2 weeks to break your cravings. After that you slowly add cards back in until you figure out how much you can tolerate in order to lose or maintain your weight. This means that you can eventually go back to eating whole grains, along with other card. The biggest thing is you just can't go back to eating sugar and junk food and unlimited card like you did before or of course you will gain the weight back! But if you follow the plan and make it a lifestyle change and limits sweet and sugar to very very rare be at Athens is a great diet of whole food! You eat meat and vegetables for two weeks and then you start adding in healthy whole food card how can you go wrong?