Atkins Diet

ohthatmomma

This is pretty interesting. Though I am concerned about the whole high-fat-high-protein diet. I have done some light research on the atkins diet, and quite honestly... I love the idea of eating eggs and bacon every morning for breakfast.

I suppose my fear is having too much protein in my body. Is there even such a thing? Seriously? And on another note I can't stand fat free anything! Just doesn't taste good at all.

Now, what I am thinking about is the fat loss. It is true that the first 30-45 minutes of exercise is nothing more than burning off carbs and glucose. I have read this and heard this, as well as have a few friends who are in the health industry. All of them suggest that workouts are completed in the morning on an empty stomach to get right into burning fat, otherwise you have to work longer. I have read this online as well. Most body builders follow this as well.

There is so much information out there. But I am thinking of changing some things up as I am not seeing any progress since I have lost six pounds over the course of 2 montsh. At this rate I will be a little piggy for many months to come.

ohthatmomma

Thanks for sharing those links.

pyro13g

Now, what I am thinking about is the fat loss. It is true that the first 30-45 minutes of exercise is nothing more than burning off carbs and glucose. I have read this and heard this, as well as have a few friends who are in the health industry. All of them suggest that workouts are completed in the morning on an empty stomach to get right into burning fat, otherwise you have to work longer. I have read this online as well. Most body builders follow this as well.

There is nearly no difference in fat burn. 60 minutes intense cardio burns less fat than 60 minutes at a pace where heart rate is elevated but you can still talk. Glycogen stored in the muscles can only be used by muscle. This glycogen cannot be released as glucose for the rest of the body to use. You must have the right intensity to even get into depleting stores in fast twitch muscle. Extended fasted cardio results in muscle loss. Eating before a workout has been shown to keep metabolism elevated for a longer period after the exercise. Want to mobilize fat? Intense strength training on a calorie deficit.

hpsnickers1

I am taking atkins and doing it low carb style on my own...not really buying and eating Atkins products per se but doing really well with it.

I needed to get the scale moving after 2 monhs of not moving doing everything else. This works for me as a PCOS woman with insulin resistance.

I feel full, I don't weigh, measure or care about counting, I don't overthink food and what my next meal will be because I barely felt full from the first meal. Atkins type low carb practices really make sense and anyone who tells you other wise can eat the other way because thier body can handle carbs differently....and they are lucky to have that advantage that I don't.

I just know that it is a lifestyle that I can mostly maintain for life because it is doable. There is this website Netrition where you can buy all kinds of low carb products some that even help you make things like biscuits and pancakes with something called Carbquick and not Bisquick so I am getting it.

I make almond flour pancakes now and they are yummy. I still eat veggies the low carb ones and berries and a small apple from time to time and salads with full fat dressing.

Watch the movie Fat Head and you will be amazed! PS I just friended a doctor here that lost 40 lbs doing Atkins....and as a doctor he should know his stuff so why not!

Oh by the way on this plan for me no 3pm i wish I could take a nap feeling!

The main idea behind Atkins is that if you limit carbs you won't crave more carbs and crash and stay onthe vicious cycle of energy crashing carbs. People will say you need the carbs to exercise and have energy and get through a workout and be healthy. NOT SO!! Would you rather lose and burn glocose from the tons of carbs you just ate or the fat locked away in your fat cells that have been stuck there for some time?

Me I want to burn fat, and I can access that fat by limiting how much glucose I have in me to begin with.

Up until around the end of WWII doctors and nutritionist prescribed low-carbohydrate diets for weight loss to their obese patients. We're talking more than a century of evidence and information regarding it (very, very successful weight loss with no hunger). When you take away the one thing that screws with the balancing of fat metabolism (too much insulin due to high levels of blood glucose - caused by carbs - mainly refined and easily digested carbs) in the body then the body will balance itself out. And you go back to burning its preferred fuel source - fat.

I know I will never go back to the way I ate in the past. This is a sustainable way to live and be healthy. Food is no longer a pleasure source. Its my fuel.

freerange

Unless something has changed in the last few years, those are all sort term studies showing improvement in some markers, which are typical with weight loss, but there are no long term peer reviewed studies showing a reversal of heart disease.

Dr. Ornish is a quack, vegan militant wacko. If anyone here wants REAL information I linked to the full article below and posted a few excerpts for those that don’t want to read the whole thing.

Whoever decided to call this study “low carbohydrate” is nuttier than a squirrel turd.

Folks in the Animal Group were more likely to smoke and had higher BMIs than adherents of the Vegetable Group. Along with influencing mortality outcomes, this suggests the Animal Food group, in the aggregate, may have been somewhat less health-conscious than the dieters lumped into the vegetable category. And that’s the type of thing that has repercussions for other diet
and lifestyle choices that weren’t measured in the study

As I noticed immediately and Ms. Minger pointed out as well, even if we grant that the researchers could accurately determine dietary intake from a dozen questionnaires mailed out over 20 years, these people weren’t on anything close to the Atkins diet. At the high end, their diets were 60% carbohydrates. At the lowest end, the diets were 37% carbohydrates. According to the study tables, the average calorie intake was right around 2000 calories per day (which sounds low to me, but we’ll roll with it). So let’s do the math:

http://www.fathead-movie.com/index.php/2010/09/09/the-atkins-study-ahem-ahem-according-to-ornish/

Elizabeth_C34

I am on a limited carbs diet (not quite "low"), but all carbs from natural sources (no processed sugars, no processed grains). I was on strict low carb for a long time and did well (lost 15 lbs), but really struggled with it.

I find that eliminating processed refined carbs alone is a great way to get healthy if you can't maintain a strict low-carb lifestyle.

Sofar, the weight loss is still at 2lbs per week just as it was on low carb. I still try to keep my total carb intake less than 100 per day.

Elizabeth_C34

Want to mobilize fat? Intense strength training on a calorie deficit.

+1 This! I've dropped 6% body fat in 3 months since starting my weight training routine mixed with cardio. Good stuff.

emmaldownie

What happens if you drink alcohol whilst doing South Beach, Atkins, Primal etc

LaJauna

Because the only diet clinically established to reverse heart disease is the complete opposite of Atkins, I stay far, far away from it.

The Atkins diet in NOW recommended for cardiac patients, kidney patients within the UCSF system (University California/San Francisco) because it helps rebuild damaged tissue that has been damaged through years of sugar abuse. It is a healthy diet if you choose to give up all the garbage of the standard American Diet. No more empty calorie sugars, starches and processed foods. You feast off of health proteins, fats and carbs. Notice there are carbs in the Atkins diet! Healthy veggies and fruits! Don't buy into the scare tactics of those who are un-informed (ie..Never tried it). When I have successfully followed my plan and lost 80 lbs ALL of my blood panels came back into the optimal ranges including blood sugars, cholesterol and my blood pressure returned to a perfect 110/70.

LaJauna

What happens if you drink alcohol whilst doing South Beach, Atkins, Primal etc

Your weight loss stalls for as long as the alcohol is in your body. But that is true of all diets. Alcohol is the preferred fuel and will be burned first. So drink with caution. Also the only alcohol that is completely carb free is distilled alcohols. Almost all beers, wines and mixed drinks have carbs and need to be counted carefully.

katschi

If you decide on Atkins, leave the Atkins food products on the shelf and stick with whole foods.
As others have suggested, Primal/Paleo is an avenue you could go down for an eating plan to follow.
It's very sustainable and a delicious way of eating.
Fresh, whole foods.

Here are 2 blogs that pertain to Paleo eating that showcase many delicious recipes that will give you an idea of what to eat ...

http://nomnompaleo.com/recipeindex
http://www.theclothesmakethegirl.com/2010/02/14/dino-chowpaleo-recipe-roundup/

Peruse these sites and tell me if that's not sustainable! :happy:

Good Luck with this. I hope you find a plan that works for you and leads you to successful weight loss and more importantly, increased health! :flowerforyou:

martinah4

OP, I am currently eating the Atkins way, since February this year, and am down 40 lbs. First, you must follow the plan. Only eat 20 net carbs a day, with most of them coming from veggies and salad. Drink lots of water. Follow the plan. You will get what's called "carb flu" for the first 3-4 days, which will give you headaches and make you feel fatigued. It only last a few days. Follow the plan, do not cheat, and you'll come out on the other side feeling great! After that, if you are eating correctly, your body will start burning fat for fuel--Ketosis, instead of carbs.

Second, Atkins is maintainable for life. Once you go through all the phases, you will be able to eat more things like fruits and nuts and even eat more carbs. If you even want them. I have no cravings for the bad carbs at all, haven't for months!

Do Induction for 2 weeks minimum. Follow the plan for 2 weeks, do not cheat, and you'll feel a lot better, and you'll notice weight loss and inches lost.

Good luck to you! You can do it!

martinah4

yes atkins does add back carbs 5 grams at a time each week til yo get to your personal thresh hold of carbs that either make you stop losing and stall or gain weight and then you know you have to eat below that # of carbs.

The atkins of my mom's day was VERY strict but now it is just like south Beach Phase 2 and man o man hubby made a low carb clam chowder on Sunday that really rocked!!!!

it is in the book 500 low carb recipes and all that was "radical" in that recipe was using turnips peeled cut and cubed in place of starchy potatoes!

Awesome recipe and he will have to make that one again!

Plus he makes some yummy cheesecake cups that are about 5 carbs...where can you get a rich creamy tasty dessert for 5 carbs? You can't even eat a fun size anything candy bar for 5 carbs that won't spike your blood sugar and cause a mad insulin rush through your system!

I would love the recipe for the cheesecake cups!

I would love the name and author of that recipe book!

Leanne1795

I am doing Atkins and apart from seeing the fat melt away, as an insulin dependant diabetic, I have lowered my insulin intake phenomenally and I am full of energy and my doctor is cheering! I love this way of life.
Feel free to add me.

cbs1974

i did the atkins years and years ago
when i only needed to loosed a few lbs

whats this about no hunger? i was frikkin starving all the time !
made my wee smell my breath smell my bum smell

and before you reply (nobody has mention these smells) is because there being nice lol

my dad did the atkins diet aswell and 4 months into it got cancer and died ! coincidence???
something to do with not getting enough antioxidents dunno

whats wrong with just good old heathy food and excersise!!????????

ok from reading above people have been successfull with no problems like crapping through the eye of a needle

why not just do it by eating heathy foods and a little excersize we all no its well published that your veg is good

can i also ask from the above atkins users how much excersize you do with the diet?? for reference

freerange

whats wrong with just good old heathy food and excersise!!????????

Well first you have to define "good old healthy" because last time I was at the grocery store they didn't have a "good old healthy" section in the store. To a lot of people lean meat, veggies, fruits, nuts, and berries is pretty much "good old healthy" food. I'm just saying.

Sorry about your dad. I know this person that started Atkins and was hit by a truck two weeks after stopping Atkins,,,,,, hmmm?

LaJauna

yes atkins does add back carbs 5 grams at a time each week til yo get to your personal thresh hold of carbs that either make you stop losing and stall or gain weight and then you know you have to eat below that # of carbs.

The atkins of my mom's day was VERY strict but now it is just like south Beach Phase 2 and man o man hubby made a low carb clam chowder on Sunday that really rocked!!!!

it is in the book 500 low carb recipes and all that was "radical" in that recipe was using turnips peeled cut and cubed in place of starchy potatoes!

Awesome recipe and he will have to make that one again!

Plus he makes some yummy cheesecake cups that are about 5 carbs...where can you get a rich creamy tasty dessert for 5 carbs? You can't even eat a fun size anything candy bar for 5 carbs that won't spike your blood sugar and cause a mad insulin rush through your system!

I would love the recipe for the cheesecake cups!

I would love the name and author of that recipe book!

Dana Carpendar is the author and the title is: 500 Low Carb Recipes

LaJauna

my dad did the atkins diet aswell and 4 months into it got cancer and died ! coincidence???
something to do with not getting enough antioxidents dunno

I am sorry about your dad. But you are mistaken if you think that a dietary change of only 4 months killed him. Cancer doesn't just show up over night. It is an insidious disease that starts out as a few cells and grows over months and years. Not getting enough antioxidants won't kill you. If it did most of the world would drop dead tomorrow.

FairyMiss

i did the atkins years and years ago
when i only needed to loosed a few lbs

whats this about no hunger? i was frikkin starving all the time !
made my wee smell my breath smell my bum smell

and before you reply (nobody has mention these smells) is because there being nice lol

my dad did the atkins diet aswell and 4 months into it got cancer and died ! coincidence???
something to do with not getting enough antioxidents dunno

whats wrong with just good old heathy food and excersise!!????????

ok from reading above people have been successfull with no problems like crapping through the eye of a needle

why not just do it by eating heathy foods and a little excersize we all no its well published that your veg is good

can i also ask from the above atkins users how much excersize you do with the diet?? for reference

i have done atkins or lately atkinsish,
no hunger
no smells
i eat good and health, i consider protiens and vegetables healthy, startch are completly unneccessary.
i exercise 6-7 days a week most often twice a day. I usually do 30min of either hip hop abs, or bellydancing at lunch. in the evenings i go to the gym, several times a week i do strength training, on thurs, i do zumba, and going to be starting indoor cycling on weds.


and though we all like to lay blame when there are no reall explinations the diet did not cause anyones cancer

LaJauna

More ammo to help in the Atkins fight for recognition as a legitimate dietary way of eating.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eREuZEdMAVo&feature=player_embedded#at=1466

lizzil0

Here's another article about low carb goodness-
http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=mummy-says-john-horgan-is-wrong-abo-2011-05-19

lizzil0

More ammo to help in the Atkins fight for recognition as a legitimate dietary way of eating.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eREuZEdMAVo&feature=player_embedded#at=1466

Wow! Thanks so much for this- it's amazing that people think low carb/high fat is so awful when in reality it's the best way to eat for health and weight loss.

freerange

More ammo to help in the Atkins fight for recognition as a legitimate dietary way of eating.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eREuZEdMAVo&feature=player_embedded#at=1466

I watched this last night, well about 2/3 of it, enough to get the gist of it. What struck me was in the face of overwhelming evidence that the Atkins diet was superior to all the others, the speaker was still trying to make excuses for why that may be. I don’t know how many times he pointed out that the Atkins group couldn’t hold to the “low carb” for very long, that after 6 months their carbs crept up from 15% to just under 30% (if I remember the numbers right). Well no *kitten* Sherlock, did you even bother reading the Atkins diet protocol? YOU ARE SUPOSE TO INCREASE YOUR CARBS OVER TIME ON THE ATKINS DIET. In every category the Atkins diet won, total weight loss, keeping it off over time, blood work, in ALL CATAGORIES Atkins wins.

lizzil0

Yeah- I thought it was funny he and his family are vegetarians. He sort of acknowledged that eating that way wasn't as healthy as he was hoping.

martinah4

can i also ask from the above atkins users how much excersize you do with the diet?? for reference
[/quote]

I'm of the opinion (and probably in the minority) that excercise (alone) does not make you lose weight. I believe weight loss is 90% diet, and 10% excercise. That said, I do "high impact" Zumba for an hour, two days a week. Sometimes I walk, sometimes I play Just Dance II on my Wii, and sometimes I do Zumba on my Wii. I'm still averaging about 2-3 lbs lost per week, and it's my belief that when all my fat melts away, I will have my nice lean muscles from the Zumba and the Zumba Toning classes.

rleikis

Getting healthy is a lifestyle change. You simply cannot shortcut your way around it. There are so many stories of people "getting off" fad diets and gaining all the weight back. That is because they didn't change their lifestyle, they only took a vacation from their unhealthy lifestyle.

If you really want to lose your excess weight then change your lifestyle once and for all. It takes time to put the weight on, it will take time to get it off. A balanced mix of cardio, strength training, healthy eating and sleep habits is the only way to do it.

You don't see healthy people doing crazy diets to be that way, they just have learned to live differently than you.

LaJauna

can i also ask from the above atkins users how much excersize you do with the diet?

I do weight bearing exercise right now until I get some of my weight off. Once I feel healthier in my joints I plan to start "playing" more. I think doing aerobics just for the sake of sweating is meaningless. It should be fun. Go ride a bike. Throw a frisbee around for an hour. Walk around a pond/lake and feed the ducks. Play with some kids for a few hours!

LaJauna

Getting healthy is a lifestyle change. You simply cannot shortcut your way around it. There are so many stories of people "getting off" fad diets and gaining all the weight back. That is because they didn't change their lifestyle, they only took a vacation from their unhealthy lifestyle.

If you really want to lose your excess weight then change your lifestyle once and for all. It takes time to put the weight on, it will take time to get it off. A balanced mix of cardio, strength training, healthy eating and sleep habits is the only way to do it.

You don't see healthy people doing crazy diets to be that way, they just have learned to live differently than you.

The healthy people are probably not as healthy as they think if they are eating low fat/high carbage. They may look slim and actually have horrible lipid panels!

Most obese people need to eat lower carbs/higher fats because their insulin resistence is through the roof and eating high carbs even when low in calories just doesn't work for them. There is a growing body of science that shows the above to be true. So just because you call Atkins a fad diet doesn't make it so if it helps me and others to return to a healthy fit status.

rleikis

A fad diet is any diet which is not realistically sustainable long term. Just because you like the results you see right now with Atkins, doesn't change that it falls into that category precisely. You've even stated on your profile that you gained back a lot of lost weight after discontinuing Atkins, so I am confused at your contradiction. (Sorry, but I was trying to figure out the graph in your profile pic. It's cute.)

By changing your lifestyle how I sated before, "A balanced mix of cardio, strength training, healthy eating and sleep habits", there isn't anything to discontinue, and its not a "diet" in the Atkins'ish sense of the word. It is just choosing to do what is right for your body, for the rest of your life.

I will take my slow steady return back to healthy life very happily, as I believe there are no true shortcuts or miracle cures to living healthy.

I'm perfectly willing to agree to disagree. I'm not trying to tell anyone how to go about living healthy, just voicing my opinion.

Best Regards!

BeastModeAlways

Because the only diet clinically established to reverse heart disease is the complete opposite of Atkins, I stay far, far away from it.

There are many clinical trials that show a low carb diet improves lipid profiles, lowers weight, and generally increase heart health.

Unless something has changed in the last few years, those are all sort term studies showing improvement in some markers, which are typical with weight loss, but there are no long term peer reviewed studies showing a reversal of heart disease.

First, we have 5 million years of human pre-history where very limited grains were eaten, proving whole grains are totally optional for life.

We have a direct correlation between the rise in consumption of vegetable oil and carbohydrates and the rise in heart disease.

We have Ancel Keys OWN STUDY that is cited as supposedly proving what you are saying, when in fact when you add the 15 countries he DROPPED to cherry pick his data, there is actually no correlation between diet and heart disease shown.

Now all of this deals with correlation, lets examine cause. A leads to B to C.

There has never been a peer reviewed study that shows the following:

Eating to much protein/fat leads to high cholesterol leads to increase in cardiac incidents

A to B to C does not exist in the form of a long term peer reviewed study, supporting the dogma you subscribe to.

I ask that before asking others to prove by supplying studies with stringent criteria you be sure your own arguements enjoy the same.

A (Atkins style diet) leads to B (high cholesterol, or whatever else you wish) leads to C (increased arterial plaque)

I wish you luck in your search. There are some A to B studies, and some B to C studies, but not a single A to B to C