ATKINS DIET. Anyone else done it? How was your experience?

beernutz

Gah!!! Your brain and your body need (good) carbs!!!! "Dr" Atkins should burn in hell, along with "Dr" Bernstein.

So you don't consider vegetables to be good carbs? Is there some new study that shows the evil of vegetables I don't know about. Because you can eat all the vegetables you want on Atkins. There are even some vegetarians who do Atkins and one of the later editions of the Atkins books addresses vegetarianism.

I'd really be interested to hear how YOU think nutrition for the brain and your body work. I suspect it would be quite funny.

jagh09

My sister had great success with it. She lost close to 100 pounds in about 7 months and really loves the lifestyle. Inspired by her, I tried it myself a few years ago and WOOF! What a disaster. I felt so sick, dizzy, cranky, crazed and unhealthy for 2 weeks. I was actually driving home after a long day at work, late in the evening, and felt like I was driving drunk! It was scary. That level of restricted carbs just wasn't for me.

I did try South Beach Diet, with has a more liberal Phase 1 (induction) that includes a bit more carbohydrate intake. I had no problems with that at all, and lost about 10 pounds the first 2 weeks. I did that for about 6-8 weeks before my wedding 2 years ago and felt great. Then the honeymoon, I drank back all my carbs and ate every treat I could get my hands on and ....well, yeah...you see where I am now! HA.

Good luck with it. I hope it's a good fit for you!

beernutz

My sister had great success with it. She lost close to 100 pounds in about 7 months and really loves the lifestyle. Inspired by her, I tried it myself a few years ago and WOOF! What a disaster. I felt so sick, dizzy, cranky, crazed and unhealthy for 2 weeks. I was actually driving home after a long day at work, late in the evening, and felt like I was driving drunk! It was scary. That level of restricted carbs just wasn't for me.

I did try South Beach Diet, with has a more liberal Phase 1 (induction) that includes a bit more carbohydrate intake. I had no problems with that at all, and lost about 10 pounds the first 2 weeks. I did that for about 6-8 weeks before my wedding 2 years ago and felt great. Then the honeymoon, I drank back all my carbs and ate every treat I could get my hands on and ....well, yeah...you see where I am now! HA.

Good luck with it. I hope it's a good fit for you!

I'm sorry it didn't work out for you. It is still there if you need it, and it still works as well as it did the first time. ;-)

AmyNVegas

I have been on a low carb version of Paleo/Primal for 2 yrs and have lost 86 pounds, I plateau about every 10 pounds but I think that is due more to the amount I have lost not the diet itself. I stay around the induction level of carbs a bit higher some days but usually around 30-40 grams total and that affords me plenty of veggies.

As for those who are putting Atkins down and have such hateful things to say I have to give my 2 very educated cents:
Hello the healthiest people on the planet the Inuits eat nothing but meat and fat and only develop cancer or other modern diseases when they stray from this diet. Meat has everything we need- the "balanced diet" was a modern invention that was thought to be needed due to the wheat and other grains depleting the vitamins and minerals and the natural balance years ago and causing rickets, scurvy, etc. As for Dr. Atkins burning in Hell, he deserves sainthood for saving so many lives and being able to stand up to the diatribe of the FDA at the time. Diets like Atkins have been in existance for hundreds of years and were found safe and healthy by physicians around the world until the US FDA decided that low fat high carb was the answer to America's obesity prayers and we became MORE obese on this diet of higher carbs and low fat. The man had to have had some thick skin! The newest Atkins book isn't even written by him but rather by doctors from Duke and other prestigious universities that used Atkins in published MEDICAL studies and found it to be the BEST diet for weightloss and good health for a lifetime not just to drop a few pounds. Stanford did their own study and the head doctor on that study was a 25yr vegetarian and was shocked by the results but had to admit that of the diets they used in the study Atkins was the best and showed the most marked improvement in the heart disease and diabetes markers/indicators tracked in the study. It's on Youtube if you want to watch his overview- Diets who's winning at losing or something like that is the title. So I would hope people would do the research not just judge Atkins on the hype they have heard. Don't be a lemming for goodness sake!

lockef

Very well said ANV! So many people brainwashed under the "low fat, low calorie" mantra. Sure, it may work for some, but way too many people support this WOL as though it were chiseled on a piece of stone, even though their own experience tells them that it's not working.

I saw that vid "who's winning at losing" on YT, and thought it was a very good take on all of the popular diets. The presenter was still trying to push on the Ornish diet (being a vegan), but I thought he did a very good job at looking at each of the diets objectively.

Caper88

I started the program and turned out numbers like 6 and 7. The program started to become too hard to avoid carbs. I stopped the program and all the weight came back.

SOOZIE429

Gah!!! Your brain and your body need (good) carbs!!!! "Dr" Atkins should burn in hell, along with "Dr" Bernstein.

So you don't consider vegetables to be good carbs? Is there some new study that shows the evil of vegetables I don't know about. Because you can eat all the vegetables you want on Atkins. There are even some vegetarians who do Atkins and one of the later editions of the Atkins books addresses vegetarianism.

I'd really be interested to hear how YOU think nutrition for the brain and your body work. I suspect it would be quite funny.

Yes, I would love to hear their understanding as well. Because, actually, the brain needs FAT, yes FAT, to function. NOT CARBS!

MsAmulet

Try reading http://www.reddit.com/r/keto (look on the right for links).

http://www.pubmed.com -- great studies on obesity and low carb (especially for women and low carb).

I'm not a "my great-grandmother's cousin's nephew's mailman did X and Y happened!! BEWARE!!!" stories -- give me the studies, let me research it out, and I go from there.

daydream58

Did you like the diet?
Yes I loved it, read the book, followed the diet TO THE LETTER, and even got the blood work done so I could prove what I was doing wasn't hurting me. My triglycerides went down as well as a bunch of other indicators. My docs were happy.

How long did you stick with it?
About 18 months

How much weight did you lose?
About 30 pounds, which slowly crept back on over the following 8 years.

Any other suggestions about atikins?
If you're not willing to stay with it or do it TO THE LETTER it's NOT the diet for you. It's not the kind of diet you can "kinda" do, you have to actually read the book and do it RIGHT or you won't be in ketosis, which is a necessary physical state for Atkins to work.

I ended up losing my gall bladder and I felt a sort of "brain fog" that hasn't really ever gone away and it's now ten years later. These days I just eat healthy foods and watch my portions and am doing just as well with none of the deprivation issues. I missed peas and corn and bananas. It's not just restrictive to sugar. Saying that is NOT ANY DIFFERENT than saying Dr. Atkins died of heart disease. BOTH SIDES of this debate need to reign in their rhetoric just a tad!

So for me, I wouldn't go back on Atkins, but I will defend Dr. Atkins tirelessly. He was a good man and a great cardiologist and he died after hitting his head on an icy sidewalk. Oh - and he never said eat a pound of bacon, although I know when I was on Atkins I certainly did a few times. I don't miss my gall bladder, but it was a bit of an extreme outcome just to loose 30 pounds that I eventually gained back.

Hopefully what I'm doing now (eating 1200-1400 calories a day of healthy choices) and working out 4 times a week will eventually have me feeling truly good with a clear head too. I suppose the diet industry (and that includes Atkins who by-the-way sell not only books but tons of diet food products as well) would love nothing more than for us all to believe that losing weight and being healthy is terribly complex and confusing. But if there's one thing MFP has taught me, it's really pretty simple. You give the body an inch, it gives you back a mile. It really doesn't take anything extreme to have a great outcome. Personally I've never got so much back from so little effort in my life as I have from simply eating thoughtfully and mindfully.

batlou

After losing 12 lbs and plateauing, my dr told me go one Atkins. Its day 2. I think Ill be able to do it. I just feel weird not eating bread!! I feel hungry a lot. The good thing about bread was that it fills you up. I feel like i have to eat a lot more to be satisfied. I feel like im eating way too many fat grams.

Did you like the diet?
How long did you stick with it?
How much weight did you lose?
Any other suggestions about atikins?

Did you like the diet?
I love Atkins and it helped me lose and keep off over 100 pounds!

How long did you stick with it?
Over 3 years and I have just taken up moderate carbs, low-cal, low-fat about 2 weeks ago to see if I can mix it up a bit and drop my last 20 pounds.

How much weight did you lose?
115 Pounds in 18 months.

Any other suggestions about atikins?
Read the book and follow it to the letter. Many people start low-carb and think they are doing Atkins but have never read the book. Atkins is not a diet of Meat and Cheese! It should include a large dose of healthy fresh vegitables each day. If you have not read the book or it's not clear how to start I posted the basic rules, induction food and tips on my blog a few years back.

http://www.theurbanprimate.com

Links are in the upper left corner.

Good luck and keep us posted.