Starting the Atkins diet

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  • scythe20
    scythe20 Posts: 10
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    Everyone is different and because of that different diet techniques are more effective for different people. Atkins always has worked well for me because of the way my body works, but that doesnt' mean it works for everyone. I have a crack-addict-style addiction to carbohydrates that is totally unhealthy and by reducing my intake I feel better, I have more energy and after a few weeks empty carbs no longer hold the same appeal for me.

    Just remember it's important to a) eat LOTS of appropriate vegetables, you do not want to see what your body does without dietary fiber; b) follow the diet carefully -- the adkins diet is clear about the importance of taking your supplements and the fact that it is not a NO carb diet - not a high protein diet, but a low carb diet -- as in only eat the carbs that you need and no more.

    If you want friends, I'd like more low-carb dieters to chit chat with! Feel free to add me! :D
  • SueInAz
    SueInAz Posts: 6,592 Member
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    But according to Atkins, being in the state of Ketosis takes about 3 days of eating under 20g of carbs a day. Their whole diet is based around being in a state of ketosis where you burn stored fat as energy, instead of carbs. One bad day on Atkins eating regular carbs can bring you out of Ketosis. You then have to no carb it again for another 3 days to get back in the Ketosis. It can definitely mess with the mind of someone who is over weight and trying any fad diet to lose weight quickly.
    Interesting. For me, knowing that cheating will knock me out of Ketosis actually makes me not cheat. I find it much easier to stick with a low carb approach for that very reason. When I'm eating anything I want but staying under calories, grabbing the bag of cookies is a lot easier to do, and so is eating more cookies than I planned. When I know I can't eat the cookies or I'll waste days of eating well, I'll either reach for something healthier or I won't eat anything at all.

    I guess it's all in the mindset.

    ETA: By the way, I've been maintaining since October. I haven't put any of the weight back on, either. I know my carb limit and I keep within it the vast majority of days. I can still have a splurge day or two then get right back to eating the way I know I need to maintain.
  • martinah4
    martinah4 Posts: 583 Member
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    But according to Atkins, being in the state of Ketosis takes about 3 days of eating under 20g of carbs a day. Their whole diet is based around being in a state of ketosis where you burn stored fat as energy, instead of carbs. One bad day on Atkins eating regular carbs can bring you out of Ketosis. You then have to no carb it again for another 3 days to get back in the Ketosis. It can definitely mess with the mind of someone who is over weight and trying any fad diet to lose weight quickly.
    Interesting. For me, knowing that cheating will knock me out of Ketosis actually makes me not cheat. I find it much easier to stick with a low carb approach for that very reason. When I'm eating anything I want but staying under calories, grabbing the bag of cookies is a lot easier to do, and so is eating more cookies than I planned. When I know I can't eat the cookies or I'll waste days of eating well, I'll either reach for something healthier or I won't eat anything at all.

    I guess it's all in the mindset.

    ETA: By the way, I've been maintaining since October. I haven't put any of the weight back on, either. I know my carb limit and I keep within it the vast majority of days. I can still have a splurge day or two then get right back to eating the way I know I need to maintain.

    Great job!
    I'm considering having a cheat day on Friday, my birthday. I was going to try some low-carb recipe for cake or cookies, but, meh...I've earned it!
  • Acg67
    Acg67 Posts: 12,142 Member
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    But according to Atkins, being in the state of Ketosis takes about 3 days of eating under 20g of carbs a day. Their whole diet is based around being in a state of ketosis where you burn stored fat as energy, instead of carbs. One bad day on Atkins eating regular carbs can bring you out of Ketosis. You then have to no carb it again for another 3 days to get back in the Ketosis. It can definitely mess with the mind of someone who is over weight and trying any fad diet to lose weight quickly.
    Interesting. For me, knowing that cheating will knock me out of Ketosis actually makes me not cheat. I find it much easier to stick with a low carb approach for that very reason. When I'm eating anything I want but staying under calories, grabbing the bag of cookies is a lot easier to do, and so is eating more cookies than I planned. When I know I can't eat the cookies or I'll waste days of eating well, I'll either reach for something healthier or I won't eat anything at all.

    I guess it's all in the mindset.

    Frankly that's a silly mindset, as holding calories and protein constant, it makes no difference if you're in ketosis or not for fat loss
  • killagb
    killagb Posts: 3,280 Member
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    Nice, 2 pounds in 2 days....way to deplete those glycogen stores and the water they hold! :drinker:
  • onedayillbamilf
    onedayillbamilf Posts: 662 Member
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    I started the Atkins diet two days ago and I got on the scale today and it says I lost 2 pounds in two days! I have been counting calories and exercising like crazy for three weeks and I haven't been able to lose anything and now I am finally losing.

    I tried this diet a year ago and lost ten pounds in two weeks. It's a great diet for quick weight loss, but it's hard to keep it off after the initial induction phase. But people have done it. I went to a forum called lowcarber and looked at success stories of people who stayed on the atkins diet and lost tons of weight!

    I know there are a lot of naysayers out there when it comes to this diet, so that's fine. I expect to be blasted on this thread. But it's a tried and true method of losing weight, (as long as you stick with it) and I'm going to try to stick with it. If I can't, I can't, but after all the work I am doing, I am happy to finally be getting results.

    So for all of you who are ready to give up, try this diet. Just google it.

    the problem most people have with atkins, is that its not sustainable. like you said, its a great way of losing weight, good for a quick weight loss, but then people have trouble maintaining that type of diet.

    good luck

    See people who are over weight, are carb sensitive.

    Thank you for diagnosing and potentially curing everyone who is overweight. It makes me feel better to know that my being fat has nothing to do with eating too much of everything.
  • Virginia90
    Virginia90 Posts: 317 Member
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    Anytime you limit carbs, your body uses up its glycogen stores. Each molecule of glycogen has 3 or 4 molecules of water, which means if you have 2 pounds of glycogen, then you have 6-8lbs of "water weight". Anything that drops that fast is usually water weight, especially in the beginning of a diet like that. As soon as you have a day of normal carb intake, your glycogen will be restored, and you gain back the water weight. Weight loss comes from restricting calories, which you can achieve by eating smarter portions or restricting certain foods. I find just eating smart portions of everything works for me. Just understand as you proceed that if you "mess up" one day and eat more carbs than usual, then see you've gained several pounds overnight, it's just water weight.
  • martinah4
    martinah4 Posts: 583 Member
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    Anytime you limit carbs, your body uses up its glycogen stores. Each molecule of glycogen has 3 or 4 molecules of water, which means if you have 2 pounds of glycogen, then you have 6-8lbs of "water weight". Anything that drops that fast is usually water weight, especially in the beginning of a diet like that. As soon as you have a day of normal carb intake, your glycogen will be restored, and you gain back the water weight. Weight loss comes from restricting calories, which you can achieve by eating smarter portions or restricting certain foods. I find just eating smart portions of everything works for me. Just understand as you proceed that if you "mess up" one day and eat more carbs than usual, then see you've gained several pounds overnight, it's just water weight.

    So, according to your numbers, I have lost 67 pounds of water weight, or at least 22 pounds of glycogen? True, the first weight lost on any diet is water weight, but I think it's a stretch to say that all the weight lost on a low-carb diet is water weight. Is that what you're implying?
  • martinah4
    martinah4 Posts: 583 Member
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    OP, here come those Naysayers...
    I'm going to bow out now, as it's ridiculous to argue this point to these same people who always appear here to argue their tired cases.
  • Acg67
    Acg67 Posts: 12,142 Member
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    Anytime you limit carbs, your body uses up its glycogen stores. Each molecule of glycogen has 3 or 4 molecules of water, which means if you have 2 pounds of glycogen, then you have 6-8lbs of "water weight". Anything that drops that fast is usually water weight, especially in the beginning of a diet like that. As soon as you have a day of normal carb intake, your glycogen will be restored, and you gain back the water weight. Weight loss comes from restricting calories, which you can achieve by eating smarter portions or restricting certain foods. I find just eating smart portions of everything works for me. Just understand as you proceed that if you "mess up" one day and eat more carbs than usual, then see you've gained several pounds overnight, it's just water weight.

    So, according to your numbers, I have lost 67 pounds of water weight, or at least 22 pounds of glycogen? True, the first weight lost on any diet is water weight, but I think it's a stretch to say that all the weight lost on a low-carb diet is water weight. Is that what you're implying?

    Do low carb diets effect reading comprehension? Initial greater weight loss on a low carb vs mixed diet is due to water weight, when re introducing cho into your diet she said the fast weight gain is just water weight. No where did that post say all weight lost on a low carb diet is all water
  • kvsmith59
    kvsmith59 Posts: 26 Member
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    I don't know. I was starting to get bored with the atkins diet right around the time I had the kidney stone attack....everything just tasted so bland after a while. That was years ago, and I finally decided to lose that extra 20 lbs I've been carrying around after I found this site and it's android app. Honestly, if you're on this website enough where you are posting stuff instead of lurking, then all you have to do is use the website the way it's designed and I'm thinking you'll lose weight. Just stay at or below your "goal" and you'll lose weight. If you go over your goal, do a little exercise to bring it back down. I've only been here a few weeks but it seems simple enough. I went over my goal a little this evening and just went for a walk to offset it.

    Anyways, no matter what you try, good luck with it. It's better to try to lose weight if you need to than not try at all.....
  • ElPumaMex
    ElPumaMex Posts: 367 Member
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    There is no secret to losing weight. It all boils down to burning more calories than you take in, whether those calories come in carbs, fats, or proteins.

    ^^^ This
  • ElPumaMex
    ElPumaMex Posts: 367 Member
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    I've done Atkins a few times and lost weight with it (yo-yoed a lot due to feeling deprived) but after really tracking it (at first with weight watchers now with MFP) I've come to realize i was losing weight when i was sticking with it because I was taking in ALOT less calories because I was so much fuller on whole, clean foods instead of processed stuff. You need to do what works best for you. I've learned that I do better keeping a somewhat low carb diet but as long as I'm under on my calories I don't feel guilty if I want a bagel, a piece of toast or any kind of fruit (I love bananas!!). Good luck with your journey no matter which path you take :)

    Yes, ^^^ This

    The extremes are always dangerous, in my opinion.
    Low Carb or Low Protein diets are extremes.

    A long term plan for healthy nutrition, should be a Balanced diet, with the right proportion of carbs, protein, fat.

    The attraction of low carbs and other diets, is that they deliver a simple "magical" and easy way to lose weight.
    But they are not sustainable, nor healthy in the long term.
  • douglasmobbs
    douglasmobbs Posts: 563 Member
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    Low carb can work, I have never seen someone stick to it whilst logging calories but I have seen people stick to the diet, eat loads of cheese and pork scratchings and lose weight.

    When I have tried the Atkins and Dukan in the past the problem I have found is sticking to it. I have lost a lot of weight to start with but the limits on food type have not been sustainable for me. I could eat more food than I can on a calorie control diet, but I got bored of high fat food and stopped enjoying meal times. For me this was the reason why I could not stick to it.

    For those who can stick to it, good for them, I am sure those who have done their research knows the difficulties of ensuring they get the correct nutrients.
  • crimsontech
    crimsontech Posts: 234 Member
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    Anytime you limit carbs, your body uses up its glycogen stores. Each molecule of glycogen has 3 or 4 molecules of water, which means if you have 2 pounds of glycogen, then you have 6-8lbs of "water weight". Anything that drops that fast is usually water weight, especially in the beginning of a diet like that. As soon as you have a day of normal carb intake, your glycogen will be restored, and you gain back the water weight. Weight loss comes from restricting calories, which you can achieve by eating smarter portions or restricting certain foods. I find just eating smart portions of everything works for me. Just understand as you proceed that if you "mess up" one day and eat more carbs than usual, then see you've gained several pounds overnight, it's just water weight.

    A thousand times, this. I did low-carbs (<20 per day) for the last 6 days and have lost about 12 pounds. But, according to my scale, only about 4-6 pounds of it was fat. This program I was on had me on 500-800 calories per day, so I had a daily deficit of close to 2200 calories... so OF COURSE I lost 5-6 pounds of fat. The problem is, I can hardly motivate myself to exercise and I feel absolutely terrible. On my old diet plan of 1200-1500 calories per day with 6x week 60 minutes of some sort of cardio exercise, I was losing 3-5 pounds a week, but I could eat whatever I wanted... just in moderation.

    I'm pretty sure I'm done with this low-carb trial. Having to take a bunch of pills and them wanting me to drink a fake-sugar-sweetened 0-carb powerade/vitamin water/etc every day is not really the lifestyle change I'm trying to get to.
  • mcanavan05
    mcanavan05 Posts: 210 Member
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    Im new to Atkins.. so here's some of my questions, hoping someone can answer

    New to Atkins, trying to find info on how to log a bottle of beer with the net carb formula. Also - is it imperative to stay under 20net carbs during the first 2 weeks regardless of body type, age, gender?

    Im 6ft 210 (stuck at 210) 38-39 waist 17 neck 38 hips. scales says 34-32% body fat.
  • lucky1ns
    lucky1ns Posts: 358 Member
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    Is this a regular thread? I just started atkins to change things up and am not too thrilled with how their message boards are set up. I am a loyal MFP'er and would love to be able to stay right here and do atkins as well.
  • Helloitsdan
    Helloitsdan Posts: 5,564 Member
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    I've heard that some research suggest tapering to low carbs at night is good but on the flip side, better fat metabolism happens if you close the night out with higher carbs.
    Whats worked for the long timers on here?

    For me I dont believe in low carb anything but i'm curious!
  • paprad
    paprad Posts: 321 Member
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    I've been on Atkins for the last 3 weeks. I tried it many years ago but I couldn't sustain it. This time I was more determined and it wasnt so bad at all. I have not binged on fat, and have stayed within my MFP calories - but here's the thing, the previous 3 months that I stayed at a 500 calorie per day deficit - I lost 2lb. This time, within 3 weeks, I lost 4 - and 3 of that was during induction. It's not a t a huge weight loss as far as Atkins goes - and I think it's because I am insulin resistant.

    For those who are anti Atkins, I would urge you to see this video : Battle of the Diets

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eREuZEdMAVo

    It's one of the largest and longest run research studies on diets - and it was run by a man who was a vegetarian for 15 years, who says the fact that the lower the carb in diets the better the health indicators, was a bitter pill for him to swallow.

    He talks later in the presentation, of how he went back and sorted the participants for insulin resistants - if not insulin resistant, then low-carb or low calorie makes little difference. However, if you are insulin resistant, low-carb performs much better.

    One takeaway from this is that you don't have to go to zilch carb for the benefits to accrue - and his version of low-carb is actually less low-carb than is Atkins.

    I am not losing dramatically myself and this is despite sticking to my 1200 cals per MFP- so I am not pushing this from any new found evangelism - however, I do find myself less hungry, more energetic and feel less bloated. Sadly, i am not a huge meat eater, so eating so much chicken every day is making me feel like I could start clucking any moment. I am not sure how long I can stick this out, but since I am out of induction, I can at least add other carbs.
  • SuffolkSally
    SuffolkSally Posts: 964 Member
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    I did the Atkins diet a few years ago and did really well on it - lost a lot of weight and felt really good. My hair and skin improved and I had loads of energy. Like all diets it suits some people and not others... I stayed away from processed foods, and eating lean protein with salads and veggies left me losing weight without feeling hungry. However I found in the longer term that it was expensive, and also very inconvenient, for instance when eating out or hwn working and needing to grab something on the go when I hadn't had time to prepare ahead. I did get to me target weight easily, and I wish you luck with it! I would say do make sure you drink enough, and that you get enough fibre (you'll need a supplement, which is mentioned in the book).

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