Atkins Diet

I'm on the Atkins and I've lost 55 lbs. Trying to get back on track from the holidays.

I had a very hard time on the adkins diet. I got to a point I felt like it was all grease I was eating and became repulsed by the food I could eat.
Im doing simple calorie reduction and minimal 2 miles walking daily and its actually working for me. 1st time in my life a diet has worked and its just basic intake regulation with exercise.

Sabine_Stroehm wrote: »

fish2find wrote: »

I had a very hard time on the adkins diet. I got to a point I felt like it was all grease I was eating and became repulsed by the food I could eat.
Im doing simple calorie reduction and minimal 2 miles walking daily and its actually working for me. 1st time in my life a diet has worked and its just basic intake regulation with exercise.

Hey congrats on finding what works!
A question: did you eat all the vegetables that were recommended?
I'm not low carb either, but if I did atkins etc. I would be eating ALL my recommended vegetables. I don't think it's meant to be a "grease" diet if you know what I mean.

I should have included that it was 2004 or so. Id say we did follow, I remember kind of making it my wife's burden to research for us and I followed her instruction (kicking and screaming). I do remember whining "Im a happy fat man" at one point and ending that diet.

I'm following a low carb diet and it works really well for me. Lost 4.5 kg (10lbs?) in 3 weeks so far. The great thing for me is that the restriction of carbs (not totally banning them, but I stay around 30grams a day) is that I experience almost no hunger. When I restrict my calories like on a regular diet, im constantly hungry and constantly craving food and sweets. Worst of all.. I tend to think about food 24/7. I got no cravings or obsessive food thought on this diet.

The thing with a low carb diet is that your body switches from a glucose burning machine to a fat burning machine, which means the primary fuel for your body is fat. Thats why the first few days you could feel crappy bescause of the switch and it also means you have to eat fats (and proteins) to fuel your body. And drink loads of water and a salty bouillon every day to keep yourself hydrated and your sodium level normal. Usually, because your hunger is suppressed, uou have no trouble eating less calories. It can be a pain however, on birthdays or whatever.

Anyway, this is my personal experience... There is no such thing as a diet that works the same for every single individual. Maybe I should also mention that I get really tired from eating fast carbs (like sugar, white rice, pasta, bread), and my mind gets kinda foggy (so maybe I cant handle insulin peeks very well, and maybe its a factor why it works for me).

Anyhow, the way to find out if its a thing for you is to just try it for a couple of weeks (at least 2 or 3).

Btw. Should you want to read more about low carb I reccomend 'the art and science of low carb living' (or something like that) and 'the ketogenic diet'. I forgot who the auteurs are (shame on me). It made me understand the ins and outs better
(i'm not trying to promote either book, you can also just google, and try to find some quality articles).

Atkin's was the first diet I ever tried and it worked pretty well, but I found that I couldn't maintain it long term. I think it's important to ask yourself before starting any diet is if the food you'll be eating is something you can see yourself eating for the rest of your life.

Low carb diets are far too restrictive for me with too many rules. But it has it's perks as well, all that bacon

A lot of people who've tried Atkins, and didn't stick with it, didn't go up the food rungs as instructed in the literature. You CAN stay in Induction for a longer period, but the actual plan encourages most of the weight to be lost while gradually upping carbs (from many sources) until you find your threshold. You eat a ton of veggies throughout the plan.
It's not meat heavy, either. Another misconception. The Atkins site is free, I believe, and you can see the lists of foods for the rungs. Low carb doesn't have to mean little to no carb. It's up to the individual to find what works for them.

As pointed out, it lends itself to lower calorie eating. I would track, anyway.

I did lose on it, but am very weak with binge issues. I'm currently following a similar plan except I'm concentrating on fat and protein for satiety and fueling muscles and carbs make up the rest. I'm also making an effort to have a varied diet. I got bored when I was too lazy to keep meals interesting.

Atkins is an "eat until you feel satisfied" type of diet. The catch of course is you must stay under your carb limit. Practically, that means a lot of foods - most foods in fact - end up on the forbidden list. The trick to its success is that your food cravings will go away since it turns out these cravings are tied to moderate to high carb foods that you won't be eating.

I did it for about a year and a half. It works but monotony and in some cases outright revulsion started to set in. I swear I was going to puke if I ate one more friggin' egg. In the end I just didn't want to live the rest of my life under such severe dietary restrictions. MFP has taught me about logging and weighing and portion control. I've had longer success with this than with Atkins. There are days I go over and, yes, it's usually high carb foods that do it but I can compensate for that by simply staying under later in the week. No severe induction phase punishments or the like when I'm over.