Atkins

Actually, I am doing HCG which is very close to Atkins.....I lost 27 .5 lbs in the first round and 24 lbs in my second. Started Feb 7, 2011 so lost 46 lbs so far...eating a very low carb diet. You are definitely on the right track!!



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I know a bunch of people who tried it. They all lost a lot of weight quickly.
2 years later, they were ALL just as heavy as before they started the Atkins.

The problem with a low carb diet, rather than a balanced, is the second you change your eatting habits again, the weight is back. .

I'll Stick my 2 sense in and both are NOT a Heathly way of loosing weight and Keeping id OFF!!!!!

I don't know what HCG is, but Adkins is a healthy diet if it's folllowed strictly. Studies I've seen have suggested two things about high protein low carb diets such as Adkins. 1. The health benefits drop drastically the more you veer from the strict plan. 2. Very few people stick to it long term and most gain back most or all of the weight.

Those results are just what happened to the majority of participants in the studies and don't mean anything on an individual level, other than you should probably ask yourself whether you can stick with it before choosing that diet.

Read this and let me know what you think...:)

It's truly astounding—100 years ago, low-quality bread made up about 40 percent of the average Briton's diet (and the situation was likely similar in the US as well), and today, even lower quality bread makes up nearly 50 percent of the average diet!

Back in 1911, white bread was identified as a primary culprit for the declining health of the British population, which led to a massive campaign to revert back to more wholesome bread. At the time, wholegrain bread was considered a sign of poverty, so people from all levels of society sought after white, refined flour bread.

The campaign spearheaded by The Daily Mail was eventually successful. But it didn't last long... White bread was actually banned during World War II in the UK, and as a result, Britons were said to be in better health by 1947 after subsisting on limited rations of wholegrain breads for eight years.

However, at the end of the war, white bread was rendered legal once again, and today, more than 60 years later, our grocery shelves are stocked with breads and grain-products that are of even lower quality than 100 years ago... And, as in 1911, white processed bread is a major contributor to rampant obesity and poor health.

Do You Know the Chemicals Lurking in Your Bread?

As illustrated in The Daily Mail, the quality of bread has gotten far worse rather than better over the years. Back in 1911, salt, cheap fats, alum, lime powder, and bleaching constituted "bad" bread. Today, there's a whole new breed of health-harming ingredients to contend with in your typical store-bought bread, including:

Processed salt High fructose corn syrup Trans fats (hydrogenated oils) Soy Treatment agents (oxidant chemicals) Reducing agents Emulsifiers Preservatives Enzymes (typically from fungi or bacteria)

Many of these ingredients are hidden, as they're not required to be listed on the label. I've written numerous articles on many of these ingredients. For more information, simply follow the links provided. But hidden and potentially harmful ingredients aren't the only problem with modern bread. Today we have such things as Wonder Bread, and it's a wonder that anyone even considers it to be "bread" in the first place...

Refined Foods are Devoid of Nutrients

It's important to realize that when food is refined, vital nutrients are destroyed. In some cases it's questionable whether what remains is even fit to be considered food... at least if the term "food" implies something of nutritional value. In terms of bread, once you remove the most nutritious part of the grain, it essentially becomes a form of sugar.

Consider what gets lost in the refining process:

Half of the beneficial unsaturated fatty acids 50 percent of the calcium 80 percent of the iron 50-80 percent of the B vitamins Virtually all of the vitamin E 70 percent of the phosphorus 98 percent of the magnesium And many more nutrients are destroyed -- simply too many to list.

How Processed Grains Can Deteriorate Your Health

The end result of the excessive consumption of white bread and other processed forms of grain products can be seen all around you in the form of:

Obesity Diabetes Heart disease Allergies and asthma Gluten intolerance and Celiac disease Vitamin deficiencies and related health problems

Vitamin B deficiencies in particular contribute to a wide range of illnesses, and vitamin B deficiencies are pervasive around the world. For example, an estimated 25 percent of American adults are deficient in B12.

We've also seen an extraordinary rise in digestive illnesses, such as gluten intolerance and Celiac disease, and modern industrial baking methods are likely a major contributor to these widespread problems. The rise in asthma and allergies may also be related to our modern food processing and manufacturing practices. For example, one of the enzymes commonly used in modern bread making is amylase, which is known to cause asthma.

Many also forget that most commercial wheat production is, unfortunately, a "study in pesticide application," beginning with the seeds being treated with fungicide. Once they become wheat, they are sprayed with hormones and pesticides. Even the bins in which the harvested wheat is stored have been coated with insecticides. These chemicals all contribute to increasing the average person's toxic load, which is a contributing factor to virtually every possible disease imaginable. I can't think of any illness that is not made worse by frequent toxic exposure, such as what we get through conventionally-grown foods and unfiltered water.

Whereas old time mills ground flour slowly, today's mills are designed for mass-production, using high-temperature, high-speed steel rollers. Next, it's hit with another chemical insult--a chlorine gas bath (chlorine oxide). This serves as a whitener, as well as an "aging" agent. Flour used to be aged with time, improving the gluten and thus improving the baking quality. Treating it with chlorine instantly produces similar qualities in the flour (with a disturbing lack of concern about adding another dose of chemicals to your food).

The resulting white flour is nearly all starch, and now contains a small fraction of the nutrients of the original grain. Additionally, the chemical treatments on the grain results in the formation of a byproduct, alloxan—a poison used in the medical research industry to induce diabetes in healthy mice. Alloxan causes diabetes by spinning up enormous amounts of free radicals in pancreatic beta cells, thus destroying them. Beta cells are the primary cell type in areas of your pancreas called islets of Langerhans, and they produce insulin; so if those are destroyed, you develop diabetes.

Given the raging epidemic of diabetes and other chronic diseases in this country, it may be unwise to be complacent about a toxin such as this in your bread, even if it is present in small amounts...

Why a High-Carb Diet Can be Disastrous to Your Health

Overconsumption of carbs is the primary driving factor for insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. Unfortunately, the dietary establishment has unwisely been extolling the virtues of carbohydrates while warning you to avoid fats. But anyone who bought into the high-carb, low-fat dietary recommendations has likely struggled with their weight and health, wondering what they're doing wrong…

The truth of the matter is that a diet high in grain carbs (as opposed to vegetables) and low in fat may be dangerous to your health, and if you want to shed excess weight and improve your health, the converse diet is what you're looking for!

Why are high-carb diets so bad?

In a nutshell, overeating carbohydrate foods can prevent a higher percentage of fats from being used for energy, and lead to an increase in fat storage. It also raises your insulin levels, which in short order can cause insulin resistance, followed by diabetes. Insulin resistance is also at the heart of virtually every disease known to man.

Contrary to popular belief, eating fat does NOT make you fat—carbohydrates, such as sugar and grains, do. Your body has a limited capacity to store excess carbohydrates, but it can easily convert those excess carbohydrates into excess body fat. Any carbohydrates not immediately used by your body are stored in the form of glycogen (a long string of glucose molecules linked together). Your body has two storage sites for glycogen: your liver and your muscles. Once the glycogen levels are filled in both your liver and muscles, excess carbohydrates are converted into fat and stored in your adipose, that is, fatty, tissue.

So, although carbohydrates are fat-free, excess carbohydrates end up as excess fat.

But that's not the worst of it. Any meal or snack high in carbohydrates will also generate a rapid rise in blood glucose. To adjust for this rapid rise, your pancreas secretes insulin into your bloodstream, which then lowers the levels of blood glucose. The problem is that insulin is essentially a storage hormone, evolved to put aside excess carbohydrate calories in the form of fat in case of future famine. So the insulin that's stimulated by excess carbohydrates aggressively promotes the accumulation of body fat!

Too Much Wheat or Grain Converts Into Fat

In other words, when you eat too much bread, pasta, and any other grain products, you're essentially sending a hormonal message, via insulin, to your body that says "store fat."

Additionally, increased insulin levels also:

■Make it virtually impossible for you to use your own stored body fat for energy
■Suppress two important hormones: glucagon and growth hormone. Glucagon promotes the burning of fat and sugar. Growth hormone is used for muscle development and building new muscle mass.
■Increases hunger: As blood sugar increases following a carbohydrate meal, insulin rises with the eventual result of lower blood sugar. This results in hunger, often only a couple of hours (or less) after the meal.
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<span class=" fbUnderline">So, all in all, the excess carbohydrates in your diet not only make you fat, they make sure you stay fat.</span> Cravings, usually for sweets, are frequently part of this cycle, leading you to resort to snacking, often on more carbohydrates. Not eating can make you feel ravenous shaky, moody and ready to "crash." If the problem is chronic, you never get rid of that extra stored fat, and your energy and overall health is adversely affected.

Below is a list of some of the most common complaints of people with insulin resistance (IR). Many of these symptoms may occur immediately following a meal of carbohydrates; others may be chronic:

Fatigue. Some are tired just in the morning or afternoon; others are exhausted all day. Brain fogginess. The inability to concentrate is the most evident symptom. Loss of creativity, poor memory, failing or poor grades in school often accompany insulin resistance, as do various forms of "learning disabilities." Hypoglycemia. Feeling jittery, agitated and moody is common in IR, with an almost immediate relief once food is eaten. Dizziness is also common, as is the craving for sweets, chocolate or caffeine. Intestinal bloating. Most intestinal gas is produced from dietary carbohydrates. Sometimes the intestinal distress can become quite severe, resulting in a diagnosis of "colitis" or "ileitis." Sleepiness. Many people with IR get sleepy immediately after meals containing more than 20-30 percent carbohydrates. This is typically a pasta meal, or even a meat meal that includes bread or potatoes and a sweet dessert. Increased fat storage and weight. In many people, the most evident sign is a large abdomen, or belly fat. Increased triglycerides. High triglycerides in the blood are often seen in overweight persons. But even those who are not too fat may have stores of fat in their arteries as a result of IR. These triglycerides are the direct result of carbohydrates from the diet being converted by insulin. Increased blood pressure. It is well known that most people with hypertension have too much insulin and are IR. It is often possible to show a direct relationship between the level of insulin and the level of blood pressure: as insulin levels elevate, so does blood pressure. Depression. Carbohydrates are a natural "downer," and it's not uncommon to see many depressed persons also having IR. Carbohydrates do this by changing your brain chemistry—they increase serotonin, which produces a depressing or sleepy feeling. (This is a significant consideration for those trying to learn, whether at school, home or work.)

Does this sound like you?

One of the Fastest Ways to Dramatically Improve Your Health

The best suggestion for anyone wanting to shed excess fat and improve health is to moderate and normalize your insulin response by limiting (ideally, eliminating) your intake of refined sugars and fructose, and limiting all other carbohydrate intake as much as possible. (Proteins and fats generally do not produce much insulin.)

With the stress of insulin resistance eliminated, your body can finally be able to correct many of its own problems, and this is also why I keep reminding you that the underlying factor of most disease states that MUST be addressed is insulin resistance. <span class=" fbUnderline">Once you've normalized your insulin levels, your body actually has a phenomenal capacity for self-healing.</span>



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Saying you'll gain it all back after Atkins isn't exactly saying much. I've tried just about every diet/plan/whatever under the sun, including counting calories with MFP, and I always gain if I stop, regardless of what the plan entails.

I am 53 yrs old...tried EVERY diet out there plus personal trainers, videos, gyms, shakes, bars, clinics and guess what...?..I lost weight and gained it all back and then some. Balance is the key in weightloss and you need to also find something you can stick with for life.

This is key. Any healthy way of eating can work, if it is sustainable for life.

I feel that Atkins is healthy (when done correctly) and can be very beneficial to anyone who can stick with it FOREVER. I lost 92 pounds on Atkins, but I do not enjoy meat like other people tend to. Sometimes, I was literally nauseous at the thought of having to eat meat or eggs another day. The "Atkins-friendly" vegetarian options are also foods I just could not make myself like. When I gradually tried to reintroduce HEALTHY starches, in limited amounts, I maintained or gained. This went on for several months until I finally gave up. Therefore, this way of eating was not right for me, when all was said and done.

Just remember that drastically changing the way you eat causes changes in the body's expectations and reactions. Once you make the change to severely limiting carbohydrates, you have to be EXTREMELY confident that you will never go back to eating as you were before.

To answer your request for ideas: If you DO stick with this, try things like:

- tuna croquettes made from tuna, egg and protein isolate, seasoned to taste and dipped in sour cream
- meatza pizza, using lean ground turkey as a thin crust and topping with Pizza Quick sauce, cheese and other meats and veggies
- fish and vegetable foil pouches, seasoned however you like, grilled or baked
- chicken lightly coated in mayo and dipped in parmesan, then baked <-- This leads to a tasty, browned "crust"

I can share recipes with you via private message if you're interested.

ETA: For what it's worth, after gaining back all of my lost weight plus some, I am now trying a diet consisting of 30% carbs, 40% fats and 40% protein. I try to severely limit my bad carbs and bad fats, but I also allow myself things I really enjoy. This helps me to eat like this every day without feeling deprived. I really feel like I can eat like this every day, for the rest of my life,

I'm doing my own version of low-carb, but pretty much Atkins. I've been trying to stay under 20 net carbs a day (not necessarily induction, since I'm drinking the slim-fast shakes daily and other Atkins "no-nos" during their induction, but I do plan a more strict induction next week since I've been stalling). I have PCOS and eating low-carb is what works for me. I've been successful with it in the past, it's just the sticking to it that I need to get the hang of. Oh, I'm also counting calories on top of that.. staying under 1500 a day.