Atkins Support Group

After eating low-fat and SAD for so long, I sometimes need reassurance that my new low-carb eating is the healthy way. So, I saw a post on a thread by another low-carber (I think) that said that if you eat low carb for too long, it messes with your thyroid, and causes your metabolism to slow down. Since I've been in a plateau for about 2 weeks, I'm starting to wonder?
Has anyone heard this before? Is it true? Comments? Thanks!

I've heard that it's a good idea to have a cheat day (high carb) every once in awhile (assuming you've been in ketosis the whole time) to keep your thyroid in check. Don't know if it's just bro science, or if there is legitimate science behind it.

I usually have a cheat day every couple of weeks. My wife can't go that long without carbs (she responds to them better than me). We're planning on having our cheat day tomorrow.

I usually have a cheat day every couple of weeks. My wife can't go that long without carbs (she responds to them better than me). We're planning on having our cheat day tomorrow.

I started out with a planned cheat day once a week and early on I did take it. These days I go several weeks before I even think about it. I think psychologically its a good thing to have a cheat day. Less guilt over doing it and you feel more in control. So yes on cheat days!!! The caveat is that when that days is over, its over. No ifs, ands, buts or maybes.

After eating low-fat and SAD for so long, I sometimes need reassurance that my new low-carb eating is the healthy way. So, I saw a post on a thread by another low-carber (I think) that said that if you eat low carb for too long, it messes with your thyroid, and causes your metabolism to slow down. Since I've been in a plateau for about 2 weeks, I'm starting to wonder?
Has anyone heard this before? Is it true? Comments? Thanks!

I look to my mother and her siblings for my real life proof that low-carbing is healthy and sustainable in the long term. In the mid90s... I think 1995... My mother and her sister were both diagnosed as T2 diabetics. My uncle was in a pre-diabetic state, he had been an all organic vegan for years, and was skinny as a rail, but really sick with totally messed up blood sugar. They all went on Atkins. Today they are all still veeerrrrryyy low-carb- my mother is hard core. She is no longer diabetic and is in ridiculous shape. She gets her blood work done every 6 months and her results are phenomenal. She is so healthy and fit it's crazy. My uncle is also in an amzing place. My aunt has had a tougher time- she is still diabetic, but isn't on any meds, she keeps herself in check with the low-carb diet, but she has never been able to be as strict as my mother. She always has eaten a lot of fruits, and"cheats" now and then. I think it was harder for her because her family did not embrace her changes, and actually really gave her a hard time, but recently her husband changed his tune and gave low carb a try- he has lost 30 pounds. My step-dad has lost 40 pounds since going low carb- he's 70 and barely looks or acts a day over 40.

To me my mother is proof that this lifestyle is healthy and is something that can be done for the long haul

The weight that the Whoosh Fairy took yesterday is still off today. I'm thinking it is a legit weight loads now.

On a side note, my neighborhood is under a mandatory evacuation because of Irene. Boo! We have till 5pm to get out

Thanks Susan I will try that, heck I'll try anything I just want the Whoosh Fairy to visit me again I seem to "whoosh" about every 2 months but only 10 pounds at a time. At almost 300 pounds my doctor and everyone else keeps telling me that I should be losing more consistently and not plateauing as long so maybe lowering protein and upping fat will help.

As I read Taubes Good Calories, Bad Calories I am getting angrier as I read all the research and hypotheses that were just thrown aside due to the overwhelming drive for efficacy behind thermodynamics (calories in calories out) and them letting that belief outweigh the proof that another possibility existed and still exists - it boggles my mind. These are educated medical professionals top of their field and scientists. I thought proof was what they sought and that they harp on not being able to deny evidence well they totally denied evidence that hormones(insulin in particular) drive fat storage and usage and decided that if you were obese it just HAD to be a character defect. This really angers me. I have been obese my whole life and always heard from doctors that I needed to eat less and exercise more and I stuck to their crappy low calorie, low fat, high carb diets and starved myself my whole life and when I would go back and didn't get the results they thought I should have they blamed me and said it was not possible to eat their diet and not lose weight well HELLO must be possible it happened I even gained on as little as 800-1000 calories so of course they said I cheated I ate way more than they told me too, I was lying about what I ate,etc. This went on my whole life until their crappy wisdom or lack of wisdom I should say got me to 535 pounds and according to their own rules I would have had to be eating 6000+ calories a day to maintain that weight when I was actually eating 800-2000 a day depending on the day with the majority at about 1200-1300 cals. Not only did I not lose weight but they ingrained in me since I was a small child that I was a glutton with no self control and that everything I did was wrong and I just wasn't capable of controlling myself. Do they not know what that does to a child? And my mom believed them thought I had to be sneaking food, even though she was close to 350 herself and knew she didn't eat the amounts they were saying I had to be eating. And now I read there is undeniable evidence that obese people and animals can gain weight when fed too few calories of the wrong fuels and essentially are malnourished and experience cellular level hunger when not fed sufficient proteins and fats or are fed them along with too many carbohydrates. Why was this body of work from many different researchers across the world, throughout several centuries just ignored and pushed aside? Is the grain subsidy in this country really worth more than the health of its people? Okay off my soap box and going back to finish the book I am in the last chapter or so.

martinah- I was actually part of the studies conducted in the late 70's by NIH in Bethesda,MD I was the only child participant(I turned 5 in the study) It was inpatient they fed me and made me exercise, etc and weighed, measured, and did bloodwork to determine the effects of several diets. I weighed 150 at the time and was the height of an average 9yr old. The first put me on a 350 calories balanced diet and I gained weight, then they put me on Ornish (low fat high carb) and I gained more so my mom threatened to take me out of the study. The last diet they tried was Atkins induction but a low fat version because they thought they would kill me if they fed me "all that fat", after 2 weeks I had dropped 18 pounds and sent me home and told mom to feed me extremely lean meats like chicken breast and salads with no dressing, dill pickles, all the things I had come to hate in the hospital and Mom said when I left the hospital I was lifeless, no shine in my eyes or my hair I was like a limp dishrag! So she didn't think it was healthy and started feeding me like she had always fed me. She told me about the study when I was in my late teens and about 450 pounds or so, and I tried low carbing unsuccessfully for years because I was so addicted to carbs. I had gastric bypass 10 yrs ago come December and lost a good amount but felt like craps still. Then I was tested for food allergies (after I moved to Las Vegas) and found out I am allergic to wheat, soy and many other foods two years ago. My allergist told me to go off wheat and soy completely for 8 weeks and come back. I did it but kept eating rice, corn, and other grains. But my cravings for the carby foods diminished and by the end of the 8 weeks I didn't want the other carbs either. My whole addiction to carbs was due to my wheat allergies. The body will often become addicted to the very foods we are allergic to strangely enough. So then I started the Primal Blueprint and reread all the low carb books I got the new Atkins book, too. At first I was losing fine on 80-100gm a day (Primal) in mostly veggies and fruit then I had to eliminate fruits almost completely and then had to eventually lower my veggies and now I am at a ketotic level almost daily and I just won't whoosh.:laugh: But as for doctors suggesting Atkins, or a low carb diet that didn't happen until I moved to Las Vegas. There are a lot of newer doctors here and they have all read the Duke and Stanford studies and believe that low carb is the way to go to lose weight for their obese patients. Their minds are open and they realize that low fat, high carb never worked. So I have had a lot more support here for it. In Virginia my doctors still harped on the balanced FDA pyramid and discouraged me from trying "fad diets" like Atkins and I listened even though my body kept telling me it was what was best for me. I guess our heads and the things our heads learn from the world and supposed experts around us sometimes win out over our body's instincts and I had been taught all my life not to trust my own body.

martinah- I was actually part of the studies conducted in the late 70's by NIH in Bethesda,MD I was the only child participant(I turned 5 in the study)

So, I think the Whoosh Fairy visited last night. I was down 2.5 lbs! But, like an earlier poster, I'm going to see if it sticks tomorrow morning on the scale....don't want to count my chickens before they hatch.