Posted: 8/12/2007 9:52:48 AM EDT
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I recently decided to lose about 40 or so pounds and I am giving the Atkins diet a try. What say the fitness gurus? ETA My doctor recently prescribed some medication for chronic pain that is working for me so I am walking at least 1 hour a day now (which I haven't been able to do in years). So I am adding exercise to the diet too. ETA If you choose "not healthy" it would be great if you would explain your reasoning. |
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You are about to be bombarded by tons of "it's not healthy, just get off your fat ass and exercise" comments. I am currently doing it and have lost 40 lbs. with moderate exercise over the last eight months (with a few breaks). I occasionally cheat a little, which is sometimes good for morale and gives the weight loss a good kick start again. If you are serious about doing it, read the book! That way you'll understand the science behind it. (I like the older early 90's edition better, Easier read of boring material.) A typical day for me may be: Breakfast: Bacon and eggs with cheese, sour cream, and salsa. lunch: Wendy's double w/out half the bun, small chilli, side salad. Dinner: Chicken ceaser salad. During the day I snack on almonds, pepporoni, cheese, pork rinds, brockolli with ranch dip. After your initial two week start up, try to keep your carbs down to 40g. per day. You can buy test strips that test your pee to see how well you are doing burning fat/ how much you've been cheating. Good luck! Jan= 295 lbs. Aug= 252 lbs. p.s. I tried to eat half a brownie last night, but couldn't get past the first bite. It was just too rich. I made my wife finish the rest. Coke Zero is your friend. |
| I started the Atkins diet in mid April. I was at 300lbs, 53" waist, on blood pressure meds, all at 25 years of age. I dieted(and cheated) for two months and lost 45lbs. For the last 8 weeks I've eaten most anything I want, with a few no carb days in between. I've gained back maybe 5 lbs, although over the past four months I've been doing push ups and working out with a 50lbs bar. My upper body is starting to transform in front of my eyes, so I don't know how much fat I've gained back. However, I've started the diet again and hope to be down to 240lbs by mid Sept, then 220lbs by Thanksgiving. My total goal is to drop 80lbs. I no longer take blood pressure meds, and, at times, have more energy then I know what to do with. Once I hit 240lbs I plan to start swimming a few days a week to help with my cardio. Over all I love the diet. I love steak, chicken, hamburgers, and eat as much as I want. I also love that wilted lettuce stuff my wife fixes. True, the diet is not as healthy as others, but if you've got a lot of weight to drop(more then 25-30lbs), I'd do it. My wife is also on the diet, and has lost the same amount I have. Roughly 90lbs in two months(because the last two months we've been maintaining). How else can two people drop that much weight in that period of time. Without surgery it can't be done, unless you kill yourself in the process. Last time I checked, I've lost 5.5" off my waist. Unless your cholesterol is through the roof, I'd do the diet. Drop the weight you want plus 5-8lbs(you'll gain that back once you start eating carbs again), then make the change to eat healthier. People always complain about how the weight comes right back. Well, yeah, it does if you go back to eating Wendy's and Burger King twice a day, which most people do. And as Donith said, Coke Zero is your friend, so is Pepsi One. Also, make sure to take some type of vitamins while doing the diet, as you can deprive your body of some key things while your doing it. Drink lots of water to, I picked up these flavor packs from Wal Mart that give me a decent amount of Calcium and I think vitamin A(and a few others) but also have a 100% of your daily vitamin C needs per pack. |
| If you actually follow the diet that Dr. Atkins prescribed it is a very safe and effective means to lose weight and improve overall health status. If you put any stock in the Eat Right For Your Blood Type beliefs, a blood type O will do very well with the Atkins Diet but a type A would be better served with a more vegetarian type diet. The Blood Type diets lack research due to their novelty but clinically the ideas do seem to work. |
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Thanks for the good information guys. I started the diet last week Tuesday and I am reading the book and taking supplements and exercising EVERY day. I work with two guys who are doing the diet and they both have maintained around 3-4 pounds a week and are feeling great. I have noticed that the constant rumbling that I used to have in my stomach is GONE, also I have lots of energy. I haven't dared to step on the scale since last week because I am afraid that eating the way I have been I must have gained weight! Seriously though, I have already noticed that my pants fit better and I am tightening my belt a notch smaller now. I hope to lose around 45 pounds. |
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Part of the weight loss with Atkins is due to ketosis, a state your body enters during excess protein consumption where it sheds water. Please please please make sure that you are drinking a lot of water. I choose not healthy because the diet as most practice it is faddish and can neglect important nutrients that come from fresh fruits and vegetables. My dietary advice (that I don't always follow) is to avoid processed food as much as possible. Maximize intake of fresh or frozen veggies, especially leafy ones, get your protein from lean sources, especially cold water fish, and eat fruit and lean dairy in moderation. Get 3-5 hours of aerobic exercise /week - brisk walking counts. Folks can definitely lose weight on Atkins, but I haven't met many who can sustain that diet long-term. |
| To me it's just a fad diet. Another "trick" to try and avoid people's real problems - eating too much and not exercising. Personally I don't see the point in any of these trend diets. Do you plan on staying on it forever? What will happen when you go off it? How will your body react? |
No, Atkins is NOT healthy. Yes, you NEED carbohydrates. Cutting back will only lead to bad things. Your body will work to get that energy one way or another. If carbs or fats aren't present in your diet, guess what? Your body will begin breaking down amino acids for energy. That means that you'll experience a protein deficiency and your body won't be able to perform numerous important functions such as cell maintenance, antibody production, hormone production, or fluid balance(hence ketosis as mentioned above). But Adkins makes you lose weight, right? yes, but think about what weight you're losing. That's not all fat. A good portion of what you drop on a diet low in carbs is going to be muscle weight. Want to know how to cut the weight? Hard work and a proper diet. It's as easy as that. I'm speaking from experience here. I lost 116 pounds the right way. It took two years, but I completely changed my lifestyle, and made a major transformation. I've never been healthier, and the confidence I feel after undertaking such a task is wonderful! If you want to do Adkins, go for it! Nobody can stop you, but there are better ways to drop the weight and keep it off.
They certainly aren't losing 3-4 pounds of fat each week. The best of luck to you no matter what you choose. Wanting to pursue a healthier lifestyle is an excellent decision. |
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It worked well for me when I was on the diet. My cholesterol levels were about the best ever when on the diet too...even with all of the fat in the diet. I got bored with the food limitations and food prep was more of a pain with the Atkins diet. It is unhealthy...I dunno. My doctor wasn't too excited to see me on it, but he did like my cholesterol numbers, which tend to be high. dvo |
Ketosis with a high protein diet, aka your body uses protein as its chief energy source and almost NONE of it goes to rebuilding muscle and the fat doesn't have to shed. GREAT.  Ketosis is also risky and should be cycled off every few months for months at a time. If you want to lose weight, you need to eat the good carbs, the good proteins, the good fats in moderation. If you don't wanna run or lift, don't. Just eat well. |
| I lost lbs on This diet once. I have been off it for 2 years and have gain some of it back. I am planning to go back on it this week. I am 6,4 and would like to get back to a 34,34 pant size. I do not feel anything below 220 is healthy for me but neither is anything over 250. Once the wait is off exercise becomes easier and the carb intake can go back up as long as they are good carbs, not sugar. Good luck keep up posted on progress. |
This is exactly what I get from the book. At first you severely limit ALL carbs, then in the further phases of the diet you add more and more carbohydrates as your weight allows. I think the biggest help to me is that my doctor seems to have finally gotten my chronic pain in my foot under control which was keeping me from walking. |
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Atkins truth. Atkins acts like a diuretic, and you lose tons of water weight in the beginning. Eliminating carbs acts like an appetite suppressant by regulating your blood suger and allowing you to eat filling, slow to digest foods. Calories in/calories out is the only thing that matters. After the initial water loss the appetite suppression lets you eat less calories and continue to lose weight. It worked for me. Salads and steaks. The more cardio, the better. |
I agree. The best thing about this diet so far is that it has made me aware how terrible my diet was before. I am not completely eliminating carbohydrates, just limiting them somewhat severely for the first two weeks, then adding them back gradually. So if nothing else, at least this is making me look at my family's diet. |
Interesting read. I guess the big question is, IF the diet is bad for you, or can harm your body, how long would one have to be on the diet in order for this to happen. I've heard the diet can be hard on your kidney's, and you shouldn't stay on it for more then anywhere between 6-12 weeks(depending on who you ask). But, for some people this diet is much easier then others. True, while you can't eat much compared to weight watchers, it's a lot simpler to do. I'm hungry? Ok, throw on a steak, some bacon, or a few hot dogs. I eat a salad every day for lunch, and lots of broccoli, and a whole lot of zucchini and squash. True, the amount of fat I'm putting in my system is by no means healthy, but neither was the 5.5" and 45lbs I've lost. Or the 80lbs total I plan on dropping, the majority of which was and is in my upper body, around my mid section. I strongly believed that if I didn't drop the weight, I would have had a heart attack by the time I'm 40. I'm also not the strongest willed person in the world, and doing diets in which I've got to constantly keep track of calories, grams, what time to eat, what time not to eat, I just wouldn't be able to stick to them. When all is said and done, my wife and I will probably have lost a combined 200-230lbs. Either way, no one can argue that thats not a good thing.  .... Besides, for people who are reading this and either are in the process of dropping some lbs, or getting ready to. You would be surprised what weight lose can do for your sex life 
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Misconception: Atkins does not cut out all carbs. It cuts out the BAD CARBS. Vegetables meat and dairy. How can that be unhealthy? I have had great luck with the diet, it's the ONLY diet I can stick to. I don't like to measure and count points, so weight watchers is a dead end for me. I can't afford prepackaged meals, so Jenny Craig and Nutrisystem are out for me. The regiment of this diet works for me. I've lost 40 pounds since March. I've never felt better, had more energy, never felt hungry, and almost never felt like I was depriving myself of anything. I could still enjoy burgers, chicken, a ceasar salad, chicken salad, etc. The other misconception is that you can eat high fat foods like bacon with every meal. Think about it. You're not going to lose weight if you eat bacon and tons of mayonaise and high fat stuff. Stick to lean meat, hard cheese and good veggies and it's a great program. Cavemen didn't eat bread and pasta and they did just fine. |
| Something else, at least for me. Being 6'1, 300lbs, and having a 53" waist, going to the gym, being in front of others with just a t-shirt on, was not high on my list of things I wanted to do. Running was out of the question because of being to hard on my knees. Most other diets cause you to also depend on exercise to drop the weight. And walking in 100 degree weather was something I really didn't feel like doing. Yeah, I know that sounds like a lot of excuses, and maybe it is. But either way, this diet allowed me to drop the lbs without having to kill my knees or make myself feel uncomfortable in front of people. When I hit 240lbs, I plan on starting to swim laps. I love the water, have always swam, and by the time I'm at that weight, should feel much more comfortable about taking my shirt off in front of people. |
True or false. One the Atkins diet you cannot eat an apple but you can eat bacon. |
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I'm not a health guru, but I have done it every few years when I find myself packing on an extra 10 or 20. It's easy to do for a few months, but hard to stay on for a lifetime. There are just too many temptations. I can lose 15 pounds in a couple months, almost effortlessly, and with no extra activity. Just self discipline. It is by far the best way to lose weight for me and many others. Buy the book, (first one is best, if you can find it) Learn all about what sugar and unrefined carbs do to your body. Try it, and see if it works for you. At the worst, you will have educated yourself about your metabolism, and knowledge is always a good thing. I will warn you, though that you have to adhere to it hard core, particularly for the first couple weeks. The main reason it works so well is that carbs stimulate your appetite. Without carbs, you will find that you are rarely hungry. When you are hungry eat, if not, don't. Drink lots and lots of water, and take vitamins. Good luck losing that 40. It's going to be a big job, no matter what method you use. |
False. During ongoing weightloss and maintenance you can eat apples and bacon. Apples are not good carbs, they're pretty full of sugar, so I'd rather eat something like strawberries which are higher in vitamin C anyway, and better for you than an apple. |
Yea, I read the original and the book from 92. I haven't seen where they've ever recommended grains and they still don't emphasize fiber. Do it for a while, you'll see what I mean. Good luck. |