Atkins diet experience (1 Viewer)

[Shawn Sefranek]

Atkins is a GREAT diet.

Most of the people who are against it are people who are lucky to have been fit and trim their entire life.
They worry when they stray 2 pounds over the guideline for their recommended weight.
I am NOT one of those people.

Atkins is meant for the people who have tried other diets and exercise plans with ZERO results.

I first did the Atkins plan three years ago and lost about 80 pounds over the course of about 10-months.
I got within about 20 pounds of my goal before stopping.
I did this under the supervision of my family doctor with monthly visits.
My cholesterol, blood pressure and weight all dropped dramatically.

Over the last 2-years I’ve gone off the plan and gained about 20 pounds back.
I blame this on going back to some of my old eating habits and not following the Atkins “Life Plan”.
A slight setback for sure, but not nearly as bad as never starting.

I started back full bore on Monday January 6th of this year.
After nearly four weeks I’m already down 11 pounds and getting back into the rhythm that was effective for me last time.
I’ve only cheated once so far when I had some friends over for Pizza & Beer last week.

A typical day’s menu:

Breakfast:
Two scrambled eggs w/chopped bacon, ham & peppers mixed in.
Then I melt a bit of shredded cheddar cheese & a slice of white American on top.
To drink I mix a large glass of sugar free iced tea.
I also take my Centrum multi-vitamin and a separate Vitamin C pill.

Lunch:
Tuna fish (no bread) w/chopped lettuce on the side and (2) hard-boiled eggs.
Sometime I go with ring baloney & cheese with a little mustard on the side for dipping.

Dinner:
There are plenty of options to choose from here.
Fresh Meat, Seafood, sausages, hot dogs (no roll), chef salads.
Avoid Pasta, bread, potatoes and any high carb or sugar filled items.

I drink only sugar free iced tea, diet soda & water all day.
Diet Mt. Dew is a favorite.
Caffeine will “stall” some people on this diet, but it hasn’t effected me.

For people that still have questions, just go out and buy the book.
It’s not like you’re committed to signing up for some HIGH-DOLLAR diet plan.
The paperback version of the book is only like six or seven bucks.
I also bought a nutritional fact book that lists every food that I ever heard of.
There are charts for carbs on everything. I think I paid like twelve bucks for that.

Lets stop the “hating” and keep this thread dedicated to people who are actually DOING the diet instead of criticizing it.
See your doctor before starting to get the baseline numbers and continue to go so you can track your successes.

BTW….. I’m a member of PETA....... People Eating Tasty Animals

Shawn S

 

[Jonathan Burk]

though Dr. Atkin's seems pretty old and healthy

http://www.cnn.com/2002/HEALTH/diet....5/atkins.diet/ Of course, this had nothing to do with the diet

And finally, there was a USDA sponsored "great debate" among the low-carb people (Atkins), and the low-fat people (Ornish).

The transcript is here, and it's very interesting...

http://www.usda.gov/cnpp/Seminars/GND/Proceedings.txt

 

[Kelley_B]

All I know is being on the Atkins diet is my results:

3 days 3lbs gone and I'm eating just as much as I used to eat, just now eating more meat less bread, etc.

 

[Jon_Are]

All I know is being on the Atkins diet is my results...

...and mine: 30 days, 21 pounds lost, feeling great.


Maybe part of the key is this: stopping to think about it, it's been a month since I've eaten a single potato chip, piece of cake, donut, piece of candy, danish, muffin, glass of beer, etc.

Jon

 

[Doug R]

Here's a story the vegan's probably don't want to see:

Babies' Mental Delay Tied to Moms' Vegan Diet

The point is, I'm sure every "way of eating" has its hazards. Is Atkins 100% healthy? No. Is vegan 100% healthy? No. But there are millions of people who have lost weight on the Atkins diet after every other way of eating failed them. Can people lose weight on other diets? Sure.

This thread started, as all Atkins threads start, with an inquiry about its success. Instead, we get posts about how the cattle industry loves the Atkins diet which just shows the widespread ignorance about the diet. It's not a meat diet. No where in the book are you told never to eat fruits and vegetables. Let people be happy that they've lost weight in a way that didn't require diet pills, regurgitation, or laxatives. Let them be proud without ridiculing them.

 

[John Stone]

Here's a story the vegan's probably don't want to see:

Why don't you give us a break? You say this thread should remain about the successes on the Atkins diet, and I agree with that, but then you post a link to a story about a woman who obviously did not eat properly with the heading "Here's a story the vegans probably don't want to see". The fact that she's vegan is irrelevant, the point is she was not eating properly. Vegans can be (and many are) very, very healthy. As you suggest, a poor diet is a poor diet is a poor diet.

I've refrained from posting my views on the Atkins diet because this thread does not want to be a debate, it wants to be a back-patting session, and that's fine. So please drop the transparent attempt at sensationalism and take your own advice: stick to the topic.

 

[Jonathan Burk]

It's not a meat diet. No where in the book are you told never to eat fruits and vegetables.

You say it isn't a "meat diet", but can you outline an Atkins diet that doesn't rely on meat and cheese for most of the calories? Or require nutritional supplements from the lack of fruits and vegtables? While it may not be a meat only diet, it is an explicitly meat based diet, is it not? The fact that all meats and cheeses, no matter how marbled and greasy, are acceptable, and many fruits and vegtables are excluded due to their carb content, implies that at the very least it is a very meat friendly diet.

 

[Joe Szott]

Let me weigh in with an extra comment (for what it is worth.) I have gone from 285 to 185 lbs and back to 210, now rest around 200. Been all over the maps with diets, including Atkins.

There is a lot of truth in the Atkins Diet. It is not a bible and it isn't perfect, but it's not so far off from the 'balanced' diet that a regular physician would recommend of 40/30/30 (40% protein, 30% carb, 30% fat.) Most any nutrionist will tell you to lower your sugar intake as much as possible (raw sugar, not like what you get in other things like milk) and limit breads. This is very similar to the "life plan" that Atkins presents for long term healthy living, he just limits the carbs a touch more.

The controversial part of atkins is the ketosis period. This is the starting part where you eat almost no carbs and tons of protein/fat. This is NOT the atkins diet, it is the inital 2 week metabolism change within the diet. What is really doing is it is replacing sugar with fat so that food still tastes good and you feel full (so you don't grab a sugary mid-meal snack.) This substitution is a very ingeneous way to try to break the sugar cycle that really is the heart of most obesity problems. Over the long term of a life diet, gettting a lot of fat for 2 weeks is a lot less dangerous than eating a moderate amount of sugar your whole life.

 

[Patrick Sun]

You're free to eat the leaner meats: turkey, chicken, fish (or other sources of protein). You aren't forced to eat hamburgers and steak all the time.

 

[Jack Gilvey]

You're free to eat the leaner meats: turkey, chicken, fish (or other sources of protein). You aren't forced to eat hamburgers and steak all the time.

Well, yes, of course, but that takes much of the hysteria away, and that's no fun at all.

 

[Randy Tennison]

Joe said it very well. The first two weeks, called "Induction" are where the carbs are cut to less that 20 grams per day. After induction (when your body is in Ketosis), you gradually start adding carbs back to your diet, until you find that you have stopped losing weight. You then back off from there, and go into continued weight loss. When you near your target weight, you add more carbs in until you stop losing weight, but are not gaining weight.

So, the "all meat" part (even though that is a mis-statement) is only two weeks. The goal is to change the way you eat, by limiting the things that made you fat in the first place (The Carbs!).

 

[Philip_G]

I think I'm going to start this off on Monday, based on the upcoming motorcycle season and the (+) results everyone has posted. Wish me luck

 

[Paul Rehbein]

For everyone who wants meal ideas and a whole bunch of good information about the diet www.lowcarbeating.com

 

[Philip_G]

wow, went to sam's club and stocked up on steaks and seafood, chicken, and porkchops and it's pretty amazing what you can actually eat, found some cheese that's 0 carbs, some beef sticks, some cheddar cheese that's less than 1 carb (going to cheat there, after all it's less than one..) found some diet drinks and some pop that's 0 carb and tastes good. So far so good.
pop and ketchup are my 2 biggies, got the pop solved, and for ketchup I'll just put blue cheese on my steaks, it's a little more $$ but tasty anyway.
tomorrow's the first day..

 

[Tim Morton]

You can put some salsa on your steaks and be "ok". Welcome to it, I only started 3 weeks ago, its easy. Cookies are what i crave but so far i've been good. I thihnk Atkins recomends Diet-Rite brand soda.

 

[Philip_G]

what's up with the atkins brand snack bars? they sell em at walmart but they have like 26g of carbs in them. WTF?

 

[Allen_Appel]

I think the Atkins bars taste terrible, so I don't have a wrapper to consult, but I think the carbs are non-soluble fiber and sugar alcohol carbs, which are not counted against your carb intake total. I think there's a disclaimer on the wrapper somewhere about this.

 

[Philip_G]

Ohh, I see.

 

[Zane Charron]

Now remember guys, the 2-week induction diet isn't NO carbs, it's 15-20g/day. Eating absolutely no carbs for more than a few days IS dangerous. I knew a couple of guys who went to the hospital because of it. Eat your green salads every day, please.

 

[Philip_G]

I'll get a few, ketchup on my steak will add a few, I'll have a salad, ranch dressing has one or two, plus the lettuce.

what about milk? don't suppose it falls into the carbs that don't count category?