Atikins diet info and why NOT to do it...

[maximized]

Heres just one reason...and a good alternative. Im not going to flame you for being on it, just trying to pass some info. If you do stay on it, keep me informed on how you like it and how you feel thruout the day. I dont have time now, but Monday I'll post on everday effects and reasons why not to workout while on the diet.


simple carbohydrates cause you to gain weight, but complex carbohydrates help you lose weight. Simple carbohydrates are absorbed quickly, causing your blood sugar to rapidly increase. In response, your body secretes insulin to lower your blood sugar levels to normal. However, chronically elevated insulin levels also accelerate the conversion of calories into fat, raise your cholesterol level, and have other harmful effects. Over time, like the boy who cried "wolf," the insulin receptors say, "Oh, not more insulin!" and become less sensitive to its effects, causing your body to secrete even more insulin in a vicious cycle.

Whole foods (complex carbohydrates) -- such as whole wheat, brown rice, and fruits, vegetables, grains, beans, and soy products in their natural form -- are rich in fiber, which slows their absorption. Because they are absorbed slowly, your blood sugar does not spike and so your body does not need to produce elevated levels of insulin. Instead of the rapid swings in blood sugar, you experience a more constant feeling of energy throughout the day. You become more sensitive to insulin rather than resistant to it.

So why do some people lose weight on the high protein diets? Most people in this country eat a lot of simple carbohydrates. Eating a lot of meat instead of all those simple carbohydrates will help lower their insulin response, causing them to lose weight. But they're mortgaging their health in the process.

If you switch from simple carbohydrates to a whole-foods, low-fat, plant-based diet, then you don't provoke an insulin response -- so you get the insulin benefit similar to being on a diet high in animal protein without the many harmful effects. Also, you are eating whole foods that are much lower in fat and cholesterol, so you lose even more weight than on a high-protein diet and your cholesterol levels come down even further.

 

[gymtime]

Maximized, you are my hero for the day!! I think the CKD is a disaster; for me anyway. I tried it and yes, I lost weight. But the toll it took on the rest of my life in terms of my workouts, sleep, even personality, made it far more trouble than it was worth.

I've been on a 50-25-25 diet for some time now. Carbs consist mostly of brown rice, wheat bread, and the few carbs that come in my protein shakes. To me, there's no contest. I still get the benefits of a good diet, keep my workouts intense, have energy for the day, sleep better, etc. . .

Great post bro!!

 

[2ordinary]

Atkins would disagree with you when you say that you are "mortgaging your health." He is a cardiologist and has many studies that show that bad cholesterol is lowered, blood pressure is lowered, etc when on his diet. Whether or not the diet you've proposed is more effective than Atkins is debatable I guess, but it depends on the person. Note that you still can take in a moderate amount of green vegetables and so forth without going over your 30gram/day limit also. Anyway, it's all debatable and you'll get responses both ways, but I wouldn't necessarily say that Atkins is unhealthy. Moreover, after the 2-days or so of Atkins adjustment I feel great.

 

[KWKSLVR]

I've been on it for 4 months and i'm doing and feeling much better than i was a year ago.

The whole basis behind cutting out the carbs is to allow your body to enable your fat mobilizing chemicals and burn fat. If your main source of energy is fat, then those chemicals are"turned on" so to speak.

The common misconception is that Atkins sees Carbs as being bad, and the diet itself says to avoid all carbs. This is not true. The initial Induction stage is what most people consider the Atkins diet. Its NOT the diet, and it serves no other purpose than to jump start your body, loose water weight, and give you a 2 week period to see if you like it.

The actual Atkins diet promotes a few things:
Lean Meats. Turkey, Chicken, Fish
Green Vegtables that have good nutritional value, Green Beans, okra, asparagus, etc/
Whole Grains, Oatmeal, etc, we know them all
Fruit, just not as much as most people. 1-2 servings a day.
Vitamins, because we all need them

What Atkins does not promote: Processed foods, hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils, indulging yourself, caffiene, junk food, dessert, etc.

The only difference between the actual atkins diet and a regular diet is the restriction of carbs. Instead of eating 300 grams like most everyone else, you eat 100 or so, and have the freedom to not have to worry about fat intake. My body processes fat much easier than carbs or i wouldn't have lost 66lbs in 4 months

Does it work for everyone? Most likely not. But if you look at the diet itself, and the health history of the 20,000 patients he's had in his clinic over the past 30 years, you'd discover that these people must be doing something right. Heart disease, prostate and breast cancer are almost completely unheard of. Hell, this thing is reversing the early signs of diabetes for me (which was the big reason i wanted to loose weight in the first place)

Call him a wack if you want, most people here seem to, but i'm not giving up and being convinced otherwise. Its working for me, so theres no reason for me to change my lifestyle.

 

[Treebeard]

Atkins works for me

Before Atkins: BP 145-95, weight 250, cholesterol 245

Atkins for 5 months: BP 125-75, weight 195, cholesterol 190

I am never hungry like I was before eating 300+ grams of carbs and low-fat. Now I eat lean protein mostly (I love the freedom to eat the occasional steak drowned in garlic butter and not feel guilty), lots of spinach and broccoli, lots of cheeses, etc. I just keep the carb level low and I am a happy camper.

Low fat - high carb eating was just a chore for me. I really became obsessed with my next meal and was getting an unhealthy attitude about food in general. Now I barely think about it. When I'm hungry, I eat, if not, I don't (with the exeption of my post work out shake)

One unexpected benefit: I sleep much better than I did before Atkins. Don't know if this is due to the food or all the weight I lost.

It's not a diet, it's a paradigm shift. My results are all I need to convince me that I am happy with it. I'm not trying to convince you, just telling my experience.

Peace

 

[DanielBishop]

It kinda makes sense to me.... since I believe that everything relates back to primative times.

I know humans are not dogs, but think about a wild dog or a wolf for a second.... their diet is mainly protein and fat. They eat other animals, therefore mainly protein and fat. Sometimes they eat grass and leaves for vitamins and roughage etc. Do you ever see a fat wolf out in the wild?

I'm not keen on these diets myself, but I can see how they might work. I might try it one day.... my only real concern is putting the weight back on so rapidly afterwards.... I don't think I could continue with a low-carb diet for the rest of my life. I like carb foods too much.

 

[diamonddiceclay]

atkins works for sedentary middle aged people because they don't have to worry about working out-anyone else should try another diet

 

[KWKSLVR]

atkins works for sedentary middle aged people because they don't have to worry about working out-anyone else should try another diet

Thank you for that indepth view, i'm glad to see your a professional If you were that familiar with the Atkins Diet, you would know that it requires exercise.

Daniel - Most people don't put ANY weight on "afterwards" because there is no "afterwards". You always eat "low carb" (100 grams a day) Not to say that you can't cheat, but the only people who gain weight are those who go back to eating how they used to. Its a fun way to eat. I don't view it as a diet, i view it as simply, "This is the way that my diet MUST be".

Most people learn quickly that they can't get away with cheating, and they except this fact. I've learned a lot of discipline on Atkins. Eat a chocolate creamy cheesy poof in front of me, it won't effect me one bit

 

[MS]

Without entering into the debate as to whether Atkin's is good for you, I just want to dispell some misconceptions:

"He is a cardiologist and has many studies that show that bad cholesterol is lowered, blood pressure is lowered, etc when on his diet"

He has never published any of these studies in medically accepted, peer-reviewed journals. This is like saying that I've done many studies showing that eating beets is the best way to reduce your cholesterol without providing the data for my statement for scientific scrutiny. This peer-review process (though far from perfect) is what separates quackery from science. I know Atkins thinks it's all a conspiracy of the medical community to exclude him and his ideas, but that's just plain paranoia. He doesn't know how to do good research in an ubiased way and write up his results for the world to criticize or praise. So instead he writes popular diet books.

The primitive arguement to justify it's healthfulness doesn't work on any level. Paleolithic folks would have eaten all of their meat fresh and raw. They would have eaten the liver, heart and kidneys first and then, if a sabertooth wasn't breathing down their neck to share the kill, they may have eaten some of the muscle. Wild game is also much lower in fat than commercially grown modern meats, and also wasn't fattened up with hormones and antibiotics which mean the meats are more an more infected with antibiotic resistant pathogens which make it risky to even consider eating your meat raw.

You never see a fat wolf because they never get enough to eat! Hunting is hard work, and if there's an excess of easy game available the wolf population explodes so there are always more mouths to feed when there's more food available. Wolves eat other food when they are either desperately hungry or have intestinal parasites to get rid of.

Primitive humans no doubt feasted on fruits and honey whenever they could find it. Fruit tree ripe, heavy with fruit? You bet ya they sat themselves down and ate more than just one or two pieces!

And of course, paleolithic humans had short lifespans. There is no way of knowing if this type of diet would have protected into mid life and beyond since 40 years of age would have made you a local legend. Basically there is no way that natural selection could have tested this diet for health into old age. Modern humans are doing the test now, on an extremely modified version of an ancient diet.

Lastly, billions of people on this planet cannot all eat this way. It is gready and selfish on the environment and ther rest of the world that cannot afford to get obese in the first place (like the wolf). To say it is a more 'natural' way to eat means to me that we should reduce the earth's population back to the several hundred thousands of people that were around when this diet 'worked' and was natural.

Of course this does not mean the diet doesn't work because we all know people that like it.

 

[skinnyfat]

Different strokes for different folks.

The important factors, to me, in any diet are:

Can you stick to the diet?
Will it keep you from overeating?

A lot of people find that on high carb diets, they end up eating too much, and do better with low carbs because they are better able to control their intake. I seem to be the opposite--unless I get a certain amount of carbs, I will keep eating and never feel satisfied. I can eat a ton of cottage cheese or chicken, and still feel hungry, but if I include some carbs in there, my body seems to react better. Whenever I've tried ultra-low carbs, I always end up overeating protein and fat, and gain weight. When I include a reasonable amount of quality carbs like oatmeal and beans, my body reacts much better, my cravings go down, I eat less, and therefore get leaner.

In addition, for athletes, a certain amount of carbs is important if you want to train with any intensity. Atkins is more for sedentary folks. CKD diets are better, because they let you carb up before your main workouts. I think the best way would be to eat some carbs after training, and if you need to drop calories, avoid them for the rest of the day.