quote: The problem with all these low carb, high protien diets is that as soon, and I mean AS SOON, as you go off them the weight shoots right back up.
I lost 20 lbs on Atkins for 2 months. That was last summer, and I still haven't gained any back. A little bit of the fat goes away at first, and then it's more gradual shrinkage. I've been a size smaller every time I go jeans shopping lately.
quote: And your not supposed to "go off it." When you reach your target weight, you gradually increase your carbs until you reach your tolerance level.
*snort* I couldn't stand the food any longer and just went back to eating normally.
quote: "finicky eaters!"
When I was little my parents had to tie me to the chair to get me to eat. Posts: 4174 | Registered: Sep 2003
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I have read the END of the Atkins diet, the maintenance plan. I could definitely eat that way, with whole grains, no refined sugar, and minimal starch. I could just never get to that point by following the rest, and no one can convince me it is healthy.
I wonder if I followed the maintenance plan if, over a longer period of time, I would lose weight. Hmm. Maybe I will try.
Posts: 10890 | Registered: May 2003
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Elizabeth, are you speaking about the induction phase? If so that period lasts two weeks, and even if recommended behavior during that period was unhealthy--which it's not-- it's 2 weeks so I doubt any serious harm could be done to you. But it sounds like you've already made up your mind that it this is not the case so I doubt any persuasion on my part is worth the effort.
Posts: 369 | Registered: Nov 2003
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Brian, I know people who went on the diet, and followed it to the letter, and had major digestive problems. Like I said, I could do the end of it, not the beginning, or even the middle. Please don't take offense, it is just my opinion!
Posts: 10890 | Registered: May 2003
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I am telling you, McDonald's really *is* the single most destructive force in the universe. Their new ad campaign of "I'm loving it" (which happens to be an anagram for "Ailing Vomit" btw) makes me horrendously sick, especially since so many people seem to keep buying into it. Their attempt to be healthy with their salads and low carb salads and even adult happy meals really make me weak with horror. If McDonald's is where we turn to be healthy then we are a nutritionally-bankrupt culture.
Posts: 369 | Registered: Nov 2003
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I think we are a nutritionally bankrupt country for many more reasons.
Even the vegetables we buy at the store, so pretty and "fresh," are most often devoid of nutrition. I remember reading a while back that a vegetable starts to lose nutrients the moment it is picked, and that by the time it sits on the shelf, then in your fridge, it is pretty much just a pile of fiber. (read this a long time ago, but I do believe it) It is actually better, especially in the winter, to eat frozen vegetables.
We just keep getting farther and farther away from whole food, and even our whole food is incomplete. So I do agree with much of what Atkins says, in that regard. I am just not so sure about the amount of protein he says we need.
Posts: 10890 | Registered: May 2003
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First, Atkins has several phases. The extremely low carb phase is just the induction phase to get you down to a certain weight level. Then you slowly add good carbs back into your system. If you skip the secondary phases and go back to your regular eating habits (with no exercise), the weight will come back. That doesn't mean that Atkins doesn't work. When I was on the diet (two years and 30 pounds ago) people kept coming up to me and asking if I had lost weight. When I replied that I had, they would ask how I did it. When I said "Atkins", the reply was almost always the same: "Oh, that doesn't work" But I had ALREADY lost the 30 lbs and they had ALREADY complemented me on it.
Second, It is amazing to me how many people will assume that the Atkins diet will cause high cholesterol in your blood. "If you eat high cholesterol food, your blood will be high in cholesterol, right?" Since "common sense" would indicate this, no one bothers to actually check the studies that have been done. They all show otherwise. By the same logic, if I eat lots of green foods, my blood will have lots of chlorophyl, and I will be able to gain energy from the sun!
This reminds me of another "common sense" assumption: About 30 years ago a company developed a Heads-Up projection system for cars that would actually project a television image on the windshield. The driver could watch a movie while driving. The image was projected about 10 feet in front of the car. "Common Sense" tells you that that is a stupid thing to do; that this would cause accidents. When the company did feasability studies, they found out that drivers actually did better when watching a show, because they didn't take their eyes off of the road. They were able to respond quicker to oncoming traffic issues and were less likely to be distracted by things in the car (like kids and the radio, etc). When they tried to bring it to market, the corporate lawyers were able to stop it, because they knew that the public would never be able to get past the "common sense" idea that it would be dangerous. The first time that someone using the display got into an accident, even if it wasn't his fault, all the other driver would have to say is "He was watching television!" Case Closed.
Posts: 258 | Registered: Jun 1999
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Of course this guy is an idiot. Anyone who goes on a formal diet program to lose eight pounds is. Then again, we are living in a society where a good portion of the population is terrified - literally - of being even eight pounds overweight.
Posts: 2454 | Registered: Jan 2003
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Thanks everybody for reminding me. I ate so much meat yesterday at the picnic that (although I enjoyed every bit of it) I'm kind of meated out. So I put on a pot of split pea soup and served myself a dish of tabouli.
I can't believe for a second that brown rice and dried legumes are more expensive than meat in Alaska.
Posts: 3735 | Registered: Mar 2002
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