Atkins Diet
 

Has anyone here had LONG TERM success on the Atkins diet?

By that I mean, once you have lost your initial weight, then start switching back to adding carb in, you have kept losing the weight or stabilized without gaining it all back?

My guess is you can do this, by raising up your activity level, and moderation.

Ask Atkins. Oh no, wait, he died clinically obese with heart problems and hypertension.

You are going to carb-rebound to an extent. Its not actual fat or muscle gain however. For ever 1 gram of carb you intake your body will retain 2.7 grams of water.

If you are a fat ass, you will lose the weight. However after a year or so it will all be back on and 20-30pds more.

Unless you change your eating habits, or add in 3-4 days of exercise.

That is an interesting tidbit on the carb - water thing.

I was just reading up on this, as some had claimed success on this diet. However, with all diets it seems they would 'rebound' at some point. Where they start tappering off the diet and then gaining again, unless...... you up your activity level and balance out your lifestyle to maintain.

Ultimately, moderation and lifestyle change, is what leads to the long term success.

I went with the South Beach diet instead (about 5 years ago). Not as radical as Atkins and, yes... It has worked long term.






.

lol .......

Calories in vs. calories out. Doesn't matter what plan you follow to lose weight - it will still be based on a total caloric deficit. Once you hit your goal, you need to understand how many calories a day you are eating and how many you are burning and maintain that balance.

It's not any more complicated than that.

He died from a head injury.

:2 cents:

I lost 30 pounds and kept if off for some time over a ten year period. I have put 12 of it back on over the years but have also gotten older (I am 46) and I do cheat on the carbs. However, even sticking to it loosely has made me eat less fried food, deserts and such so in essence it has done good for me. I just need to go back on induction for a couple of weeks and kickstart it back up for good.

Yeah.... slipping on the ice at 72 can do that to ya.

/sarcasm

:winkwink:

Food is too good to deny myself the things I love. Moderation works pretty good for me. Don't see why it wouldn't work for everyone else.

One slice of pizza, one beer, the random donut, pasta with vegetables, low calorie sandwich (flatbread is pretty low on calories and carbs plus it's delicious.)

Frankly I think people just eat too much food period. Buy smaller plates.

I was reading through their website, and phases, and found that many of the same concepts are not revolutionary compared to other diets discussed on GFY over the years.

A lot of the discussion, especially in phase one, is about sugars, insulin, and "turning on your fat burning engine". Basically, it's about increasing your veggies, eliminating the shit that raises your insulin level so your body burns fat versus sugar.

The carbs are just an added twist I suppose in helping to eat good versus bad. It also does talk about (on their website) for each carb you eat, you retain some amount of water, which can lead to you feeling bloated, etc..

I agree, you can even eat tasty junk shit, but you just put it too much in yourself, get a line!

Also let me clarify, WEIGHT LOSS is different than FAT LOSS. Weight loss = looking good in clothes, fat loss = looking good naked :)

Correct.

There was some health book I was reading last week that was talking about American PORTION sizes. How many see "serving sizes" and mistake what that means. Which they cited as roughly a "cup" is a serving size. Just because the restaurant gives you 5 servings at your meal doesn't mean eat it all and clean the plate.

For example, a bottle of some drink could be 2.5 servings, but people think of it as one bottle, one serving. Or that a candy bar is 2 servings on the wrapper, same concept. Meaning, people will think that whole drink/food is 200 or 400 calories, when in fact it's double.

I know. Where did I suggest anything different?

I've been eating those new peanut butter Snickers. Man they are awesome. It's three little squares in a package.

If you read the label, it says something like 150 cal per serving. But, each serving is one of those squares. Good thing I only eat one at a time!

Want to lose weight? Stop being a gorging fool!

When you suggested that he died from being fat.

Its not as simple as cals in vs cals out. a person eating 2000 cals of candy and someone eating 2000 cals of chicken breasts will not attain the same physique.

Re-read my post. I didn't say anything about him dying of hyper tension, clinical obesity or heart problems. But he undeniably died whilst being clinically obese, and also suffering from hyper tension and heart problems.

You guys and your comprehension problems...

1. Eat appropriate portion sizes.
2. Do not eat/drink sugary stuff all day long.
3. Try and move your ass at least 30 minutes per day.
4. Eat more of the greens and healthy than the junk.

Eat of these 'diets' has a different spin on the shit above. But read between the lines, and it's all the same. That being said, I wonder how many move from the "diet" to the "lifestyle" and keep the weight off.

:helpme

i normally agree with you on most things around here but this is so old school it's right up there with eggs being bad for you ;)

if you eat nothing but 2000 calories of twinkies in a day do you really think you will get the same results as eating meats and vegetables?

I followed Phil's advice on this and lost over 10% of my body weight in under 30 days. I've been evening out with lbs loss in the past 2 weeks but going hard in the gym and have to buy all new clothes because my waist keeps shrinking.

This diet can be done successfully though but most can't let go of breads and pastas, so if you can't come to terms with that try something else.. It's just faster this way.

Please quote where I said he died from being fat.

It's well known he died from a fall. And was clinically obese, had hyper tension and heart problems.

Well of course, this discussion was about weight loss. Not looking sexy. Those are different games.

Holy crap man 10%?! Thats awesome! :thumbsup

I am not interested in the revisionist history, and selective agenda setting.

You need to learn how to take a joke funny man. More porn beer I presume.

:winkwink: :winkwink: :winkwink:

You must be having a bad day. You just got engaged, smile.

I actually know someone that was treated by the Doctor that developed it, and he meant to be uncomplicated, non-extreme, and easy to stick with long-term. It was actually meant to help his obese patients with heart issues. The book is just an easy read and the whole program takes no special work really. 5 years later I just make sure I eat less, stick to meats and veggies, watch my card intake, and do both cardio and wieght training fairly regularly..... and things are fine.

Personally I found Atkins to be way over the top, not really healthy, nor easy to live with.


.

Who was the guy who used to post here all of the time that lost all of that weight on Hungry Man TV dinners? He basically said that he just minded the calories alone, and it turned him into the hulk.

:winkwink:

that's easy to say from the other end man.. If they are big already your strategy wont work for them.. would take them 10 years to lose all that weight.. If you need to lose a lot of weight to be healthier atkins/leangains strategies work a hell of a lot faster than 'moderation'. If you need to lose a few pounds only i would completely agree with you though.

my cousin did it and she got more fat

I think with some of these diets, the 'initial goal' is to get their patients down into their healthy weight first and foremost. Once they get there, they you tweak their diet and exercise to maintain.

In the end, a diet I do not think can get you the distance. I think they are simply to give you some short term results so that it helps you mentally, and reinforces you stay on that path. Ultimately, it's a lifestyle change, where you accept the changes you need to make for better eating, controlling calories, exercise, etc..

Well obviously, you can only cut so many calories. I'm talking for the average person, stop chasing diets that you cannot handle and find a nice moderation point that will stabilize the weight you like to look.

The average person cannot give up pizza. Beer. Cheeseburgers. Spaghetti. Ice cream.

Yes, a select few can and do follow this lifestyle with great success. The other 99% cannot. What the other 99% can do, is cut back on the amount of food that they eat to a sustainable amount so that they still get the happiness of delicious food.

If you weigh 400 pounds, eating 1000 cal a day is going to take a long, long time to get down to a regular weight range. That's when you need to be talking to doctors and developing long-term plan, not chasing the latest diet that you think sounds good but cannot possibly follow.

Agreed.

Once you get to the target weight, then you need to learn about moderation.

haha that's news to me. I would imagine he was pretty young, you can get away with eating bullshit like that and losing weight in your early twenties, if i tried that now i'd swell up like a balloon!

I am sure their long term plan would look a lot like this....

1. Eat appropriate portion sizes.
2. Do not eat/drink sugary stuff all day long.
3. Try and move your ass at least 30 minutes per day.
4. Eat more of the greens and healthy than the junk.

... just do it for longer, and consistently.

:winkwink:

I wanna say the dude's name was dynamo or something like that.

He had posted up pictures of himself over his weight training, or Hungry Man TV dinner diet. I could be wrong on the handle, he used to be a regular here though and posted in many of the health related threads.

Basal caloric intake for someone who's 400lbs would be around 27-3200 calories a day, 1000 calories would be detrimental to their health in every way.

let's go for a stroll in the park sweety, I'll wear my flip flops :2 cents:



http://i.imgur.com/L24cy.gif

Agreed.

It seems that the problem with a lot of the food today is that, in addition to people making bad choices, that you have sugar/high fructose corn syrup in EVERYTHING.

Meaning, that while it 'may' not be bad in moderation, depending on the source you prefer to believe. The fact that it's in bread, condiments, meat, drinks, etc. makes it hard to cut out. Which leads to your insulin levels being peaked out all day, hence diabetes.

The hardest part for me is drinks. I literally am drinking something all day long.

1. Sobe Water (0 calories, some carbs, via sugar substitute)
2. Diet Coke (0 calories, no clue on carbs, sugar of some sort)
3. Smoothies (calories, carbs, natural sugar)

Most of what I prefer to drink throughout the day has some sort of sugar (whether synthetic, natural, or refined) or substitute. I do not like to drink straight water, I am not a coffee drinker, nor care for tea. Making my choices limited in regards to cutting out the sugary drinks.

:disgust

its about the caloric deficit, its so easy to just read the nutrition facts labels and just eat moderate, i dont understand why people get so fat, and workout, at least 30 minute in an elliptical machine per day will keep you fine!, i dont think im doing atkins, i eat carbs every now and then, but reducing carbs you will get serious fatloss and rebound happens to sedentary people

Long term atkins sucks. Do it monday to friday along with a hard heavyweight workout, do carbs after friday's training and then the whole weekend. Do this for 3-4 weeks, then 2 weeks break, another 2 weeks, 1 week break and then 1 last week. After a few weeks or months you can do it again. Eat a lot of fat. Never eat just protein with no fat, it will throw you out of ketosis, if you have to drink a protein drink, mix it with virgin oil, so 20g of protein matches 15-20g of fat. I lose crazy fat doing this, while keeping all my muscle and power. Doing this the first time, you may even gain muscle and lose fat, which is normally impossible without steroids. Last time I lost only 3 lbs of weigt(didn't do it for long, didn't need to) BUT 2 inches of my belly. Power remained the same.

Oh I forgot, stay away from too much citric acid, it may or may not throw you out of ketosis, but why risk it. So pretty much all soda drinks like diet coke, etc. Drink water or water with a splenda sweetener(there are different splenda drinks, strawberry, orange, ice tea, etc). The best food is eggs, bacon, ham and cheese(not all of them). You may eat 1-2 hot dogs a day, too. With no bread, obviously.

I think the 'working out' part is what gets people he rebound.

They change their diet, drop their sugar intake and the body starts burning fat versus sugar. At some point, your body levels off. The person then changes their diet to work in more of their lost favorites, higher calories, but does not compensate by increasing activity level.

It seems to be a lot like a scale where you are balancing out activity level, calories, and carbs with a healthy diet, fruits, and veggies with moderation finalized by realistic portion sizes.

Andrej, you should also add that anyone taking BCAA's to preserve muscle while on a ketogenic diet will kick you out of ketosis as well. L-leucine spikes insulin more than simple carbs

Yeah. It seems the Atkins is big on eggs. I am not a fan of cheese. However, it seems I am in the minority. When you are looking up new recipes whether healthy or not, cheese is in many of them. I cut them out, but I am like.... 'damn. cheese again?!?'.

:1orglaugh

I would have thought you needed to stay away from most of the 'sweetened' anything.

Although, depending on what you are drinking, some are worse for you than others.

I tried the low-carb diet plan twice.. works like a charm, until you start eating carbs again - then you will gain all the weight back, and maybe even some more.

It is a very difficult diet to maintain longterm, unless you can live without pizza, ice cream, juices, breads, potatoes, etc..