Discussion: Atkins Diet

[yougene]

How is the right way of going about it in terms of not messing your health up.

 

[j22]

Easily man...

Don't focus your diet on eating 10 cheeseburgers a day as a lot of these Atkins dieters do. chicken, eggs, veggies. Don't eat slabs of pork rinds, bacon, and cheese burgers just cuz you can.

Assist your body with a multi-vitamin. drink 64 ounces of water a day to keep your system healthy and hydrated. Work out for an hour once a day - and that's just cardio.

Get plenty of rest.

It's really not tough man,.

 

[yougene]

Basically get variety in your protein/amino acids and make sure you have all your vitamins and fluids.

What about ketosis though, if it does exist is there enough carhohydrate to prevent it from happening?

 

[MOS]

Ketosis....

There is a lot of controversy around the state of ketosis - some believe it to be highly dangerous, and others do not. This is the bit from Atkins.com:

Isn't ketosis a dangerous state for your body to be in?

The body uses two fuels for energy: fat and glucose (blood sugar). Carbohydrates break down in the body as glucose. So when you cut back on carbs, you effectively take away most of one of the body's fuels and the body turns to fat burning, the metabolic process called lipolysis and the secondary process of ketosis. So long as you have extra body fat, ketosis is safe and natural.and it.s the secret weapon of weight loss. A person in ketosis is getting energy from burning ketones, which are carbon fragments that are created by the burning of the body's fat stores.

There is nothing harmful, abnormal or dangerous about ketosis. Some of the confusion comes from the word ketoacidosis, which is completely different from ketosis. Ketoacidosis is a potentially dangerous condition seen in Type I diabetics.people who cannot produce insulin, when their blood sugar levels are out of control.alcoholics and people in a severe state of starvation. Research shows that ketosis does not cause adverse effects to the heart, kidneys, liver or blood cell functions. Nor is bone health compromised.

 

[yougene]

Interesting, so is there any leeway as far as carb intake goes? How many carbs are allowed if any and are there any specific carbs that are good for the diet?

 

[MOS]

During induction you are allowed 20g a day for 14 days - your main source of carbs should be from veggies. Whole foods are recommended during induction as opposed to "frankenfoods" (LC bars, candies, etc).

After induction, you up your carbs 10g each week until you stop losing weight - if you still have more weight to lose, you cut back 10g from the point that you stopped losing. That is called "climbing the carb ladder" - again, your carbs should come from veggies, and at this phase you are allowed to add fruits to your menu.

When you discover what carb level keeps you even, your "CCLL", Critical Carb Level for Loss, you use that as a guide to maintain your weight loss for the rest of your life.

That's the super simplified version of the Atkin's diet......

 

[etherdesign]

Whatever happened to just eating well and exercising? Obviously people consume way too many simple carbohydrates, saturated fats, and hydrogenated oils.

I was shopping around a few days ago looking at peanut butters, usually I buy the natural kind or soybutter, but I checked out the Atkins approved Carb Options peanut butter with the Atkins logo on it and I was suprised when I read the ingredients that it contained partially hydrogenated oils. If Atkins purports itself as a healthy way of eating why have they included a known unhealthy ingredient in the product they approved?

I suppose this is just an isolated incident, but it struck me as rather odd, thought I love the Atkins approved Quick Quisine pastas, lots of protein and decent fiber. Always check the labels when you buy food.

Maybe I'm just lucky but I never really have a craving for anything with alot of simple carbohydrates in it, I don't like candy or drink soda, maybe I have just trained myself this way I dunno.

Sodium will probably be the death of me though; well, probably not, smoking and alcohol will have a death match.

editS: I know it seems odd to take such care of what I eat when I smoke alot of cigarettes and drink daily, but I am going to quit smoking when I hit 30 (I'm 26), and well, the drinking, I have mixed feeling about being a functional alcoholic. I suppose that will need to change too, but for now I'm good. I can run miles without fatigue, and hold down a rather strenuous warehouse job.

PSS: The edit was for informational purposes only and do not really pertain to the thread, sorry for rambling on.

 

[yougene]

^-----Some people are genetically predisposed to storing energy as fat. Unfortunately we live in a society where appearance is an important factor of how you get by in life. For some possibly risking their health is worth losing weight.

But yeah read your labels, alot of it is bullshit.

 

[MOS]

Whatever happened to just eating well and exercising? Obviously people consume way too many simple carbohydrates, saturated fats, and hydrogenated oils.

I was shopping around a few days ago looking at peanut butters, usually I buy the natural kind or soybutter, but I checked out the Atkins approved Carb Options peanut butter with the Atkins logo on it and I was suprised when I read the ingredients that it contained partially hydrogenated oils. If Atkins purports itself as a healthy way of eating why have they included a known unhealthy ingredient in the product they approved?

Always check the labels when you buy food.

You raise two very good points here - I will answer them to the best of my knowledge.

1 - Dr. Atkins has passed, and his wife sold the company. So, now the company has a lot more freedom when it comes to their money-making products - since Dr Atkins isn't there to approve or disapprove his name being slapped on these products.

2 - YES, read labels! Many LC products contain sugar alcohols, such as maltatol, and can stall people's loss.

Also - Atkin's is a carb junkie's diet - it's like detox. It's about learning how to make good food choices all over again. You don't stay at 20g of carbs forever!

 

[FoxyKel]

Keep it on topic and consutrucitve, please people - comments on both the pro's and the con's of the atkins diet are welcome, so long as those posts are well thought out and constructive.

Comments such as "this diet makes you stupid" are a waste of space and the moderators will CLAWS anyone who continues the thread on this path.

- FK.

 

[yougene]

I wasn't aware Bluelight is politically correct these days.

10-20g intake is that really enough to keep the mind in top shape? I mean how would the body prioritize such low amounts of carbohydrates, There are probably many parts that need carbs as much as the brain does. Does anyone have information on this?

 

[randycaver]

There have been days when I unintentionally ate no carbs, or very few, and I did not function any differently.

 

[MOS]

10-20g intake is that really enough to keep the mind in top shape?

You START at 20g - if you intake less, that is your choice. I average 15, and I feel much better then I ever did.

 

[yougene]

There have been days when I unintentionally ate no carbs, or very few, and I did not function any differently.

It's still possible there are big effects on your brain. Especially if the effect is one of making you "sluggish" and less aware, you could just be less aware making you not notice the differences in how you are functioning feel compared to how you feel and function when you do eat many carbs. How could a person on an atkin's diet be able to clearly tell anyways. Wouldn't they just get used to the state of mind produced by not having carbs and just look at it as being normal?

 

[randycaver]

I doubt it - I'm more worried about the substances i take on the weekends than the amount of carbs I ingest or don't ingest.

The type of work I do requires a lot of thought, and activity - i think i'd notice if I wasn't feeling up to par.

I know how I feel, I don't think I'd be confused that easily.

 

[MOS]

The truth is, there aren't long term studies on Atkin's, since it was only introduced in 1972.

However, the low fat experiment has been going on for awhile - and the fact of the matter is, as people consume less fat, they get fatter. The USA is fatter then it has ever been! Maybe it is worth it to try a different approach.

 

[yougene]

The truth is, there aren't long term studies on Atkin's, since it was only introduced in 1972.

So I read but this doesn't seem like this problem would take too long of a time to develop if it truly exists.

 

[MOS]

Well, maybe you should consider then that Atkin's is a very popular diet, and enough people are on it to shift the major food companies into making LC products.

If it made everyone stupid, and their brains could not properly function, would anyone ever go on it, or stay on it?

There will always be people that say it's dangerous, but any diet, when not properly done, can be dangerous.

But, to each his own.

 

[yougene]

If it made everyone stupid, and their brains could not properly function, would anyone ever go on it, or stay on it?

Perhaps if it rendered there mind incapable from even noticing it, which is common when dealing with the mind. Just look at people that take SSRI's for example, there is no obvious effect to the person taking them yet the effects of them are pretty obvious if the effects of it are looked for.

 

[MOS]

Just look at people that take SSRI's for example, there is no obvious effect to the person taking them yet the effects of them are pretty obvious if the effects of it are looked for.

Well, word of mouth is the best advertisement - if your average person perceived those on Atkins to have no brain activity, wouldn't that deterr others from that course of action? Yet, it is second only to the South Beach diet, which is remarkable similar, and another LC diet.....