Discussion: Atkins Diet

[Raving Loony]

Is there any alcohol you can consume whilst on a low carb diet, like atkins? I had a few glasses of red wine last night (*slap* bad baby, *slap* bad baby).

 

[The Word]

Well...I did this diet waaaay back in the summer of 96. (holy shit i'm old) Anyway, I'd gotten in the habit of eating an entire bag of tacobell flavored doritos every day after school and had ballooned up to 215 lbs. (i'm 5'9) I found an old Atkins diet book from the 70's and thought it was cool because I didnt have to control portions, although I still did within reason.

This book was written by Atkins himself, and it contains no modern modifications and filler, cookbooks etc. - it was the original hardcore deal.

I think one thing people don't realize is that it really DOES work, ketones are awesome, BUT you have to consume less than 10g of carbs per day. That's a tiny tiny amount. If you consume more, the diet doesn't work AT ALL. Think of it like this "carb shield" against all the fat and cholesterol you're eating. If you stay below 10g, you're fine, if not, you're in big trouble lol. Because if you're not in ketosis, those fat calories are going to hit you hard.

I got these things called ketostix at the drug store, you piss on them and if they turn purple you're in ketosis. (DARK purple is really where you want to be)

Anyway, I did the diet for all of June and all of July that year, and lost 45 lbs. I did the stairmaster for an hour per day as well, (HUGELY important) and drank nothing but water. The only really fattening thing I ate was hamburger...mostly hamburger, a few slices of cheese, and chicken breasts with water was my diet. The REALLY hard thing to get is fiber and vitamins. Atkins recommends supplementation, but it's hard to find sugar-free vitamins and fiber options.

With all that said, I'm eating a traditional low fat low calorie reasonable carb diet and exercising now, as i'm around 205. However, if this doesn't work (although I'm sure it will) I would try atkins again...I just dont trust it with regard to cholesterol, fiber, etc. My brain felt fine though so I don't believe it hurts your brain. Ketones are akin to pure sugar for giving your body energy. if you're doing it right.

But even if the diet hurt my brain (like weed? lol) in some slow insignificant way, or upped my cholesterol a bit too much, I will still do it again if necessary. Because the biggest factor in living a long life is happiness. Being sad and unhappy trumps smoking, cancer, heart disease, everything as a killer. So, if I need to damage myself somewhat to get my body to where I'm happy, so be it. It's not like anyone lives forever anyway. Quality over quantity I say! %)

EDIT: No you can't drink alcohol...that's very bad bad bad. Look at it this way, if you eat over 20g of carbs in a day, it will take you 2 more days of <10g to even GET back into ketosis. It's a bitch, but you gotta be strict to get the results.

 

[The Word]

One other thing...there is NO better way to fuck up your body than by doing this diet WRONG. People eating salads and wraps and condiments and BEER (!) are in big trouble. I would wager that people doing the diet incorrectly is responsible for 95% of the negativity about atkins. For me, 100% of the negativity is the constipation lmao

 

[PlurredChemistry]

i have nothing constructive to add, but a joke to tell.

Q: What do you call a vegetarian on atkins?

A: Emaciated!

 

[Lucas]

I'm considering starting Atkin's in the next week or so. I only intend staying on it for 2 months max and then slowly reintroducing carbs to a reasonable level.

Thats funny, cause what you've described IS Atkins. perhaps you should go read up on it a bit more, there are phases beyond induction

 

[Lucas]

I think one thing people don't realize is that it really DOES work, ketones are awesome, BUT you have to consume less than 10g of carbs per day. That's a tiny tiny amount. If you consume more, the diet doesn't work AT ALL.

I think you are mistaken. Atkins own book, the Atkins website, and ever other reference I can find seems to point at 20g of carbs being the magical induction number. furthermore, you increase that as time goes on while still losing weight. 96 was a long time ago, so I'll give you the benefit of a doubt that time is just clouding your memory.

One other thing...there is NO better way to fuck up your body than by doing this diet WRONG. People eating salads and wraps and condiments and BEER (!) are in big trouble.

I'd like to hear your explaination on people eating salads doing the diet wrong. seems to me that if you're allowed 3 cups of salad veggies a day during induction, the logical thing to do would be make a salad

 

[honEbee]

Is there any alcohol you can consume whilst on a low carb diet, like atkins? I had a few glasses of red wine last night (*slap* bad baby, *slap* bad baby).

They do have low carb beers now. Just look at the labels when you go to the grocery store.

 

[Dr. McBudstoke]

Re: Atkins Diet Induction Phase

i know I can only have three cups of vegetables, 2-3 ounces of cheese, and unlimited meat every day for the first 2 weeks or so.

damn, the first thing i would do is invest in some ex-lax...

 

[Raving Loony]

They do have low carb beers now. Just look at the labels when you go to the grocery store.

Cool, all I got to do now is have it imported. I doubt we have it in stock.

 

[Dr. McBudstoke]

I'm considering starting Atkin's in the next week or so. I only intend staying on it for 2 months max and then slowly reintroducing carbs to a reasonable level.
I'm doing this in tandem with joining the gym and doing initially 3 hours cardio and 2 resistance a week.

if you're training with weights, i would reccomend a cyclic ketogenic diet over atkins.

 

[Lucas]

Cool, all I got to do now is have it imported. I doubt we have it in stock.

vodka and whiskey are also carb free

 

[The Word]

Well really, there IS no magic induction number. The book I read was from the 70's and it says 10. I personally suspect he modified things to be less extreme and sell more books around the year 2000.

But, ultimately you have to go by the ketostix. Personally, I had to stay under 10 or 15 to get the dark purple. Without the dark purple, you're either spinning your wheels making less progress than you should, or you could even be really hurting yourself. If someone has an awesome metabolism and can eat 20 or 30 or 40g and stay in ketosis, more power to them, and I'm extremely envious.

The way I look at it, this is a VERY drastic diet. If you can't stand the prospect of 10g carbs per day, it's simply not the diet for you.

 

[starlightgemini]

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.

The whole "when people consume less fat they get fatter" only applies to how some people are stupid enough to think they can eat as much low-fat and fat-free items as they want. When this is simply not true. It's more about calories. You can't eat an entire bag of fat-free cookies and expect not to gain weight in the long run, because the fact is, fat-free or loaded with fat... the food still has calories and it's the excess calories that you intake that will put the pounds on. But some people dont even look at calories. They think low-fat/fat-free/reduced fat means they can eat as much as they want. WELL THEY CAN'T!!!!!! But THAT is why people argue that going "low fat" still makes people fatter. As with any approach..... if you do it wrong..... you will not see positive results.

I'm a firm believer that people should try however many "diet methods" they need to until they find what works for them. And stick with it. I'm an obsessive calorie counter. I am not trying to lose weight anymore, rather I am simply trying to maintain my current weight. I lost weight over a year ago and have kept it off by counting calories. That works for me, but some people can't discipline themselves that much or just can't deal with it (it does get annoying to have numbers floating around your head all day). My mother, she does Weight Watchers and that works for her but it doesn't work for everyone. I know people that have done South Beach, and that works for them, and for some people it doesn't. And I know people on Atkins who it works for, and people who thought it sucked. The point is.... there is no point in arguing any method is better than the other. Different methods appeal to different people and show different results.

DO WHATEVER WORKS FOR YOU. There are good and bad sides to not only every fad diet out there..... but pretty much EVERY way of living (this goes beyond just your lifestyle as far as your diet). I personally would NEVER go on the Atkins diet as it's simply not for me. And why would I go for another way of eating when what I'm doing works perfectly fine for me? If it ain't broke, don't fix it

I used to think Atkins was stupid but recently I've become more tolerant of it. I blame this solely on the fact that I waitress at a restaurant which prides itself in featuring MANY MANY MANY low-carb menu items. So I deal with low-carb obsessed people every day, and I really can't afford to be so negative about it. When people comment to me how they don't agree with the whole low-carb thing, I will throw my .02 in, because these days it's refreshing to find someone who hasn't fallen into the low-carb phenomenon. We have all of the calorie/fat/net carb/fiber information on EVERY SINGLE MENU ITEM which gets mixed reviews. The carb counters love us for it. The people who just want to go out and eat and have fun and not think about how many calories and fat grams they consume as they enjoy their nice dinner out..... hate us. Personally I love how we have calorie information on our menu, because that's my thing. And our company is trying to promote healthy eating which is good. Even though we do have many unhealthy items on our menus. If we didn't then we wouldn't be a very profitable restuarant

And no, I don't have any recipes for you, Shawn. I hope my post was still relevant enough though. I wasn't trying to go off-topic

 

[starlightgemini]

Oh and Shawn, next time you are craving a Snickers bar..... try a Snicker's Marathon Bar (Multi-Grain crunch) it tastes EXACTLY like a Snicker's bar only is basically a protein bar. Yes, I imagine it has a lot of carbs but... it's a much healthier version of a Snickers and damn does it taste GOOD :D

 

[misscelestia]

Well really, there IS no magic induction number.

Exactly. I am one of the 10 carbers. Some people can go higher. You have to listen to your body. Ketostix are actually not neccessary - there are 3 tell-tale signs of ketosis.

1 - Extreme thirst (which is good, you need your water to help burn fat)
2 - An almost metal taste in your mouth
3 - Loss of appetite

 

[Lucas]

There are 3 tell-tale signs of ketosis.

1 - Extreme thirst (which is good, you need your water to help burn fat)
2 - An almost metal taste in your mouth
3 - Loss of appetite

I'll add a fourth:
4 - You can smell the ketones in your urine, quite strongly in fact.

 

[ILLUSION]

I did Atkin's for about 2-3 months. I stayed at 20 grams of Carbs and under, which was perfect I felt great, and kept losing weight. Then for lunch and stuff I started eating the bars and snacks with Sugar alchohols and such, well they totally stalled my progress. But in a 2 month period i was down 30 pounds and two waist sizes with no exercise basically. I'm going back on soon and with a good exercise program this time. Plus it will help since I'm quitting Benzo's.

 

[misscelestia]

A lot of people are not aware of the "dangers" of sugar alcohols. No one can prove that they aren't just as bad as sugar, so it is wise to avoid the shakes and bars.

Excellent point, Illusion.

 

[slyvan wanderer]

Pepperoni. Spicey and exciting. You mentioned early on that you wanted to eat on the healthy side (not 10 cheeseburgers a day), the pepperoni can be added to salad to spruce it up.
Other Italian lunch meats are good to nibble on. Fish is great for the brain too with the omega-3 vitamins.

I didn't read pages 2 or 3, i have to go to bed and work so sorry if any this is already repeated.

I would slow the diet down once approx. 21% body fat is reached. After that weightlifting and some cardio as well as correct eating. Weightlifting burns the stubborn male-weist fat. And since a nice jacked body is the next step in weight loss. But, talk to your dad. This is jsut my two cents.

 

[Dr. McBudstoke]

Fish is great for the brain too with the omega-3 vitamins.

omega-3 is an EFA, not a vitamin.