Atkins diet

I don't know but the problem I've found (with Atkins) is that it takes about 20% of the total time on the diet to gain back what you lose! NO fair!!!

DL

 

FWIW.....I reached a plateau on W/W after 6 months of losing so I switched to the SBD and have lost another 30 pounds so far.

Did you gain weight back each time after stopping the program because you reverted to your normal eating habits........or did you continue to watch what you ate ?

I have been doing the South Beach Diet for almost 8 weeks now and am in phase 2.....phase 3 is the maintenance stage where you learn how to eat this way for life.........the idea being you don't stop the lifestyle. No problems here so far. Try it......it's not as brutal a regimen as Atkins from what I have heard and read, so maybe you'll respond differently ?

My wife had the same results as you with Atkins....a plateau after a few weeks and no more success....but with the SBD it's been totally different for her.

Diet is a bad word.....it should be called "lifestyle modification".

 

I have heard that cycling on and off any diet will get your body used to the "diet" at hand, so no more weight can effectively be lost. The next phase is always exercise if it has not been included already.

 

I agree. The only real way to lose weight is to eat less and excercise. To do that, you need a lifestyle modification.

Unfortunately, it is the hardest thing in the world to do...

Dom

 

I agree. I have tried diets off and on all my life with little results. However, about six months ago I started working out at Gold's Gym three times a week and eating five meals a day and have lost over 40lbs. I am now down to 185lbs from 225lbs. I was wearing size 40 pants and am down to a 34. When I stared I had 22% body fat and am now down to 10.5% body fat. It has been a whole lifestyle change of avoiding anything that is white or comes in a box or bag and eating zero fast food. I am stronger, feel better, look better, have more energy and even seem to need less sleep. I will never go back to the fastfood and coach potato life style again! One big thing I did learn was to never skip meals and eat at least five times a day. When you skip a meal your metabolism slows down and you will gain weight, not lose weight . I am now eating more than ever and still losing fat and gaining muscle.

 

Kizdan....

Try South Beach....or at least read the book.

I eat carbs now in phase 2....but only in limited amounts and only certain ones.

Definitely, absolutely, positively no white rice, sugar, pastas, breads or potatoes though. Never, ever again......and do you know what ? I do not crave them anymore either.

You have to stop eating these...and also watch what time of day you eat those other "certain carbs"....it works.

I know how hard it is to "stick to the course".....you'll only succeed if you don't revert to your old habits.

Good luck !!!

I also walk about 20 city blocks a day as well. I used to body build about 15 years ago and agree with what Frank Parker says 100%....I just don't have the time or desire to do it anymore. But......you have to stay the course.......

 

In August I was 145lbs (when the pic in my profile was taken), but by January I was 172! I guess it was from all the college food. I decided to start counting calories, but only lost 2lbs in 4 weeks. I decided to try the trendy Akins diet and have lost 12 pounds in 4 weeks. I dont know what other peoples results are, but I can say it did make me loose weight.

 

Just keep at it. It sounds like you are on the right track with exercise and watching what you eat. As others have already stated, you should try to eat 4-5 small meals a day and also drink a ton of water all day long. I haven't done the Adkins diet but I do watch my carb consumption. I eat lots of fruit but am tole that the carbs in fruit are not that bad. I also eat alot of protein, from 150-200 grams per day and work out four days a week. I have started to up my cardio and have dropped 15 pounds in a few weeks. However, it might be harder for me to drop the next 10 pounds. I seem to drop fast initially and then tapper off. Just make it part of your daily routine. Good luck.

 

atkins does diminish in effeciency because it gets more difficult for your body to get into ketosis. thats why the book tells you to keep to the first phase until you have lost the weight you want, then you can go to the second phase which allows you to eat some carbs in moderation but the complex ones like whole wheat, bran, etc. don't forget to read the whole book...it tells you that you can eat all the protein and fat you want but not to gorge yourself, and to also include lots of the right vegetables and water, and that you also need to combine this with an exercise program.

then in phase 3, ie the rest of your life, you can stray from the righteous path every so often, but sparingly, and try to do it at lunch and not at dinner.

all of these new diets (south beach, food combining etc) are just variations on the atkins philosophy. the big difference is that atkins wants you to lose the weight in a hurry, so he puts you in ketosis for a while - he never designed this to be for life, that would kill you. thereafter, you've lost the weight and you now have to eat sensibly - including (complex) carbs.

 

Eating tasty food (including pasta, bread, tortillas!) and then exercising sounds like much more fun to me. And I believe that you should exercise hard. Not a long slow jog that only slightly elevates your heart rate, but shorter, more intense workout that has you closer to peak. With the slow jog, you may burn calories while jogging but with the harder workout you'll burn just as much but potentially keep your metabolism working harder for the rest of the day and burn more calories overall.

They don't call me Slim for nothing, ha!

 

Slim, some foods are tasty only because you have eaten them for so long. After 6 months of eating well, I can't even stand the smell of fried foods anymore. And, I do drink a lot of water every day, over a gallon. When I eat a steak I get a sweet potato instead of a baked white potato. Sweet potatos are very good for you. Remember, sugar is the enemy, not carbs or fat. If you will work out, eat five times a day and stay away from sugar you will build muscle and lose fat.

 

Anyone tried the Macrobiotic diet? I did for a while years ago but not to the point of it being anything more than just a bland and disgusting phase (too much seaweed, Miso etc.).

 

I haven't done any programmed diet. About 4 years ago, I was forced to eat 3 meals a day, and can only drink water or coffee (only 1 mugcup a day), and stopped snacking at bedtime. I also did push-up & sit-ups 100 times a day, usually 20 for 5 sets. I have been active playing golf, tennis, & swimming every week until rupturing my Achilles last Oct, so no changes on activities-wise. I lost 20 lbs. I am 5'9", and went down to 155 lbs w/ waist 30". My ab looked like Bruce Lee!!

Now I am back to 1 meal a day (dinner), w/ night time snacking, & no exercise worth mentioning (I'm still rehab from the injury), I quickly gained to 185 lbs w/ 34" waist. Good thing I didn't throw away my old pants. Now I have no ab to see...

I will try to lose weight once my leg recovers (to w/stand playing golf at least) by doing what I did 4 years ago.

What I want to say is taking much fluid, especially water, and eating many moderate amount of food a day should bring up your metabolism to lose weight w/ moderate exercise included.

Is there any recommended method to lose extras on chin & cheeks?

Yoshi

 

The reason Atkins "works" is b/c the metabolic breakdown of proteins requires input energy; it's an uphill gradient. However, you've also got to remember that the brain, runs mostly off glucose -- you need sugar in your system.
The human body certainly isn't meant to ingest copious amounts of fat, unless it's being exhausted on a daily basis; i.e., lumberjacks ate lard chunks , but they were also expending about 5,000 calories a day -- no one of here, get even close. Pro athelets might, and cetainly training triathelets do.
The problem with high protein/low carb is that there's a lack of long term data. The literature suggests a heightened level of cholesterol, but this comes from a rise of HDL's, not LDL's. This is good, in a way, but is best if you're still eating a lot of green vegtables, etc
Another problem is kidney stones, and the digestion of all that protein -- our bodies really aren't meant to take in all that much flesh. Have you looked at our canines lately? Cooked food has really put a damped on that -- our digestive systems aren't what they were.
Lastly, a lot of people take low carb to mean that it's okay to eat double bacon chessburgers 3 x a day, and that by eliminating the bun, somehow it's good for you now; it's this self-medication that's the problem; if a double bacon burger was bad for you w / a bun, it's still bad w/ out it.
Fact is, our western diets, combined with out inactivity and grossly too large meal portions leads to our current health problems -- fad diets are band aids, not cures . There's no magical answer on the horizon. The answer has, and is, very simple : people need to excercise. Period. Get off the couch, and go work out.
I read an article in JAMA (journal of the American Medical Assoc.) stating that only 12% of Americans engage in "vigerous" excerices, and vigerous was designated to be : at least 30minutes, 3 x per week. That's pathetic! Especially if you consider the avg. person ingents well in excess of 150% of their daily caloric requirment.
People need to stop whining, stop making excuses and looking for fool proof. If you don't excercise, you'll get fat and you'll be a great risk for all the health problems associated with inactivity. Eating fried carb-less foods isn't going to solve that problem.
The carb's turning to sugars to fats is on account of people not using the energy that they're taking in; it's a survival mechanism. In the old hunter gather days, a fat layer was mandatory in order for you to survive periods of famine and hunger; most people don't experience prolonged famines, therefore this storage mechanism now works against us, and the reason is simple: we take in too much energy, and it has nowhere to go buy to our asses!

 

I agree 100%, Hubert. Good tech. We all need to get out and excercise.

In addition to excercise, eating less is important also. There are several published studies out there in multiple animal species that show if you restrict diet vs feeding ad libitum, then you will increase survival.

Unfortunately, with our modern lifestyle, we eat lots, and exercise less. I guess this is the curse of affluence.

Dom