Burger please, hold the bun!

xoaudhep

Has anybody ever tried the Atkins diet?

Thoughts?

Pros and cons?

Starting to wonder if it actually works after watching a documentary on it. I realize that it's not good for your health long term but I wonder does it work for a bit of a kick start loosing weight? The documentary showed people who claimed to have lost insane amounts in the first month or two.

jam_mac_jam

Yes it works, you loose a lot quite quickly but it will slow down. I dont see why it is unhealthy long term and you raise your level of carbohydrate untill you stop losing weight. Meat, eggs, cheese and lots of veg is much healthyer then what most of the population eat. There are better low carb methods though, Atkins allows fake sugars you would be better avoiding all processed food.
Cons, people lecturing you all the time while they eat ****e like oatcakes, bad breath, not being able to eat in some situations, a lot more time to prepare food. Pros, lots of weight loss, eat very little processed food, loads more veg, no farting(sorry).

xoaudhep

Sorry I just realized I should have put this in Nutrition and Diet!

I just heard it's bad long term as you eat a lot of fried food and foods high in cholesterol?

Hanley

You can "do" Atkin's without having to eat the fried food.

The theory that eggs (and such...) cause an increase in blood cholesterol has been disproven several times over.

xoaudhep

Yeah it wasn't so much the eggs but the butter, cream, cheese etc. I'm tempted to start it but I'm still not sure. I'm afraid if I start eating full fat foods I'll just put on more weight.

Mellor

xoaudhep wrote: »

Yeah it wasn't so much the eggs but the butter, cream, cheese etc. I'm tempted to start it but I'm still not sure. I'm afraid if I start eating full fat foods I'll just put on more weight.

There is nothing wrong with any of those foods.
Full fat foods don't make you fat. Eating too much does. It's that simple.

Reducing calories means you loss weight.
Reducing fat is one way to reduce calories, but the problem is that people then believed that it was only fat that made you gain weight. Your post above is an example.
Low carb diets allow you to lose weight while still eating full fat because you are cutting out all the carbs (and therefore calories) from side dishes. Cutting out 300 calories of pasta, and replacing with 100 calories of butter/cream/cheese is calorie reduction.

It's an awful shame that the english language uses fat to describe both being overweight and for lipids found in food. If we didn't use the word fat like that there would a lot less misconceptinos out there.

xoaudhep

Ok ok I was just asking what the documentary was saying about the long term side effects of the Atkins diet.

I'm aware you loose weight by reducing your calorie intake. My diet at the moment is a very reduced calorie diet.

Which is why I'm afraid if I start eating full fat foods again I'll put on weight as at the moment I don't eat a lot of carbs but I don't eat full fat foods either yet I'm still finding the weight loss hard.

I'm also aware that eating fat does not make you fat. However, the calories in foods like cheese and bacon are a lot higher than the calories in the stuff I'm eating now.

Bottle_of_Smoke

xoaudhep wrote: »

Ok ok I was just asking what the documentary was saying about the long term side effects of the Atkins diet.

I'm aware you loose weight by reducing your calorie intake. My diet at the moment is a very reduced calorie diet.

Which is why I'm afraid if I start eating full fat foods again I'll put on weight as at the moment I don't eat a lot of carbs but I don't eat full fat foods either yet I'm still finding the weight loss hard.

I'm also aware that eating fat does not make you fat. However, the calories in foods like cheese and bacon are a lot higher than the calories in the stuff I'm eating now.

whats your diet at the moment?

Gummy Panda

jam_mac_jam wrote: »

Yes it works, you loose a lot quite quickly but it will slow down. I dont see why it is unhealthy long term and you raise your level of carbohydrate untill you stop losing weight. Meat, eggs, cheese and lots of veg is much healthyer then what most of the population eat. There are better low carb methods though, Atkins allows fake sugars you would be better avoiding all processed food.
Cons, people lecturing you all the time while they eat ****e like oatcakes, bad breath, not being able to eat in some situations, a lot more time to prepare food. Pros, lots of weight loss, eat very little processed food, loads more veg, no farting(sorry).

Oat cakes are awesome!

But yeah the generally idea behind Atkins is right. I think it's been bastardised by the company now though. Lots of horrible processed foods with Atkins logo.

stargazer 68

I did it a few years ago. Thought it would be easy as I dont eat veg anyway so meat all the way - believe me it wasn't. I lasted about 6 days on it - think it was the no coffee that knocked me over the edge eventually!

xoaudhep

Bottle_of_Smoke wrote: »

whats your diet at the moment?

I usually have two or three Ryvita in the morning with extra light cream cheese and some tomatoe. Or sometimes when I don't fancy that I have scrambled eggs or poached with two Ryvita.

Then lunch I usually have some soup maybe or some green salad with a small tin of tuna. I love cheese so it's hard not to throw a whole block into my salad I try to eat none of it at the moment!

I love to cook so dinner would usually be different everyday. Sometimes I make bolognase sauce with mince and I don't have the pasta or I just have a little. Or now and again when I'm busy I have a weightwatchers meal.

Usually have a snack after dinner, it's usually some fruit. Last night it was some low fat houmous with mangetout.

El_Dangeroso

xoaudhep wrote: »

I usually have two or three Ryvita in the morning with extra light cream cheese and some tomatoe. Or sometimes when I don't fancy that I have scrambled eggs or poached with two Ryvita.

Then lunch I usually have some soup maybe or some green salad with a small tin of tuna. I love cheese so it's hard not to throw a whole block into my salad I try to eat none of it at the moment!

I love to cook so dinner would usually be different everyday. Sometimes I make bolognase sauce with mince and I don't have the pasta or I just have a little. Or now and again when I'm busy I have a weightwatchers meal.

Usually have a snack after dinner, it's usually some fruit. Last night it was some low fat houmous with mangetout.

Replace the pasta with veggies and you have a pretty low carb diet right there!

Atkins works for two reasons, firstly ketosis causes an extreme supression of hunger, you think you're eating more than you are.

Secondly, it completely cuts out all junk food. With induction you are left with meat, veggies, a small amount of cheese and that's it.

A few caveats:

1. Don't eat junk fats, that means transfats and vegetable oils, such as sunflower, soybean or rapeseed. If you eat mayonaisse, make it yourself from light olive oil.

2. Don't eat junk protein, so cheap ham and sausages should not form the bulk of your protein. They are fine once in a while but stick with fresh meat where you can.

4. Don't buy any low carb substitutes, as tempting as it is to buy low carb bread, pasta and sweets, they will stall you and are still junkfood. Trust me, been there done that.

5. Eat leafy green vegetables or broccolli every day, no excuses. They are the only source of folate on a low carb diet and you will feel crap if you don't.

6. Buy the book and follow it to the letter. You'll pick it up for a few euro in a charity shop. There's nothing worse when someone tells me Atkins didn't work for them and then you ask them what they were eating and they clearly haven't read the book, there's more to it than just burgers and cheese.

Also, when people say Atkin's is dangerous long term I have to laugh. Atkins long term is moderate, not low or very low carb. Induction is two weeks yet some people think you have to eat like that forever. Don't forget to climb the ladder of carbs the way the book says, if you just go straight back to old habits you will regain all the weight.

EileenG

Dovies wrote: »

I did it a few years ago. Thought it would be easy as I dont eat veg anyway so meat all the way - believe me it wasn't. I lasted about 6 days on it - think it was the no coffee that knocked me over the edge eventually!

Anyone who thinks Atkins is the no vegetable diet has never actually read the book or studied the diet. Even in the very early induction stage, when you are limited to 20g of carbs a day, you eat veg. You know the bowl of side salad you get in McDonalds? That's one gram of carbs. On the strictest stage of Atkins, you eat the equivalent of 20 of those a day.

I generally recommend that anyone doing Atkins fills at least half their plate with green veg at every sit down meal.

You are allowed coffee on Atkins.

jam_mac_jam

ok, I am prob eating more carbs than the first two weeks of atkins but what I ate today would be low carb. Please tell me how the following is unhealthy-
Breakfast was a pancake made with egg, yogurt and teaspoon of oatbran, with some cheese.Lunch was salmon and vegetables, dinner was spag bol but with courgette instead of noddles and again more vegetables. Desert was a hand ful of rasberries. So nothing fried all made myself from fresh, you dont need to be eating lots of fried rubish for it to be low carb. oh I lie the pancake would have used a few drops of olive oil.

metamorphosis

Frying is not bad for your health (depending on WHAT type of fat you fry your food with)

corkcomp

jam_mac_jam wrote: »

ok, I am prob eating more carbs than the first two weeks of atkins but what I ate today would be low carb. Please tell me how the following is unhealthy-
Breakfast was a pancake made with egg, yogurt and teaspoon of oatbran, with some cheese.Lunch was salmon and vegetables, dinner was spag bol but with courgette instead of noddles and again more vegetables. Desert was a hand ful of rasberries. So nothing fried all made myself from fresh, you dont need to be eating lots of fried rubish for it to be low carb. oh I lie the pancake would have used a few drops of olive oil.

that looks pretty healthy to me. the only thing that stands out is that is seems to be more of a low calorie diet vs low carb... it also seems low in fat and a lot of people find a diet thats low in both carbs and fats to be unsustainable.

As others have (indirectly) pointed out atkins doesnt mean you have to go mad on fried food and anyone tucking into a full fry up, crappy / processed meat and bad fats isnt on the right track (imo)

jam_mac_jam

corkcomp wrote: »

that looks pretty healthy to me. the only thing that stands out is that is seems to be more of a low calorie diet vs low carb... it also seems low in fat and a lot of people find a diet thats low in both carbs and fats to be unsustainable.

As others have (indirectly) pointed out atkins doesnt mean you have to go mad on fried food and anyone tucking into a full fry up, crappy / processed meat and bad fats isnt on the right track (imo)

No, I eat lots of cheese and nuts so my fat is fine, I see what you mean though on that day.