Atkins diet

logic1

Did anyone see the recent program on the Atkins diet? Not sure what channel it was on but it aired last week.

Any opinions on it here?

Personally I run a modified CKD diet with moderate, low GI refeeds at weekends (one day only) to re-establish liver glycogen levels and to avoid starvation/catabolism mode and get leptin levels back up a little.

I find personally with Atkins it puts the body into way too muscle catabolism and slows the metabolism way too much due to the bodies starvation reaction.

Also Atkins himself seems to be a bit of a quack with very very weird opinions regarding calorific intake, and fat utilization.

Some interesting reading material on the subject include: Dan Duchaines' "BodyOpus" and Lyle McDonalds "The Ketogenic Diet: A Complete Guide for the Dieter and Practitioner."

.logic.

yop

Am on it at the minate, have lost 8 pounds in 3 weeks, so 4 me it is working!! No side effects for me either

Jak

I'd imagine diet discussions are going to be amongst the most contentious issues on this board as there is no general consensus on the "best" approach.

To be perfectly honest, I have little experience with using diet as a means of losing weight (tend to be trying to go the other way mostly and have much more experience with that end of things).

I know my folks use the Atkins diet (they are not heavy sports people) and found it a very successful means of keeping trim as they got older and less active.

Any time I have wanted to drop under a certain weight or trim up at a new weight level, I take a very casual approach to diet change. I would cut back on basic carbs - bread, pasta, spuds etc while maintaining a similar level of fruit, veg and protein sources.

The key for me has always simply been to up my cardio training in conjunction with the above. Add an extra erg session and bike session into your week and you will struggle to maintain weight.

Diet alone is a poor method of weight control in my view as it only addresses a single side of the bigger issue which is your general health and fitness.

JAK.

logic1

Originally posted by Jak
Diet alone is a poor method of weight control in my view as it only addresses a single side of the bigger issue which is your general health and fitness.

JAK.

Yeah totally right Jak. I do cardio every off day now so that's 4 sessions a week.. nothing hectic 65 - 75% maximum heart rate for 30 minutes on the bike or a rower. I fast walk about 4 miles a day aswell at a little over 4 mph pace, 2 miles in the morning and 2 miles in the evenings.

Trying to drop quite alot of weight, down 30lbs so far and about the same again to go over the next few months.

The first 2 to 3 weeks are the hardest on diet. Cravings are high and come often. I've come from an extremly unhealthy diet to a very healthy one aswell so I got alot of cold turkey effects. Gone from 2 litres of coca cola per day to none. Only drink water now. Gone from 2 or 3 bars of chocolate a day to none. Haven't touched any sorts of sweets in about 5 months.

It's all hard work but now it's less effort and just a way of life which is the brilliant thing about excercise in general. It totally changes the way you live for the better. (sorry I'm still just a bit excited about excerise.. I'll get over that in a few years )

But personally it's always been a bit of a battle for me to drop weight, I seem to be a meso/endo cross where I can put on muscle easily but also retain alot of fat if I don't constantly burn it off.

Looking forward to bulking in 5 or 6 months! It'll be an experience.

.logic.

Jak

Thats good going Logi.

4 Cardio sessions a week is loads and its good you are splittin the activity type. Is that coupled with weight training? If so you could probably cut back to 3 cardio + 2 weights. I used to train 6 day weeks and in retrospect it was somewhat counterproductive. But you live and learn.

One thing to watch though is undercutting yourself with diet. You seem to have the right approach, but as long as you are eating the right kinds of food - don't sell yourself short in the energy stakes.

I doubt you would as you seem to have a handle on the whole thing, but I have seen people take the diet and fitness approach to the extreme where they just don't have the energy rather than the will or fitness to keep up their training.

chernobyl

I dont pay attention to my diet at all, i just eat when im hungry and eat whatever i want.

I do workout 3 times a week and that involves both running and weights, i have no desire to do anymore than that.

I do eat alot of bread/pasta but i dont seem to increase in mass at all, should i be eating fish or bigger protein intake?

logic1

Yeah sometimes I'll skip cardio on Sundays depending how I feel.

So it's weights mon/wed/fri and cardio every off day.

With regards energy I try to get my daily protein and fat intake from all clean sources, chicken, fish, clean red meat, tuna and some good omega-3 and 6 fatty acids (tuna, flax seed oil). Carb intake below 20 grammes.

Energy lvls can be quiet low towards the end of the week due to carb shortage and ketone levels in the urine are quiet high which is why I try to get my refeed in every Saturday.

I only cycle this diet 12 weeks on 8 weeks off aswell so it's not too much torture.

Only thing is reintroducing carbs after the 12 weeks is tricky due to the rebound effect of the body u can start storing alot of fat so I reintroduce clean carbs one at a time.

But so far so good!

.logic.

nillis

I would advise against the Atkins diet. I work at a health food store and like to think I have a good knowledge of health and diet issues. The Atkins is waaaaay too much protein, it is absolute terrible for your kidneys. If you are a guy you do not want to have to pass a kidney stone, it will be the most painful experience of your life.

daveirl

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Jak

Mentioned the Atkins diet to a few folk through training (all negative responses) and did a little searching. Found a balanced and objective article on it here . It would appear the jury is out.

Personally I would caution against it and it certainly is not for me and my training. But then I am against weight loss diets on their own in general - the answer is generally always training and work.

I'm still not sure on the ratio, though as said it is high protein and fat. I am not sure on my own diet ratios as I tend to just deal in absolutes.

At 225lbs+ I need ideally 1 to 1.5gms of protein a day per pound of bodyweight. This equates to 225 - 300 grams of protein a day for me to be giving myself the best chance. That is fairly high protein intake, but I have never noticed any problems whatsoever.

Shinji

But then I am against weight loss diets on their own in general - the answer is generally always training and work.

Which is all very well and a laudable attitude to it, but not exactly applicable to everyone. I'm a case in point; physically, I'm in relatively good shape. I exercise fairly regularly and although I was very unfit about a year ago, I'm in far better shape now - relatively high energy levels and the acid test is fine - namely, I don't wheeze after running for a train

Now, I'm not about to run a marathon or climb Mount Everest, but as far as I'm concerned this level of physical fitness is fine for me. As long as I'm not unfit enough that it causes problems in my daily life, then beyond that I don't care; and I /really/ couldn't care less about the size of my pecs or my biceps!

However, what I would like to do is drop about two stone of weight which I've accumulated over the past three years (mostly due to very poor diet), and as far as I'm concerned, given that my underlying fitness isn't bad, the ONLY way to do this is through diet. There's very little point in me engaging in any more gym time or exercise time, and frankly, there's no way in hell I can make time for that on a regular basis anyway given how often my work demands that I'm away from home or working silly hours.

I did Atkins for about a month, and it did help to drop the weight, but fundamentally I felt that the choice of foods in it was very limiting; and I'm unconvinced about the safety of dropping carbs altogether. What I'm working on now is basically a modified version of that, cutting out sugars (other than fructose from fresh fruit juice) and highly processed carbs (wholemeal instead of white, brown rice instead of white, egg noodles instead of spaghetti), but with a lot of vegetables (usually stir-fried), lean meat (usually chicken or pork) and fish (sushi more often than not, although once a fortnight I have battered fish from our excellent chippy as a treat).

It's not a particularly medically proven diet afaik but I am shedding pounds slowly, I feel great and fundamentally I feel like I'm eating healthily.

daveirl

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daveirl

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Jak

True true dave.

And shinji, I take the point - but as you say, you excersise.

My point, perhaps not clearly made, is that sometimes people look for ways to improve without any work/excersise/training. These people will be searching indefinitley.

On a side issue, everybody has time, it is just a matter of where your priorities lie

JAK.

Lennoxschips

The problem with the Atkins diet is that it encourages you to eat unhealthily. "You can eat all the chocolate you want" etc.

As humans, we need carbohydrates to function properly. Whole weat (brown bread, brown rice etc) is a good solution, because from my experience it helps speed up metabolism while also being extremely healthy.

There's no magic solution really, the only solution is a healthy lifestyle.

Shinji

My point, perhaps not clearly made, is that sometimes people look for ways to improve without any work/excersise/training. These people will be searching indefinitley.

Ahh, fair enough. It's just that when you talk about training and exercise, I get a mental image of bulky sweaty men who wet shave their buttocks three times a week pumping iron in lycra outfits, which isn't really a visual place I want to be at

:P

The'real'Guvnor

Ask any SRD [state registered dietician] about the Atkins diet and they will tell you it is so full of holes and not based on sound scientific evidence.

As a footnote - Diet is a terrible word and should be altered to eating program or something.

The'real'Guvnor

Originally posted by nillis
I would advise against the Atkins diet. I work at a health food store and like to think I have a good knowledge of health and diet issues. The Atkins is waaaaay too much protein, it is absolute terrible for your kidneys. If you are a guy you do not want to have to pass a kidney stone, it will be the most painful experience of your life.

Can you provide scientific evidence to support this? What constitutes too much protein?

Fabritzo

I didn't read all the posts but I listened to Joe Duffy on Radio 1 alot during the summer/autumn, they talked alot about the Atkins diet....in the end it was found to be a unhealthy in the long term. Someone mentioned that Mr. Atkins died of a heart attack, I dunno if this is true though