Posted on 08/23/2004 12:55:32 PM PDT by NYC GOP Chick
i have my version of atkins cut out all starch and fatty foods.(no bacon etc.) lean fish chicken some red meat. starches in moderation and exercise. little or no sugar also. i pick one night a week (saturdays) to "pig out" lost 45lbs so far.
That may be true, but I've never bought anything just because it's "low carb" (although I do *love* the hokey marketing phrase "net carbs"), while I do tend to look for low-fat foods, when possible.
I have a significant amount to lose. I am down a total of 33 lbs from my heaviest.
Tomorrow I move to Phase II and the weight loss will slow down.
I just went back on Atkins at the beginning of the month. Total weight loss to date: 13 pounds.
I was never heavy, but I did go on Weight Watchers to hit an "ideal weight." It worked wonders, very quickly. It is just plain, smart eating.
The problem with the "low-carb" diets is the faddy processed foods themselves -- people load themselves up with the "low carb" cookies, chips, crackers, and ice creams thinking they are doing themselves favors. An unadulterated Atkins probably works reasonably well for at least an initial weight-loss kick -- simply because these kinds of junk foods are out.
It's pretty obvious, too, that alot of kids are fat because of the snack food and excessive sweets and potato-based products they eat. Our grandparents didn't do a bag of potato chips while watching a hour of tv. Nor were two pieces of cake a standard, nightly part of dinner. Plus, if you lived within a mile from school, there was no bus service (forget "car pool")--and you walked.
You don't lose muscle when you take in this much protein. The human body just doesn't need to attack the muscle.
Low carb works great if done right.
The problem is, all those low carb products - the bars, the ice cream, the pasta... all of it - are the kiss of death for this way of eating if you want to lose weight on it.
Most people who fail on Atkins do so because they are pigging out on that junk and think they are doing "low carb" because the box tells them they are.
When you lose too much overall weight in a very short period of time, you lose things you shouldn't.
It's the divorced, single man's diet. No cooking, dishes, cleanup, or worry about what to fix. They are all as skinny as a rail. They eat nothing but carbs and nicotine.
Sex nine times a day - 15 lbs two weeks
Just Kidding!!!
My physician disagrees with you. I can read his diploma in his office. Where did you get yours? ;-)
I trust the MSM on this issue as much as I do on politics. They have an agenda and it is the agenda of BigFood who pays a lot of money to the media to sell us processed foods each year.
The fact is LowCarb does work for many people but many people who think they are doing LowCarb, aren't really doing it right. So they don't lose, and often gain weight, when they do it wrong. I'm down over 70# in less than a year and I know many others who have been successful as well.
If you hit a plateau on Phase II, more than a week without a loss, then just do Phase I again for about three days. It ususally kick starts the system.
I like South Beach because it recognizes that sometimes we just need a treat, and that it won't break the bank. I don't feel hungry, and the craving for chips and cookies just isn't there. I do have some pork rinds every now and then, though. I consider those a treat these days, though I found some soy-flaxseed tortilla chips at Trader Joe's that are VEY good. I tried the lo-carb Doritos, made with soy protein, and they tasted like nacho flavored sawdust!
I'm kinda thinking I'll kick back into Phase I about once a month or so.
Yeah, I'm finding South Beach much more reasonable than Atkins (for me anyway). I did that other one (6-wk Body Makeover) last year and that worked okay, but I got tired of it pretty quickly.
But you're right, the cravings for the crap are gone.
I do miss my orange juice...
I've stayed on Phase I with the occasional "treat" of an extra 30-50g in a day. Not very frequently though.
One doesn't need to have an MD to know that losing large amounts of weight in very short periods of time is unhealthy. If your doctor thinks that's fine, then you might consider looking for a new doctor. One of things I do is put together reports on physician evaluations of medical malpractice cases (I get the notes and an outline, and put it into readable form), and I long ago stopped being shocked at the number of really stupid doctors out there.
While I'm not a physician, I am the daughter of one who agrees with me (and I am certified as a fitness trainer) and he received his MD from New York University. ;-)
Atkins works.. and you don't need eat only branded food.. most of that crap is phony.
1st week of Atkins and I've lost 4 pounds.. My cholesterol is 83...
No donuts, no pasta, no candy (that one was easy). There' are fads and definately one surrounding Atkins.. But I think it's the marketeers are the ones who got sucked into it.
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