A Dieter's Dilemma (Atkin's diet)

The New York Times Magazine ^ | 08/25/2002 | JASON EPSTEIN

[Senator Pardek]

The physiological case against excessive carbohydrates, reported in this magazine seven weeks ago... A Diet Rich in Partial Truths

I was speaking to a fellow freeper last night, and I came to this conclusion - FR Atkins devotees are the same as FR Mac lovers. When cornered with the truth, they lash out with a ferocity normally reserved for defending one's children.

[rmlew]

I'm not cutting up plump Golden Delicious or crunchy Mutsu apples from the Milk Pail in Water Mill on Long Island

1. I thought it was in Southampton.
2. Good cider, better doughnuts, great hard cider.

[mamaduck]

Atkins is pretty extreme, but when I read his and other books like Zone and Sugar Busters and I accepted the fact that My Body prefers more protein, less carbs, I lost that "last ten pounds", I am more mentally alert, less tired, etc.

I find I can eat the carbs, even the pie, I want now, I just want less. (Feel better, look better, think better, etc.)

Carbs made me un happy!

[BeAllYouCanBe]

"According to Dr. Robert Atkins, 60 percent of the American population is perilously plump,"

If it was about losing weight then Atkins looses -- BUT and this is a very BIG BUTT (there are lots of really big butts that need help) -- then you'll feel much better and look better on Atkins.

I've dieted on the convential recommened low fat diets and I get sick and look terrible. Most diets are legalized torture that you inflict on yourself.

Cut carbs and anything with sugar and you'll feel better with more energy and a great attitude on life.

After two years o fAtkins I get sick when I eat ice cream but beer seems to be real good!!

[blackdog]

I am sorry to hear that Jason Epstein just had his wife leave him for someone else, that the chicks at the health club won't look at him, and that he shares such father/son traditions like dieting results and cholesterol values.

The author is definately in need of being a bit more of a man. Even if a man diets, he does not discuss it or write about it in the paper.

I think we have won the war on terrorism and lost the one to save testosterone if this is what makes the media priority list.

Good luck on the diet guy! Do me a favor.....When you get looking real buff, don't write the column about your new felt urge to question traditional male sexuality traditions and the new alternatives you have discovered.

[John W]

This probably isn't anything due to Atkins,but when I sit by the office Atkins guy at meetings-hes been on it a year and a half,down probably 75 pounds-is that the odor of "health" I smell or what?

[MosesKnows]

Department of Agriculture's Food Guide Pyramid

When you or your son or anyone else loses weight it is because you expended more calories than you consumed. There is no magic involved nor any method other that the method God provided you. And when you expend less calories than you consume the body converts those calories to fat.

[Dust in the Wind]

This time of year I am partial to the occasional pint of vanila ice cream blended with one large Colorado peach. Smooth and cool!!

[templar]

FWIW, I've known two people who tried the Atkins diet. Both quite overweight, one from long term overeating and one gaining weight after quitting cigaretts. Both lost a lot of weight rapidly. Both gained it back rapidly within a year of loosing it.

[DB]

Well... While your burning old fat one does smell worse... Usually when you reach your weight goal and stop burning the fat stored for years you begin to smell very little. Of course there are other possibilities…

[BeAllYouCanBe]

The odor of health??

I have heard that the Japanese find we Americans have an offensive body odor because of the amount of red meat we eat. Also, in the Atkins diet your breath may smell of a chemical (fat-burning smell) that is normal for people buring fat. You should only be offensive for a 2 week period.

Since so many of us don't ever burn fat off the Atkins way we are not used to the smell. I have found some really offensive body odor from obsese people in general and if they smell bad for a short period of time than that's an improvement of they get down to a reasonable weight.

I most confess that I eat mostly salads and not all that much red meat and it could be the high red meat content of your coworkers diet that offends you.

[Steve Eisenberg]

Both lost a lot of weight rapidly. Both gained it back rapidly within a year of loosing it.

The research by Dr. Stunkard at the University of Pennsylvania, showing that dieting doesn't work in the long term, is getting pretty old, but I don't know that it has been refuted. A good question concerns why Americans are getting heavier. I'll bet that part of the reason is dieting, with people bouncing back heavier than before within a few years. (Another theory is that it is caused by people eating less fat, as proposed in the "big fat lie" New York Times Magazine cover story a few weeks ago.)

[Senator Pardek]

Three words: Lack Of Exercise.

[BeAllYouCanBe]

"when you expend less calories than you consume the body converts those calories to fat."

It really isn't that simple. Talk to anyone who has quit smoking. You gain weight when you quit because your mebtabolism slows down from the nicotine loss. There are people whos metabolism burns less when dieting because as they ingest less calories they become more efficient in calorie burning. Nazi experiments proved this in 1939.

The best study about Atkins says that Atkins "low-carb" dieters ingest (take-in, eat, desire) 30% less calories than low fat dieters.

The blood sugar swing with conventional diets make sticking to them difficult.

Maybe it is a simple equation but we are complex humans.

[Dawgs of War]

Not according to scientific fact. You haven't read the Atkin's book on how carbs make you produce insulin. Read the book man.

[Citizen of the Savage Nation]

And I've noticed that in every Atkins thread, there's always a few clowns who come in early, defecate, and bail...and never stick around when the solid posters join in. I wonder why that is.

The diet works, and with too many personal success stories, including mine, why should I bother with the crap?

[itsahoot]

I was speaking to a fellow freeper last night, and I came to this
conclusion - FR Atkins devotees are the same as FR Mac lovers.

Nothing like a PC devotee. Har, Har, Har.

[SamAdams76]

Read this thread. The Atkins Diet may not be for everybody.

[Fabozz]

"[I]s that the odor of 'health' I smell or what?"

Could easily be the Atkins. The Atkins diet isn't merely low-carb, it's deliberately ketogenic—that is, it puts the body into ketosis, where it burns ketones rather than glucose for energy. Unlike glucose, which can be stored in fat, ketones must either be burned for energy or flushed out of the body. (This is why an Atkins dieter can lose weight without exercising, although exercise has so many of its own benefits that it's stupid to diet without exercising.) Unfortunately, ketones carry a, um, distinctive odor with them. If an Atkins dieter drinks enough fluids (80+ ounces a day), then this presents no problem. Drinking too little water, though, forces the body to dump the ketones as sweat.

More than you wanted to know, I bet. ;-)