Replies

I think just avoiding the obvious eating sins can do most of the job for most of us.

You would think so, but I am constantly amazed by the sheer number of people who have been fat their entire lives that go on Atkins for a year, and lose upward of a hundred pounds! Many of them are forty and fifty year olds right here on freerepublic. These same people claim to be consuming five to seven THOUSAND calories a day!

I've got to believe weight is like cholesterol, very dependent on your particular physiology. I've known couples who eat the same food, weigh within ten pounds of each other, and have more than a hundred point spread between their cholesterol numbers.

but I am constantly amazed by the sheer number of people who have been fat their entire lives that go on Atkins for a year, and lose upward of a hundred pounds! Many of them are forty and fifty year olds right here on freerepublic. These same people claim to be consuming five to seven THOUSAND calories a day!

I fit the profile. I was fat my entire (adult) life and then at age 40 I lost 100+ pounds on a low-carb (not Atkins) diet. But no way do I consume even close to that number of calories. I consume between 2,000 and 2,500 calories a day. I am very careful to keep my caloric intake to under 2,500 and I try to walk a minimum of five miles a day (or 10,000 steps on my pedometer).

The low-carb diet allows me to reduce my caloric intake while not being hungry all the time.

You would think so, but I am constantly amazed by the sheer number of people who have been fat their entire lives that go on Atkins for a year, and lose upward of a hundred pounds! Many of them are forty and fifty year olds right here on freerepublic. These same people claim to be consuming five to seven THOUSAND calories a day!

Well, I'm a 33-year-old who has been overweight my entire life, tried evey reasonable diet known to man (low fat, calorie control, Weight Watchers, "target" diets, etc.), and still kept gaining weight, even with 3 times a week excercising.

4+ months on Atkins, and I've lost nearly 100 pounds. My energy level is up. My blood chemistry is excellent, with the exception of cholesterol -- which has improved since I started Atkins (total cholesterol down, HDL up). I sleep better. I even seem to have fewer allergy problems that in previous years (and from looking at the way my car is covered with pollen each morning, it's not because there are fewer allergens out there).

Now... I doubt I'm taking in 5,000-7,000 calories per day. I'd say it's closer to 3,000-3,500, roughly twice what a "reduced calorie" diet would call for. But what makes Atkins easier than every other diet I've ever tried (in addition to the incentive provided by the weight loss), is that once you purge your system of the refined starches and sugars, you really do start losing your taste for them. Add in the fact that the diet allows me to eat whenever I'm hungry, as long as I count the carbs, and the urge to cheat has pretty much gone completely away.