Posted on 04/25/2002 5:50:29 AM PDT by MagnusMat
Congratulations. My experience with it has been similar. I decided to try it 4 months ago -- mainly because I thought I could stick with it since I have no sweet-tooth. My initial goal was just to lose 20lbs but that happened in the first 3-4 weeks so I have reassessed my goals. I seemed to plateau at 30 for about a month and am now moving again rapidly. By anyone's standards I am eating better.
Sure, at first, some folks think it's all about cheese and bacon, but it's really not. Those decadent foods are allowed, but this diet has encouraged me to eat very healthy things...
Of course, when I saw the report on CNN about Dr. Atkins' illness they (CNN) naturally had to show a clip of a big pan of frying bacon. Is it any wonder why people believe these things. I do eat bacon (although no more than I ever did) but I am also eating alot more brocolli, cauli, spinach, salads etc...
Here's a quote:
"Adaptive changes in metabolic rate in response to low caloric intake relies on complex and highly redundant readjustments of the thermoregulatory system including both behavioral and physiological regulations, and acting on both heat loss and heat production. It contributes to the rapid replenishment of fat stores as soon as an adequate amount becomes available again. It thus has a survival value in subsistence societies societies. In affluent societies it is a source of despair for the obese and of fortune for the authors of slimming programs." (IJO 1993 17 (Suppl 1) S3-S8)
In addition, there are studies that suggest high fat content does not cause obesity. From the same link, comes:
"There is no epidemologic evidence indicating that total fat intake per se, independent of total caloric intake, is associated with increased adiposity in the population. Obesity itself has not been found to be associated with dietary fat in either inter- or intra- population studies. ("Diet and Health: Implications for reducing chronic disease risk"; Committee on Diet and Health Food and Nutrition Board Commission on Life Sciences, National Research Council; National Academy Council, Washington D.C. )"
One word: aspirin. Read about this wonder substance. It is so useful it should be declared a vitamin. People who take aspirin every day rarely get colon cancer. This particular cancer is not caused by male or female hormones.
Atkins has you limit these items initially, then increase your consumption of them over a period of time until you stop losing weight. Then you back down just 5 grams of carbs from that level for Ongoing Weight Loss until you are near your desired weight. Then you add those 5 or more carbs back in until you are at a Maintenance Weight.
High Metabolic Resistance
25 to 40 grams of carbs per day
Average
40 to 60 grams of carbs per day
Low
60 to 90 grams of carbs per day
Regular exerciser*
90 or more grams of carbs per day
*In this context, a regular exerciser is someone who does vigorous exercise five days a week for at least 45 minutes.
Breakfast:
Two slices cranberry-orange loaf
Ricotta-cheese omelet
Lunch:
Vegetable soup
Crab salad over mixed greens
Dinner:
Herb Roasted Chicken with Lemon
Wild rice with mushrooms
Bibb lettuce and watercress salad with French dressing
Molten chocolate cakes
Snack: Cantaloupe with lime juice
I dunno about you, but I don't see no cheeseburger and bacon drenched in butter on THAT menu. Nor do I see NO bread, NO grain, NO fruit, and NO fun.
Damn, now I'm hungry...better go eat my tuna and spring greens...I'm already down two more pounds for the week, and it ain't over until Sunday!
Further, you should know that the only cholesterol a high fat diet will increase is HDL, the good cholesterol. Study after study shows that high fat/ low carb diets REDUCE overall cholesterol, especially triglycerides.
Your friends are mistaken and frankly, I don't believe that thier cholesterol increased. If it did, it was in the first 8 weeks only. In the first 8 weeks, often overall cholesterol increases due to an increase in HDL and before the shortage of garbage carbs begins to burn off the body's stored body fat. Once the abundance of carbs are removed from the diet, the body starts burning it's own stored fat, resulting in REDUCED cholesterol
I should also add that it is LOW FAT/HIGH CARB diets that CAUSE high triglycerides and reduce HDL [both directly linked to coronary heart problems], NOT the other way around. There are alot of myths about Atkins and the so-called "dangers" of dietary fat, but I would expect better from this forum. C'mon people, let's stop with the urban myths.
If you are going to eat unhealthy garbage like you named above, so be it. But please don't presume to tell anyone else how to eat healthy when you have such a bad diet.
The diet is a LIFESTYLE. However, as with any diet, if you go off it and go back to your old way of eating, the diet obviously will not work. A diet cannot work if you are not on it.
That is why there is the Atkins Maintenence diet that you stay on for a lifetime.
Also, protein is only hard on already disease kidneys. It is another urban myth that protein harms kidneys or the liver. There ain't a SINGLE documented case or study that shows such a thing. But oddly, it is oft repeated. Usually by low fat cultists.
NEW YORK, Feb 18 (Reuters Health) - The extremely carbohydrate-restricted Atkins diet is a safe, effective way to lose weight, according to studies presented at the Southern Society of General Internal Medicine in New Orleans.
A study of the diet conducted at the Durham VA Medical Center in North Carolina showed that on average, mildly obese people lost about 21 pounds in four months on the diet, and had positive changes in heart risk factors such as reduced cholesterol and increased HDL or "good cholesterol." These results are supported by a second study from researchers at the Atkins Center for Complementary Medicine in New York.
The Durham study included 41 mildly obese, healthy people who attended an outpatient clinic. The study participants followed a program that reduced carbohydrate intake to less than 20 grams per day, and included vitamin supplements, fish oil supplements and 20 minutes of exercise at least three times per week.
Over four months on the diet, the participants lost an average of 21.3 pounds, and showed a 6.1% drop in cholesterol, and almost a 40% drop in the level of triglycerides in their blood. In addition, their HDL levels increased by about 7%.
In a press release, the researchers also say that their study did not find any of the safety concerns voiced by the American Dietetic Association, such as potentially dangerous effects on liver and kidney function. "In four short months on the Atkins Diet, we were able to confirm scientifically what Dr. Atkins states he has seen in his practice over the past decades. The diet lowers cholesterol and triglycerides and raises HDL... which may represent an entirely new approach to the control and prevention of heart disease," said lead researcher Dr. Eric C. Westman, assistant professor of medicine at North Carolina's Duke University.
The study is continuing in order to assess the long-term effects of the diet.
Reporting the results of the second study, Colette Heimowitz, director of nutrition at the Atkins Center in New York, said that it was based on 319 overweight or obese patients treated at the Center for at least a year. Investigators collected information on weight, blood pressure, cholesterol, kidney and liver function and other parameters during the study.
"What we found is what we already knew from anecdotal data," Heimowitz told Reuters Health in an interview after the meeting on Friday. "There were some pretty impressive benefits in body composition, HDL levels went up, LDL levels went down and blood pressure decreased," she reported. Where HDL is the good cholesterol for its association with reduced heart risk, LDL has earned the name of being the "bad" cholesterol because high levels are associated with heart disease.
"We now have data for the scientific community" on the healthful benefits of the Atkins diet, Heimowitz asserted. The Atkins diet severely restricts carbohydrate intake to induce a state of ketosis, or metabolic starvation. Dieters are encouraged to measure urinary ketone excretion as an indication of how effective the diet is in inducing fat breakdown. "Ketosis is a benign byproduct of fat burning," Heimowitz asserted. "With an adequate protein and fat intake, there is no loss of muscle mass...There is no change in (blood) pH if the diet is properly done," she said.
However the diet is not for everyone, Heimowitz warned. "It's for those who need a correction in their sugar and carbohydrate metabolism...We encourage (vitamin) supplementation and an intake of 'good' fats, such as fish oil," Heimowitz commented.
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Yes I am! Good to see you over here!
like my Dr. -but of course I have problem kidneys & liver - maybe hes just being cautious
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