There has been much mention of the Atkins Diet lately .
Any body tried it and does it really work ?? ( and most importantly , does it work as fast as they say ??? )
Lel

Lel, male friends at work have tried it and lost loads without feeling hungry. They love the cooked breakfast each day. They did admit to the side affects - e.g. you can get a bit smelly in the first couple of weeks whilst your system gets used to it. I think the Atkins guy has just died at 60 ish. Not sure of what he died of but it isn't a very good advertisement.

:D
Carbohydrate loss !!
Everywhere you go there seems to be mention of this diet . I just love my potatoes and bread tho - the two main things you cant eat !! :(

The Atkins chap fell and whacked his head, and died of a brain haemorrage, I believe. Can't blame that on the diet! (Unless he slipped on a rasher of bacon!)

Dr. Atkins slipped on a patch of ice and fractured his skull. It didn't have anything to do with the diet.

As for the diet itself, I've been doing it since February of 2003, have lost a stone, and feel a lot better. My skin's improved, my hair's shinier, and I don't have the bloated, hungry unhappy feeling that I did when most of what I ate was pasta and bread.

Before someone else tells you incorrectly... you are SUPPOSED to eat three cups (yes, three cups) of fibre-giving vegetables per day - lots of salads - as well as your meat, cheese, eggs, fats, and so on. I've gotten to a point where I'm eating strawberries and cream, bits of fruit here and there, nuts as snacks, and feeling pretty good about it.

Is the diet any good for vegetarians, though?

*chuckle* That's a pretty good question. Apparently it CAN be done, vegetarian lowcarbing - especially if you eat eggs and dairy products. Just have to make sure you eat plenty of those things... and from what I've heard, macadamia nuts and avocado are two of the best things you can eat on any lowcarb diet, since they're both high in fat.

Though I wouldn't think that vegan lowcarbing could be done, since it'd be more difficult to get the fats necessary... minute I say that, tho, a vegan lowcarber will correct me!

I was just scanning this website as a new member and saw your Atkins questions. You wrote this months ago when Dr Atkins was still alive. He just died last a couple of months ago from a severe fall on the ice that fractured his skull, he was 72.
Just recently just before he died the AMA said that there is some validity to his diet and peoples cholestrial does improve. Mine did although I can't follow this diet for life but for a quick start to a weight loss program I think it is good. I then recommend a low glyemic diet which is healthy, a way to change a diet fo life without feeling like you are sacrificing foods you enjoy.
bonnielass

I know somebody who has been on it and have found it v hard not to eat any carbs. They felt very lethargic and suffered with very bad headaches with it as well. I would question the long term health implications on this and until there is more reseached on this, a healthy balanced diet with regular excercise would be my preference.

Did you have alook at the site re the herbal diet at all ?

Lucy

I did yes but the lure of the "lose alot fast "is very appealing -although the downside is some of the symptoms you mention .
It seems to go against everything that I would expect to eat on a diet .

Lel

I did a diet similar to the atkins diet where i cut out carbs and ate high protein food and ended up with kidney problems so i knocked it on the head as i was in to much pain with it, now i just eat sensibly but take in a small amount of carbs just to keep an even balance.

I've tried it lel & didn't lose one singular pound despite sticking strictly to it. From what I've learnt & from personal experience I think the positives are:

Most people drop a lot of weight in the first two weeks, most of my pals dropped about 7 pounds, but apparently this is all water loss.
You get to eat lots of rich meaty food including the wonderful bacon & eggs breakfast.
Don't have to eat rabbit food - in fact you're only allowed a cup full of veg per day.

The negatives are:
If you've got a low metabolism rate (like me) you might not lose any weight at all
Very expensive shopping bill because of all the meat you need & extra expensive bits & bobs that you were buying to replace all the carb foods.
Severe constipation! To the point I was late for work for a fortnight! This was quite common amongst my pals too.
Painful leg cramps in the morning. Lack of electrolytes I believe, the book does warn you about it.
All the extra fat intake is only helping to block up your arteries.
You can't even have your vitamin tablets or Actimel in the mornings - too many carbs.
No milk allowed. So no tea or coffee, unless you buy decaff & have cream instead of milk.
I was craving breakfast cereal by the third day. By the 14th day I would have murdered for cereal or bread. I decided to give up & try to eat sensibly instead.

As with all things, it suits some people & they do well on it. I think it's a superb idea in the short term & for quick weight loss, like trying to fit into that special dress or a hot date etc. But I think Dr Atkins himself realises that it's not great long term & advises you to increase your carbs gradually throughout the diet. But if you're still eating high in fat food along with carbs - then surely the weight will pile back on again?

Perhaps try it for the initial fortnight that is recommended & see how you get on?

Lady G

My friend went on it and lost loads of weight really quickly. His wife lost none! He hasn't had any side effects at all and loves the food although he has the odd lapse of chips or a kebab on a drunken night out :)
Lara x

According to the Atkins New Diet Revolution book, you ARE supposed to do it for life - you raise your carbs until you maintain your desired weight (no loss, no gain) and then don't raise it any more.

As for weight loss: The first three days is water loss. Anything after that, you are actually using up body fat, unless your body is particularly metabolically resistant. If I go back to a high-carb diet for a week, I gain back the three or four pounds I lost in those first three days and no more.

You're required to eat three cups of vegetables per day - which helps with the constipation. You're ALSO supposed to use vitamins to cover the few things that you can't get from low-carb vegetables and fruits. They're most definitely NOT too high in carb to use. As for Actimel, I love the stuff... and count it into my daily carb count. Yeah, it means that I've got to cut carbs somewhere else, but that's not a problem.

There is very little evidence to suggest that eating fat in and of itself causes blocked arteries - heck, I had a cholesterol test done a month after I started the diet (long enough that, if it was going to cause an effect in my cholesterol, that it would have done - especially as the tester in question was dubious about my choice of eating plan) ... and not only was it not 'high' ... it was LOW. Lower than the tester's equipment could give a figure for. I do wish I'd had it tested before I started just to see if it dropped - which is what a lot of long-term low-carbers find.

The shopping bill... yeah, if you go and buy all the low-carb substitutes, you spend more. But if you buy decently priced meat (we get mince and stuff like that) and concentrate more on using eggs as a staple, you don't spend nearly as much.
I do have to admit, I never miss the milk (lactose intolerant - and for some reason, cream and cheese don't upset me as much as skimmed or semiskimmed...) or the bread (gluten sensitive) ... so Atkins is pretty much designed for me. As always, your mileage may vary.

For more low-carber stories and information, you could try the google groups' alt.support.diet.low-carb - plenty of people there who've tried, who've succeeded, who've failed - lots of experience.

Atkins is NOT a high-protein diet. It is a high FAT diet. The ideal percentage of your calories should be something like 5% carbs, 20% protein and 75% fat.

The kidney problems (and the headaches, and the nausea) can be solved if you make sure to keep drinking enough water. I drink at least a litre and a half a day, and that disperses the symptoms.

Hi Lel,
I did the Atkins diet last summer and lost 4 stone in 6 months.I have been sticking to the principles ever since and haven't put any back on.I think people stick to it too ridgidly and that is where the problems are.You need to find low carb foods that YOU like and just forget about all the bread/pasta/sugar etc.Concentrate on what you can have.
I haven't found it too hard although the first couple of weeks it was like giving up smoking(my body had alot of sugar to perge!)summer is the best time to do it as it is ideal for bbq's etc and we lived on strawberries and cream!Summer fruits are lower in carb.if you read the book it is a bit intense and very American so you need to read between the lines and adapt it to suit you.I know several people who have done it(inspired by me and my husband who also lost 4 stone)and had chlorsteral (sorry spelling) levels checked and they went down!!Between my husband and myself we lost as much as I weigh now!!I have never felt healthier or had more energy.Verry good luck with whatever diet you choose.
Hazel

Sorry but diets dont work long term.....FACT!
The only way to lose weight and keep it off is to eat sensibly and exercise regularly.

No excuses about not having time or anything, half an hour a day(Doesnt have to be all at once) is enough. Thats it.

I should know, soon as I stop the gym(Yes I am a gym monkey) the weight comes back and the fitness ebs away, even though I eat a relatively healthy diet.

Dont kid yourself with lose it quick diets, they never work and are invariably bad for your health, any more than 3lbs in a week and you are probably just losing liquids.

Learn to enjoy exercise is the key!

Very true about the exercise but someone needing to loose a few stone will not do that even if they ran 20 miles a day without reducing their sugar intake.There has to be a balance.Sensible low carb diet and regular exercise are both important.At the end of the day if you realy want to loose weight then you will.I miss chocolate the most but there is a great website called carblife which sells low carb chocolate and jam, don't bother with all the other rip off "alternatives" as they taste revolting and cost a fortune.There is a good message board on there though with lots of real people giving real advice about what they have found worked.
I find if you resent the diet and obsess about what you can't have that just makes you miserable.Find things you do like and can have and you will be fine.If it doesn't work then you aren't doing it right!My Mother in law would love to do it but she can't get her head around it.It is going against everything she's been told about nutrician.All I say in responce is that if you beleive everything the government tells you then dieting is the least of your worries!!Also it is the food industry that don't want us to give up carbs just as the fuel industry don't want us to give up petrol
Hazel
Hazel

You're exactly right, 'diets' don't work in the long term.

The only 'diet' that works, long term, is the one that you can DO long-term. A permanent eating plan. For some people, eating sensibly and for their own health means low-carbing for life. For other people, eating sensibly and for their own health means low-fat for life. And for still others, it can be something totally different.

Exercise, however, is not a cure-all... I was heavy enough that a short walk was very uncomfortable. Situps were out of the question. Bicycling or running? I laugh to think about it.

I'm still not terribly fit, but I've gone from taking three hours to walk three miles and feeling miserable doing it, out of breath, aching, and horrid and being desperately hungry afterwards, to the point of wolfing down a three-course meal, enough to make me feel ill, without feeling satisfied....
to eating a couple of burger patties (no bread), drinking a diet coke, and doing the same three-mile walk in less than an hour, then going home and playing with the dog and not needing to eat for hours, if at all - and feeling GOOD both doing it and afterward.

For me, Atkins has done one major thing. It's taught me how to tell when I'm hungry. How to tell when I've eaten enough. And how to ignore it if I think I'm hungry for the wrong reasons - boredom, whatever. If you don't have that kind of problem, then it might be that you don't need to low-carb in order to diet. I did.

I have started it today and it felt totally wrong to be eating such a BIG breakfast this morning.
I have never found it hard to lose weight bfore but this last few months I have put on a stone and although its not an "enormous" amount I feel horrible and bloated and the summer makes it worse seeing everyone out in their summer clothes. :(
Have tried Slimmers world in the past and that was fine - slow weight loss combined with sensible eating . I just cannot seem to shift it this time . Maybe its my age ??
Dunno but I will give this a sensible try and see what happens . Although it was sooo hard to walk past the wine aisle in Asda before :)

I have messed around with diets for the past 20 years(God, I'm old...) and last week bought On Eating, by Susie Orbach. It basically reteaches you what you should have learnt as a child, eating when hungry, eating what your body needs at that time, eating without guilt, and stopping when you're full. I know to all you Normal people out there, that prob. sounds "Well, duh..." but believe me, as someone who's totally messed their digestive system about for so long, they are healing words...so, maybe we should all stop "dieting", which as we all know in our heads, does not work, but we all still cling to it, as we're terrified of the gap it would leave if we decided to stop.....I suppose all diets work for some people, but surely we were born with the mechanism to self-regulate our weights, we just need to tap into it again....I think it's a myth that "fat" people just like their food too much...speaking for myself, I long ago stopped finding any pleasure in food, and ate out of habit, boredom, pain, etc. I've decided to give myself a break, and try to start again with this eating lark....as I only got fatter with each diet each time, stuffing myself in preparation of the starvation "tomorrow" . So anyway, it's a different approach but I think it might just work....Good luck with the ATkins.... :) xx

Well, I started the diet last Monday .
Havent found it too hard at all actually and as yet I havent missd either potatoes or bread ( after all its only been 7 days :) ) . I do miss pasta as I ate quite a lot , especially pasta salads and yummy sauces etc .
Weighed myself yesterday and I have lost 6 pounds :D :D . I am made up !!! Still on the induction period for another week but it has been much better than I anticipated . Friday night and Saturday night I did have to wrestle wih myself over a bottle of white wine but glad to say I didnt give in :)
Anyone else try it ???
Lel

I have spent time looking into this diet to try and work out how it works. basically you teach your body to burn fat as it's main energy source so you not only burn the fat you eat but all that onyour body too. The problem is that once you stop eating such a high fat diet and add carbohydrates etc the body doesn't bother to burn these and starts to store them again - guess what as - Yes fat!!
The only long term SAFE AND HEALTHY way to lose weight is a well balanced diet with exercise. I know it is difficult, but I have done it - 3 stone in less than 6 months, it just takes will power and determination. More importantly I am still keeping the weight off, I don't deprive myself of anything, just eat the less good stuff in moderation. I am much healthier and fitter. I have relearned how to eat and exercise.
Adkins diets are so popular because they work quickly but I have yet to meet (apart from people on the internet) anyone who keeps the weight off. And I don't care what people say, I high fat diet is dangerous. I am afraid that I see the Adkins diet as a cheat - an easy way out - the only problem is that usually you end up worse than before.

Yup, that's how it works - you teach your body to burn fat instead of giving it easy-to-burn sugar.

As the books say... you don't STOP eating the high-fat, low carb diet, EVER. It's a way of life to eat this way, not a temporary 'diet'. It's not a 'do it for two weeks so you drop ten pounds, then go back to what you were doing' way of eating. It's a long-term committment - and the reason you hear so much about the health implications is because you get folk who treat it as a short-term quick-fix diet deal.

I do agree that a well-balanced diet plus exercise is a good thing... but what exactly is 'well-balanced' ? Is it lots of natural ingredients, no processed artificial stuff? Is it 30% protein, 30% fat, 30% carbohydrate? Is it as much fruit and vegetables as you can eat, with some meat? Is it mostly grain products and starches with some other nutrients as and when?

For me, the best way for me to eat a balanced diet that makes me feel good (Yeah, I'm trying to convey that this is how MY body works, not necessarily how yours might do) ... is Atkins. Plenty of meat, plenty of eggs, plenty of salad, some nuts, some fruit, some cheese... all natural ingredients, with nothing one's body isn't designed to digest. People aren't really designed to eat grain, especially not in the quantities most modern humans do - the only things that are designed for it, really, are birds and mice. Most of why Atkins has worked for me is because it makes me eat alternatives to the grains that aren't doing me any good, and keeps my body running without the severe hunger or the sugar highs and lows...