Atkins is stupid.

The BBQ Pit
1

I went to dinner tonight with a friend who is on the Atkins diet. Because she’s put a limit on how long she’s going to do this, and because she’s the first to agree that Atkins is stupid, I’m not going to tell her daily how stupid Atkins is. She’s aware it’s stupid, and that it’s messing up her body (you really don’t want to know about the number two issues, which I have now heard aaaaalllll about). But because she’s only doing it for a month, it’s not worth getting worked up over.

So – dinner. Those who’ve been following the threads will be pleased to know that there were no old people in the restaurant tonight. :wink: But I digress.

Atkins is stupid. We went for sushi, on the theory that there would be plenty of protein for her. But, unfortunately, we got the World’s Worst Service, which included:
[ul]putting “Krab” on the vegetarian salad;[/ul]
[ul]bringing rice to the Atkinser;[/ul]
[ul]suggesting tempura when asked, what can we get that has no breading or anything?[/ul]

As dinner went on, Little Miss Atkins got increasingly upset. But my dinner was good, and I’m normally the difficult one, so there’s proof: Atkins is stupid.

And bonus floor show: a woman shot up her insulin at the next table over. Yes, I hang at classy joints.

2

I ketoed down from 11% to 7% with a CKD. I’m never going to do it again, but only because the carb deprivation made me so grumpy. What’s so stupid about it?

3

I’m sure the smarter people will come along and give science words for it, but Atkins fools your body into thinking that it is starving, so you burn off reserves. It isn’t a balanced, healthy diet (no fruit, few vegetables), and it backs up the plumbing something fierce. Yes, it can give you short term losses, but who wants bad breath?

Oh, and you can’t even drink. What the hell kind of diet is that, where you can’t drink?

4

I think this is best-served (low carbs and all) in the Pit.

  • SkipMagic
5

Oh how inconsiderate of her.

Next thing we’ll have asthmatics using inhalers in public and people taking their heart medicine right there in the street.

6

I do Atkins and eat plenty of veggies. Trust me on that. Berries too. I just try to avoid starches and sugars when I can. Now pass me my rum and diet coke.

7

actually I’m insulin dependant and I always check with friends and coworkers if it’s ok that I shoot up around them. In any public place what-so-ever I use a stall in the restroom. It’s just curtsey.

8

I am diabetic. I test my blood sugar and inject insulin right at the table. People hardly notice.

Sometimes, when a friend wants to watch me do this and I say it’s fine if they do, it gets done so fast and discreetly that they miss it: I have to deliberately tell them what I am doing if they are to see it.

Where would you have us check our blood sugar and inject insulin? Some of us have to do this at every meal, right before every meal. (I use Humalog, so unlike Humilin R I have to shoot right before eating and cannot get away with shooting an hour or half an hour before. Plus I shoot based on what I am going to eat.)

Please do not suggest bathrooms. Sometimes bathrooms are so filthy. And I have had to experience the very unpleasant occurence of irate customers knocking on the bathroom door while I am doing my stuff.

I totally second what Avenger said.

WRS

9

Yeah, my ex was on Atkins, and she could eat melon and berries at least. Who knows, perhaps she wasn’t doing it right?

Still it was a massive pain in the ass. That is to say, I wouldn’t have handled those restrictions well if I’d tried it myself. I tend to be a bit indiscriminate with my eating habits.

To the point, however, you’d like a more detailed explanation, Campion?

By depriving the body of carbohydrates, at the very least the Atkins diet fucks with the citric acid cycle of the mitochondrion, or the mechanism by which the body replenishes ATP (adenosine triphosphate; breaking off the phosphate groups = energy), the so-called “energy currency” of cells.

There are two compounds that are very important in the intial steps of the citric acid, or Krebs cycle: pyruvate and acetyl coenzyme A. The former is derived from sugars, the latter from fat. By depriving the body of carbohydrates, the mechanism by which we produce pyruvate is interrupted, and as such we have to turn to other sources.

There is a means by which we can metabolize fats and/or acetyl coA such that we can produce or substitute for pyruvate (I’m not sure if we can produce pyruvate straight up or just synthesize a suitable substitute; it’s been a while since I took biochem). Whatever the case, since we can’t get our pyruvate from carbs, we get it from fats and thus dip into our excess weight to get what we need, hence the alleged effectiveness of the Atkins diet.

However, one of the byproducts of this metabolic detour is the production of acetone, hence the aforementioned bad breath. Based on the offhand comment of a chemistry professor three years ago, this condition (ketosis) is also a product of diabetes, but it was an aside and he didn’t go into it in detail.

Personally, the very mention of Atkins actually makes me a bit angry. First, overhype by the media puts me into the killzone. Second, there are better ways than this bullshit to lose weight. Eat your vegetables, exercise, and quit looking for quick fixes you ketosis-addled bastards. I’d rather be healthy with a balanced diet than fuck with my metabolism to lose a few pounds. Third, Hi, Opal.

Hot damn.

10

Could you explain that again, but in English?

11

I didn’ use it as a quick fix. It’s simply one of the more efficient ways to get rid of the fat without losing too much muscle mass, but, as I said, the carb-deprivation made me a rather difficult person to be around.

zagloba, ‘ketogenic’ is usually the word used to describe high-fat diets designed to put the body into a state where ketones are produced and consumed over other sources of energy. 11%-7% refers to percent bodyfat. CKD stands for cyclical ketogenic diet.

Fruit is essential on any kind of diet. Liver needs glycogen from fructose to convert T4 to T3, without which your dieting and exercise is basically useless.

Also, Khan, I’m not familar with what exactly Atkins prescribes, but all the variations on the ketogenic diet that I know of have some sort of scheduled refeeding (or, colloquially, ‘carb-loading’) period, in which large amounts of carbs are consumed to replenish muscle glycogen. If you’re not a serious athlete, a little less ATP in the system isn’t going to be too noticeable.

12

Well, I can’t speak for the relative amounts of ATP produced under the various dietary regimes. I only know that one’s metabolism turns to fats to produce what it normally gets from sugars.

And I apologize for the “quick fix” comment. From what I know of the Atkins diet, it’s certainly not quick in the sense that one can expect to get anything remotely resembling immediate results.

However, based on what I know about biochemistry and from experience with diet and exercise, I find myself to be wary of Atkins. I’ve seen people get results from it, but it still strikes me as a fad and the attention it got in the media filled me with bile. It’s balancing the diet that matters, not cutting out some magical ingredient like fat or carbs.

Then there’s the matter of my ex subsisting on lettuce, turkey slices from the sandwich bar, and cottage cheese. Whether or not that’s Atkins I don’t know, but it’s bringing back some memories that make me twitch in frustration. Objective? Hells no, but it’s a part of my negative association with that stuff.:stuck_out_tongue:

13

You’re right. How thoughtless of me. Because there is no qualitative difference between a person pulling out a needle, sticking it into her arm, wiping off the blood with her fingers, and then picking up an appetizer; and someone using an inhaler or taking a pill. Nope, no difference whatsoever. Consider me chastened.

Well, if you’re a blowsy middle-aged woman in a pink spandex tee who had sushi last night, people noticed.

Look, I get that it’s more convenient for you, and thumbs up for asking those at your table if they mind if you shoot up; I also get that the people around you aren’t your friends and you don’t give a flying firetruck whether they want to see your needle action. I don’t want to see it, I think it’s unsanitary, and I wish that you had a better alternative than to shoot up at a table, then wipe your arm with your bare fingers. Darkhold, I salute you as does, I suspect, Miss Manners.

As for Atkins, I agree that you can have melon or berries (as long as you’re not allergic to them, that is) and some drinks are carb-free (but again require that you not be allergic). Bottom line stands: it isn’t a healthy, balanced diet, it can’t be maintained for a long period without seriously compromising your health, and it masks problems rather than fixes them.

I’ll note for the record that no one disputes that it also causes plumbing problems.

14

I stopped doing Atkins a year or so ago, because it tripled my freaking grocery bill.
Protein is $$$$$$$$.
Anyway, I will remark that Atkins didn’t change my plumbing performance. Did your friend read the book and follow EVERYTHING, including the 64 OZ of water per day and metamucil (or equivalent) tablets?

15

It seems to work quite well for quite a few people. If they’re healthy, it’s presumably good for a reaosnable portion fo the human race. Which means you’re being unreasonably prejudiced. If they can get all the nutrients they need, what objections can you possibly have?

What is thie ‘Krab’ you speak of?

Huh? The wait staff was wading at the shallow end of the intelligence pool, so you’re on a good diet?

There’s a lot of silly ideas about the Atkin’s diet out there, and I’d be willing to bet that at least 2/3’s of the people supposedly following it aren’t. They’re just using it as an excuse to wolf down burgers by the cartload, without actually taking a look at the diet itself.

16

I’m assuming it’s fake crab meat, which isn’t really fake meat per se, but is made out of some kind of fish. Therefore unsuitable for most vegetarians.

17

Most people who I know are on Atkins just stay on the induction phase plan forever. You’re not supposed to stay on that part for very long. If they would read the whole book they would be adding more vegetables to their diet.

If people would just reduce sugars and flour in their diets they would see similar results without getting so extreme.

18

Wow! Sorry to sidetrack the discussion about whether “Atkins is stupid,” but I am shocked that you were troubled by the woman “shooting up” her insulin. My son is diabetic, and I have never thought twice about whether I was bothering anyone by testing his blood sugar and giving him his insulin shot. And you know what - I’m not going to start worrying about it. I think that anyone who would complain about it rather than simply looking away is a fucking moron and a selfish twat. If you can’t for one second put yourself in the shoes of someone whose entire life is dominated by a requirement that they be aware of the schedule of their food intake, the amount of foods they eat, the amount of exercise, having the materials on hand that they need to check their blood sugars and give themselves their multiple daily injections, I am not at all bothered by your momentary discomfort. Nor will I ever think of shuttling my child off to the diabetes section to spare you. Giving injections is a quiet process. We don’t make an announcement. You don’t need to look at the FUCKING SINGLE DROP OF BLOOD necessary to test blood sugars. You don’t need to watch as injections are given.

For good measure, one last heaping helping of FUCK YOU to any selfish cunt who was ever nosy enough to be troubled by someone else’s chronic and life threatening disease.

19

No, my “prejudice” is actually a bias, and it has a reasonable basis in fact. If you mean that, anecdotally, you know some people who have followed Atkins and not died, and so it’s “presumably good,” you and I have definitional problems.

Not sure what you mean here; all I meant was, despite the difficulties, my meal was fine.

Agreed.

Wow. Overreact much? Focus, please. I am not troubled by her “chronic and life threatening disease.” I am sorry that she is diabetic, and I recognize that, there but for the grace of god go I.

What I am troubled by is the unsanitary method by which she chose to deal with her illness (note that I am assuming it was insulin she shot up; I did not ask her), and the fact that she chose to do it in public. There are certain things that I still think should not be done in public, shooting up being one of them. If that makes me somehow uncivilized, so be it.

But to respond directly to you: since when am I not entitled to my opinion? Since when am I not permitted to express my displeasure at the coarsening of public activity and civility? It’s now wrong for me to believe that certain things should not be done in public? If I see someone doing something unsanitary/disgusting/uncivil, I am only permitted to think, “ewww,” but I am not permitted to share that thought with anyone?

Incidentally, your assumption that I didn’t look away once I realized what was going on is not only baseless but irrelevant.

Hentor, you have issues, and it appears I stepped right on one, and for that, I’m sorry. I am not sorry, however, for having an opinion, and despite your thoughtful, articulate and well-crafted post, it has not altered my opinion one whit. What I saw was icky and unsanitary, and I didn’t like it.

20

No one is troubled with someone having a chronic and life threatening disease Hentor the Barbarian. They’re troubled with someone not having enough couth to step away from the table to inject their self.

Of course not. No one elses comfort matters but yours and your son’s.