Well, I finally got around to starting Atkins… been by-the-book everything since Sunday night. Almost a week… gonna go weigh myself Monday. (Yes, I know it won’t mean anything… water loss and such, but it’ll make me feel better). Anyway, I have a friend that was appalled that I’d do it without taking supplements, claiming that I’ll just use muscle instead of fat to power through my day, as Atkins doesn’t give you enough carbs to live.
Huh?
I know there’s been research, etc., proving the safety of this diet, and I assured him that once I get money (next week), I was probably going to go buy the ones that are recommended on Atkins.com (One’s chromatin, forget what the other one is…)
So, is there any truth in this? Do I need anything, period? Would a multivitamin suffice? Or do I specifically need more of certain vitamins?
Oh, and my breath smells bad, like when you’re at the dentist and they put that dental dam over your tooth… or the nasty nasty stuff they use to clean your tooth before putting a braces bracket back on that’s fallen off.
In reverse order
Yes the bad breath is normal, that is the keytones that your body is giving off. Read Dr. Atkin’s book, he talks about this.
Yes you should take supplements when doing Atkins (either the Atkin’s stuff, or a good multivitiam. Again read the book for the reasons.
I too,am on Atkin’s.Before you buy any books,I advise you to go to,“Atkins.com”. On the top right portion of the home page is a search box. Type in VITAMIN SUPPLEMENTS and see if they cover your questions. Of course,they’ll try to sell you their inflated online stuff,but you should be able to dig out what you need.
I didn’t read much-just skimmed it-but it’s worth a try.
Hmm, thanks guys… I had already went to atkins.com and poked around there. I glanced over the bad breath = ketones thing… I didn’t realize that might be true.
Thanks though, I’ll look around more on the site to see what kind of supplements I need.
um. i am mildly croggled at that…once off induction you can add back in carbs until you get to the rough max you can eat without stopping benign dietary ketosis…
And that being said, there are some very food fiber rich vegetables to work into your diet. My favorite is spinach, fwiw … http://www.eat.org/usda_lookup/frameset_usdaLookup.html
1 cup = 1.07 grams of carb, with .7 grams fiber, making .37 grams of fiber…with decent assortment of vitamins and minerals.
fiber one cereal, .5 cup/30 grams/3 tbsp = 24.30 gr carb, 14.4 gr fiber, net carb 9.9
radishes, raw, .5 cup = 1.97 gr carb, .9 gr fiber, net carb 1.07
1 cup diced chicken, no carbs=)
Make a dinner salad of 3 cups spinach, a tablespoon of fiber one cereal in place of croutons, half a cup of radishes and chicken, you are looking at 5.85 grams of carb, 7.8 grams of fiber to start with, and whatever you get from adding the dressing of your choice. That is but 1 meal of the day…and per Fiber, Dietary i should be getting 25 grams of fiber a day.
If this were true, vitamin supplements wouldn’t help, since they don’t provide any carbohydrate either.
As I understand the mechanics of weight loss (although I’m not an expert), the best way to minimize the loss of lean tissue during a restricted calorie diet is to use muscle. In other words, do weight-bearing exercise. Again, as I understand it, carbohydrate calories are used preferentially, but the body will certainly use calories from protein (and, more to the point, from stored fat) if they aren’t available.
yes, vitamin supplements are essential… for the vast majority of people I know who live off pastries and fast food, the Atkins diet (sans supplements) will provide far more vitamins than their normal diet, but not for the induction phase which last 2 weeks.
Also in all phases including induction be sure and get your carbs from vegetables NOT processed meat, mayo, or other junk. I believe Atkin’s “ideal” induction phase would be that you eat plenty of unprocessed meat, vegetables, and just enough cheese for you to get your calcium. Sugar-free jello, mayo, nuts, and the other crap can wait after the induction phase.
That being said, I had a very bad experience with this diet but I won’t rant about it here.
The vitamins are essential because you won’t get enough in the Atkins induction diet, particularly potassium. That being said, a good multivitamin will do as well as the Atkins brand, with maybe a potassium supplement (especially if you get muscle cramps).
As has been pointed out, vitamins do not add carbs. Right idea, wrong reason.
What I have found useful for fiber are the low-carb tortillas, which can have half the daily requirement by themselves. Use as a wrap, toast for a pizza bottom or tortilla chips, or wrap mexican fixings and toast it for a crisp outside.
The Atkins site is good for general information, but be aware that the commercial side of it continues to grow. It was once almost the only game in low-carb town, but now there are a lot more choices and price options available to you. My local grocery stores have really added low-carb products, too.
A good site for a support bulletin board, where people tend to be patient with all sorts of questions, is:
Not everybody can do low carb, just like not everybody can do low fat, or low sodium=)
The main trick seems to be in finding out what type of nutrition your body needs to thrive, and sticking with it=)
[and FWIW, the sunsign diet, or the blood type diet, or the regional \ racial diet are sort of right in that people have different nutritional needs, but I am among a lot of people who agree that just because you are a scorpio, or are AB negative or are racially northern european/caucasian doesnt mean you should only eat red veggies cultivated in august and only combined with porkchops and chewed 100 times…there are a lot of whack ideas and you just need to use common sense when researching=)]
I usually have 3 versions of any recipe of mine, low carb, low fat and low sodium, because I have friends of all types=)