I see that the level of Atkins success stories has ramped up on this page.
But have any of the Atkins dieters who qualify (and some of you seem to) done what I suggested and signed up with the National Weight Control Registry? like I suggested?
If you haven’t, I don’t ever want to hear you complain about Atkins not getting respect from the scientific community, because you are part of the dieting story. Its like complaining about politics when you did not vote in the last election.
If you have, good for you! If Atkins ever wants to get out of anecdote-land your accounts will be the first step.
Here’s the problem with anecdotal evidence (apologies if this is obvious): As far as people doing the Atkins diet and having personal successes, that’s great; if they find something to motivate them to lose weight, it’s a good thing. BUT, in order to evaluate if the reasoning behind the diet is sound, one has to go beyond anecdotal evidence. Here’s why: Let’s say I devise a diet called the “Tic Tac Diet”. To follow the diet, you must consume one wintergreen Tic Tac every hour. In addition, you must strictly adhere to a diet of whole grains, green vegetables, and lean meats, and limit your intake of refined sugar and saturated fats. I could claim that the reason the diet works is because the Tic Tacs have some magical property that causes weight loss. If I get a lot of people to strictly follow my diet, they would most likely have phenomenal results. But someone who’s sharp is going to point out that it’s not the Tic Tacs that do it, but rather the healthy eating. All the success stories in the world won’t prove my theory; those people might all be popping Tic Tacs all day for nothing.
I’ll give you guys another real example. I have a friend who was severely overweight. Awhile back, they were playing a lot of radio commercials for some bogus weight-loss tonic. They claimed that if you took this formula and then didn’t eat anything after 7:00 pm, that the pounds would fall off. What my friend did was to not buy the product, but adhere to the rule of not eating after 7:00 pm. And guess what? He lost a ton of weight. That’s how fad diets work - they have some “magic bullet” that doesn’t really do anything, but also other rules that are required in conjunction with the magic bullet. It’s those other rules that actually produce the results. That’s why studies must have controls, or they are worthless.
blowero - I see where you’re coming from, and you are right in that the Atkins Diet also works because it encourages healthier eating, eating less, and exercise.
BUT: many, many people on it have already tried endless “magic bullet” and fad diets. Some healthy, some not so healthy. But Atkins seems to have an extraordinary EXTRA rate of success - people are able to stick to it longer if nothing else, which is critical, utterly critical, for a successful weight loss or weight maintenance plan.
If Atkins is right about insulin metabolism, then the diet also has a significant differentiator from every other calorie controlled and/or low-fat diet. And yes, this is where more scientific study is necessary, and anecdotal evidence cannot be used as ultimate proof.
With obesity the Great Plague of the 21st century, at least in “western” countries, that research will happen - it is already happening.
Atkins is healthy eating. There is no Magic Bullet. It isn’t a gimmicky diet, there are no special foods to buy. Despite the glut of new “low-carb” products, they are neither required or necessary to eat on the Atkins plan. It all boils down to healthy eating, eating whole foods and avoiding stuff like sugar.
Fats help make you feel satisfied and stay fuller longer, IMHO all the fear of fat claims that we have been believing for so long has actually been the culprit.
This is anecdodal, but Atkins has worked for me, I have learned to not be afraid of fats. I also eat a lot of vegetables, and keep meat portions to 4-6 oz a meal. I don’t eat sugar, starches or flour, and I exercise. That is Atkins. I think the problem is people have pre-conceived notions of what they think Atkins is, and it’s usually way off base. It is not all meat, cheese and eggs. Vegetables play a huge part in it, as does exercise. The book explains everything, and for anyone still wondering how or why it works, I recommend reading it.
Exactly. That’s just what I was going to say. The pre-conceived notion that Atkins is “all meat, all the time” or “all the bacon and fried eggs you can shove down” is really hard to break. When people ask me how I’ve lost so much weight, I’ve been rather hesitant to say it’s been through Atkins now. At first, I got really strange looks, and some people actually told me it was a bad diet and I was going to be sorry. They were convinced I was about to keel over from all the eggs and bacon and red meat that they just knew I must be eating.
Yeah, I’m eating eggs and bacon (actually, I prefer sausage), but I eat lots of chicken and fish, and a lot more vegetables than I was eating before. I have a salad every day, and I drink tons of water. The main thing I’ve done is cut refined sugar out of my daily diet, and the complex carbohydrates.
I’ve had all the blood work done (both before and after I started the diet) and everything is fine. I’m perfectly healthy.
Regarding the high fat content concerns on the Atkins diet - understand what ketosis is first.
When you are ketogenic, as a result of a low carb intake, you are not metabolising all your fat intake. Once your carbohydrate stores are depleted (within 7 to 48 hours, depending on the individual and activity level), your body reverts to gluconeogenesis in order to produce glucose for your body’s needs. Fat is utilised as fuel for this process, but because it is so rapid a process, the fat is excreted w/o being completely metabolised. The glucose you need is being manufactured by your body in lieu of what you would ingest as carbohydrates. IOW, your fat stores are burned up as a by-product of a carb-free metabolic pathway:
So in essence, a high fat diet accompanied by ketogenesis is not really a high fat diet. You will notice the excretion of the incomplete fat metabolism via your breath (will have an acetone smell), fatty stools (hopefully self explanatory), or a positive result from a ketostix test.
An important note on protein intake: You MUST consume adequate protein on this diet, irrespective of your fat intake. If you don’t, you will still lose weight, but your body will cannibalise your lean muscle tissue in an effort to get the protein it needs to function. But this doesn’t have to be high fat protein.
The unlimited fat is a sop on this diet, so you don’t feel deprived. And it increases the compliance odds for people who crave high fat foods. If you don’t crave high fat foods, I’d ask you what you think your problem is. Remember - ice cream is a high fat food, chocolate is a high fat food, cookies are a high fat food, corn chips are a high fat food… just because it’s hidden under sugar (or salt) doesn’t mean it’s not there.
My anecdote: I’m a 5’ 10", 135 pound female. I consume on average at least 4,000 calories a day. I’m a big eater. And no, I’m not an athelete, or one of those lucky individuals with a naturally high metabolism (almost everyone in my family is obese, and I was a chubby child and teenager). I induce my metabolism via ketogenesis. I’m lucky in one respect - I remain ketogenic for the long term, even if I subsequently increase my carb intake. I go on Atkins induction for 1 month, twice a year, and my metabolism remains in high gear in between. Admittedly, I’m a good eater, in that I like a balanced diet, including fruits and all veggies. But there’s no way I would be happy with the caloric amount a person of my weight is supposed to consume on a maintainance diet. Thanks to Dr. Atkins’ theory, I can have my cake and eat it too - 10 months a year.
Personally, I think Atkins goes a little overboard on how much the diet limits carbohydrates, but the average American eats far too many of them. McDonalds for lunch - 80 carbs, without the pop. Bagel for breakfast, 45 carbs. Can of pop - 40 carbs. We are supposed to eat a balanced diet. One of the ways most people’s diet is out of whack is not their consumption of fat, but of carbs. So you are taking the “great American diet” and taking out or drastical curtailing some of the poor foundations of our diets - fries, chips, white bread, pop.
Wow, did you guys ever miss my point. Atkins does have a “magic bullet”, i.e. ketosis. The claim, as annaplurabelle wrote, is that by depriving your body of carbohydrates, you won’t metabolize your fat intake. It’s not just “healthy eating”; it makes the claim that by severely cutting carbohydrates, you can alter the way your body processes the food you eat, and thus lose weight more rapidly than by simply cutting calories. One can engage in “healthy eating” and still consume carbohydrates, but Atkins makes the claim that one can lose weight faster by severely restricting carbohydrates, right? The claim is that it’s an effective diet because it induces ketosis. This claim cannot be proven simply by anecdotal evidence, and I already explained why. Virtually all nutritionists would agree that refined sugar and processed grains are bad for you, and should be limited. But the Atkins diet goes much further than that, saying that all carbohydrates are to be severly restricted. That could very well be true, but it’s not true just because Atkins says so. Although there are a lot of people who don’t understand how the diet is supposed to work, that’s not really the problem. The problem is that it hasn’t been sufficiently proven yet. Understanding the theory does not automatically mean that the theory is valid. There appear to be some good studies that suggest it might be valid, but there are other studies that suggest it’s not. More research needs to be done. “It worked for me” is not proof of its validity.
No - Atkins doesn’t say this at all. Because there is a major and significant difference between total carbs and net carbs. Some carbs that are fibrous cannot be absorbed by the body. So high fibre carbs, like vegetables and fruits such as strawberries and raspberries, are fine.
Strawberries have less overall carbs than raspberries. But raspberrries are higher fibre, so you can technically eat a little bit more of them.
Atkins even says that in later stages, and depending on your own metabolism and amount of physical activity, you can add the odd slice of bread or portion of white rice back to your diet.
Please, please try and believe that the severe restriction of 20 carbs is only for two weeks, except for some exceptional cases where people go on a bit longer on Induction. After the first two weeks, you continue INCREASING your carbs throughout the diet, until you reach a level where your weightloss stops. It is really not that severe, only at the very start, to kick-start ketosis.
IANAD, but I’m not sure Atkins is for everyone. Of course, if you are going to do something radical like totally change your diet, you should always talk with your doctor first. I do think some problems could pop up for some people.
Nevertheless, I find it’s very easy for me now to control my weight - that is, I never needed to lose much anyway, because I’ve never had much problem with my weight. After having read Atkins and doing it experimentally, in a way, last year, I feel the principles of watching refined carbs works!
Now that I am within my ideal weight range, I carb out when I am getting too slender, and simply cut out the carbs when I’m getting up there. It’s so easy.
blowero, that’s kind of it, though. Its a claim. Some scientists don’t buy it. Some say Atkins works, but ketosis doesn’t have a darn thing to do with it - its that Atkins done properly actually cuts calories from the “average” diet or that Atkins - with its “you can always eat something - even if its eggs or lunchmeat” - is a diet some people stick to when they don’t stick to portion control or calorie counting. Some say ketosis has everything to do with it. Some say “well, it really depends on the individuals metabolism.” Even Dr. Atkins himself, from what I’ve read, said some of his patients needed induction to get themselves kick started into ketosis - others didn’t.
It does seem to work for a ton of people, but really good controlled studies have yet to be done on WHY. Is it ketosis? Is it the ability to stick to the diet? Do most people consume less calories on it? All of the above, some of the above (depending on the individual) or something completely different?
What I know…my sister and her husband have been “Atkinsing” since summer…she with more success than him, but they’ve both lost a little weight. Neither has lost the “success story” type of weight - but I have my doubts on how well they stick to the diet (my brother in law has been terribly overweight for a long time, and has little success on any diet). My husband’s aunt lost 30 pounds between June and October on Atkins - quite a success. My father went on a low carb diet as a result of diabetes which was not Atkins and allowed him 200 carbs a day - to the best of my knowledge - not enough to trigger ketosis - but required a half hour of exercise each day, and also lost about 30 pounds in the same period (he needs to put weight back on - he wasn’t overweight to start with - so he is trying to figure out how to keep his blood sugar levels low while consuming enough food to maintain weight)
This has nothing to do with what I said. Did I say “Atkins requires you never, ever to eat even a single carbohydrate ever for the rest of your life”? Because that seems to be what you imagine that I said. Believe me, I said no such thing.
And when did I say that I thought phase 1 was the same as phase 4???!!! Now would you please try reading my post again and try to understand what I said, not what you imagine I said? It’s like you have some preconceived notion of what an “Atkins basher” is going to say, and then you interpret everything short of “I love the Atkins diet; it’s the greatest ever” as fitting your preconception.
Mr. Miskatonic-
Why would you be flamed for wondering about or doubting long term success, or encouraging people to document same? Sounds reasonable to me!
I’ve been on Atkins since October and have lost 20 pounds. I don’t know if I’ve been low carbing so much as smart carbing, though (for lack of a better cheesy catch phrase!).
I’ve attempted to eliminate all processed, “white” carbs. I’ll still eat Cheerios, tabouleh, wild rice, etc. in small portions.
I’ve been living by the “if I wouldn’t feed it to the baby, I don’t eat it” philosophy. My 10 month old eats what I eat, so if I wouldn’t give him a happy meal, or plain pasta, or brownies or chocolate chip cookies or whatever, why would I eat it?
It’s a great guideline for me.
I have to second the elimination of headaches thing. No potatos and such=all of the sudden no more little annoying headaches.
Dunno why but I’ll take it…
FWIW, I think you’re correct about the second phase being less of a diet and more of a good way to eat. The book stresses as much.
I also think that aspects of induction are suspect and can go horribly wrong. For instance, fried pork rinds are allowed in induction. I cannot think of a nastier food. Recently I noticed that the diet aisle at Walmart was rearranged so that 1/2 of one whole side was nothing but a big pork rind dispay. Utterly disgusting, and frankly I had visions of some uneducated Walmart dweller stocking up on “diet food”. Ugh.
However, I did go through induction because for me, it really did break my cravings for carbs. I started this diet because I could not stop swinging by BK for Toll House cookies, which was especially odious not only nutritionally but because normally I don’t even buy Nestle products (she’s a BAD girl, that Nestle).
Induction honestly broke my non-willpower having lazy ass of wanting sweets and processed, non-nutritive carbs.
I have gotten back on track after some holiday spurging, and I can honestly say that now I have to fight the cravings. Might as well do that annoying induction again so that I don’t even want them.
BTW, I still lost 3 lbs in December even though I was sort of on hold for the holidays.
I had never had pork rinds before; I always assumed they were some disgusting “redneck” (sorry) food. When I was in the beginning stages of the diet, I was DYING for something crunchy to eat, and finally gave in and tried them. They’re actually not that bad. Not something to pig out on (pun intended) every day, but they definitely satisfy that “crunchy” craving.
One thing I’ve noticed lately is the proliferation of Atkins-branded foods, like meal-replacement bars, Slimfast-style shakes, candy bars; even Subway is now in on it, with Atkins-friendly wraps. You don’t need to eat that stuff to be on Atkins; in fact the book recommends whole foods and freshly-preparedfoods over crap like that. I can just imagine a whole new flock of people trying to eat this way, but doing it with nothing but the new Atkins-branded shakes and bars. :rolleyes:
You’re better off eating lean meats and real veggies.
I had never had pork rinds before; I always assumed they were some disgusting “redneck” (sorry) food. When I was in the beginning stages of the diet, I was DYING for something crunchy to eat, and finally gave in and tried them. They’re actually not that bad. Not something to pig out on (pun intended) every day, but they definitely satisfy that “crunchy” craving.