For any of you doctors, biologists or health science wiz’s out there, by what metabolic mechanism does the Atkins diet actually work and is it actually healthy to live on a diet consisting of nothing but meat? Now we all know it really does make you shed weight, but at what cost and by what means are changes being made to your body’s chemistry?
Secondly, what are the pros and cons of gastric bypass weight loss surgery? After the whole Atkins craze sort of died out, this seems to be what the nightly news is now shoveling to Americans about the so–called “obesity crisis”. It cannot be good, can it, to rearrange your digestive system permanently? To me it seems like frankenstein medicine, but I’m not a doctor. Have long-term effects been registered as of yet?
Finally, what kind of bull are Subway trying to sell with this (now old hat, but still ridiculous since he’s in every commercial on television) Jared figure who supposedly dropped all his weight eating their sandwiches? Like seriously, that must be a fabrication. It couldn’t be possible to lose gobs of weight simply eating Subway sandwiches, chips, cookies and sodas. Couldn’t you just go to the supermarket deli and make a facsimile of his diet at home for less cash? And if so, why haven’t all the folks hooked on cold cuts found this method effective before Jared’s discovery at Subway?
I can answer this one at least. (and I am not a wiz of any kind)
Jared didn’t eat the cookies and chips nor did he drink the regular sodas. He only certain sandwiches and left off the cheese and mayo. He then learned that it is possible to lose weight on a very boring diet with no variety. Yes, you could do this at the supermarket deli for less money.
It isn’t that cold cuts help you lose weight. It is that if you cut your calories enough you will lose weight. Some of subway’s sandwiches are fairly low calorie and low in fat. I think that they call those sandwiches the 6 under 6. (six sandwiches with less then six grams of fat). Of course they are only under six grams of fat if you leave off the cheese and mayo. I know that the veggie sub and the turkey sub are on the menu.
This is correct. Jared ate a 6" sub for lunch and dinner every day that were less than 500 Calories each and had a Diet Coke. This resulted in a less than 1000 Calorie/day diet. Not the healthiest of diets but for a man that size only consuming 1000 Calories/day is going to result in weight loss.
It couldn’t be possible to lose gobs of weight simply eating Subway sandwiches, chips, cookies and sodas.
It’s possible to lose weight eating ANYTHING. You could lose weight on a diet of nothing but Oreos provided you took in less calories than you burn per day.
I’ve lost 51 pounds and I eat sugary stuff whenever I want. The key is I only eat when I’m hungry and I stop when I’m full.
There’s a lot of diet and science info [http://www.johnberardi.com"]over here.
Well, the url’s good, anyway.
What I’m mostly really interested in knowing is the effectiveness versus the negative or positive health impacts the Atkins diet. Secondly, the relative health impacts of weight loss surgery both good and bad. But the whole Jared thing just makes me laugh every time I think about it. I really don’t think Subway offers the most nutritious bounty of foods available, and I’d be surprised if this wasn’t actually true. But nevertheless, it really can’t simply be possible to lose gobs of weight eating even on a low calorie diet without doing some kind of exercise large or small, can it? Take for example if you were to be eating incredibly low cal foods, and being sparing with them, but never leaving your couch/bed/etc., and spending the rest of your time sleeping that you weren’t eating; you’d have to have even what little calories you were taking in turn into fat storage, wouldn’t you? I’m not a scientist, but what I remember from high school health class oh so many years ago was that your metabolism depends mainly on your activity level, and what your foods do in your body will react dependent on the activity you’re involved in. And based on that, plus your height, weight and age, you would calculate your caloric intake either gain, lose or maintain your weight. Yeah? Isn’t that about right? So I understand the principle that on a low calorie diet you will lose weight, but I know you have to be active, too. It’s mostly Subway’s insidious marketing tactics that their sandwiches alone are the culprit that I was commenting on. I suppose it was a facetious question, but the first two aren’t. I really wanna know if Atkins or WLS are healthy? I’m not interested in trying either, I am just noticing that loads of folks do these things nowadays and I really wonder if that’s a good thing or not.
Thank you for the URL, btw. I’ll read through it and see what John Beraldi is all about.
Here is Jared’s story, including how much he ate and what activity he did:
http://www.subway.com/subwayroot/MenuNutrition/Jared/jaredStats.aspx
A tip: your thoughts are much easier to read, especially for people with bad eyesight, if you use paragraph breaks. Please consider doing so.
As far as Atkins, it’s definitely not safe for people with kidney problems, but there’s not much evidence that it’s otherwise harmful. Whether it’s good or not depends on your goals–a low-carb, high protein approach is good for losing fat, but lousy for building muscle–and also on how you implement it–eating nothing but bacon and sausage won’t be as good for you as eating lean meats, fish, and good fats.
It is absolutely possible to lose weight even while not excercising. You have basal metabolic rate which is the calories you burn up through breathing, sleeping, and just basically living. I think the average 140lb man uses up roughly 1600 calories a day without exercise. Eat only 1000 calories per day and you have weight loss.
1000 calories is pitifully small, isn’t it? That sounds about as dismal as the Atkins all-meat diet. Now what if you were to combine the two for real torture? Do you think this would incite even faster weight loss?
Atkins is NOT all meat!
Close enough! During the first phase it most certainly is, with the exception of avacados. I know that only lasts like a week or two, but that is wayyyyy too long for me (and I like meat). Yuck.
I still don’t know… I have been reading up since I placed this query to the forum, and I think that you’re wrong in your support of Atkins being healthy, ultrafilter. Apparently, this high protein diet sends the body into ketosis, which essentially means your blood is teeming with ketone bodies. That is in all essence a manner of poisoning yourself via malnutrition. I knew this Atkins fad was silly and stupid. You’re messing up your insulin levels by depraving your body of carbs, too. That makes your brain malfunction, as your brain is very dependent upon proper blood sugar levels. Not to mention, that in the long-term, your body will devour itself for glucose if you’re not providing it with glucose from food sources. And lastly, too many saturated fats are going to give you cardiac troubles, no matter what Atkins says. There are health scientists out there who would concur, chiefly Barry Sears, Ph.D. being my resource for this information, the guy responsible for the Zone diet.
I don’t think one has to follow his recommendations strictly, but a low calorie diet including breakfast and plenty of fish, poultry, fruit and vegetables does make a hell of a lot more sense to me than hoards of hamburger and cheese.
So what about this extreme surgery ordeal in the news so much lately?
You have some pretty serious misconceptions about the Atkins diet, and if you’re interested in weight loss, you would do well to check out their website.
hazygreyeyes, please follow ultrafilter’s advice and visit www.atkins.com to actually read about the Atkins Diet.
I’ve been on Atkins for almost 6 months now and have lost 60 lbs. I eat red meat, poultry, fish, green veggies, berries, nuts and whole grains.
I am not dead. I am not starving. I am not eating more than 2000 calories a day. I am not sick. I have never been healthier. According to my food journal I get 100% or more of all the RDA for every vitamin and mineral listed.
You can find the same stats for other folks I know who have done Atkins for over 4 years.
HazyGrayEyes - The factual response to your question is that the body burns calories every moment you are alive, to keep you warm, pump the blood, pump the air, blink the eyes, etc. The name for the process is called the Basal Metabolic Rate, or BMR. BMR is expressed in Calories (dietary callories or kcal) burned per pound of body weight per day. Depending on a person’s sex and fittness level; lying in bed, or on a couch, or sleeping, or in a coma, the body burns about 10 - 15 calories/pound/day.
In simple terms, you eat food, the body turns it into energy. If you burn up more than you take in, you lose weight. If you burn up less than you take in, you gain weight.
Jared took in less than he burned, he lost weight.
The Atkins Diet.
Simply put, the Atkins Diet is based on the fact that the body loves to burn carbohydrates. If you deprive the body of carbohydrates, the body uses an alternative energy production scheme that is less efficient. The inefficiency is reflected in a rise in the BMR, so you burn more energy standing still.
Your Mission.
I believe that if you want to lose weight, you have to change your lifestyle. And that is hard to do. You have to start tracking your calories, you can eat any kind of food as long as you don’t exceed your BMR allotment for the day. Besides tracking calories, you have to change your body’s composition through exercise, aerobics AND resistance training.
To do that you need to look at your daily schedule, map out three gym visits a week and get going.
Jared changed his lifestyle by walking to and from the Subway store and eating less.
He exercised more and ate less, and lost weight. STOP THE PRESSES
p.s. if you search the archives on “atkins” you will see that the topic has been much discussed in these message boards. I believe that there is even a weight loss support group in the MPSIMS section…
good luck
So essentially Atkins is the same thing as “The Zone” diet, only with a different name a slightly different approach? It kind of sounds like it if you’re actually eating fruit, nuts and veggies later in the plan. The only folks I know personally who did it were eating yucky crap for lunch like fried bacon with ground chuck fried in the bacon grease, topped with cheddar cheese, boiled egg and avacado. They did lose tremendous amounts of weight, but any nutritionalist with half a wit about them will tell you that is a deadly diet. If Atkins isn’t like that, then I’m not sure I know what’s up. I know they followed the Atkins plan by the book and told me he says that sort of eating is perfectly healthy. Other nutritionalists disagree on the merit of those claims. But if you are eating plenty of blueberries, cabbage, cauliflower and pears, by all means I buy it.
HazyGrayEyes - The surgery you might be referring to cuts out 90% of the stomach. Talk about changing your lifestyle. Now instead of limiting your calorie intake mentally, you are forced to limit your calorie intake physically. If you eat more than 5-6 bites of food you feel like crap.
I believe it’s a last resort procedure that is not covered by many health plans.
It’s also amusing that you argue that Jared couldn’t have lost weight on the Subway diet, but then use Barry Sears, author of the Zone diet as a cite. Jared followed the Zone diet by eliminating the cheese and mayo from the sandwhich.
AYAT?
It’s funny that you see people on the ‘Atkins’ diet eating bacon every day. Atkins does not want you to eat bacon every day, too many nitrates and salts. Atkins wants you to eat whole, healthy foods.