More Atkin’s tripe no doubt. Actually you need tons of protein to build muscle. Im not one the Atkin’s diet because im healthy and workout 6 days a week so i need my carbs pre-workout. But post workout (after lifting) your muscles need TONS of protein to rebuild. Some recommendations for daily consumption of protein are 1g for every pound you weigh. Personally, im not a even coming close to that, but the fact is that to build muscle you NEED protein.
As for the Atkin’s diet, it is really a low-carb diet in a different colored can to make it palitable to a subpopulation.
Here’s a great read on fad diets and nutrition from the New York Magazine. A much better read than a website with an agenda cough Atkin’s cough.
SandWriter, first of all, I had no idea that Jared followed the Zone diet, if you read me clearly to begin with, I really was being facetious about the whole Subway thing anyway. Their commercials do not cite Barry Sears as the culprit of his weight loss, they cite Subway sandwiches as the culprit. They only make it clear in fine print at best that cutting the mayo and cheese out is the way to go on their commercials, as well. I don’t really eat at Subway, I don’t plan on having a gastric bypass surgery as I am not morbidly obese, in fact I’m querying about this matter for someone else who I’m rather concerned about very dearly, someone who is considering all options. I have no opposition whatsoever to the Zone diet and think it is entirely healthy, and if indeed Jared used that method, then good for him… really. He’s still selling a whole different image on television, and that can’t be argued. And if the Atkins diet is essentially the same thing sold in a different package than the Zone, so be it. Half a dozen of one, six of the other. Mainly, I want to know the REAL health risks and benefits involved with all options to present a reasonable alternative to my friend so as to dissuade my friend from doing the surgery needlessly. If it’s the best option, then by all means, but I doubt it is. I’m all in favor of any diet that includes whole, healthy foods. Subway is better than Burger King, but it’s still a deceiptful commercial tactic to state that Jared did it all on Subway with no outside help. Obviously, he relied mainly on the Zone diet if that’s what he was following, and I can’t very well see him racing to Subway three times a day for meals and twice a day for snacks, as the Zone diet would have. That’s just plain dishonest. And I thought my friends’ claim sounded fishy that the Atkins diet would endorse bacon as the healthy alternative.
The Atkin’s diet is not safe. The Physicians’ Committee for Responsible Medicine has a site about the Atkin’s diet, http://www.atkinsdietalert.org/
The body loves to burn carbohydrates for energy because that is what they exist for. Protein is a dirty source of energy and can put a lot of strain on your system. High protein diets are implicated in many health problems ( kidneys, heart, bone, and so on).
It doesn’t even make sense in theory to me. The real way it works, like any other diet that works, is you consume fewer calories than you burn. Also, you lose a lot at the beginning because you urinate a lot to get rid of the waste (along with nutrients) from using protein as energy.
But there is one thing the representatives for the fad diets Atkin’s, Zone, Sugar Busters as well as the vegan doctors agreed about at a USDA convention/debate: Avoid REFINED carbohydrates. White bread, white pasta, white rice, etc. Carbohydrates themselves aren’t bad, it’s the refined ones which are unhealthy. Other than that, they argued for a few hours about which way is best to lose weight.
Also if you’re looking at Jared’s diet, I would avoid all fake sugars, especially aspartame. (Search google.)
The Zone and Atkins are different diets, although both carb diets. Zone allows more carbs, but what I’ve heard from people who’ve done it is that its too complicated- every meal and snack has to be “balanced” out with these ratios so that you are eating the exact right percentages of carbs, proteins, fats at each meal. Some people really like the structure of it though.
Atkins is less about pairing certain foods together and more about limiting carbs and encouraging healthy habits (i.e, not drinking caffeine or alcohol, eliminating sugar, exercise, water etc). I like it because its clear- you can eat this, you can’t eat that, you must eat limited amounts of this. Everything is very clear IMHO. d As Atkins says himself- the first two weeks are a CORRECTIVE phase- you are not supposed to live that way. He encourages people to increase their level of carbs until they get to the point where they don’t lose (CCL). On Induction, you DO eat veggies and salad- 3 cups of salad/salad veggies or 2 cups of salad (thats a big lunchtime salad) and 1 cup side serving of allowed vegetables with dinner. After you get done with the first phase, you keep increasing your veggie, salad, nuts, and fruit intake. Typically I eat about 2-3 cups of salad daily, about 1/2 cup of veggies w/ breakfast (either in an omelet, or sliced avocado w/ deli meat), I eat flax meal (keto) cereal as well. I eat sunflower seeds mostly, and other nuts. At dinner I eat a minimum of 1 1/2 cup veggies. I eat far more veggies than I do protein or fat, but because they are low in carbs and high in fiber (you substract fiber from carbs to get the effective carb count)- the percentages of my protein and fat are much higher than the carbs but the bigger portion of what I eat are vegetables.
I don’t think you can ignore the effects of insulin and the glycemic index as opposed to the “calories in= calories out” thinking. There obviously is a difference between a potato and a stalk of broccoli and how it will affect your blood sugar. Atkins just teaches you which vegetables will have an impact on your ability to lose weight. On some days I certainly am eating a low calorie diet, but most days I’m eating more calories than I have previously on low fast diets and losing more effectively. As far as health is concerned- I think the jury is still out . No studies have shown Atkins to be harmful to healthy people. I am currently participating in a long term surveys on the effectiveness and long term affects of Atkins. Studies or not… this is what I have found:
Probably due to cutting down on caffeine, I sleep sounder and wake up much easier (and I get up damn early) than I did before.
My chronic heartburn I developed as I became heavier was virtually gone by the second week. It has not returned in 7 months of living the Atkins WOE.
My energy levels are much better, and most importantly- consistent. I don’t have that drop in energy after lunch anymore- food is now fuel- not something that weighs you down but that keeps you going. That is directly attributable IMHO to eliminating refined carbs and sugar. That drop after lunch, btw, that I used to get was usually after a “low fat” teriyaki bowl. Sugar in the sauce, and white rice- that stuff will kill ya
I do agree that there is some natural limiting of portions. After the novelty of “eat until you are full” wears off, the foods are so good, delicious and satisfying that you really aren’t anxious (for those of us who are overweight- I think you know what I mean) about getting enough, or what you are going to eat next. I rarely have seconds…and often don’t finish what I have and it goes in the work lunch box. I snack maybe once a day, but more out of habit- I rarely “need” a snack.
Food tastes GREAT! I mean really great- food I wouldn’t even think of as unusually good- especially fresh veggies and fruit- now taste like treats…every day :). And I never get that feeling I’m just eating to fill myself- every bite is good, when I’m full I can put it down.
Atkins gets a bad rap because so many people do it wrong. I know the first time I did it with my parents about 10 years ago, we did it totally wrong and I HATED it! My mother told us what to eat- her version of atkins was about 1 cup of salad a day and meat, eggs and cheese for the rest. I did drop 10 lbs in a month, I also was ready to kill someone for a cracker. Now, doing it right with plenty of veggies and variety in my diet- I don’t miss the crackers at all. I don’t even think of them anymore
Yes, highly glycemic foods aren’t good for dieting. This is partly how the “low-carb diet” people sell their diets. Except they say “all carbs are bad” instead of highly glycemic or refined.
From the Harvard article:
And mosty any diet that discourages unhealthy foods (“snack” foods, fast foods, and so on) will make you feel better.
Making a certain nutrient to be “fattening” is absurd as very little is so black and white. Carbohydrates themselves are not fattening. Not even glycemic foods are.
Eating too much can be from too much fat (they is very calorically dense and not terribly filling), too much glycemic foods (the vast differences in blood sugar levels can trigger eating binges), psychological reasons for eating too much, and so on.
Glycemic foods also help the body store unused(!) energy as fat.
Not exercising greatly reduces the amount of calories you need in a day, and makes it easier to eat more than you use.
Many high protein foods have an advantage in that they fill you up quickly. Starches do, too, although potatoes, the infamous starch, are also very glycemic (yet not very calorically dense!)
There are many other factors involved as well. To say “carbohydrates make you fat” is misleading and over-simplifying matters.
Your body needs carbohydrates. And if it doesn’t get them from the food, it will do a messy process to make carbohydrates (glucose, the simplest of all carbohydrates, your body’s fuel) from proteins.
Protein is not supposed to be an energy source, although the amino acids do contain the correct components to make glucose. They also contain other elements that your body will discard through your urine. Usually with other minerals. Your body likes its essential minerals.
Thank you Azi! I said this before, and i just wanted to lend my support!
Eat right, EXERCISE YOU FAT FUKERS! Thats right, get off your couch, you fat ass, go for a walk, go to the gym, run, EXPLORE fer christs sake! Is that so hard? Just do baby steps, before you know it youre fit as a FIDDLE and loving it!
Atkins reccommends supplements to prevent calcium loss and other nutritional losses. And I disagree (if that is what is being said) that he states that all carbs are “bad”. On the contrary- he clearly shows what are good carbs vs. bad carbs.
I’m curious what constitutes “large amounts” of protein. After seeing what the PERCEPTION is of what people think the Atkins diet reccommends and what its participants actually eat- I don’t see the amount of protein -red meat or otherwise- to be excessive. Initially, in Induction when choices are limited, probably. But in the rest of the phases, the amount of protein is not nearly as high. Many of the Atkins boards have threads of daily menus, I think many people would be surprised at the portion sizes, especially portions of protein & fat, vs what the public perception is of the diet.
I think I must point out that I feel better on this diet, by far, than when I ate the mainstream “healthy” low fat diet with no fast or junk foods. I wasn’t one to eat the low fat products to excess either ( the new form of junk food).
I also don’t agree that Atkins is blaming a single nutrient for weight gain- he points out in his book that is a combination of things as well. . Inactivity, fats paired with refined carbs, the idea that if its low fat there is no limit to quantity (not that thats right or reccommended, its just the mindset of many people) It is a fact that many of the low fat staples are foods that burn quickly and leave a person hungry again sooner. For whatever reason his diet has the opposite effect, the fact is that it does help people with appetite control problems to regain their will power (in my case, will power is a moot point, I’m just not hungry till I actually need food), helps them establish good habits, provides a detailed plan for maintaining weight loss that is designed for both good health and quality of life.
Whatever else Atkins is, it does at least work to get the weight off. I feel that if a person does it right, it will result in a healthy diet with plenty of the carbohydrates a healthy body needs. Like any diet or WOL, it takes committment and its not for everyone. But I know of no other way of eating where the perception is that its unhealthy- yet your body feels better than before. Most unhealthy ways of eating have physical symptoms that your body uses to tell you its being poisoned or overloaded. For myself, studies aren’t nearly as accurate (nor as consistent, as the “word” changes every damn year as to what is healthy or not) as what my body tells me.
Basically, the Atkins diet fools your body into thinking that it is starving. The key signal for this is low blood sugar. By cutting out all carbohydrates, you are depriving your body of a source of ready-made sugar which it interprets as meaning that there is no food at all.
The first day, your body responds by utilizing glycogen, a starch which is stored in your liver. A starch is a long chain of sugar molecules linked together. The glycogen acts as an emergency reserve of carbohydrates for short term fasting conditions.
Unfortunately, your liver only packs away enough glycogen for a few hours (i.e. like when you’re sleeping).
In about 24 hours, if there are still no carbohydrates, your liver starts to make glucose from amino acids derived from protein. If you are truly fasting, the amino acids come from the breakdown of your body’s protein- you lose muscle mass. However, in the Atkins diet, you have plenty of amino acids from the steak and lobsters you are eating for breakfast.
I real life starvation, you can only degrade so much protein and remain viable (a 70-kg man has approximately 6 kg of protein available- about 24,000 calories). Therefore, after a few days, your liver switches tactics and starts breaking down stored fat, releasing “ketone bodies” (primarily 3-hydroxy butyrate) which can be used as fuel by most tissues, including your brain. The presence of these ketone bodies in your urine (as measured with an indicator strip) indicates that you are now in the “fat-burning mode”
Once you eat a slice of bread or some ice cream, the rapid increase in blood-sugar levels acts as a signal to your body that the “famine” is over, and the whole mechanism shuts down.
As you can guess, it’s pretty rough on your system, and many people have difficulties related to low blood sugar, which orchestrates and regulates an enormous variety of cellular processes.
It’s not for everyone, but it is definitely not bullshit, being based on very well-known biological processes.
Alternatively, you could use “The Bizzwire diet.” This is a little less scientific, and requires that you smoke pack of cigarettes and drink at least 7 cups of coffee a day, work in a very stressful environment and sleep no more than 6 hours a night. This way, you’re usually too nauseous to eat.
A healthy diet doesn’t need supplementation. The very fact that he acknowledged calcium loss from it should make people realise it’s not good.
Obviously, you can’t avoid carbohydrates entirely, but the overall theme of the diet is “carbs bad, protein good”, and now I’m seeing all over the place “addicted to carbs?”, “low carb snack”, etc.
Beyond the dietary need is excess. Well beyond (typical Standard American Diet) is definitely a large amount. The body generally needs 8g / 10lbs of body weight. You might need a few extra grams if you ARE (not wish to be) very muscular, but overall you do not need much. The use for protein is for maintaining and building cells, not for energy.
That mostly depends on who you listen to. It’s the public word that changes constantly, with each new fad diet or product promotion. Studies can be engineered to conclude almost anything so you really need to check the study itself and not the knee-jerk reporting based on them. It can be rather difficult to check each one, so your way is best. But most studies that hit the press are bum, and most that are quietly passed around medical journals are legitimate.
Yeah, then how come I have been working out at the gym three days a week, an hour each time, under the supervision of a trainer, doing cardio and weights, for SIX MONTHS, and I have lost not one pound. And no, I haven’t been eating more junk. I was already eating a balanced diet. Not one damn pound. No change in BMI or in the amount of fat measured with the stinking little calipers. And I hate it. Every minute and every second. HATE IT!!! So don’t call me a fuker (whatever that is).
As for why you lost no fat via calipers, one thing is certain: You were consuming enough calories to maintain your weight. Regardless of quality of food consumed, if your body needed more energy than it received from diet, then it would need to break down stores of fat (and hopefully not muscle as your body will in ketosis.)
i am sorry MLS you fucker but its very simple. all exercising does is slightly raises your caloric expenditure. and accretion of extra lean body mass raises it further.
however, to lose weight you you need to have expenditure higher than intake, and these are small changes and get swamped by even modest changes in diet.
if you expend more calories your body will ask for more calories and the net result will be you being still as fat as before. its only by eating less than what your body is craving that you can lose weight.
so is exercise pointless ? depends on your goals. if you only want to lose fat then it probably is. but let me tell you this, without exercising, even if you lose all the fat you ever dreamed of losing YOU WILL STILL LOOK LIKE SHIT. exercise is used to build muscle and diet used to lose fat, simple as that ( well for your purposes simple as that, in reality nothing is ever simple ).
You have a good point there. I would still imagine a heavier person would require more energy for the same level of activity, however. In a mostly sedentary lifestyle, this is rather irrelevant, but for a typical, moderately active lifestyle, the heavier person will need more energy.
Mental picture. You said 250 lbs versus 180lbs. Imagine the 180 lbs person carrying around 70 extra lbs of weight all day. The actual formula used is curved, but for 180 lbs it is figured around 2500 kcal / day. I don’t know if carrying 70 lbs all day in a moderately active lifestyle is going to account for 1000 kcal / day, but it is still approximation.
I agree that fat mass, unlike muscle, burns no extra calories, but actually lugging it around does.
but its very simple. all exercising does is slightly raises your caloric expenditure. and accretion of extra lean body mass raises it further.