Anyone doing or done the Atkins Diet?

[MissPrissy]

You need to make sure you are taking a good multi-vitamin too. If you get leg cramps you need to take a supplement of potassium and calcium. The potassium helps the calcium absorb and both help stop the leg cramps. Drink lots of water to keep flushing your system.

Congrats on your success.

Keep going! You can do it!

 

[saranbensmom]

From what I know, the Atkins diet isn't good for you = I wouldn't do it long term. Apparently, it tricks your body into thinking it's starving. It definitely raises your ketone level. The Southbeach diet, I think, is better. Be careful dieting.....it's better to improve the quality of the foods you eat and eat small meals 5 times a day and get moving! Walking is good!

 

[Chickfever]

I'm still trying to choke down that water

. I just found a bottle of lemon juice, I'll try to fix it to where it tastes like lemonade or something and MAYBE I can get more down. I have One A Day Women's Formula....wonder if that would be good? No potassium though.

I may see if my local library has the South Beach Diet book when I go tomorrow and see what it's all about. I have to have something where I can eat "normal" food instead of having to buy dinners. I also live in the boonies so we don't have a lot of the stuff you guys might have.

DH and I were going to start walking yesterday morning but didn't get in the bed until late the night before and were too tired.

 

[steffpeck]

Congratulations on your weight loss.

I read an article the other day, and it stated, in a Princeton study that was done, sugar can be as addicting as heroin. I couldn't believe it when I read that, but I am one who is addicted to sugar, and know how hard it is to not eat sugary foods.

 

[menageriemama]

Glad that it is going well for you!! My dad has type 2 diabetes and he is on a form of the Atkins diet. Seems to help him a lot, but we are Italian so we do like our pastas and gnocci and risotto and.... Yha, dont think I could do it myself.

 

[seismic wonder2]

I'm a Nutritional Consultant Sorry but I have to climb on my soap box for a few minutes.

The word "diet" is a constant source of pain to me, like scraping fingernails on a black board.

The day you were born you began a diet and you won't go off the diet until the day you die. "DIET" is what you eat everyday. Your diet can be healthy or garbage. You can change your diet but you can't start or stop, get on or get off one.

That being said....Any diet that claims "massive weight loss in just two weeks and you don't have to exercise or change the way you eat..." Is just selling you something.

THe equasion is
CALORIES IN = CALORIES OUT= NO CHANGE
CALORIES IN > CALORIES OUT= WEIGHT GAIN
CALORIES IN < CALORIES OUT= WEIGHT LOSS

Bottom line.

Any diet that restricts certain foods or only allows you to eat one thing for weeks at a time may make you loose weight but at what cost?
Your body NEEDS Carbohydrates, proteins, essential fats, vitamins and minerals in order to function. We as a country are already on the edge of vitamin deficency because our foods are so geneticaly altered and highly processed that most of the vitamins and minerals ar just no longer there in sufficent amounts.

If you totally cut out carbs, or protein, or red veggies or whatever crazy gimmick the latest fad diet calls for you could possibly cause more harm than good.


The ONLY way to loose weight is to change your diet by eating BALANCED meals and taking 30 to 40 minutes of vigorus exercise 4 to 5 days a week.
Eat smaller portions throughout the day in stead of three huge meals and increase vegetables and fruit and lower refined foods (white flour/sugar) and lower red meats cut out fried foods and switch to baked or grilled.

In addition to the regular exercise, WALK!
Take a walk EVERYDAY for at least an hour. Go walking through the park, take your dog for a stroll. Borrow the neighbors dog if you don't have one. Make up a reason but WALK, WALK, WALK!

Drink LOTS OF WATER. 78% of the time you think you are hungry but actually you just need a glass of water. Your brain confuses the thurst with hungar because they are closly related unless you are very dehydrated and that's a whole different sensation all together.

Throw away all the crap food in the house. If it's there YOU WILL EAT IT! Forget about the "will power" you think you have. Just get rid of it. (Give it to a homeless)
Got kids? Trust me, They will be better off not having chips, sodas, cookies and snacks all the time anyway.

Don't drink Diet Soda!! When your body tastes something sweet but dosn't get any sugar It throws up red flaggs and kicks your metabolism all sorts of haywire and may even cause you to benge on "bad" foods like chips, cookies, candybars, Wonder bread, and Pizza Hut, etc...

Don't deny yourself treats from time to time. Eyeballing that piece of chockolate cake and languishing and lusting after it may cause a benge later on...Just go ahead and have the cake AND ENJOY IT!!! Don't feel guilty or worry about it. As long as you're not eating cake everyday it will be fine. If you really worry about it exercise an extra 5 min every day for a week, That should make you feel better about it.

I Highly recomend reading "Dr. Shapiro's Picture Perfect Weight Loss".
The book SHOWS you how to make healthy chioces when your eating. Here's an example.
the book shows a picture of a conservative piece of blueberry pie (450 calories) with (4oz)vanilla icecream on top(200 calories) and the total of 650 calories. The next page shows 13 cups of blueberries each with 1 tablespoon of whipped cream on top witha total of 650 Calories!!!
Can YOU eat 13 CUPS OF BERRIES???? I can't.
Here's another one...
Bananna split with
3 scoops ice cream(750 C)
1/3 cup nuts(300 C)
1 bananna (90 C)
4 TBSP chocolate sauce(160 C)
4 TBSP whipped cream (40 C)
for a total of 1340 Calories!!! Next it shows a HUGE BOWL filled with ...
9 Scoops fat free frozen yogurt
1 cup diced fruit (strawberries, kiwi, raspberries, grapes etc...)
2 banannas
4 TBSP chocolate sauce
4 TBSP whipped cream
for a total of 1340 Calories. THere's no way I could eat all that....but I could sure polish off that bananna split in short order!
Get the idea?


OK....I'm off my soapbox!!

 

[Mahonri]

I'm on a special diet.

We call it the "DON'T EAT SO MUCH" diet.

That and I exercise. Up the mountain every day but Sunday and Thursday...

I have a grapefruit or orange and yogurt for breakfast. Sometimes a boiled egg for a mid-morning snack.

For lunch I have cabbage soup (cabbage, celery, tomatoes, peppers, onions & squash) sometimes I'll add a small can of Campbells soup to give it some flavor. Once a week I forget the soup and just have a steak and perhaps some cottage cheese for desert. If I'm tired of the soup, I'll do a green salad. Once in awhile I'll have a skinny cow for desert.

I don't eat anything after 2PM. Ever. If you are going to put the car in the garage (body in bed) you don't need to gas it up.

I also do good multivitamins.

In 45 days I've lost 29 lbs.

Blood pressure is 110/60 with a pulse of 56.

I figure anyone can do anything for 1000 days.

122 lbs to go.... and 955 days... and if I can last that long, I can live that way for the rest of my life.

 

[Reinbeau]

Good for you, Mahonri! You go! You're changing your relationship with food and movement, and that's the only way to do it.

 

[seismic wonder2]

Mahori,
While I applaud your effort I have a few suggestions.

Eat more at breakfast, like add a bowl of oatmeal (the real stuff you have to actually cook) or some other WHOLE GRAIN cereal.

Mid morning snack add a handfull of almonds every other day. THey have fat but really good fat.

IT's good to change around your lunch meal, the body needs variation. Add oily fish like salmon one or two days a week (essential fatty acids omega3 and 6 etc...)

Not eating after 2pm may not be the best thing in my professional opinion. It's better to have a bowl of fruit or a light dinner salad around 5 or 6PM. ( but nothing after 6PM)
Your body runs on fuel. If you deprive it fuel for too long it thinks you are "starving" and will shift into "Economy mode" over night, then first thing in the morning anything you eat goes straight to "storage". It goes back to caveman days.
If you go on a calorie restricted "diet" you'll have to stay on it the rest of your life or the weight will pile back worse than before.
But, If you keep a varied diet, low calorie,(but not too restrictive) filled with fruits, veggies, NO FRIED FOODS, and NO REFINED CARBS (like wonder bread and white sugar etc...) you still get to eat well, won't go hungry, and should loose 1 mabe 2 lb a week.

Fast weight loss equals (most of the time) fast weight gain at the very first "slip up". slow weight loss over time is better for your overall health.
A good healthy diet will allow you a "Fair Day" filled with hot dogs, funnel cakes, and ice cream with out difficulty or worry when you go show or view the chickens!

If you add weight training to your exercise and build some muscle, you'll burn more fat than ever before! But be ware and don't freak out because muscle weighs more than fat. When you first start you'll build muscle quickly and put on weight BUT YOU"LL BE LOOSING FAT even while you sleep. Muscle requires more energy just to be there. fat cells use very little energy to stay alive.

Remember, eat to live, don't live to eat.

 

[WriterofWords]

Please be very careful with this diet, it really caused me a lot of pain and trouble. It was prescribed for me by a doctor when I suddenly had a lot of weight gain and didn't know why. As soon as I started this diet I gained even more and the dr. kept telling me I was doing it wrong, eating carbs, etc. It took another dr. taking the time to do a few more tests and look into my background to find out that since I lost my gall bladder and also went through menopause early, I can't process fats and proteins anymore. As soon as I cut those out of my diet, not totally but no more than 5 grams at a meal, I went right back down to a healthy weight, very fast too. The Atkins diet also overwhelmed my kidneys with too much protein and I had medical troubles with that too.
Please, be very careful with this diet, I know it's popular but it's not for everyone.