The Atkins Diet....

[scotty]

.....what's all that about then , my mates wife is on it & She's losing weight like it's going out of fashion, all she bloody well eats is fattening things with cream on

[6FeetOver]

Wait'll she goes off of it and starts eating all of the so-called "forbidden" foods again, hehehehe... Cutting out entire food groups isn't the answer to keeping weight off.

[Brideoffrankenstein]

Yeah but I bet she isn't eating carbs, fruit or veg eh?!

It's based on the fact that you put on weight through not burning off all your carbs every day, so if you don't eat any, then you'll lose weight.

I'm not sure about why you have to pile fat on everthing and fry everything, why not leave the fat out and lose even more weight?

I wouldn't advise it long-term though, just to get the ball rolling - she has just had a child after all!

There really isn't really much substitute for a balanced diet and exercise in my opinion.

Wait until her body starts excreting ketones, bad breath here we come!

[scotty]

- she has just had a child after all!

Libby........"my mates wife", not Mags...............but I know what you mean

[Brideoffrankenstein]

- she has just had a child after all!

Libby........"my mates wife", not Mags...............but I know what you mean

Oops sorry

[scotty]

- she has just had a child after all!

Libby........"my mates wife", not Mags...............but I know what you mean

Oops sorry

it's OK

[Obviousman]

A mate of mine is starting that today Thought it was an outdated one, actually…

[canon docre]

I take it, Susan Atkins has nothing to do with it?

[6FeetOver]

Yeah but I bet she isn't eating carbs, fruit or veg eh?!

...which is exactly why, in the long-term, the diet isn't healthy. Eventually, all the weight comes back, when one starts adding back the "oh-so-naughty" carbs (yeah - not just bread and rice, here, but carrots, apples, whole-grain cereals, etc. ). All that fat and cholesterol is seriously detrimental. Hope your mate's wife isn't planning to stay on the diet for too long...

[Brideoffrankenstein]

Yeah but I bet she isn't eating carbs, fruit or veg eh?!

...which is exactly why, in the long-term, the diet isn't healthy. Eventually, all the weight comes back, when one starts adding back the "oh-so-naughty" carbs (yeah - not just bread and rice, here, but carrots, apples, whole-grain cereals, etc. ). All that fat and cholesterol is seriously detrimental. Hope your mate's wife isn't planning to stay on the diet for too long...

Around 2000, Atkins started to develop a heart condition, cardiomyopathy, which he claimed was unrelated to his diet.[1][2] On April 18, 2002, Atkins suffered a cardiac arrest. He made a recovery and returned to work.

On April 8, 2003, Atkins slipped on ice and fell in front of his medical office in New York City and sustained major head injuries that put him in a coma. He never recovered from his injuries, and subsequently died on April 17 of kidney failure.[3] By mistake, the New York City Medical Examiner’s Office released Atkins' medical records to the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a group associated with PETA and which advocates a vegetarian diet. The record stated his weight to be approximately 255 lb (116 kg) at the time of death.[2] In terms of simple height/weight measure (BMI), this would mean he was obese; the apparent irony of a diet guru being obese caused the information to be circulated around the world by the media and animal rights groups, much to the distress of his family. The Atkins company released a statement claiming that he weighed only 196 lb (89 kg) upon admission to the hospital and that his apparent increase in weight was due to fluid retention following the failure of his major organs.[4] William Leith interviewed him in the period between his cardiac arrest and his fall. Leith writes, "He looks to be just under 6 feet tall and around 200 lbs – not skinny, not thin, but definitely not fat. The jowls around his neck are fairly minimal, signs of age rather than excess weight."[5]

I'm trying to lose about a stone at the moment (hence the cycling to and from work and healthy eating), and no way would I follow the Atkins diet!

[Carpathian Psychonaut]

You want a healthy diet ?

The human body needs 4% of fat in the diet - some is good, none is bad.

Eat a breakfast, lunch and tea and fill around this with fruit and veg nibbles.

For the three main meals simply read the back of what you buy. They always have a "per 100g" on the back. Therefore if it says "4g" or less you can happily eat it and keep things nicely on track. Yeah, you'll lose some things but you'll be surprised what is still fine.

Add in foods like hot peppers, green tea, iced water or other thermogenic foods - these raise metabolism. Use them 5 weeks on, five weeks off, as their effectiveness in the body plateaus past this point.

On top, drop the salt a bit and keep an eye on the sugar and hey presto - loads of choice, food all day and a healthy balance that is what you actually need.

All cheques to be made payble to "Dr Carpathian c/o Not A Quack Ltd"

[James Blast]

ask Derek R

[boudicca]

Claire's Ker-ay-zee Ideas #12,457

What about the "eat a little bit less" diet?
The atkins and all the other fad diets are modern attempts at solving a very modern problem. They will all work, on the basis of the very simple equation, eat less calories than you use up, you will get thinner / eat more than you use up, you will store them as fat. That's the bottom line, there is absolutely no getting around it.
(And you will most likely eat fewer calories than you are burning on the Atkins, because although it lets you eat as much protein and fat as you like, most people can't eat THAT much meat, cheese, and cream before feeling pretty sick of it).

It's ridiculous to cut out entire food groups, or even "ban" certain foods. No single food can make a person gain weight, as long as you eat it in moderation. If you still eat fewer calories than you're expending, you could eat a deep fried mars bar every day and lose weight - the average adult uses around 2000-2500 calories every day, that's actually a couple of them.

Fad diets only encourage people to have a totally unnatural attitude to their hunger and their own bodies, and to madly crave the things they aren't "allowed". They'd have you as thin as a rake if you could stick to them, but no bloody wonder few can. People seem to believe these days that insane feats of self-denial are necessary to avoid being overweight, and I think that's a dangerous myth because it leads to people giving up on staying in shape entirely, believing it's just too difficult.

I'd tell the poor woman to have a bloody sandwich - WITH chocolate spread please - heave a sigh of relief and get on with doing something more interesting that counting every fat gram that passes her lips.

Don't worry, I'm getting my coat, my "size 0" coat...

[mh]

Claire's Ker-ay-zee Ideas #12,457

What about the "eat a little bit less" diet?
The atkins and all the other fad diets are modern attempts at solving a very modern problem. They will all work, on the basis of the very simple equation, eat less calories than you use up, you will get thinner / eat more than you use up, you will store them as fat. That's the bottom line, there is absolutely no getting around it.
(And you will most likely eat fewer calories than you are burning on the Atkins, because although it lets you eat as much protein and fat as you like, most people can't eat THAT much meat, cheese, and cream before feeling pretty sick of it).

It's ridiculous to cut out entire food groups, or even "ban" certain foods. No single food can make a person gain weight, as long as you eat it in moderation. If you still eat fewer calories than you're expending, you could eat a deep fried mars bar every day and lose weight - the average adult uses around 2000-2500 calories every day, that's actually a couple of them.

Fad diets only encourage people to have a totally unnatural attitude to their hunger and their own bodies, and to madly crave the things they aren't "allowed". They'd have you as thin as a rake if you could stick to them, but no bloody wonder few can. People seem to believe these days that insane feats of self-denial are necessary to avoid being overweight, and I think that's a dangerous myth because it leads to people giving up on staying in shape entirely, believing it's just too difficult.

I'd tell the poor woman to have a bloody sandwich - WITH chocolate spread please - heave a sigh of relief and get on with doing something more interesting that counting every fat gram that passes her lips.

Don't worry, I'm getting my coat, my "size 0" coat...

Good old-fashioned common sense.

And furthermore, the shape of your body is just the shape of your body, and nothing dreadful or dramatic otherwise. Some people are just naturally predisposed to be bulkier than others, same way as some people are naturally predisposed to be taller or have different proportions in other areas. If you're beautiful inside, you'll show as beautiful outside, no matter your size and shape. But if you're naturally a bit bulky and you go for a skinny, you won't look one bit good.

[Carpathian Psychonaut]

Don't worry, I'm getting my coat, my "size 0" coat...

Nice finish to a typically 'on the nail' post. No need at all for your at the end - it's a good read.

I know I posted a long idea featuring some of the very things you mention the danger of but I guess mine was as much to show that you can eat all day without having to worry too much - it's just that you're even more succinct !

Oh, and you've made me want a sandwich now - at bloomin 00:08 !

[Andrew S]

My sisters tried the Atkins diet, with the predictable results of quick short-term weight loss accompanied by infirm stools and a thin film of grease covering every surface in their kitchens. What a load of pish

[Izzy HaveMercy]

IZ.

[markfiend]

Some hospitals use a variant of the Atkins diet when someone comes in for surgery who is too big to operate on safely. It works fine for quick weight-loss but, as people have pointed out, not so well for keeping weight off.

[splintered thing]

Healthy Diet = eat less (junk), do more (exercise).

Yes???

That's my summary

[_emma_]

And furthermore, the shape of your body is just the shape of your body, and nothing dreadful or dramatic otherwise. Some people are just naturally predisposed to be bulkier than others, same way as some people are naturally predisposed to be taller or have different proportions in other areas. If you're beautiful inside, you'll show as beautiful outside, no matter your size and shape.

- says a person whose weight fluctuated between 41 and 56 kg over the past 10 years Diets are stupid. I tell you. They can lead you to insanity.

[DerekR]

ask Derek R

Aye, you lot can say what you like about it but it helped me lose 6 stone 3 years ago. It was before I'd met most of you, so you wont have noticed the difference, apart from Blast, he'll probably remember me at my heaviest.

[MadameButterfly]

Oh but Derek and James, I like cuddley men too!
You guys keep me warm when it's cold outside.

And for the record for everyone, never ever follow a diet as the weight you loose whilst on the diet may come back in double when you stop, so...

...never ever diet in life. It's the worst thing mentally and physically.
It actually all boils down to a way of life and the way you eat period and not for a few weeks or months. Never ever exclude a food group as the body needs all food groups unless a veggie...then you can't eat red meat or meat but do supplement it with something else equivalent.

Always follow the simple rules of eating two veggies and two fruit per day and then not eating until you explode but until you are full and stop. The worst weight gaining agents are alcohol.

Sugars are bad doers but there is a difference in the sugars, so know your difference and stop eating so much candy / sweeties / chocs as these sugars are bad for you, not to mention your teeth.

And stay active, get off those lazy arses of yours and get exercising even if for a walk on your lunch break. Everything consumed needs breaking down and even the body needs a moment or two to digest and reset.

And then get on the dance floor as you burn lots of energy moving those bodies...

MB

[bushman*pm]

How about as someone once said:
EAT LESS, MOVE MORE!
I personally think the 'Slimming World' idea is pretty good. It doesn't cut out food groups but seperates them, eg Red (meat) days or Green (veg) days being the basic bones of it.
Think of it like this, for thousands of years mankind has been
berries & nuts, berries & nuts, fcukin berries & nuts again, im sick of berries & nuts! Fcuk me, look at that huge animal, its steaks for the next few days and no fcukin berries & nuts!
Our mordern eating styles are trying to combat thousabds of years of evolution and as ive always maintained, dont fcuk with Mother Nature!

[Mr. Wah]

I could never do the Atkins diet because I love potatoes and pasta too much. Some people I know, who only love meat, think that this diet is a godsend.

I agree about booze. I once lost about 15 KG in 4 or 5 months... I was eating a bit less, but I think it was mostly by only drinking once a week and then not excessively. I got bored of that, though. I realised that I can either be a bit overweight and happy, or thin and miserable, and chose the former.

[markfiend]

Booze is probably my Achilles heel weight-wise too.