I've been doing Atkin's Advantage since June and I have lost some 30lbs (13.6kg).

I was wondering if other FOLCers are doing Atkin's Advantage or are using some other plan.

If you are doing Atkin's Advantage then for ? #3 answer Just counting Carbs

James

I am not sure I know what "Adkins Advantage" is, but I do know that the Adkins diet (lots of protien, 0 carbs, lots of fat) has some horrible consequences on the body. They say it's *good* to put your body into ketosis. It is NEVER good to change your body chemistry no matter what. (I know this from experience -- when my mom first got sick, she found a very similar diet on the internet for ulcerative colitis sufferers). My mom almost went into kidney failure and her liver is still behaving weirdly a year later. Everyone at the hospital asked if she was doing the adkins diet -- because they said that they see a lot of cases were people got sick from the adkins diet.

Plus, a girl in my sorority is on the Adkins diet, and she's lost almost all of her hair on the top of her head. I am not sure if it is a coincidence or if it is somehow caused by the change in body chemistry.

- Laura

I'm not trying to lose weight. I'm not skinny nor fat, but I do need exercise (something impossible to do given my schedule).

I think you should have included exercising as a way to lose weight.

Just a thought,
AnnaBtG.

well, i'm trying to lose weight, but mine's been stable for years (fluctuating within 5 lbs). my problem is excersize, tho, not diet. i need to move around more, but with a pile of sleeping disorders (at least one of which causes muscle pain), that's not always easy.

as for my diet, i'm diabetic, and i'm using a program developed for me by a dietician. it's basically weight watchers (they took the diabetic program and publicized it), but for the purpopses of this poll, i just said i was carb counting.

now, as to atkins, i'm very wary of it. several reliable and respectable doctors have told me over the years (in various contexts - warning me about a balanced diet, warning me not to have too much neutrasweet (which is a protien, or close enough), warning me about what happens when i don't have enough insulin and my body has to start digesting fat so my cells can get enough fuel, etc) that overloading on protien and/or not getting enough carbs hurts the kidneys. basically, the more work your kidneys have to do, the quicker they wear out. excess protien is, as far as the kidneys are concerned, a flow of large chunks of material that need to be filtered out (i.e. a lot of work). as for digesting fat, that produces ketones as a by-product, which are also a bunch of extra work for the kidneys (and which generally aren't healthy to have floating in your system).

now, the way atkins works is this: you fill up on protien, which digests slowly, making you feel full, but which don't provide much in the way of fuel (some fat, depending on the protien of choice, and maybe a bit of carbs, but not much). then you avoid eating carbs (aka "useful calories") as much as you can. this forces your body to look elsewhere for the fuel it needs to keep running, and that means digesting your fat reserves. that's why you lose weight so quickly.

unfortunatley, losing weight quickly is not generally healthy (it requires adjustments in metabolic rate, circulatory patterns, etc, and those things take time). also unfortunately, you're flooding your system with excess protien and ketones and other biproducts, all of which your kidneys have to filter out.

now, i'm told the atkins people claim that this is a myth, that it doesn't really hurt the kidneys to have to filter all that stuff out.

i'm also told that the tabacco industry claimed that there was nothing dangerous about their products.

now, i haven't done any of the research myself, nor have i seen the actual studies. personally, though, i'm inclined to trust the various physicians i've seen over the years (including my dad, as it happens), rather than the people who are trying to make money selling me something that is directly affected by the research in question.

Paul

Yep, I'm doing just a little carb counting just to watch what I eat. Just trying to shed those holiday pounds from this summer. The thing with Atkin's is once you're seriously on it, you're basically on it for life. I don't remember too many of the specifics (I try to tune out my dad sometimes:) ), but it really messes you up if you go back and forth with it. For people like my dad, though, it's good for them because he's overweight; he's lost 46 pounds this year from it, but he still has a long way to go.

As for whether or not to trust the Atkin's diet, well I'm biased. I think my dad is one of the best gastroenterologists that I know, and if he says it's worthwhile, then I trust him. And he does say it's worthwhile. He's got a lot of my aunts and uncles on it as well as some of his other GI friends.

Just my $0.02
JD

Hiya. Just a thought of mine but that diet is not good on the body. You need carbs to get nrg. In the beginning of that diet you are mostly just loosing water. I read a study a year ago that pple end up with lower brain activity when they are on it. I still look into it. It's interesting.



It's funny ... I love to help out my friends to loose weight or just to feel great and they do well. When I follow my own advice I have poor will power or something.

I used to be in great shape but then I got a new job at McD and ate the food non-stop BAD. I ballooned from 125 to 178 in 8 months. I am now at 140 - 4 to 5 yrs later. I have a long way to go.

I loose weight fast when I stick to it and feel great......I dunno why I can't stick with it!!!! (my love of chocolate and cheesecake which I cannot control?)

Right now I'm back on it and I feel great:

Work with weights!!! 3X a week
aerobic excercise 3X week min 30min
drink lots of water
I eat five or six times a day
per meal a serving of veggies, carb and protein
I have bars 2X/day or take a multi
(not all bars are created equal!)
Serving is a fist for me (3/4c)
Sometimes I have Special K or Vector if I'm too
busy
One day a week I just relax.
I eat the Aikens, Advantage, BioProtein and
GenSoy bars.

If I can't do much I just watch my eating and make sure I get water and fit in some weights.

Personally I have to be strict with myself or I go piggy style big time!

When I kick off my new lifestyle I end up loosing 10 lbs in 4 weeks and 3 inches and then I plateau for a month and then I loose again.

Even when I fall off of my 'better' lifestle and diet and end up better than I was before.

THe closest commercialized package I've seen on the market to what I do and many other do is "The body for life" thingy. I don't agree on everything (I like to have more veg and fruit and milk) but it is better than the others out there.

The magazine "muscle and fitness hers" is great (even though it is geared to pple who have been in it longer) and "Muscle Media" or the Muscle Media for women called "Energy" are great. The "Body For Life" creator is the person behind the "Muscle Media" lines.

OH MY I'M BABBELING! SORREE!!!

I gained weight while at college due to eating junk food and not exercising... I wasn't "fat" per se, but I definitely had reached my all-time high.
While I don't consider my "regime" (as I like to call it) a "diet," I do consider it as taking on a healthier lifestyle...
The only changes I've made are:
* Cutting out junk food (fast food, excessive candy & desserts)
* Exercising much more (I spend an hour on the treadmill OR do an exercise/aerobic video tape 6 days a week... daily I do between 300-360 crunches)
I have lost 20 pounds since graduation (May) and that is without a strict (or fad) diet!
I also found that I don't need second helpings at dinner--before I'd always have seconds!
I refuse to deprive myself... Like on vacation I will get a drink, and have dessert more often. I would never stick to a diet that restricted me from eating the foods I love!
I think that adding exercise made the biggest difference for me, though.

-Wanda "I love Richard Simmons" Detroit :p

Go Wanda Detroit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I probably shouldn't even say anything in this thread... but I'm on the "get the medicines I need and get rid of the ones I don't" plan. Last fall, I was up to 150 (I'm 5'2"). But then I started anti-depressants. My sugar cravings disappeared, and energy appeared from nowhere. I also went off Depo-Provera, which I think makes you gain weight (among other bad side-effects). Basically, I ate less and moved more, though I can't claim there was any amount of willpower involved... I'm now getting back down to where I was in college, 110-120lbs.

PJ
(who can hear several people out there saying they'd love to go down to 150lbs!)

I'm just over 5 feet 7 1/2 inches, and up until my twins came along, I weighed 135. Afterwards, I had gained 25 pounds and couldn't seem to lose it. It just kept piling on until I got to 205. I caught the flu two years ago and lost fifteen pounds, but gained eight of it back at Christmas. In February of this year, I just got absolutely sick of everything being too tight, splitting seams and not being able to bend over without my waistband practically cutting me in half. I put myself on a 1200 calorie per day diet. As of today, I have lost 41 pounds and am within 7 pounds of my goal. I eat the foods that I like -- just less of them -- and I try to exercise by walking two miles with weights at least 3 times a week.

I don't know if it would work for anyone else, but it works for me, and most of the time, I'm not even hungry.

Nan (who likes being a loser, for once)

Okay, I'm going to assume I'm the only person here who lost weight by no longer exercising

I'm 5'6" and started college weighing 125 lbs and in my freshman year, gained 10 lbs, as a lot of college freshmen do, but I gained all muscle. My water polo coach had us on a brutal conditioning regiment. It definitely made me stronger, faster, tougher, and a much better water polo player (though I also ended up with tons of injuries from over-exertion).

My senior year in college, I was playing water polo again, after time off due to knee surgery, and rowing on a club crew team (all that additional muscle meant I got to sit in the power seat in the women's boat). The combination of long swim workouts and rowing, however, resulted in a pinched nerve in my shoulder. I couldn't swim or row anymore after that.

To make matters worse, I started to get sympathetic nerve inflammation and irritation down my arm and back. No longer swimming also led to the aggravation of an existing lower back injury (this one due to running). Swimming is incredibly good for your back and my swim workouts were about the only thing keeping my back from getting completely out of sorts.

At the worst point, I couldn't bend over to touch my knees, let alone my toes, I couldn't tie my shoes and I had to sleep sitting up in bed. Having suffered a broken nose (twice), a concussion, broken fingers and toes, reconstructive surgery (after the broken nose), knee surgery, and infected wisdom teeth, the pain in my back was easily ten times worse than all of them combined. I was popping an average of fifteen advil a day just to get through the day and I'd routinely spend an hour a day hanging upside down and another hour undergoing electric stimulation to try to reduce the pain.

All the while, I was doing no exercise, of course. Several months of this bad back business and I lost, through muscle atrophy, most of the weight I gained playing college water polo. I'm not quite at the weight I was when I was a college freshman, but I'm pretty close now.


Rac

I'm also diabetic. Type 2, which is not the type that Paul has, if I understand his situation right.

I have a dietician on my health care team that I see a couple times a year - she took a look at my weight, my exercise level, the kinds of food I like to eat, how much food I eat, and when I eat, then we made up an eating system (not a diet, lol) that I can live with.

I must eat three meals and three snacks per day (at specific times), composed of a certain number of starch, protein, fruit/veggie, fat, and extra choices each. I had to learn how much of a food item makes one choice, and at first I had to physically measure it out using kitchen measuring equipment. But now I know what the approximate measurements are and don't have to do that anymore.

When I follow my eating plan and take my diabetic meds, I lose the weight. If I can add exercise, of course it helps, but it's just one part to a whole system.

Just before I came to Korea, I had lost about 30 pounds in about 6 months, but when I came here, I had to adjust to new foods and eating times - not to mention that I ran out of one of my meds for a while - and I gained it all back... But I'm going home in seven days and five hours, so I'll be able to go back on plan then...

Woo-HOO!!

Melisma (ducking back under her Rock to pack some more, and finish up her grades...)

Ooh, congratulations on going home, Mel! Have a safe trip!

PJ

We often speak of people trying to lose weight... So maybe I should get my shield and sword before posting this reply.

Well, me? I have it the other way around. Most of my relatives are desperatly urging me to gain some. Personnally I feel good with my body, figure and weight (though I could use some more strategically placed curves <g>).

I'm not on a diet, thank god! I still need all my bones... and don't intend to follow one, ever. As a matter of fact I'm eating what I like, when I like...especially pastries. I need my 5 meals per day. And, wether I eat like four or skip three meals (I often do that when I'm ill), my weight always remains the same. No 'yo-yo' effect.

My schedule doesn't really allow me to exercise. I resumed dancing a few weeks ago, in order to come progressively back to sport.

Some call me 'lucky'. I think it has more to do with genes, or lifestyle.. At least, that's the only logical reason I can come up with, so far.

James, I've been doing The Zone for the last 11 weeks and I've lost 21 pounds so far. (I picked "Other" in the poll because, although I do monitor my carbs, it's not all I watch.)

I've done Weight Watchers twice before successfully (plus a couple times where I started halfheartedly and quit <g>) and each time I kept the weight off until I got pregnant again. Our family is complete now so I'd like to take it off once and for all, but I just didn't have it in me to start WW again this time. So I did some research and talked to a lot of people, and discovered The Zone. I can't even say how much I love it. I can't believe that I'm losing weight so well eating foods that I love so much (red meat, nuts, guacomole, etc.) and have deprived myself of for so long under the assumption that "all fat was bad".

The Zone is a 40-30-30 plan, so it's not considered "low carb" contrary to what most people assume. It's a moderate carb (40% of your calories), moderate protein (30%), moderate fat (30%) diet. (30% calories from fat is still considered "low fat" by the AMA though in our country, people now associate all fat with gaining weight. In fact, it's just the opposite since the obesity rate in the US has sky-rocketed since the introduction of all the "low fat" snacks.)

Basically, in The Zone, you eat plenty of carbs -- you just get the bulk of them from fruits and vegetables, and you limit (not completely exclude like Atkins) less favorable carbs like pasta, rice, breads, etc. Plus you are actually *encouraged* to eat good fats like olive oil, nuts, avacado, etc. Now that's my kind of diet. <g>

Kathy