I followed the Atkins Diet for 3-4 years. I saw rapid weight loss but my cholesterol went to 300. My hobby is distance running. I thought getting into the fat-burning mode with low-carb eating would make me a better runner. Instead, I got slower.

After lurking on this board for 3 years I've come to some conclusions. Firstly, you guys like to argue and don't much care about the other guy's opinions. Secondly, most want instant weight loss by any means. Thirdly you'll trade good health for a thinner waistline.

I turn 50 this year. My resting pulse is 50. My blood pressure is 95/50. My cholesterol was 200 at the last checkup. 5 years ago I was 40 pounds heavier, with cholesterol around 300. I'm interested in what early man ate because we survived by adapting to whatever food was available. I believe what the article said about fatty foods. Early man ate what the animals ate: A mixture of grains, fruits, nuts, and meat; Probably bugs and carrion before learning about fire.

Early man did not eat fatty foods because wild animals don't ever eat enough to store large quantities of fat. So early man was as lean as the lions on the Serengeti.

My opinion is most of our health problems are the result of too much food and too little exercise. My diet draws from Atkins, Zone, South beach and Paleo. Lean meat, fruits, vegetables and vegetable fat like nuts and quacamole. Junk food has its place; I eat chocolate chip cookies for the fast energy I need to run on. I run between 50 and 90 miles a week.

My understanding of physiology (I'm a surgeon) is that we initially absorb calories with the goal of filling the liver and muscles with glycogen. Once that storage pool is sated everything else becomes fat. Dietery protein is used to replenish body requirements. Excess protein is converted into amino acids which are further converted to sugars or fats.

Atkins is a gimmick. With no carbohydrates in the diet the body is forced to break down fat for energy. His 'metabolic advantage' is caused by a surfeit of fat being excreted in stool. The Inuits prove that a no-carb diet is possible. They live on somewhere around 90%fat, 10%protein. The body has the ability to adapt. But most of us aren't Inuit.

Atkins is good for rapid weight loss. So are most of the rest of the fad diets out there. I think most Atkins proponents use the diet to lose weight, eventually get bored and go back to their initial bad diets. When the belt gets too tight they go back to Atkins for a while. That sort of rollercoaster diet is not healthy.

Moderation! Don't eat so much! Get off the computer and get some exercise!

Gotta run...

Wow, interesting post. I'm not sure if you were just making a statement or wanting feedback. You mention the fast weight loss you had at the beginning, though your stats show a 5 lb weight change is all you had during your 3 years here. As far as wanting to argue - nope - just do whatever makes you happy and healthy.

My own experience has been that the Atkins program works well for me. I have lost over 100 lbs and kept it off over a 3 year time frame. It isn't a diet or quick fix for me, it was more of a permanent lifestyle change. I nor my doctor who is thrilled with my blood work, consider the changes the Atkins plan has helped me make a gimmick. I'm not sure what the Inuits have to do with anything, but that is ok. I like my meat, eggs, cheese, veggies, and fruits and have no problem with getting bored. To each their own.

I wish you the best and hope you continue to enjoy good health with whatever type of woe that you choose.

Marie

Try again. Atkins is low carbs, NOT no carb. Also, if you have been lurking on this board for three years, you are then fully aware of the many comments from people that say they eat more veggies now than ever before. Please, get your facts right before you bash.


My job is working on a computer. Thanks.

By the way, I get several hours of exercise a day. But, as a surgeon, would you recommend I run after already having five knee surgeries? Also, those knee surgeries weren't when I was this overweight, they were done when I was in the Marine Corps (just cutting off the likely rebuttal at the pass).

For me, LC works. Exercise and eating in moderation do not work for me. Want proof? I was a tri-varsity athlete in high school. All-American in Lacrosse. Played Division I ice hockey in college and a year on the Women's USA Ice Hockey Team. Joined the Marine Corps, where I was on the run team. I won iron woman for my platoon in boot camp. I was overweight, by medical standards, the entire time. I ate the so-called healthy diet, with moderation as the key. LC is the only way I have ever lost weight and while it may not be your choice, fine. However, for many of us, it works and we come here because it is a place where we can get support for our WOE from like-minded individuals. I get enough of your kind everywhere I turn due to the intense media bashing of LC. Thanks for your comments and feel free to adopt your own lifestyle and WOE. I'll take mine and be just as happy.

Wow--Kaypeoh. Maybe you'd better take this post over to the War Zone. If your idea of Atkins is "no carbs" you've been doing it wrong. But let that go. If your idea of "exercise" is 50-90 miles of running a week, very few of us are going to keep up.

I won't argue with you. What we're all looking for (chronically fat people, that is) is a way of eating we can sustain. Low-fat isn't "it" for me. Low-carb is. As an ex-yo-yo dieter, I've finally found plan I can live with. And apparently, you have, too. That's great.

Is Atkins a "gimmick"? Maybe. It's also an educational system. I've learned how to eat for life, and I'm really grateful.

And speaking of moderation...are you sure all that mileage is really healthy?? I turn 60 this year, and my stats are great, thank you.

The wild pigs around here do get fat, its a good point though.

"Insects have been consumed as food in many parts of the world, and insects consumed directly as food was probably the most important use of insects to the Australian Aborigines. As a food, the Bogong moth was rich in fat, with the average fat content of the male's abdomens exceeding sixty-one percent and of females, fifty-one percent of their dry weight.
" www.insects.org



So what's the point? Most of us don't run track so we don't need sugar baggage in our insides-- studies show athletes actualy have more endurance on LC.

Sorry it doesn't work for you, I am 58 and its been a lifesaver for me-- my BP is now normal and lipids excellent in less than a month.

That's YOUR experience, not mine. My stats are better than they have been in years, thanks to Atkins!Again, your experience is not necessarily the same as someone else's. Ummmm.......First of all, I gotta wonder why someone would spend 3 years lurking on a discussion board without joining in........Perhaps you have, and I have just not seen your posts......Secondly, like MOST human beings on the planet, yes, it's true we don't always agree with each other, but before you take issue with that, why not take a look at how much support we give each other. Or would seeking the positive rather than the negative cramp your style? Regarding instant success, if you actually read the posts on this board, you would find that we often REMIND each other not to expect overnight success. And, as far as trading good health for thinner waistlines, I am healthier now, on Atkins, than I was before I was on it. And I have the bloodwork to prove it. I turn 52 this year. MY resting pulse is 60. My blood pressure averages 90/50. My cholesterol is 149. AND my triglycerides are 62. Not sure what your point is about early man. We're not him/her. We have evolved over many thousands of years, and I am sure our nutritional needs have evolved as well. I don't think you'll get much argument regarding the origin of our health problems. We have cirrhosis of the liver, quite often because we drink too much. We get lung cancer and emphysema, quite often because we smoke. Many of our health problems originate with our bad personal habits, however, there are lung cancer patients who have never smoked and cases of cirrhosis in teetotalers. Despite whatever damage we may have caused to our own good health thus far, the majority of people I see on this board want to look better, feel better, and live longer, so they are in this for their health. I certainly don't run 50-90 miles per week--my poor knees and hips can't take that kind of punishment. But they do manage to get me through a brisk 3.5 mph 4-mile walk 5 times a week. I consider Atkins a way of life--a BETTER way of life. By the way, Atkins is NOT a no-carb diet. Looks like you may have missed the boat on this point. Yes, there are a percentage of people who do this. There are also a percentage of smokers who quit and start again, a percentage of drinkers who quit and start again. This is not some new revelation, it's merely an apt description of our sometimes fickle human nature. Congratulations on figuring that out. You are quick.......
By the way, congratulations on the outcome of your surgery--not often you get to see the results of a successful charisma bypass!.....Please come back and see us anytime! We'll all be here Atkinsing our way to better health and smaller waistlines!

What about those of us who do low-carb not to lose weight but to be healthy (fibromyalga, diabetes, etc.)? I'm doing it for my digestion (GERD, IBS). I literally haven't felt this good in years and am off my medications. No one plan will work for everyone, but I'm sure glad I found this one.

Dear Doctor--At the age of 5 I was diagnosed with hyperlipidemia type IV (just in case you don't know it is a carbohydrate induded hyperlipidemia, esp triglycerides). I lost my mother 5 years ago this weekend because of this condition. NOBODY ever told us what hyperlipidemia type IV was and that low fat dieting was killing us. I had to find this out on my own after it was too late for my mother. I also have PCOD and endometriosis, two other conditions that are helped by low carb dieting. Time to get some CME credits?

I will have to agree with your first statement. I know for myself too much food (and the WRONG foods!) and too little exercise got me to 301 lbs!

Interesting what you say about the metabolic advantage being fat excreted in the stool. Could you explain more about that and why it happens?

Hate to say it but i also agree that many people use Atkins as a DIET and then go back to their old way of eating and just gain it all back. If LC doesnt become a Way of LIFE..then it is pretty pointless. Thats one thing i learned the HARD WAY. I lost 81 lbs on Atkins back in 2003 and when i got pregnant i went OFF of the "diet" and then gained ALMOST all my weight back before finally going back to low carbing in Feb 2006! This time i am not dieting..i am looking for a way of eating that i can do for LIFE!

In defense of the Atkins diet...the WHOLE diet is NOT INDUCTION...if you read the book there are 4 phases to atkins and many foods are added back in by the time you hit maintenance, including all the foods you say you now eat! Its not that there is something wrong with the Atkins diet..its that there is something wrong with most of the people DOING ATKINS! Most have been overweight for years, have bedcome insulin resistant, have slowed metabolisms and have become carb and sugar ADDICTS!! They put a little bit back into their system and set up the craving cycle all over again!! (i just described myself) i KNOW i have to be careful! i KNOW i could NEVER go back to eating SUGAR, GRAINS, processed and refined foods! You have to be REALLY DETERMINED to make it a Way of Life for it to work, no matter what kind of LC diet your doing!

Saying "Moderation! Don't Eat so much" is really missing the point! If it was THAT EASY for us...we wouldnt have gotten fat in first the place! duh

Dont'cha just feel like a complete dumbass now that you realize you were suckered for 3-4 years by a gimmick?

3 years is a long time to stick to a "gimmick" that is how long I have stuck to it. Quick fix? I doubt it. My blood work is perfect now that I eat this way. That is just me, feh. We all don't run marathons, that is why we don't need that many carbs as someone who does a lot of running. We all live different lifestyles and that is why low carb might not work for everyone.

All right, Fellow Believers!! Good show. We've given that troll the what-for. And I've enjoyed reading all these great testimonials myself. Thanks for sharing.

Now we can all relax and go back to our regularly scheduled conversations.

I don't know that Atkins is for a distance runner. I do think isolating strictly on the diet (and not the 4 years of aging, or of other factors) is a very reasonable assessment.



Sometimes people are that way. Other times, we have great exchanges of opinion and information. I think the signal-to-noise ratio is pretty good here, and that you're largely wrong about this.



I got both a thinner waistline and improvement in my blood numbers. I feel better on many levels than I did before I went low carb. This is a pretty broad generalization -- one you aren't really qualified to make.



Wait, you're just now quitting Atkins after "3-4 years" and 5 years ago your cholesterol (the total number isn't all that relevant, according to recent research anyway, but let's leave that aside) was 300? Your timeline seems wonky here. If your cholesterol was 300 five years ago, and you spent the last 3-4 on Atkins, and it's now 200...did you start low carb five years ago? Did you end it five years ago? If low carb, or no carb apparently in your case, came somewhere in the interim, then you didn't raise your (meaningless) cholesterol numbers with it; at best you maintained. How were you eating prior to low carb?



Two things. (1) If you did eat Atkins, you know it's not "no" carbohydrates. It eliminates complex carbs, and early on, a lot of simple carbs. This is a common error, but someone who says they were on it ought to know better. (2) indeed the body does break down fat for energy, which is the idea. That doesn't make it a gimmick.



It isn't as if they are a separate species. And, of course, most of us aren't eating "no" carb diets anyway.



True. But it is excellent as a sustained way of eating as well. I know - I've done it. From your statements about it being no carb, I wonder if you actually have, or at least if you have in the way Dr. Atkins would have advised you to.



Charitably, I'll call this statement debatable. (And Atkins has been a fad at times, but it doesn't share the gimmickry of say, a "Grapefruit" diet). It's much more mainstream, unless eating meats, dairy, and vegetables has somehow become a fad.



This is true of every single diet program out there. The best of them have an extremely high longterm failure rate. Singling out Atkins for it isn't helpful. For me, nearly 3 years in, I have no urge to depart from it.



Again, true of every diet program. No point to this statement at all.



This is not helpful advice. It's rather like shaking an alcoholic violently shouting "stop drinking". I suspect that as a distance runner, you came into this pretty healthy anyway. Your advice is akin to a virgin who has read the kama sutra lecturing on sex. Technically correct in general terms, but ultimately devoid of useful information.

But, good luck. Whatever way you choose to live and eat, I wish you the best. Next time you try Atkins, though, you should actually try Atkins and not whatever "no carb" diet you were eating.

Ok, I know that statement shouldn't be funny as I do have alcoholics in my family. I know what they went through to quit and would hate for someone to do this to them. But I just had a mental image of someone doing this and it nearly knocked me off my chair

Grains, highly debatable - you can't eat them raw and the anthropologic evidence pegs the start of cultivated grain consumption about 10,000 years ago (MAX) with the majority of populations underway with agriculture between 5,000 and 7,500 years ago. In terms of evolutionary adaptions - a blip in time to our DNA.

Fruits - in season, yes...or if one lived in a year-round climate to support fruiting trees

Nuts/Seeds - yes....and they were portable and storable too

Meats/Game - yes....and most likely that included both fatty animals and lean animals. And, let's not forget - nothing was wasted....the very high fat organs were consumed along with the very high fat marrow!

Insects - yes....and interestingly, many are high fat as a proportion of total calories

What you didn't include: Vegetables and seafood and eggs from a large variety of birds and reptiles

The evidence (and our essential requirement for omega-3) strongly supports the notion we consumed a very high proportion of our diet from fish.



Some do - some don't....next.....



Pot meet kettle....sounds like you jumped on Atkins yourself to lose weight.

That said - many who have found success (long-term) following a low-carb or controlled-carb diet have tried other diets and found them not as comfortable for their long-term goals.

My own experience was after losing 20-pounds on WW and getting nowhere toward my goal after a year of it and following it correctly I might add - something else might be better for me....sure enough, reducing carbohydrate worked for me....but to think that the year it did take to lose the weight was "instant gratification" --- I think not.



Exactly what health measure have I traded here? Every last thing I've had tested places me at the very low risk side of things.

And, I for one wouldn't ever consider myself skinny....I'm not and don't have any compulsion to be so - I'm within a good weight for my height and my health is better today at 40 than it was when I was 30 and much heavier.

I would speculate that for those of us who take our health seriously and make it the priority instead of the scale weight, I think you'd find that our diets are very dense with nutrients and good whole foods. In my experience - both with my own diet and in my assistance to others asking for some help - the long-term diet we eat may have a higher percentage of fat based on calories, but the reality is that it's not high in fat based on absolute grams of fat intake.

And that's the mistake I see again and again - when because percentage of calories is high from fat, the assumption is that it's a high fat diet - even though when measured in absolute grams it's often LESS fat than consumed previously....and the type of fat is radically changed for the better also with the elimination of much of the man-made trans-fats that litter the standard american diet.



For someone who states they're a doctor, I'm sadly amused by this....even at the lowest carbohydrate intake, Atkins still requires more vegetables per day than the average person eats and often intake is twice the recommendation of the dietary guidelines (depending on selections from the allowed foods list). If you were eating NO CARBS - you weren't following the Atkins diet - period.

Secondly, the Inuit eat 20% of their calories from protein and 80% of their calories from fat in the cold season....then 10-15% carbohydrate, 20-25% protein and 60-70% fat in the warm season when carbohydrate is available in their environment. Given the same foods as the Inuit - you or I would adapt and thrive also - it's not that they're Inuit and we're not, it's that we typically will not eat the parts of the animals they will that makes their diet as nutrient-dense as it is.....but if we consumed the brains, liver, and other organs as they do, and ate exactly as they did - we'd find our metabolism would work fine on their diet.