I've been on a research binge because my father is dying.

He's had diabetes since the late-sixties; back when they told you anything under 200 was good. And he's been a faithful checker of sugar and injector of insulin; he believed what his doctors told him. And so now, at 75, he's got vascular dementia and terminal heart disease and back in May he didn't recognize me or my brother any more.

Ten years ago, he didn't want to follow Dr. Bernstein's book, which I bought for him, because his wife is a gourmet cook and dead set against low carbing. (She comes from a family with heart disease & stroke, and told me: "I believe taking statins and eating low fat will keep me from the health problems my parents had." Even though this was last May and I have been low carbing {with last winter's lapse} for six years now, with weight kept off, sugars & lipids great, and etc)

Okay.

As Bill Cosby used to say, "I told you that story so I could tell you this one."

Is low carb the answer to diabetes, overweight, heart disease; the whole cascade of "civilization diseases"?

I think so, and I'm putting my health, and that of my husband & baby brother, on the line with it. I've got a family with type 2 diabetes on both sides. My husband has CFIDS, and now, his doctor is concerned about his A1C, so he needs to watch it, especially with a history of hypoglycemia in the family.

Yet, in all the research I've done, I keep running across people who say "Atkins didn't work for me."

What do they mean?

Did they saying it didn't work?

Or are they saying, "I couldn't stick with it."

Because, before I get obnoxious about it, I want to know.

"Atkins didn't work for me" In my experience means -

"I never even read the book."
"I modified it a bit"
"I followed my own plan"
"I did not stick with it"
"I am following the plan, except no one is going to stop me from having a few drinks when I want to."
"My Doctor told me Atkins was bad"
"Too much fat will kill me."
"My Doctor put me on statins, so I can eat whatever I want as long as I cut out the fat"

And on, and on, and on. I have yet to meet 1 single person who actually had a medical, physical or metabolic reason why Atkins did not work. I am not advocating you do anything one way or the other and I always tell folks to do this under the care of a Doctor and monitor your blood work.

I have to agree, although, I would say that 97% belong in the first part, and 3% really do have real physiologic reasons such as thyroid, menopause, etc.

I think this sums it up pretty nicely. I used to be surprised when otherwise intelligent, well-informed people would assert that Atkins means "unlimited bacon and cheese and no vegetables," but now I just assume that that is what Atkins means to most people--both those who would never try it and those who think they did try it!
I suspect that many of those who say Atkins didn't work for them, simply used it as an excuse to stop eating their vegetables and cut back a little on bread and potato chips. Then they felt sick and didn't lose weight and, so, "Atkins" didn't work for them.

I admit, I haven't read the book. So I can't really speak as to the 'Atkins didn't work for me.'

I can say this- the same diet doesn't work for everyone. Some people really do better on a diet with less animal protein than your 'typical' low carb diet. A lot of the recipes out there are meat and cheese heavy. I couldn't do my low carb diet without generous dairy intake.

If someone can't seem to find 'meals' that are lighter on the dairy/meat aspects, they often give up and say the diet didn't work for them. (I know arguably, if the followed the OWL/rungs they'd have learned that).

I think low carb can work for everyone- Atkins isn't the only low carb out there, and it *may* not work for everyone. But as the saying goes, don't throw out the baby with the bathwater.

But I still agree that MOST people don't try it properly.

I think that
Zero Carb
Very Low Carb
Low carb
Low-to-moderate carb

grain-free diets are the healthiest and work the best for weight loss.

However, if we are talking about losing weight, some folks can lose their weight doing the amount of carbs/fat on Atkins, and others might need more or less carbs, or more or less fat. People are individuals with different metabolisms, different histories, etc. I know that there are people here who believe we are all exactly the same and that one thing has to work for all of us. I don't agree.

I think that we are not the ones who can answer your question "What did they mean by that?"

Instead I think you have to ask them "Why didn't Atkins work for you?" before you assume the answer. Yes, it very well might be because they didn't follow the plan, but it may also be because they found something else that worked better for them for weight loss. Does it mean that they won't gain it back, or that they are healthier than a person that does low carb? No, it means that they lost the weight. For now. It probably also means that they are setting themselves up for health problems in the future.

A friend and I started our diets at the same time. She chose a typical low fat, low calorie diet. I chose a low carb diet. She and I lost the same amount of weight. Then I stalled. I am still stalled. Should I tell her that her diet does not work? I have told her that she will probably gain it back once she starts increasing her calories, but why should she listen to me? She's still losing weight.

There are no guarantees. Genetics plays a role, as does environment.

That being said, IMO chances are that I am better off on a LC diet than any other diet. And for all intents and purposes I am betting my life on it.

I just do not see a better alternative. if there was one, I would head that direction.

The vast majority of people who I have talked to about Atkins have never read the book, and have only a vague clue about the diet. Often what they think the diet is about is radically different than what it really is.

No doubt there are a very few people who just cannot lose on LC. But, my own guess is that there are 10X or 100X not losing who are not really on a LC diet, but for some reason think they are.

I can't tell you about other LC diets, but a very important part of the Atkins diet is to find out what works for the individual, and the only way it seems to work is by trial and error. And the book gives you some very good advice on how to conduct the experiment that helps you figure out what you have to do.

An odd thing for me - I found green beans give me moderate cravings. So they went on the avoid list. I have no problems with cauliflower, lettuce, broccoli, or spinach.

YMMV.

I think there are aspects of the foods we eat now and changes in the environment that will challenge the most assiduous Atkins dieter.

I don't think you can safely assume that because you are sticking exactly to the Atkins plan you are obtaining all the vitamins and minerals your body needs daily. Check out table 3 AFL and make sure you understand what forms of magnesium are bioavailable.

I think you have got to double check magnesium intake and certainly you will need more vitamin D than most people and certainly most official sources claim is necessary. I also think it takes FAR LONGER to reduce omega 6 ratio compared to omega 3 than most people realise.
Start by eliminating ALL OMEGA 6 industrial seed oils and all the foods that contain them particularly mayo, corn and soya oil today and how long will it be before your body will have reduce current levels to below the 5<>1 ratio at which omega 3 can work properly.
Happy Healthy Long Life
Well the half life of omega 6 is about 2 yrs when stored in tissue so starting today you may, if you stick with it and keep taking 2g omega 3 daily and never each chips, or anything containing omega 6 seed oils, be about right in 5 yrs time.
I don't think most people realize this is a long term strategy that takes time to undo the damage created over your life to date.

The problem is excess inflammation and our current anti inflammatory reserves are low and even if you eliminate the dietary sources of inflammation there are still the environmental sources such as fine particles in the urban environment, ozone both in industrial towns and industrialized agriculture blocking UVB from reaching the ground and reducing our potential for making vitamin d let alone the disruption to the circadian rhythm by light and preventing sufficient melatonin (anti inflammatory) circulating at night to repair inflammatory damage while we sleep.

There are plenty of reasons why people can fail on Atkins even if they follow the rules very strictly. It isn't just a matter of calories in = calories out and while low carbing has enabled me to restore my metabolic flexibility and I can eat drink what I want without worrying about regain I think it's got as much to do with the anti inflammation program I had instituted for other reasons before I started low carb dieting.

I agree with everything you said. We can't blame something when we don't actually try.

Ma, it doesn't work!
Did you try?
Yes, I did.
Try again.

Dieting is not a one size fit all, i have seen many people not losing on low carb, plan was simply not for them.

A lot of the people I know who say this usually should say
"Substituting artificially low-carb frankenfoods for my favorite high-carb frankenfoods didn't work for me."

I have known people on both ends of the spectrum. Some started on Atkins and bought all the "Atkins-friendly" products, lost some weight and went back to eating the old way (and gained the weight back). Others started on Atkins and decided that SAD really was what was killing them and began eating something akin to Paleo-light, lost the weight and kept it off.

I think that you forgot a group of us...those of us who followed Atkins, moved onto OWL and worked the carb ladder, moved into pre & maintenace--lost the weight and keeping it off. And although I advocate whole foods--I will openly admit to an occasional frankenfood.

Many could find a good measure of success IF the FOUR phases of Atkins was completed--particularly OWL and determining each persons CCL and CCM AND climbing the carb ladder to ascertain where to stop. What I find time and time again is that most people (even people on this forum) equate Atkins with induction. Atkins is so much more.

JMO

Progress not perfection.

Lisa

Although weight loss hasn't been much I would say atkins worked for me, after being diagnosed as a diabetic at age 32 I didn't think I would be 48 and not diabetic.

The lack of weigh loss was the red flag that I had thyroid issues.

My bff says atkins didn't work for her, never bought the book, or looked up anything on the net about it. Now shes 80lbs overweight going on weight watchers in January.