Hair Loss
 

Has anyone doing the Atkins Diet experienced hair loss? I did Atkins 25 years ago and never experienced it, lost 80lbs in 6 months. Again 6 years ago I lost 50lbs and same thing, no hair loss. I've been doing Keto for 5 months now have lost 58lbs and my hair is falling out. I think I don't get enough protein on a strict Keto diet so I'm going back to Atkins. Do people on Atkins lose hair too?

Hair goes through stages:
(italics are cut and pasted from a hair website)

ANAGEN (GROWING) STAGE
The anagen stage is the growing period of a hair follicle.
This stage typically lasts about 3 to 5 years.
CATAGEN (INTERMEDIATE) STAGE
The catagen stage is the intermediate period of hair growth.
Hair follicles prepare themselves for the resting phase.
It lasts around 1-2 weeks.
During this phase, the deeper portions of the hair follicles start to collapse.
TELOGEN (RESTING OR SHEDDING) STAGE
The telogen stage is the resting and shedding period of the hair cycle.
It usually lasts 3 to 4 months.
At the end of this period, older hairs that have finished their life will fall out and
newer hairs will begin to grow.

When some extreme stress happens in your life, like a pregnancy, or starvation, surgery or even quick weight loss, a large amount of hair can suddenly enter the telogen stage but since that stage lasts 3-4 months (the hairs resting before they fall out) you have to look back at what happened in your life then. When I first started Atkins, I lost 30 lbs in 3 months and at almost exactly 4 months I had significant hair loss. It lasted a few weeks to my dismay, but stopped eventually with no significant bald spots, and ever since (4+ years) I have experienced very little shedding and way better growth and thickness than I ever had in my life - attributed to my improved diet!

I don’t believe that a lowered amount of protein will result in hair loss, unless 3-4 months ago you suddenly switched to eating almost none. I suspect it is simply your bodies reaction to the stress of your weight loss.

http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?t=355017

I have not experienced significant hair loss. That includes two pregnancies.

Atkins has always been my default choice; OMAD meals were higher carb, but greater weight loss. Neither gave me hair loss.

Atkins is a ketosis plan, so fingers crossed that programs works for you.

PS. keep note of progress on hair growth. It maybe something else, another cause, that has coincided with your keto phase.

I started out in life with impossibly thick hair. It thinned out a lot in my 40s but was still full. By age 60 I knew what it was like to have "baby fine" hair. I was horrified to see my shiny pink scalp when I parted my thin, limp, white hair.

I've been on Atkins for a year and a half now, and I have noticed that I'm getting some of my color back underneath and that my hair is thicker and has more body than when I started out. I'm convinced it's because my body likes what it's eating - ample micronutrients, healthy fats and adequate protein.

I was on a keto diet from March to August of this year. Lost 35 pounds. My hair is noticeably thinner on top when compared to February.

Loss of testosterone can also account for thinner hair.

Both men and women have this hormone, but at different levels. As we age, the amounts drop. Apparently men have far less than they are supposed to because of food contaminants, and a generation ago had much higher levels later into life.

I expect women have both factors also working against us. Aging and food contamination.

When I can afford my testosterone replacement therapy, my hair thickens up, my body is stronger, hands can open jars easily, and feel reasonably strong. Without it I am a shadow of what I used to be.

Getting hormone replacement is not as hard as it used to be; just need a knowledgeable doctor.

If you google hair loss and diet/weight loss, you'll find all sorts of people having this problem, on all sorts of plans. It's possible there's just a posting bias, if people have a particular problem, they're more likely to post, that makes some things seem more common than they actually are.

The last time I lost weight on Atkins, my hair starting thinning. I learned that the body in stress will do this. The good news is after a few weeks, new hair started growing back.

Here is an old article on this topic for you....
http://www.atkins-diet-advisor.com/...-hair-loss.html

In a roundabout way, the fact that my hair was thinning was what introduced me to low carb. My hair, which had always been so thick (too thick really) began thinning in my mid 40's. Began scouring the internet and taking supplements. Hair stopped falling out but didn't get thicker, which was fine for me as I had started at such a thick place anyway. But the improvements the supplements had been making in my overall health kept me on those websites and those websites led me to low carb.

Initially, my hair did fall out a little bit, but I didn't worry too much. Two years in, I noticed my hair was getting thicker. It's definitely still thinner than it was in my thirties, but it hasn't been this thick since my mid 40's. Even my hair dresser commented on it.