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Old Mon, May-12-03, 10:59
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gotbeer gotbeer is offline
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Posts: 2,889
 
Plan: Atkins
Stats: 280/203/200 Male 69 inches
BF:
Progress: 96%
Location: Dallas, TX, USA
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Dear Ms. Large -

I just read your article on the Atkins', and I feel compelled to respond.

Quote: For starters, I don't like the word "diet."

Diet is just a shorthand word for what Atkins folks refer to as a Way of Eating (WOE) or Way of Life (WOL), and anyway, the official name for this "diet" is Atkins Nutritional ApproachTM. This is one of the first things one learns when one actually visits the Atkin's website.

Quote: Huh? There is absolutely no way that one meal can sabotage a week's worth of effort.

The Atkins WOL uses the metabolic state of ketosis (fat-burning instead of carb-burning) to create ongoing fat loss and reduce hunger and food cravings. One high-carb meal can knock you out of ketosis and trigger new cravings that can sabotage the entire diet. Since you haven't tried the diet, you are unfamiliar with its life-changing impact on the body - after Induction, the gnawing hunger and cravings are almost eliminated, and energy levels increase dramatically. Personally, I used to sleep 9 hours a night and still want to nap in the afternoon; now I sleep 6-7 hours and bound out of bed before the alarm, and I am never sleepy in the afternoon. I used to be cold all the time; now I'm warm even in winter.

Quote: It's all about moderation, not deprivation.

I have never felt deprived on this WOE, not even during the first two weeks of Induction, the most restrictive time. This is luxurious way of eating - unrestricted access to succulent meats and moderated access to tasty vegetables, cheeses, cream, olive oil, and yes, even some fruits. The only thing discouraged on this WOE are tasteless starches and empty sugars - and for those like me with a sweet tooth, artificial sweeteners like Splenda easily fill the bill.

"Moderation" diets are dismal failures, as anyone familiar with our current epidemic of obesity should know. The Atkin's WOL encourages lifelong good eating habits to maintain healthy weight and vitality.

Quote: you basically are supposed to omit most if not all carbohydrates from your diet.

Almost right, but almost no one (except the misguided) omits all carbohydrates. Vegetables are a critical food and key to this diet.

Quote: Fat is fat!

Dead wrong. When in ketosis, dietary fat is burned and excreted, but rarely stored. For those NOT in ketosis, the body is burning carbs, and has little choice but to store the fat. If one eats excess carbs (and the nature of carbohydrate addiction makes this likely) the excess is converted to more fat. Low fat / high carb diets are killing Americans in record numbers; England and Australia are rapidly catching up. As far as human metabolism is concerned, carbohydrate is fat. We are fatter than ever because we are eating more carbs than ever.

Quote: The best "diet" I can find does not require you to eliminate any one food from your life. If you omit something, you will crave it. If you crave it, sooner or later you will give in to temptation and overindulge.

One doesn't crave narcotics unless one is addicted to narcotics. Likewise, most people on this WOE and in ketosis find that their cravings for carbohydrates are reduced to easily manageable levels - ketosis has broken their carb addiction.

Quote: The key word here is temporary. I have also noticed that people on this type of carbohydrate-restricted diet become irritable. They tend to need more sleep than they used to, find it impossible to exercise, etc. because they lack the energy. The reason is they aren't eating any carbohydrates.

The first few days of the stage of Atkins, "Induction", can be a struggle for some - women in particular seem to have a harder time than men, I've noticed. (Induction was easy for me despite my being 110 lbs overweight at the time.) After all, one is breaking a lifelong addiction to high-carb foods that are more universally available than crack in a crack house. But that stage is a mere two weeks - once ketosis takes hold, the energy gains make it easy to exercise and even minimize sleep. The reason is that one is no longer subject to the wild swings in blood chemistry that come from a carbohydrate-based diet.

Only the initial stage and its problems are "temporary" - follow the WOE guidelines, and the weight-loss will be permanent.

Quote: If you are on a high protein "diet," you are eating way more than that. Do you know what happens to the excess protein we ingest and our body doesn't use? Our bodies either convert it to fat or it is excreted through our urine. This means that Americans have the most expensive urine in the world!

Atkins is more properly a high-fat diet, not a high-protein diet. And the problem with expensive urine is...weight loss despite more calories, perhaps???

Quote: An article in the April 9 Journal of the American Medical Association concluded that among published studies, participant weight loss while using low-carbohydrate diets was principally associated with decreased caloric intake and increased diet duration, but not with reduced carbohydrate content.

Note the key phrase, "increased diet duration". In other words, people found it easier to stick to the Atkins WOE long-term - the other diets failed sooner - their cravings overwhelmed the dieters, whereas the Atkins folks stuck with the program. That sort of completely refutes your contention that this diet is "temporary", doesn't it? It is clearly less "temporary" than any alternative diet. This diet is EASY to stick to longer because:

1. Cravings are reduced (ketosis breaks the cycle of carb addiction).

2. The food is luxurious and delicious (fat & protein are much tastier than carbs).

3. Energy is enhanced; sleepiness is reduced.

4. Hunger is reduced - resulting in decreased calories. (How is that a bad thing for this or any diet?)

5. Even those who DON'T reduce their calories tend to lose weight (and more of it) on this WOE. The reason is that the excess fat calories are excreted though urine and sweat as ketones and feces as fatty acids.

These are just the primary reasons for the success of this diet - there are many others. Personally, my face has cleared of acne blemishes for the first time in 29 years and my alcohol intake has declined (because this WOE makes me more sensitive to alcohol).

Quote: Eating healthy may not only result in weight loss, but will also help prevent cardiovascular diseases and diabetes.

Atkins IS healthy eating - blood tests during recent studies have proven that risk factors for cardiovascular diseases are best improved through the Atkins WOE. Type II diabetics and those with pre-diabetic conditions also report marked improvements - and I'm one of them.

It takes a bit of study and commitment to fully grasp the essentials of this WOE - obviously, the effort you put into it was not enough.

You shouldn't take my word for any of this; I encourage you to do your own deeper research. Here is an article by Gary Taubes that got me interested in Atkins:

What if It's All Been a Big Fat Lie?
By Gary Taubes
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