How the atkins diet REALLY works

Hello everyone, this is my first post on this forum.. I hope it's not misplaced..

But have you ever thought about, or tried the atkins diet? It sounds like it must have a complicated way it works, with such wierd eating.. low carbs and lots of meats.

But it's this simple, carbs are high in calories, meats are low in calories, and meats help musles grow which burn more calories.

I just thought I would mention that.. it might open some people to possibilities for their own calorie diets.  As for me, it wouldn't sound like i eat very healthy, I eat fast food plenty, eat lots of meat and even have sodas all the time... but so far down 13 lbs since february.

Meat is a good way to get a more satisfying portion of food without breaking the daily calorie bank.

arn't most meats pretty high in calories unless you get the lean cut? ha I could be wrong though. I'm vegetarian so I don't really look at the calorie content of meat often.

My step-mother does the atkins diet on and off.  She's really petite. 4'10 i believe and between 90 and 100 pounds.  Whenever she's gained a few pounds... she goes on the atkins diet... loses the weight and such.  But she's always back on the diet every other month. Meaning she always gains it back.  It could be due to her overeating but who knows.  All I know is whenever I visit my dad and step mom, she is always eating.  But hey! Whatever works for her!

I do agree that protein is alot more satisfying, but you need to watch the saturated fats in some cuts. High fat content leads to high calories. I would stick with lean cuts and eggs.

It actually has to do with how long it takes the body to break down and use those calories.  It's just that protein takes more effort, and thus longer to break down than carbs, which are more quick fuel and store easier.  They break down easily.

yeah, a gram of carbohydrate has the same calorie content as a gram of protein. it's fat that has more calories per gram. and alcohol carbohydrates.

I personally think it's better to feed your body the things it needs and keep a good balance. I don't like the idea of eating just meat and proteins all the time. The body runs of of carbohydrates. You just need the right type.

well yeah.. like an example is you could have one bagle, and the bread on its own would be 3 or 400 calories because of the starch and carbs. With those same calories, you could have a full plate of lean chicken and rice. I'm just explaining how IMO the diet works. And obviously you do need carbs :P

I'd like to disagree with the assertion that meat is low in calories.

3 oz. of Top Sirloin has 158 calories.
3 oz. of Broccoli is 15 calories

Carbs are low in calories. Most GOOD sources of Carbohydrates such as vegetables, fruits and whole grains are typically lower in calories than meat.

Sorry, Ibez, but I disagree with you :)

I DO Agree one should try to eat less starchy and sugary foods. Bagels, Sugary cereals, etc.

Just not that meat is inherently lower cal than carbs. That's just not true. :)

Whole grains and vegetables are good for you.  Sorry, but it's true.

Also, Atkins diets are notoriously low in fiber.  Not having adequate fiber in your diet to...er...move things along, has been linked to colon polyps and cancer.

I could list a bizillion more reasons why Atkins is a simple marketing scheme, but I don't feel like typing that much.

Not eating enough carbohydrates can throw your body into something called Ketosis.  This is when the body starts using it's stores of water and protein in the muscles and converts it to energy.

This is how the people on the Atkins Diet lose weight so quickly, but the chemical reaction hurts your body, especially your liver.

The bad thing is, once you start eating those carbs again your body quickly restores it's water and muscle protiens, thus you gain the weight you lost back very quickly.

Wait.. hold on. Did someone on the Atkins Diet just suggests they could have Chicken AND Rice? Rice is Starchy. At least the White Rice is. If you're on Atkins, you shouldn't be eating Rice. Rice is ALL Carbs.

.. ARE you on Atkins?

1 bagel = 363 calories

OR

1 Chicken Breast = 284
+
1 Cup Rice = 242 Calories

So.. in fact.. the Bagel has fewer calories than the Chicken and the Rice

I thought doing the atkins thing worked by tricking your insulin levels.

actually, ravenlark, that's a misconception about ketosis.  ketosis isn't bad, it's simply the body burning its fat reserves.  if our bodies didn't do that, and it wasn't good, we could never get rid of stored fat.

there is a condition called ketoacedosis (spelling?) that is dangerous, but its not the same thing as ketosis.

however, I disagree with the atkins diet because I do not believe it provides the best nutrition.  God loaded the plant kingdom with nutrients, and I think we are very foolish to deliberately reject those foods.

I think a plant-kingdom based diet with just a little meat is a healthier diet.  I don't have any problems at all getting my protein allotment, and all the meat I usually have is what is contained in a bowl of soup or a cup of chili. 

Ah I see, Manewell.. I guess I got my "osises" confused.   We agree though that Atkins isn't the healthiest route to weight loss.

I've done atkins before, and it does work, but it's not worth it.  It sounds great being able to eat all that meat and fat and whatnot, but you really feel sick a lot of the time, especially at first.  And you will realize just how much you crave carbs, while you have almost no energy.

Oh, and you can have rice on atkins.  When you start out, you go on pretty much no carbs, but you continually increase carbs until your weight loss stops. 

But I still wouldn't recommend it.  I have read that restricting carbs has been shown to be effective, so I'm still playing around with it.  Right now, I'm trying a more reasonable low carb approach.  I have days where I have 30-40% of my calories come from carbs, and those days, I tend to lose more weight.  I have 50-60% carbs most of the time.    I've done continuous days of 30-40% carbs in the past, but I find that I lack energy if I do that for too long.  When I do it only a couple times a week, I don't run into that, and so far, I seem to be burning the fat.  My weight fluctuates some, but my waist size has been consistently decreasing.

Here is what the Harvard School of Public Health has to say:

Why do high-protein, low-carb diets seem to work more quickly than low-fat, high-carbohydrate diets? First, chicken, beef, fish, beans, or other high-protein foods slow the movement of food from the stomach to the intestine. Slower stomach emptying means you feel full for longer and get hungrier later. Second, protein's gentle, steady effect on blood sugar avoids the quick, steep rise in blood sugar and just as quick hunger-bell-ringing fall that occurs after eating a rapidly digested carbohydrate, like white bread or baked potato. Third, the body uses more energy to digest protein than it does to digest fat or carbohydrate.

There's no need to go overboard on protein and eat it to the exclusion of everything else. Avoiding fruits, vegetables, and whole grains means missing out on healthful fiber, vitamins, minerals, and other phytonutrients. It's also important to pay attention to what accompanies protein. Choosing high-protein foods that are low in saturated fat will help the heart even as it helps the waistline.

http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/p rotein.html

A little history on the Atkins type diets

http://www.atkinsexposed.org/atkins/10/Dr._At kins_had_a_Dream.htm

Here's a good artile on the missing nutrients and possible adverse effects of this type of diet... the problems caused can be serious....  (scroll down to middle or so)

http://www.atkinsexposed.org/atkins/98/George _L_Blackburn,_M.D.,_Ph.D.htm





 

The explanation I got from a biology teacher, if I remember it correctly, is that the body uses carbs an a source of energy, and if you stop giving it carbs, it's forced to use its fat reserves for energy and burn it up. So it makes sense.

But like a lot of people have said, it means not getting valuable nutrients from fruits and veggies. No healthy diet tells you that you can have a steak but can't have an apple.

Also, this is not a way to live your life permanently, and it doesn't teach you how to maintain your weight and eat a balanced diet once carbs are back in, so like xxpois0nedheart's step-mother, I imagine many people will just gain the weight back.

- Julie

I was going to post about the misconceptions of a ketogenic diet, but Manewell pretty much covered it :] However, I too don't believe in Atkins specifically, though I do follow a low-carb/ketogenic diet myself, I have anywhere from 50g-75g carbs on a typical day. I also can have more on days I do cardio and stay in ketosis... so I'm definitely not doing the super rock-bottom low of carbs that Atkins has you do during Induction. I get sufficient whole grains, fruit, and vegetables (along with the obvious meat and some dairy - yogurt) and I have no cravings. Cravings constantly plague me on a higher carb diet, which is why I opted for a low-carb alternative.

The BBC commissoned a study a few years ago at the University of Kansas where identical twins were placed on either an Atkins diet or a traditional low-fat diet (but served the same calories in each diet) and locked in sealed rooms for two weeks.  By placing them in sealed rooms they were able to measure exactly how many calories the twins were burning (oxygen consumption).

They determined both diets eating the same number of calories resulted in the twins also burning the same number of calories.

In other words, the sorts of foods you are eating on the Atkins diet work as an appetite supressent.  Your body is happy eating carbs (carbs have been the staple of human diets for thousands of years), but resists high levels of protein and fats.

More about the study here.

I found Atkins fabulous, indulgent, and fun for about three days. I ate fancy cheese, lots of bacon, salads with full-fat dressings, and lots of eggs cooked in butter.

Then... I got one of the worst migraines of my life, had terrible diarrhea that felt scarily uncontrolable, and I could not get my mouth to stop feeling dry, no matter how much water I drank. I also dreamed about cake, cookies, and macaroni and cheese every night, haha.

Three days, only three days and my body said "no way, absolutely not."

A good diet makes you feel good, isn't that the point? Why on earth would you torture yourself when weight loss is hard enough? This is my opinion, of course, but the way I felt was torture and not worth the 2.5 pounds I lost in those three days (which was probably just water anyway).