I need help with Atkins ( need to lose weight while adding strength )

Here is my purpose for switching my diet.

I am going to be in an intense competition being filmed live on a couple of different sporting event, in one month. I have needed to exercise for awhile now and this will just kick me in the rear a little bit harder. I need to drop 10 ? 15 pounds and add some strength to do well in the competition.

What is my diet now?

Nasty! I over eat, eat sweets non stop, drink tones of coke and just all around did not care about my weight / heath.

How I have changed my diet to do this competition.

I am now not sleeping in till noon and pigging out as soon as I wake up.

The first thing I do in the A.M is 20 sit-ups, and 20 pushups with jumping jacks sometimes.

The second thing I do is eat, I have 4 ? 6 strips of bacon and 1 -2 eggs with a couple of glasses of water with a fiber pill and a hydroxicut (I am dead set on losing this weight).

The third thing I do is get on the exercise bike and peddle for 30 minutes. I get done with that, shower up and do some work behind a desk in my home office.

The forth thing, is lunch. I have a Tyson Chicken breast 2 ? 3 or a hamburger, each consisting of 2 carbs per breast. I take another fiber pill with a couple of more glasses of water and finish it off with another hydroxicut?

The fifth thing I do is run, I run for 30 minutes in the late afternoon (not so hot) it is only about 1 mile but as I get more stamina I will increase distance.

The sixth thing I do is come home from the run, have a glass of (Naturade Total Soy Meal Replacement ? For Low Carb Dites) with a couple of glasses of water and I might or might not have a hamburger.

Before I go to bed I do 20 more sit-up?s and push-up?s, there again this will increase with more Stamina, and finish it off with another Great glass of water!!!!

What I need to know from anyone that can give me input is;

Should I or should I not use the meal replacement and just stick to red meat??

What can I use in-place of water, there is only so much water I can drink in one day?

Will this help me gain strength and stamina or will the red meat JUST help me drop weight??

I know that it is not recommended to just do the meat part BUT I only have one month and can pull it off until then and then ease my way back into the other dietary parts.

Please help me!!!! If you can help please e-mail me direct at justinlchew@gmail.com, or repost it here and I will check it out. I am sorry this is so long but I figured you need my info before giving me tips. Thank you all for all of the help and support, I look forward to talking to you soon.

Now that I read on, I see that there are many people that do not support Atkins or they support it 100%. I will be honest, I REALLY JUST NEED TO DROP 10 pounds and add strength, if Atkins is not right please say something. I don't want to be a body builder, but I also need to pull of a huge task. LOL, I guess I am saying if there is a better more effective way PLEASE SPEAK UP.

Thanks again.

I don't know if Atkins is right or not.  I do know that people lose weight on Atkins, sometimes quite rapidly, but I've not heard of it being used for adding strength -- but it makes sense because strenght-builders using have high protein diets, and Atkins certainly is high protein. 

You are right, this crowd does not approve of Atkins, so you are not likely to get any pats on the back for your decision.

Do you have a coach for the event you are prepping for?  If so, have you asked him/her what the best diet is to follow?

Personally, I'd stay away from the soy meal replacement.  It's not the soybean in its whole form -- but only parts of it that have been stripped out.  All of the negative stuff about soy has to do with these partial soy products.  So, my advice is to stick with the red meat if you are going to do atkins.

You mentioned fiber supplements.  Are you also taking a vitamin/mineral supplement?  If not, you need to, as the Atkins diet does not allow enough carbs to get balanced nutrition.

Sorry I can't be of more help than that, but good luck in your quest. 

Well, nobody ever said that I had trouble speaking up!  I?m an opinionated woman!  I read your post a while ago, and I wasn?t going to respond because your weight loss plan rather horrified me, and I didn?t want to be unsupportive.  But you?re asking for advice, so I?m going to give you some!  You can take it or leave it, as you wish.

I look at what you plan to eat, and I wonder, where is your nutrition coming from?  Protein isn?t the big bad any more than carbs are, but if you eat all protein, you aren?t going to get the nutrition you need.  You say you need to be strong for this competition, I say that the best way to be strong is to fuel your body with everything it needs to function at its full potential.  Shakes and meat and fiber pills aren?t going to do that.

Which is more important to your competition, losing 10 lbs, or being the strongest, healthiest, most energized person you can be?  Chose a plan that gives you good nutrition.  It should include vegetables, whole grains, beans, fruit, low fat dairy, and yes, lean meats.  Make sure you have a reasonable calorie deficit (between 500-800) and make sure you eat more to allow for your heavy exercise routine.  Get enough calcium, magnesium, and potassium, to help make you strong and build those muscles.  Eating both whole grains and beans gives your body all the building blocks it needs to make protein, and this protein is less clunky than the protein found in meat, and thus easier for the body to utilize.  Soy protein is also good, so make sure you get at least a little of your protein from non-meat sources.

Don?t fret the weight so much.  If you eat healthily, exercise, and have a proper calorie deficit, the weight will come off.  If it doesn?t all come off by competition time, so what?  Being strong and healthy will make you more ready for that competition than a certain number of pounds off will.

I hope that gives you some things to think about!  Good luck!

I thought Atkins was good at one time also.  BUT I did not like all the fat.  It is just to restrictive for me.  I am also not a big meat eater, but I love cheese, and milk.

I am following the Rice Diet and I have to say it is the BEST.  All carbs!  BUT not simple carbs. 

rice, pasta, whole grain breads, whole grain cereal, potatoes, beans and lots of fruit and veggies.

I never ate so much at one time in my life and still lose weight doing it.

I have strayed from before Christmas and only gained back 7 lbs from about September till now.  If I would have been doing Atkins I wouldwould have gained back 7lbs in one day.

I need to tell you all thanks for the input and I hope it keeps coming.

The event is going to be filmed on ESPN, and TNT during a certain sporting event so not only are we filming a commercial we are doing the event live. Not to say this is the most important, BUT I know that I could stand to use about 8 ? 10 pounds as well as putting on MASS to help with the three grueling rounds of competition.

I guess I need two things in a short period of time (28 days) to take off the ?flab? (I really hate to say that) trim up if you will and to add mass.

Flab for the Camera; and Mass for ?very out of the ordinary type tasks?.

I hope this helps??  

A good product to consider would be Ergopharm GF Pro.  It is a protein isolate that comes in many flavors and has 23 g of protein per scoop.  The kicker here is you can and will loose fat on it if used as a replacement because it has no carbs or fat and is low in sodium.  The high levels of protein can help prevent muscle damage and you don't have to get all the salt and other calories that you would normally be consuming to get the protein.  It can be mixed with skim milk (my preference) or in some cases water.  If your mixing with water use the raspberry lemonade, cherry blast, or blueberry madness flavors; these are the only ones that taste good when mixed with it (most taste like a kool aide or crystal light this way).  Hopefully this helps as I have seen many people loose weight by substituting 2-3 of these for a meal throughout the day.


Also, for after you cut weight, try the vanilla mixed with orange juice or sunny D it tastes exactly like a dreamcicle.  A nice dessert for only about 250 calories.

If you're looking to add strength, do not do atkins.  You will likely see a big drop in strength on atkins, especially in the begining.  I tried it a long time ago, and you'll quickly notice a LACK of energy because you're having almost no carbs, which is the primary energy source.

I'm one of those that acknowleges that for at least some people, restricting carbs can have a benefit on weight loss, but restricting too much will have bad consequences. 

My advice would be to aim for 30% carbs, 40-50% protein, 20-30% fat for your intake.

Now, you need to choose which is more important, putting on mass or losing weight.  They are pretty much mutually exclusive.  And gaining strength is more difficult while losing weight.

If you want to focus on losing weight, calculate your bmr and subtract 1000 calories.  You'll see a lot of threads saying don't go more than 750, but you have a deadline, and for short periods of time, it can be okay to drop to a 1000 calorie defecit.  *Eat this much plus what you burn off through activities.*  If you do not add back on calories from your workout, you will end up starving yourself, which will severely hurt your weight loss.  

If you want to focus on putting on mass and strength, calculate our bmi and add 500-750 calories.  You should be getting 1g of protein per 1lb of lean body weight, but this should be more (much more) than taken care of by aiming for 40-50% protein.  Also, you'll want to cut down on the cardio.  Or, at least, switch it to hiit where you alternate intervals of pushing yourself as hard as you can with a lighter interval.

Most importantly: talk to a doctor.  You should always consult a doctor before starting any drastic diet change.  Advice found online is no substitute.

ok. now I am starting to understand. take a look at this;

I got this from this website after putting in my info.

Fat - 47.3% (38 grams)
Protein - 44.4% (81 grams)
Carbohydrates - 8.3% (15 grams)
Alcohol - 0.0%
Other - 0.0%
Daily Sodium Intake - 1,294 mg
Daily Cholesterol Intake - 185 mg
Daily Fiber Intake - 7 grams

Total Calories Burned   902
Total Calories Consumed   706

I would like to go with Mass and Musical but can I turn the extra pounds to work for me???

Yes, you can.  You will likely gain some fat as well, but the goal will be to minimize that while you maximize your muscle gains. 
How much do you weigh, and what is your height?

You definitely need to be getting more calories than that, and since you've been eating so little, you're going to find that hard to do for a little while. 
You should be doing cardio at most three times a week, and you should get your heart rate up to 80% of your max, so it's a workout for your heart instead of a fat burning exercise.

Again, you need to be getting more carbohydrates.  That's what is energizing your boy.  You should avoid simple sugars, and go for more complex carbohydrates that you find in whole grains and the like. 

Supplements that you should look into (and discuss with your doctor):
multivitamins
glutamine
creatine
fiber
Note: These are supplements and should not be taken until you've fixed up your diet and workout regime and talked to a doctor.

Just to add onto what other people have said, but not really contribute to your question of how...

The daily recommended amount of fiber for men is 38g (according to this Mayo Clinic article.  With your fiber supplements, you are getting only 7g.  You really can't get all the fiber you need through supplements.  However, if you eat more of the whole grains, legumes, fruits & veggies that come with eatting carbs, you'll get a lot closer to hitting that 38g mark.