Anyone notice how much that Atkins diet has picked up?? I'm now seeing this at all the fast food restaurants ... like the Atkins wrap at subway.

My dad has tried this diet and now he swears by it ... I'm a little more skeptical, tho. Anyone else have any experience with this?

Hi there,

I don't have any personal experience, but I heard that it is supposedly very hard on your system and that you gain the weight right back, once you stop.

i am not a supporter of this diet. Everyone knows eating too much saturated fat increases the risk of heart disease.
Of course you loose a lot of weight in the beginning, but this loss is always waterbased and not fatbased and when you resume your regular eating habit you will regain the loss quickly.
I believe , eat a balanced, nourishing and nutrient-dense diet. By this, I mean eat plenty of wholegrains (bread, cereals), nuts (walnuts, brazil nuts), low fat dairy products (semi-skimmed milk, cheese, yoghurt), fruit (bananas, pineapples, mangoes), vegetables (carrots, onions, leeks), lean meat (turkey, chicken), fish (especially oily fish such as tuna and salmon), tea (rich in antioxidants that delay the ageing process - great bonus) and complex carbohydrate meal fillers (potatoes, pasta) etc. and don't forget to exercise (20 min 3x a week).

but, our bodies really doesn't need that much carbohydrates ... that's the only logic I see in this diet. Carbs are for energy and unless there are some high performance athletes among us, it seems like a waste. Carbs turn to fat for storage if they don't get used ... I'm not a big fan of how much fat this diet encourages one to eat, but I think there is actually some good logic to it ... which basically is to train your body to burn fat for energy instead of carbohydrates.

I think that Atkins is a bit too extreme. I do agree with AllCdnBoy that most people eat too much Carbs, but why do we always fall from one extreme to the other. Personally I like the method best where you take 1 part fat, 2 parts protein and 3 parts carbs (mostly through fruit, veggies or whole grain products)in every meal. For example the snack-bars I eat have 7gr of fat, 14gr of Protein and 23gr of Carbohydrates which makes it almost perfect.

Did you hear that Dr. Atkins supposedly had all sorts of health problems??? I got it second hand, but apparently he had heart problems, was overweight yadayadayada...not that he died from it, but it sort of puts a perspective on his weight loss advice...unless he didn't live by what he was promoting.

Yea, i was thinking the same thing. It's a lot easier to give advice than to actually live by it. I think Dr. Phil is in the same category, isn't he? He's great at giving advice, but he is far from a leading example??

can't say anything about Dr. Phil - I've never seen or heard his show. I know his face only from magazine covers. Anyhow..I wonder if those recent findings about Dr. Atkins will change the current trend.

i don't think they will ... it may give some people a reason to second guess, but I still believe his theories to be right. Besides, so many companies have now sunk a lot of dough into this new advertising ... they aren't going to give up so easily.

This diet is based around eating foods that are high in protein and fat and limiting foods high in carbohydrates.

The pro to this diet is that it's for short term weight loss and there's a reduced feeling of hunger.

The con is that cutting back carbohydrates your not feeding your body certain vitamins and minerals found in carbohydrates. Als in the long run there may be potential long term health problems due to high fat foods.

People who should not go on this diet are pregnant women, athletes, those with heart problems, at risk for heart disease, kidney problems or diabetes.

well, i noticed that everyone is getting big into the Atkins diet (subway, McD's, etc), but is this happening everywhere? I know it is in Canada and US, but for those who are from elsewhere, is it just as popular??

HI AllCdnBoy,

I don't think it's everywhere. The bits and pieces I catch in news and other reports lead me to believe that only in America it is such a big Hit. In Italy - they had a congress and the result was that they will keep eating there beloved Pasta, no matter what. However it was mentioned that they cook the pasta 'al dente', which lowers the glycemic index enormously and makes it much healthier.

Atkins is a great diet. The Atkins approach is fundamentally different than the low-fat approach to weight loss. Both carbohydrates and fat provide fuel for our body's energy needs. If carbs. are available, the body burns it as fuel first, but burning fat is also perfectly natural and safe. If you switch your body from a glucose metabolism to a mostly fat metabolism, you burn your body fat for energy instead of storing it. It's not simple dietary fat that makes us fat, it's the excess carbohydrates, (especially in the form of sugar, white flour and other starches, ie; breads, pasta, potatoes and in almost ALL over-processed convenience foods and snacks). When you feed your body lots of protein, healthy fats and nutrient-dense carbs., it helps to stabilize your blood sugar so you don't get ravenously hungry or depleted of energy a few hours after eating. You basically have to perform a metabolic switch. the first stage of Atkins is what I found to be most difficult. It's called the induction phase. It's where you are most restrictive of carbohydrates, but it jump-starts your weight loss. You can't have more than 20 grams of net carbs each day. Eventually your grams of carbs. per day increases, but you will always be aware of what you're putting in your mouth after you have experienced this diet. Sorry for going on and on but as I'm sure you can tell, I'm pretty passionate about the things I fully believe in! Sorry about the novel though!

yea! finally, i have someone with me on it!!

Angelfly, don't worry about length - I think it's great to get input from somebody who actually tried it. I read in another post of yours that you ended up stopping because you missed certain carbs too much. That's what I meant by extreme. Personally I think every diet that restricts a certain food group is very hard to maintain, because you always will end up missing exactly what you are not supposed to have. I don't know, I guess it's just being human. I try to cut out refined sugar, white flour etc...but believe it or not, after eating like this for almost a year I got such a craving for Pizza...unbelievable...luckily I found one that is within the ratio I am trying to keep, but I could only wonder...was it triggered by all this talk about low carb, no carb, atkins? I hadn't missed Pizza at all until then...