Obese Americans

[annaland]

Quote from 2cents:

atkins. no carbs, no sugars for 3 weeks, like fucking 0, capice?... and 1h gym / pool 3 times a week MIN. for the laziest arses around this board... then u can start hitting the carbs again, but eaaaasy, ok?...

and no point in telling me it doesn't work... it just does...

You're right, this does work and it works well(was on Atkins for 6+ years). However, the moment you start introducing carbs/sugar you do gain the weight back and you're lucky if you don't gain more. I recently got off the diet and have not gained any weight yet (making good food choices and working out 5-7 times a week). If you're looking to drop weight fast it does the trick but if you're trying to slim down and stay slim, I'd strongly recommend staying away from Atkins and instead, eating lots of small balanced meals and not eating after 5 or 6pm - and of course working out.


Good luck!

 

[neophyte321]

Quote from drmarkan:

I don't disagree with you that this works. I just don't agree that it is a healthy way to lose weight. Also, depending on how heavy the person is, I think that the loss of carbs (energy) is going to keep many people from exercising. I think the best way to lose weight is by eating smaller meals several times a day. A person trying to seriously lose weight and adapt to a healthy lifestyle needs to learn how to eat properly. This diet does not promote good eating habits. You basically are cutting out all fruits, vegetables, and grains from your diet. While increasing the amount of cholesterol you are throwing into your diet. Especially considering that people who already have bad eating habits will probably opt for a second helping of bacon for that extra protein boost.

I agree totally. Considering my sweat is starting to taste like sirlion, there is no way in hell I could remain on such a diet for much more than a few weeks. (...if that)

I have a bunch of interviews coming up, and after 6 months "working" on my own, I've realized I've gained alot of weight. I'm a Fat ASS! Just a short-term solution for me. To shed, hopefully, about 15 pounds quickly.

By the way, I'd wager the NASDAQ is heading for higher, highs in the near future. Companies seem to be hiring at a rare clip. A bunch of Tech companies are courting me. (I have somewhat impressive experience related to enterprise software, but this is the most interest I've seen in a long while)

 

[riskarb]

Quote from drmarkan:

I don't disagree with you that this works. I just don't agree that it is a healthy way to lose weight. Also, depending on how heavy the person is, I think that the loss of carbs (energy) is going to keep many people from exercising. I think the best way to lose weight is by eating smaller meals several times a day. A person trying to seriously lose weight and adapt to a healthy lifestyle needs to learn how to eat properly. This diet does not promote good eating habits. You basically are cutting out all fruits, vegetables, and grains from your diet. While increasing the amount of cholesterol you are throwing into your diet. Especially considering that people who already have bad eating habits will probably opt for a second helping of bacon for that extra protein boost.

Ketogenic diets are unhealthy. I heard somewhere that Atkins died of a massive infarc; oh wait, he slipped and fell on some ice, uh huh... He was also obese. I'll never understand the logic behind an austere ketogenic diet which saps energy and strength from the dieter.

It's far less difficult to muster the will power to haul your lazy ass in the gym.

 

[smilingsynic]

Quote from neophyte321:

I agree totally. Considering my sweat is starting to taste like sirlion, there is no way in hell I could remain on such a diet for much more than a few weeks. (...if that)

I have a bunch of interviews coming up, and after 6 months "working" on my own, I've realized I've gained alot of weight. I'm a Fat ASS! Just a short-term solution for me. To shed, hopefully, about 15 pounds quickly.

Crash diets work, in the short term, and they can work fast. 15 pounds of weight loss is possible in a short amount of time. Good luck.

That said, in the long-term, crash diets don't work. If you want to keep the weight off, you're going to have to come up with something you can live with for years to come, if not for life.

 

[smilingsynic]

Quote from riskarb:

Ketogenic diets are unhealthy. I heard somewhere that Atkins died of a massive infarc; oh wait, he slipped and fell on some ice, uh huh... He was also obese. I'll never understand the logic behind an austere ketogenic diet which saps energy and strength from the dieter.

It's far less difficult to muster the will power to haul your lazy ass in the gym.

Anyone who works out regularly knows that Atkins or any other low carB diet simply does not work. You cannot train hard while burning fat, and if you cannot train hard, you'll simply never get the muscle mass needed to get your metabolism up enough to burn fat all of the time.

One of the "selling" points of Atkins is that you can lose weight without exercising (I said and say bullshit). At the same time it makes perfect sense, since anyone on Atkins is going to find it hard to train with any significant level of intensity.

I always try to cut carbs in the evening, so there is little excessive glycogen (which will be stored as future energy if not burned) but it makes little sense to cut them before you really need them.

 

[2cents]

who needs to train hard??

all your asked to do is 3-4 times a week, either 30-45 minutes of quasi-continuous swimming at your own pace, or 30-45 minutes of doing sets of 3-4 series of 12-15 SLOW reps with COMFORTABLE weight at any instrument, and when your in shape for it, start doing sets of gentle crunches as well, starting with 12-15 reps, 3-4 series, same routine... always start with a gentle 10 minutes warm-up and finish with some gentle 10 minutes stretching session... any time you do this you can feel and observe some direct mental & physical benefits the next day...

basically if you can do that but can't get rid of your carb addiction, you'll be fitter but won't experience any spectacular weight loss, but that might be good enough... now if you can take the pain of getting rid of your carb addiction, and follow atkins as laid out in his book, then you'll see some major difference fairly quickly (reason i earlier said 3 weeks of 0 carbs/sugars diet instead of 2 per atkins is cause i don't believe one can comply within the 1st week of trying... its just too f.hard... need to figure how to combine the tons of stuff thats allowed together into sensible 'meals' & snacks before it becomes bearable...)

of course if after a few months of (serious) atkins, instead of consuming carbs to satisfaction (even the occasional binge) but only as & when (ie in full control), you start bingeing on carbs everyday again, its guaranteed you'll put all the weight back on again... what d'u expect??

 

[2cents]

Quote from drmarkan:

I don't disagree with you that this works. I just don't agree that it is a healthy way to lose weight. Also, depending on how heavy the person is, I think that the loss of carbs (energy) is going to keep many people from exercising. I think the best way to lose weight is by eating smaller meals several times a day. A person trying to seriously lose weight and adapt to a healthy lifestyle needs to learn how to eat properly. This diet does not promote good eating habits. You basically are cutting out all fruits, vegetables, and grains from your diet. While increasing the amount of cholesterol you are throwing into your diet. Especially considering that people who already have bad eating habits will probably opt for a second helping of bacon for that extra protein boost.

bah, no offense but... everybody says that because nobody can be arsed to read the book and understand the fairly straightforward phasing of the 'diet'... the initial stage "2 weeks" diet is v.strict cause we know what happens, people make allowances, oh why not just a power bar, and pasta galore this sunday with the kids, oh and just a few beers with me mates tonite... just once...

am not going to rewrite it here, but basically atkins has never said that people should attempt to live their lives without carbs... where have you read that you can't start having veggies and some fruits (kiwi) and grains in appropriate quantities depending on type etc, very early in the diet??

 

[2cents]

Quote from annaland:

I'd strongly recommend staying away from Atkins and instead, eating lots of small balanced meals and not eating after 5 or 6pm - and of course working out.


Good luck!

of course thats always best to do as you suggest, and not to eat/drink like a pig in the evenings unless your planning to have an awful lot of nightly exercise... and even then... how's that not common sense? atkins btw certainly says nothing against that... all he says is, if u must binge, don't binge on carbs/sugars...

anyway... i have nothing to sell... am done with this thread... good luck all ;-)