Atkins diet, what do you know?

[Rhiannon]

I've been on a diet for a week which someone told me today is called the Atkins diet. I'm not mixing protein and carbs and eating as little carbs as possible. What else should I eat/not eat? I have 3 stone to lose.

Rhiannon I know people who have had brilliant results on the Atkins diet but there are health warnings - apparently it is bad for your kidneys if done for too long. Before I started on it I did searched some websites through a search engine and found quite alot of medical info which you may find interesting. I tried the Atkins diet and lost nothing in 2 weeks (with 2 stone to lose) so I switched to a high carb/low protien diet and the weight came off. I suppose not all diets can work for everyone but everyone can find one to suit.Good luck.

CALLING ANY ATKINS EXPERTS! - in induction phase are you supposed to count the carbs of everything you eat (for example in shellfish) as well as those in the vegetables? Also he talks about adding sesame seeds and mustard to sauces - but can't find any reference to you actually being allowed to eat them during induction. Is he a nut and am I a nut for even reading the book?

willow2, yes you have to count the carbs in absolutely everything.
I have followed high protein diets with some success. I always find it is a fairly easy way of shedding a few pounds. However, I think Atkins is a bit too severe and his carb limit in induction is too low. That said, I have no qualifications whatsoever to make this judgement, just my own personal experience.
IMO, no one got fat eating fruit, veg and meat. You don't lose weight or you put weight on by eating all the other stuff!

Have just finished Atkins and am now a stone lighter! Yes you count the carbs in everything, but you can discount carbs as fibre, since this will go through your system. Several websites list carb values and carb as fibre values of most things.

You can add sesame seeds et al as long as your total daily carb intake (net of fibre) is no more than 20 grammes during induction.

Bugsy - the diet is designed to change your body from being a carb burner to a fat burner - that is why you cannot eat fruit as they are high in sugar which is a carbohydrate. It is nothing to do with the fat or calory content of food - one of the best things about the diet in my opinion.

Willow2 - dh and I have been doing Atkins for just over 2 weeks and have just finished the induction - I cooked meals out of the book which had the carbs calculated for you - but basically we had salad for lunch - he has lots of recipes - and ate the amount of salad veg per the recipe, and then for evening meal had brocoli and cauliflower or cabbage - but I think it says you can have approx 8oz of salad veg(lunch)and 5-7oz of other low carb veg(tea).

We are probably having too much veg at night, but have followed it quite strictly otherwise, and had our first alcohol on fri and sat nights for 2 weeks!!

So we are finishing induction so that we can now have the 'occassional' drink !

By the way I have lost 7lbs and dh has lost 10lbs - and it doesn't feel like a diet - we seem to be eating healthier than before - esp because of the alcohol !!

have you seen this?

Bundle - so anyone who has been pregnant or had medical treatment that had urine tests that were clear would be OK?

judetheobscure, I'd imagine the tests would be for something specific. It's also not v clear how long these people had been on Atkins for - whether the damage only occured if they were on it long-term. I've a friend who's used one of these diets v successfully for short bursts - she's a former doctor and wasn't overly worried by the long-term effects, just pleased she got rid of some lbs!

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Christ don't even begin to read all the book,you'll feel like chucking it at the wall.The diet is great though.Just get a few tips,skim the pep talks and refer to the carbs lists until you virtually know off by heart how many carots for eg you can have.

It is bloody confusing to start with though - having to work out the carb content of a salad containing varying sized portions of different ingredients etc etc - and how come you get to have cream and not milk?

Does anyone else find this diet makes you totally constipated?!!

Not been on it long enough to find out but am taking a supplement to hopefully prevent problems.

Day two and I have to say I feel as though I have walked a million miles - my legs are just dead. Cravings are less but I feel totally bashed. Has anyone else felt this way? If so, did you stick with the diet only for things to improve? Am I daft as a brush to continue or is this classic for induction phase?

Has anyone been watching the BBC Diet programmes? They're very closely monitoring the Atkins Diet over a 6 month period. It's the only one out of the 4 they're testing that the pros have serious health concerns about. I'm sure it does work, but friends have told me about constipation and dog breath as side effects! And I don't see how this can be maintained as part of your normal lifestyle. I think WW is the only one that "trains" you into long-term good food habits.

Another Atkins question... I don't eat meat, just fish - how can I do Atkins? Just eat fish all the time? Or should I just buy the book?Also, any tips for not ruining diet in evening - I always seem to crave crunchy carby things.

Have decided that I am daft and that feeling dreadful is not a good sign of sensible weight loss - funnily enough the first thing I then ate was a big, healthy apple! (Which I have been fantasising over for the past two days - not something I could have forseen). So it's back to WW - this time dh says he'll give it a go too.

Atkins suits some people and not others ! As the Diet Trials is showing. We felt very well and full of energy on it, no side effects at all - and we didn't even take supplements - but a good friend of mine quickly became so ill (3 days in) that she had to go to the GP and was ordered OFF the diet immediately !!

There's been a lot of publicity lately about it damaging kidneys too - but the evidence actually found that it deteriorated sick kidneys but had no effect on healthy normal kidneys. The concern was that some people might have latent kidney problems and exacerbate them by the diet.

It really irritated me how ready people are to slag Atkins off because that's what the gutter press does ! Try it and if it doesn't suit you drop it - just because it doesn't work for you doesn't mean it is rubbish !

As it forces your body to burn fat instead of sugars and other complex carbohydrates your body produces larger amounts of Ketones..... which can cause halotosis (sp?)... Yuck!!

The atkins diet seems to be good for a quick fix weight loss. I'm not convinced it can be good for your heart eating so much saturated fat and no wholegrains for a sustained period.

I was warned off Atkins (not that I was ever considering it) by my kidney specialist. Not only can it cause kidney damage, it also increases your risk of stones, and, beleive me, you dont want to ever have kidney stones!

Just relaised that means I must look like I need to go on a diet! Well, I knew that anyway!

It can only cause kidney damage when there is already an existing kidney problem though !!

The latest scientific evidence proves that it does NOT cause kidney damage to normal 100% healthy kidneys.

Scatterbrain - my s-i-l started the same day as we did and is feeling fantastic and the weight is dropping off. I would happily have stayed on it but for feeling so rubbish, but am certainly going to try and keep elements of it going - eg: no caffeine (or very little) loads of water (cannot begin to tell you how many times I''ve had to have a wee) and as little bread etc as I can get away with. My s-i-l pointed out a bit in the book that I had read but then couldn't find again (it is so badly set out) which basically said that my symptoms were that of someone losing weight too fast and to have some macadamia nuts! Wish I'd seen that last night - I'd have sent dh up the supermarket. But am a bit wary because of a long term thyroid problem so thought it best to knock it on the head. Anyway, will be interesting to see what bbc makes of it all.

my symptoms were those of (even)

But I didn't know I had a kidney problem! I had probably been forming stones for a couple of years before I had any pain. SO you don't actually know, without a kidney function test from your doctor, and a scan, if your kidneys are 100% healthy. There are no kidney problems in my family. I had no way of knowing until it happened.