I started the Atkins diet today!!!

[Lauraa83]

Don't know if there's anyone interested but if there is I'll let you know how I get on...........

I want to lose 1 and a half stone and would like to have read a thread on this before I started so thought I'd start one myself incase there's anyone in the same situation

So if there is..let me know and I'll tell you what I've done and how I feel so far!

Laura x

Laura
Are you blind love, there is nothing to you, you look perfectly fine the way you are.

If you think you're overweight, you must think I am a beaxh whale...................................errr dont answer that

lost 3 stone on atkins, 3 years ago. now need to loose it again brill diet, if your motivated. good luck

Everyone seems to say that Waterfalls, (but they wouldn't if they saw me naked!:o) I'm ok when I'm dressed and standing up:)
Don't be silly you look really good after having 3kids :)

What it is, is before I got pregnant I was 7st to 7&1/2st and now, well on Sunday when I started I was 8st8lb (today I'm 8st4 - working already:)) and I'm only 5ft1. I think I am small (tiny frame) but flabby if you know what I mean?

Got a really big belly still that needs shifting

anyway, been having bacon ang eggs for breakfast, cheese and mushroom omelette with peas and salad for lunch and jelly and cream for tea...........had a massive steak for lunch today ... but no chips or onion rings :( :o

I have done Atkins before and it does really work (did you read the book it is fascinating) be warned though to make it work through stage one you cannot deviate at all ..you have to get into ketosis ( I think..long time ago) and fat burning stage.I lost about half a stone in 3 days but unfortunately I got pregnant before I could get onto second stages etc..
good luck

thought this diet had been discredited as being dangerous

There is that Twig ;)
Also if you check your body mass index Laura you're on the lower end of ideal
So you do not need to lose weight honey, you need to tone up!
Charlie Brooks dvd or something similar 3-4 x a week
Made me change shape in 3 weeks :)

Doing the Atkins Diet made me lose half a stone in 5 days, and, unfortunately, I fainted at one of the tills in my local Asda. Had to be brought round by first aider who gave me a Mars bar and a voucher to have tea and toast in the canteen. I was way too embarassed to admit to being on the Atkins diet, so I told her that I just hadn't had my breakfast.

Would never do it again. In fact have decided that all 'trendy' diets are dangerous - the only way to lost weight and keep it off, is to eat sensibly and exercise regularly.

Thanks for all the advice :)

Piffle, I've been doing body attack and body pump and seen a bit of a difference but can only get to the gym twice a week so maybe I'll try that dvd then ....:)

Also I've been losing 2lb a day so I'm gonna make tomorrow my last day. It obviously does work but the book says if u lose more than 1lb a day you can feel dizzy and weak which I did on a couple of mornings and got a bit scared doing body attack, dunno if it was just in my head but it felt like my heart was pumping faster than usual! So I told 2 girls I know there that if I collapse half way through it's cos of my atkins diet and funnily enough JonesTheSteam, they said they'd bring me round by wafting a mars bar under my nose!!!

Jonesthesteam. Am I allowed to laugh at parts of tyour reply?!

Thst is, of course, terrible, but so embrrasingly funny. I am in two minds about the unhealthiness thing with Atkins.

I have done Atkins three times after 3 pregnancies and lost nearly all the weight I wanted.

I am 5ft 2 and used to be 7stone to 7.5 stone like you Laura so I know exactly what you mean.People often think one is mad to be aiming to lose so much weight or to be so slim, but if you remember being a certain weight and happy it is hard to accept being bigger.

I have had 3 children and 4 pregnancies so have gained a bit each time. I now need to lose about 1.5 stones. If I do this I will be a little more than I was before babies but happy, I think.

At 5' 3", my ideal, healthy weight is 8st 1lb - 10st 1lb. Admittedly, at the higher end, I'm not happy, but I was quite skinny at 8st 7lbs. Like you, I was always late 7st, until I started work. I was 18, so my body hadn't really taken on its mature shape.

Atkins is not a healthy plan. I was a WW Leader, and you really can't go far wrong if you follow its principles:

Plenty of variety
Eat 5-a-day
Drink 2 litres of water a day
Get 1 pint of milk (or equivalent) per day
Cut down sugary foods and alcohol
Get Active

Let's face it, a slwer weight loss is more frustrating, but more healthy.

I went to Lighterlife and lost 4 stone in 3 months. The price has just gone up now and costs £65 a week but if you stick to it you lose tons BUT, I also lost my hair (took 3 months before it started to grow again as usual) and the constipation was awful even when drinking 3 litres of water a day. We all know the sensible think is to eat lots of chicken, fish, fruit and salads cut down but not cut out carbs and certainly no chocolate. Lots of exercise etc but if it was really that easy we would all be slim.

I am in such a metabolic rut. I try and lose weight healthily but I'd have to eat MORE to lose it this way.

I need to reeducate my body as I think i am in fat saving mode as a result of hardly eating.

I have either a tiny breakfast or just juice or cofee due to work pattern. I then have either no lunch or a pitta with delifiller and salad and a coffe or juice. And then a healthy meal at night.

My bad stuff will be maybe 2 or 3 biscuits in a day or a pudding at night such as lemon tart. I need to eat more early on in the day but my work makes this unrealistic. I don't know how to eat more without putting on more weight.

nannyme
That is my problem, I often dont eat until around 4pm, so I too think my body is in fat saving mode, though I do have an underactive thyroid which does'nt help. I just cant face eating breakfast at all. Once in a blue moon I do wake up hungry and have breakfast, and when that happens I am starving by 12.00 noon, I suppose this proves that breakfast kickstarts your metabolism into working and burning calories.

Hi,

I’m new here so don’t wish to be contentious but I’m going to leap to the defence of Atkins and low-carb diets in general. I’ve been on Atkins for 18 months and lost 20 lbs in the first 10 months. Then my loss slowed and I put on 6 lbs and now have a BMI of 21.6 so I’m happy enough to be at this point. I don’t buy into the fuss about Atkins being bad for you….if you follow the diet properly it consists of fresh meat and fish with lots of vegetables, small amounts of dairy and nuts. The theory is fascinating and it certainly seems to be borne out by my experience. Once you are in ketosis your appetite shrinks and you lose cravings for all the unhealthy foods that made you fat in the first place. I also discovered that I have an addiction to carbohydrate – why eat one biscuit when there’s a whole packet there???? Atkins rid me of those terrible cravings and allowed me to have control over what I ate for the first time. The dizziness that you experience in the first few weeks is the effect of the body switching from carb burning to fat burning - once the initial stages is passed you generally feel 100% better and more energetic.

Having said all that I am now off Atkins and trying to stick to a low-GI diet – moderate fat, balanced diet. I’m not trying to lose weight just keep where I am. I did intend to stick to a low-carb diet for life but in the end I found I was breaking the rules too often – ending up with a high-fat level (as Atkins permits) and higher than permitted level of carbs too – worst of both worlds. So I decided that a clean break would be best. I am suffering from those horrible cravings again and needing to use will power (not my strong point) but I am determined to develop a way of eating that I can follow happily for the rest of my life. However if I find myself out of control again and putting weight on I will be back to Atkins so fast you won’t see me for dust!!!

Interested to know if anyone else has followed this path – Atkins to low-GI I mean?

Kate

Same, same, same as you joelalie! I am going to restart my Atkins this week as have to appear on tv soon and want to lose some lbs.

Will be attemmpting to move over to GI after an initial Atkins month or two. Will let you know how it goes and would love to hear how you are doing. I had exactly the same with the high fat prob. when trying to eat Atkins for life, as it were. Kept having cream in coffee but would sneal in the odd sugar instead of sweetener so it all went horribly wrong. Also found tha if you have one single dose of carbs it throws you straight out of ketosis in a bad way - did you get that?

I am sooo a diet bore these days,sorry!

Hi Nannyme,

Yes I did. I suppose it makes sense if the main strength of the diet is of keeping you in ketosis and eating a big chunk of carbohydrate knocks you out of it.

So far I’m doing OK. I am frequently shocked by the foods that I’m eating know….apples, rice, porridge …even home-made flapjack the other day!!! It still feels wrong but I think from a calories point of view I am eating a lot less now so maybe I’ll be OK. It seems odd to be worrying about calories again and not to be able to grab a chunk of cheese if I’m hungry….I do miss cheese so much…. And although I’m still hungrier now it is getting a bit better. Measuring my waist every week to ensure things don’t start to go wrong….I don’t use scales now as I found myself getting obsessed last year about every little fluctuation and it was ruling my life.

Eating that way made me much more aware of the stuff that I actually put in my mouth…I eat virtually no processed foods at all these days incl reduced-fat foods which can be full of little ‘extras’….if something is naturally high in fat I either don’t eat it at all or in very small amounts rather than buying the low-fat alternative. I drink at least 3 litres of water and am very conscious of hidden sugar and salt in foods.

Hope you get the results you want. I haven’t actually tried a real restart on Atkins but I know that others have found it hard to lose weight as quickly the second or third time round…..have you found that?

I am very keen GI follower, and now am starting GL
I eat splendidly I think and the weight just a little at a time trickles off. I look and feel better.
Add some exercise and I am almost in danger of getting a halo!

nannyme - it's ok - I think it's funny as well!!!!!

Still think the Atkins diet is a bit dodgy!!!!!

i started atkins two days ago having sworn blind i wuld never ever do it. But i've been GIing for nearly a year now. Have gone from a size 18 to a 14 (don't own scales) but have been stuck at 14 for about 4 months. i just want another chunk off and then plan to go back to GI. I feel GI really is a 'lifestyle' and one that i can stick with but it doesn't shift the weight quick enough. i want more thiness NOW! also, getting to eat cheese is a great treat - although it does feel weird to be weighing lettuce! am interested to hear how you others get on.

Good luck Vitomum,

if you've been GI-ing you might not experience the huge weight loss initially that some people do. You have been eating modified carb intake anyway....but who knows. The people who lose loads are usually the one's who have been eating a lot of very processed hi-carb foods and they lose all the retained fluid.

Don't overdo the cheese or cream - i know it's tempting and boy do I miss it - but it may slow things down. And drink at least 3 litres a day (water I mean). Try to stick to 'clean foods - ie fresh meat, fish, eggs and veg. But I'm sure you know what you're doing.

Kate

i've been on it 5 days now! first 3 days were horrid and felt awful but feel completely fine now. It doesn't feel nearly as unhealthy as i thought it would. I've not even had any red meat - just fish, chicken and tofu. haven't had an egg since day 3 either. been having advocado and prawns or haloumi and wilted spinach for breakfast. Green salads with feta / mozarella and olives or tuna or prawns forlunch. At night broccoli with fish or stir fried with tofu. the things i am really missing are alcohol, caffeine and muesli!

You might be OK with caffeine. It isn't recommended as it can increase cravings for carbs but it might now in your case. L-Glutamine from a health shops can help if that does happen.

I confess that just as soon as induction was over I started having G and low-cal tonic....

How is it going now?