Atkins - can someone supply me with a shopping list to get through the first week?

[dinny]

BUT, I don't eat meat! I do et fish though can it be done?

Thanks, Dinny

don't do it dinny .. its really really bad for you

is it - kidney stones, you mean?

Don't do it, especially if you don't eat meat. The weight won't stay off and it's not good for you. Join weight watchers, I have neaver lost so much weight, kept it off and been so healthy since I joined this time last year.

This diet should be outlawed.

Agree with Twig.

I also find Slimming World really easy to do.When I do it that is.

Spring Ball at the Castle coming up at the end of April, so back to SW I go.

Castle, Sherlock?

Farnham Castle.

PTA do, limited tickets, mucho kudos if you get tickets.

Did I mention I am on the PTA. ??

Have you read The Hungry Years by William Leith? If I remember correctly much of the negativity surrounding Atkins was refuted. Unfortunately I cannot find it on my shelves and I read it on a beach (staring at wobbly bits)a couple of years ago so the details are hazy. I am reading the India Knight one at the moment (Idiot-proof diet) which is also low-carb. Haven't read enough to judge yet though. I do think you would struggle quite a bit by not eating meat - on p.4 it says that it is not vegetarian friendly.

MB had fantastic results on the GI diet which is great for vegetarians as it uses stacks of pulses.

As others have said WW and SW also work for many people. There has been a short series of articles in Body and Soul in the Times by Suzi Godson. She followed WW and embarked on an exercise regime and has had great results.

One thing that always seems to help is to find someone to do it with you - sharing highs and lows. Choose someone similar not someone ultra-competitive though!

Good luck.

I wouldn't just do Atkins is you haven't researched it and planned it properly. I did it a few years ago and lost 2.5 stone and felt great. It is possible to do it fairly healthily. I grilled meat. I ate veggies - didn't limit my veg intake at all. Did eat more cream, butter etc obv but not at every meal. I found I ate more veg and salad than on my "normal" diet. For eg normally I would have a cheese sandwich but on Atkins I would have a cheese salad with lots of veg.

However I am about to do Slimming World! Much healthier and more sustainable.

Did you keep the weight off though Budababe? That was the problem I found with Atkins. I did it about 3 years ago and I lost 2 stone but as soon as the carbs crept back into my diet I ballooned and a complete no carb existence is very hard to maintain.

I bought the atkins book.
Did the diet for one day.
Felt so incredibly ill that I chucked the book away to stop anyone else reading it and going through the same misery !

am after quick fix for a stubborn half stone! surely it can't do any harm for a couple of weeks...?

cheese is allowed on Atkins? was thinking of a typical day I could have like this:

breakfast: eggs with Quorn "ham slices" and grilled tomatoes
lunch: tuna salad
dinner: salmon steak with veg

is that right?

LGJ - congrats!

No Lilliput - didn't keep the weight off! In fact have gained double what I lost.

I do think that Atkins can be done a lot more healthily than people think but it is had to maintain. What is supposed to happen is that you get to your goal weight and gradually re-introduce carbs - healthy ones - and find your "set point" at which you start to regain weight. Of course what usually happens is that we lose the weight and go straight back to eating how we did before which is what made us overweight in the first place!

I also think the health risks are exaggerated I thought my doctors would go mad as I have fairly serious health issues and tbh my cholesterol and other blood results were unchanged and my blood pressure went down BUT it is very difficult to keep doing and as soon as you stop ity you balloon ime bigger than you were!So for that reason something like the gi diet is better for you and prob easier to stick to

I did Atkins about 18 months ago for a month. I lost weight which I put on very rapidly as soon as I started eating carbs again and am now at my heaviest ever. It made me feel quite unwell and after 2 weeks my period started in the middle of my cycle and wouldn't go away. Has that happened to anyone else? When I stopped the diet my periods went back to normal. Incidentally, my thighs have ended up with loads more cellulite than they had before I did this diet, I blame it on all the cream, cheese and sausages!

I feel more out of shape after it too.Whilst doing it I felt slim and even bought a couple of new clothes but now feel even lumpier and will be doing my own version from now on I think I overdid the cream and bacon too!

blimey - not very positive stories.

did you just go back to eating normally afterwards? after how long dong it?

I tried to reintroduce carbs gradually, but tbh after youve been "starved"of them for so long its pretty tempting to just go back to eating normally. I put all the weight back on that I had lost within a month or two, then it has gradually been piling on after a difficult 18 months (separation, house move etc bla bla) But now I am feeling great, very positive etc and have begun the GI diet which seems much more in line with the kind of things I normally eat (but without the bags of crisps and mountains of chocs haha). Have you made your mind up on Atkins?

I did it years ago and lost loads and put it back on.Then I started last november for xmas and I lost about 8 lbs I kept doing it for weeks but as soon as I had just a couple of glasses of wine as xmas parties started etc I just was bigger almost instantly!

rapidly being put off it, Thundercat

haven't got very much weight to lose - thought ut'd be a quick fix, iykwim!

yeah I know only too well! I have about a stone to lose and although Ive only been doing the GI diet for a couple of days I do seem to have lost the weight I put on at Xmas so Im quite motivated to give it a go. Also, after the first 2 weeks you can have a glass of wine a day or Save it Up! And as I am quite lush this is very exciting for me. Cant actually believe I have now had 3 wine free days in a row!! Yipee

Quite A lush that should say. I am defo Not Lush.