Atkins ideas

[doczinn]

I'm with you on that!

[Felonious Monk/Fignozzle]

Gewehr, that was ugly the way you treated Bogie.

Bogie, that was classy the way you ignored the inappropriate behavior.
Kum Ba Yah and such.  Still friends & all.  No harm intendended, guys.

I can only speak my experience. If you take Dr. A's book from the early '70's at face value, I suspect you're right, Gewehr.  You'd probably wind up with lots of ugly digestive problems, arteriosclerosis, and other crappy diseases as bad or worse than the fat.

If you use Atkins as a start, and CONTINUE to expand your understanding of the interaction of metabolizing sugar, magical insulin wierdness, and how it affects your weight and your health, I find it is a far less painless way to control my weight than regimented caloric limitation.

If you look at the Carb Addict's Diet, Ray Audette's Neanderthin, The Zone, Protein Power, South Beach Diet, and so many more, Robert Atkins was really on to something.  He admittedly got a little over-excited by his own findings, and advised folks to go ahead and gorge yourself on huge Western omelettes, Filet Mignon and the like.  It was probably medically irresponsible of him, but in his later books and updates, he toned down the wild-eyed bingeing directives.

Best of luck to all in the battle of the bulge!
Fig

[Bogie]

If you're gonna eat something, make sure it's something without sugar in it, because that's what starts the roller coaster. You can only eat so much steak in a day... but you can nibble at crap all day long...

[Iain]

You can only eat so much steak in a day...

I'm not sure that particular frontier has been pushed back far enough yet. Certainly not by me anyway.

Here's John Berardi's take...

The Atkins program works for all patients under the direct care of the Atkins team—as long as patients follow it. The Zone program works for all patients under the direct care of the Sears team —as long as they follow it. The Pritkin Diet works for all patients under the care of the Pritkin team— as long as they follow it.

Yet, not all three plans are identical. How, then, can they all get impressive improvements in health and body composition? Well, either each team somehow magically draws the specific patient subpopulations most in need of their plan (doubtful) or each system possesses some basic fundamental principles that are more important than the ratios of protein to carbs to fats.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Nutritional Programs

Here’s my take on it. I call these principles, "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Nutritional Programs," a shameless and possibly illegal play on Steven Covey’s book, "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People." (Great book, by the way—you should read it sometime.)

These aren’t the newest techniques from the latest cutting-edge plan. Rather, they are simple, time-tested, no nonsense habits that you need to get into when designing a good eating program.

1. Eat every 2-3 hours, no matter what. You should eat between 5-8 meals per day.

2. Eat complete (containing all the essential amino acids), lean protein with each meal.

3. Eat fruits and/or vegetables with each food meal.

4. Ensure that your carbohydrate intake comes from fruits and vegetables. Exception: workout and post-workout drinks and meals.

5. Ensure that 25-35% of your energy intake comes from fat, with your fat intake split equally between saturates (e.g. animal fat), monounsaturates (e.g., olive oil), and polyunsaturates (e.g. flax oil, salmon oil).

6. Drink only non-calorie containing beverages, the best choices being water and green tea.

7. Eat mostly whole foods (except workout and post-workout drinks).

So what about calories, or macronutrient ratios, or any number of other things that I’ve covered in other articles? The short answer is that if you aren’t already practicing the above-mentioned habits, and by practicing them I mean putting them to use over 90% of the time (i.e., no more than 4 meals out of an average 42 meals per week violate any of those rules), everything else is pretty pointless.

My own take on that is that I will take what is practical. I'm not going to give up my huge bowls of porridge for breakfast, but I should add some fruit in that meal and so on.

[mfree]

so.... basically it's down to "cut the refined sugar, cut the salt, and eat real food" again.

Now, the spaced meals is something I'd forgotten all about, and it's a good one too. The last thing anyone who's changing their diet needs is to provoke an insulin reaction by waiting too long to eat.

Sounds like this now:

Cut sugar
Cut salt
Eat real food
Eat small
Eat often
Exercise

[Art Eatman]

The proverbial "balanced diet" in small portions, plus some decent amount of physical activity will do anybody quite well.  A good rule is, "Grab the table firmly with both hands--and push."

Generally, if one is overweight, a lot of benefit comes from avoiding the fried stuff, particularly French Fries.  Getting away from "pogie-bait" pastry stuff and cookies/cakes/pies is good.

Generally, also, "crash" diets are bad for your body.  Work down gradually over a year.  Get off the modern U.S. "instant gratification" kick.

Get off the Internet and get a life.  Turn off the TV.  Mow the lawn and trim the shrubbery more often.  Work on your car.  Go scout hunting territory.  Walk up and down stairs; elevators are for more than three floors.  Get a 50-pound bar-bell and do lots of reps; build endurance, not Arnold-baby bulges.

Art

[Gewehr98]

Fig, I responded badly, he hit a nerve with me regarding fat dieticians with no job skills.

My own experiences, even if it's my sister, have been otherwise.  She's done rather well, and has been sought out for consult by a variety of patients, the latest of whom is an elderly gentleman by the name of Tenzin Gyatso.

Google the name for the significance...

[doczinn]

Generally, if one is overweight, a lot of benefit comes from avoiding the fried stuff, particularly French Fries.  Getting away from "pogie-bait" pastry stuff and cookies/cakes/pies is good...Get off the Internet and get a life.  Turn off the TV.  Mow the lawn and trim the shrubbery more often.  Work on your car.  Go scout hunting territory.  Walk up and down stairs; elevators are for more than three floors.  Get a 50-pound bar-bell and do lots of reps; build endurance, not Arnold-baby bulges.

All good advice. I, however, eat almost nothing fried and minimum of cakes and pies, spend three days a week in  class, three days working, and one day catching up on readings for school. I don't watch TV, I don't have a lawn to mow, I can't work on my car (per the rules of the apartment community), I do use the stairs, and most of my free time is eaten up with schoolwork.

I guess my point is that I already make most of the right decisions, within my ability to do so (although I could and should work out more), and just need a quick adjustment to get back on track. I'm not fat; I want to lose about 10 pounds this way. I think as soon as the word diet came out some of you pictured some fat slob who does nothing right and wants a quick fix for years of stupid decisions. That ain't me.

[Brad Johnson]

The single most effective way to lose weight and keep it off is to eat right and exercise.

Going "ON" a diet means that, by definition, you will eventually go "OFF" the diet. Not so with eating right and exercising. ER&E is a straightforward lifestyle change that does not require any special foods, takes no expensive suppliments, and uses no strange eating habits to trick your body into doing something that is, at best, highly questionable physiologically. ER&E is a simple change of habit.

And for those that claim it's too hard, well ... bovine feces. It's only as hard as you let it be. If you want to be healthier you're going to have to do something. Instead of making the decision to go on some fad diet that you will eventually push aside (statistically speaking, the probability is very high you will), why not make the decision to eat right instead? That way you can have good, wholesome, well-rounded meals, just less of them.

And exercise. Every calorie you injest that isn't immediately burned as energy is stored as fat. Injest less than your daily caloric requirement and you will lose weight. Exercise up's your metabolism not only while you are active, it increases your overall metabolism so that your caloric requirements go up overall. It also helps burn that flab you don't like and build the lean muscle mass you want.

By simply eating right an exercising I have lost 40 lbs and gotten my blood pressure and cholesterol under control. It was tough at first - there were times when I wanted to go put a serious hurt on the local pizza buffet - but I persisted and now it's just the way I eat. Good food that's good for me, and in human-sized portions instead of the Extra-Mega-Tub sizes I used to order.

Brad