Atkins Diet

[uscbigdawg]

Water has a tremendous affect on your metabolism. The simple example, go a day without drinking anything and let me know what your metabolic rate is versus, "normal". Then compare that to disgesting regular amounts of water. I guarantee that your metabolic rate will be higher and that you'll feel more alert when you intake 128 oz. of water spread out over a day.

But hey if you don't buy it, don't do it. Just a suggestion from my brother the sports nutritionist and kinesiologist (spelling). Of course, he's only trained over 500 players for the NFL and NBA but that's cool. Sorry. That's not nice.

Seriously though. Water is a quick and easy way to aid in maintaining a high digestive and metabolic rate. The entire prinicipal of eating 5-6 meals per day is to keep the body working throughout the day. Water is like motor oil is to your car. It is essential for optimum performance. I repeat the simple example above.

And, warm water is even better. Warm water aids in speeding your digestion rate and even more so kicks your body into a faster pace (tea and coffee work, but don't count towards daily water intake; coffee has been found to 'cause weight loss DURING strenuous workouts for whatever reason). Just doesn't quite making you feel all that much better when you're working out and need something to drink to take a warm drink nor is it easy to keep throught a day.

Like I said, just a suggestion. Just from a very reliable source.

[Jamie McG]

just got in touch with my wife, the sickness was addominal pain, nausea with a few vomiting, and diarrhea. these patient's presented with galbladder symptoms which may be associated with rapaid weight loss.

[uscbigdawg]

Hi Jame,

Never even heard of that one, even from rapid weight loss. Of course, people can and do tend to take things to extremes, so anything is possible.

Rich

[Liota]

If you guys need a reference for the water, just remember how you feel shooting a bunch of stages without drinking. Your performance goes right down the toilet. You can't think straight. You become more vulnerable to temperature-related illnesses (heat stroke, heat exhaustion, hypothermia). The more water you drink, the less susceptible (sp?) you are to those problems and others.

Liota

[Jake Di Vita]

"If you guys need a reference for the water, just remember how you feel shooting a bunch of stages without drinking. Your performance goes right down the toilet. You can't think straight. You become more vulnerable to temperature-related illnesses (heat stroke, heat exhaustion, hypothermia). The more water you drink, the less susceptible (sp?) you are to those problems and others."

Classic dehydration symptoms.

uscbigdawg:

So what you're telling me is if I drink 10 gallons of water everyday, my metabolism will increase enough to where I don't have need to exercise to lose weight? I think not.

I could also not eat for 2 months and my body would still function. The purpose they say for eating 6 times a day is that your body always has something to digest, in other words, it keeps your metabolism up.

[uscbigdawg]

Jake,

You said, "The purpose they say for eating 6 times a day is that your body always has something to digest, in other words, it keeps your metabolism up."

If you recall, I said:

"Seriously though. Water is a quick and easy way to aid in maintaining a high digestive and metabolic rate. The entire prinicipal of eating 5-6 meals per day is to keep the body working throughout the day. Water is like motor oil is to your car. It is essential for optimum performance. I repeat the simple example above."

So then to your statement of, "So what you're telling me is if I drink 10 gallons of water everyday, my metabolism will increase enough to where I don't have need to exercise to lose weight? I think not."

Again, like motor oil, if you take too much in, the car won't run and, if you drink 10 gallons of water per day, you WILL die. There is such a thing as overdosing, even on water. Ask the little girl in Utah who died recently when they force fed her too much water. Too, if it's simply weight loss you are looking for (not literally you) drinking water (not 10 gallons, but a lot of water) you will lose weight. If nothing else your exercise will be from going to the bathroom a lot.

Finally, "I could also not eat for 2 months and my body would still function."

Actually you wouldn't last 3-5 days if you stopped eating, as your body requires water to sustain itself.

Like most things in life, you have to find a balance. You can't read enough studies that extole (sp) the virtues of maintaining high levels of hydration. One of the most noted nutritionists and health experts, Bill Phillips, founder of Body For Life and either owner, consultant or partner (can't remember) of EAS explains this quite clearly in his books and teachings.

The benefits of proper hydration range from overall better performance of our bodies are tremendous and there are no negatives. Whether that be seen in higher metabolism, staying more alert, focused or aware of our senses, to just all around feeling better, all of these are done through proper intake of fluids and nutrients.

Let's leave it at that.

Rich

[Jake Di Vita]

"Actually you wouldn't last 3-5 days if you stopped eating, as your body requires water to sustain itself."

Since you quote your credible sources, I'll do the same with mine. You can go 3 months with no food. not more than 2 days with no water. This was taught to me by an ex Air Force Survival Instructor and probably the most knowledgeable person about survival I've ever met.

[uscbigdawg]

Jake,

This isn't that important to me.

I'll be respectful and quit.

Rich

[Bill Nesbitt]

I started Atkins 10 days ago at 190#. This morning I weigh 180#. And I feel good. I am not as tired and I get up easier in the morning. I am NOT a morning person. 4 more days on induction, then I move to the next step. This is the easiest weight I have ever lost. I'm glad I wear one of those instructor belts with the velcro. For breakfast this morning I had 3 scrambled eggs and 4 slices of bacon. It won't be long until I reach my weight goal of "Lean Mean Shootin' Machine".

Bill Nesbitt

[SherlockWV]

Bill,

I was on a modified version of the Atkins diet for about 6 months and I lost weight. But...being the curious fellow I am I started researching it. Although the diet works baseed upon burning Ketones rather than Carbs for fuel, it is paramout to consume a mimimum of 1/2 gallon of good water a day. The ketone thing plus the large quantities of protein are extremly hard on the kidneys. Last year at this time I was diagnosed with Type II Diabetes. After all of the tests were completed it was found out that I have permanant kidney damage and my Doctors were in agreement that the damage was because of the Atkins diet couples with Diabetes. But Diabetes aside, one still MUST drink tons of water to maintain health. Otherwise the risk for Acidosisketosis is very high. Now I am back on a Carb based diet and have dropped 45 lbs. in one year.

But in keeping with the fitness idea and being 58 years young. I find that by stretching out each AM and doing a lot of floor work with feet and hands helps me with eye to hand coordination and balance plus my bowflex. Plus it helps to keep my limber. Someone already referenced the OTC drugs that indeed do work to help rebuild cartiledge. I take those too.

[Bill Nesbitt]

SherlockWV,

Thanks for the info. I drink enough water. I carry five 12 ounce bottles of water to work every day to make sure I get enough. I also drink 2-4 glasses besides that. At home I have a 12 ounce water glass and put a toothpick on the counter each time I finish a glass. That way I can keep track to make sure I get enough.

If you are at Beallsville tomorrow be sure to introduce yourself to me. Ask any of the SO's who I am.

Bill Nesbitt

[GlocknSchpiel]

Got a new link that you folks need to check out for info on Atkins;

http://www.lowcarb.org

There are several VERY GOOD E-Mail lists based out of St. Johns (Servers/Networks).

BTW, there's lots of Links on the above page that will help you with attitude, dedication, supplies, and most important, support when dealing with the Atkins diet.

Y'all take care,

Bert

[bigsaxdog]

always laugh at all the atkins diet talk. there's no such thing as a diet, just calories in, calories out. of course, all your calories have to be good ones, not just twinkies and mountain dew. we've all been led by all the advertising that carbohydrates are bad! ask any tri-athelete or serious aerobic person if they can do it without carbohydrates.....ask lance armstrong about carbohydrates......it's not good for you to eat eggs, cheese, and meat always. we're not cats, we're people. at first, all the protein and fat shocks your system, and acts like a diuretic, and you piss out a bunch of weight. the maintenance diet of the adkins is a good thing, but that's just a good diet, with alot of low glycemic carbohydrates........i know this is falling on deaf ears, though, always does with the adkins diet......

[Jeeper]

bigsaxdog,

I know you say it is bad but I am really curious if you can back this up why it isnt good. Are carbs easier for your body to burn, yes. Is burning ketones instead bad? Dont think so. Ok first you do lose a lot of water weight at the beginning but that is really irrelevant. Are you trying to say that you cant be active of atkins? The whole idea is to stay in ketosis and burn ketones instead of glucose. It is vastly different than a regular diet because of this fact. The only reason that atkins starts with real low carbs is because there isnt exercise as part of it. You could easily get into ketosis within 2 days if you exercise and just use the maintenence program. I think it is funny that you say that advertising has told us that carbs are bad. More like for the last 40 years everything has said that fat is bad when it really is one of the most important things that your body needs. Every idiot nutritionist for the last 40 years had only two words that came out of their mouths "low fat". Why do you think it isnt good to eat all the meats and cheese? Do you think that is raises cholesterol? Go ask a bunch of people taht used atkins what happened to their blood work. I would bet improvements all the way around. I am really curios why you think it is bad to burn ketones? Do you know they use variations of ketone based diets to treat epileptics?

[GlocknSchpiel]

WTG Jeeper!

My GF has been on Atkins for the better than 7 years. She is healthier than I am. Her bloodwork before Atkins was horrible. LDL & HDL were outrageous. Now, her levels are top notch as well as is every other level that they test for. Ketosis IS a good thing. I have modified my diet to lower the carb intake and I do feel the difference.

Note: I see that some people have stated opinion without knowing the facts. If you are going to state a valid arguement, you need to know BOTH sides, NOT just an opinion of what the other side is all about. Let the flames begin!

My hat is off to those that are on the Atkins Diet (the right way, following the Book). It has proven time and time again over the last 30 years to be a very healthy diet and lifestyle. Keep up the good work! It is a big change from what has been taught in the past, but it is a change for the better... The facts speak for themselves.

Later,

Bert

[bigsaxdog]

there's nothing wrong with the atkins maintenance diet, it's really the proper thing. lean meat, alot of low glycemic carbs. the glycemic value of food is the key. it's just that we associate carbohydrates with white flour, sugar,and snickers bars, and that's not really right. try staying away from processed food, and do at least 1/2 hour of aerobic excercise, 65%+ or so of your VO2 max every day. that's the correct lifestyle. just cause' you read some factoids in somebodys book shouldn't convince you so. atkins was a pudgy bastard. his dietary ideas were based on changing the habits of sedentary, morbidly obese people. no bypass from the need to MOVE YER' ASS every day. serious aerobic atheletes eat a tremendous amount of carbohydrates every day. check out the diets of tour de france riders. they are seriously skinny going into it, eat @ 10,000 calories a day(yeah, that's right!), and still lose 5-10lbs in 3+weeks. not that we have that kinda metabolism, but the idea is to get the body to burn the stuff, not eat weird combinations to circumvent that idea. check it out.........i'm done with the rant.......i have some personal trainer buddies, they have to fight these ideas all the time, and these guys are really good, very educated in modern training styles. eat all the bacon and cheese that you want, just show up at your local sat. morning ride and see how you fare.........

[GlocknSchpiel]

no bypass from the need to MOVE YER' ASS every day. serious aerobic atheletes eat a tremendous amount of carbohydrates every day. check out the diets of tour de france riders. they are seriously skinny going into it, eat @ 10,000 calories a day(yeah, that's right!), and still lose 5-10lbs in 3+weeks. not that we have that kinda metabolism, but the idea is to get the body to burn the stuff, not eat weird combinations to circumvent that idea. check it out.........

Exactly! Those guys are Working their Asses off training hard 8-10 hours per day for weeks before the event. They intake 10-12k caleries per day and burn 12-14k. After their event, ie Tour De France, they go back to the modified Atkins diet so they can keep the pounds off because they are going to be sedantary for a few WEEKS recouping from their ordeal.

Joe Average doesn't have that type of activity level. Exercise is very important, whether on a diet or not. The INDUCTION portion of the Atkins diet only lasts for two weeks and is meant to retrain the body to start using the fat that it has been storing for all these years. After that, you can go to the No-Carb, Lo-Carb, Restricted Carb, or even Paleo route. The Induction is where most people stop reading or form incomplete opinions.

BTW, Dr Atkins sure was spry for a "pudgy bastard".

Another BTW, If it is such a BAD Diet, then why are so many millions of people successfully getting back to a healthy weight and lifestyle using it?

I'm not on the diet because I don't need to be on it. I AM following some of the guidelines set forth in the book and lifestyle. I also refuse to BadMouth a Proven system of healthy eating just because MODERN TRAINED EXPERTS say it's not healthy. Most of those Experts have never read the book either!

Y'all take care,

Bert

[Steve Moneypenny]

Ok, i'm never in the majority when I do the things i do, but here goes.

I have a huge dislike for the Atkins diet, i find it a short cut solution to a long term problem. My mother's doctor reccomended this to her. she quit after about 3 weeks or so because she didn't like the changes it made because of the colesterol she was eating and she didn't like the foods at all. the doctor stayed on for a little over 3 months, and lost about 40 pounds. but ended up having a heart attack!

walking is great exercise, add hills, it's even better!

most of my exercise idea's come from sports nutrition and body building (as they are the ones that have done the most work, studied the most and paid the most for the development of the "trim and strong/muscular" phisique.

First, are you getting your proper vitamins and minerals per day? which means a lot more than a centrum.

1 gallon of water 128 oz is 16 glasses of water. Water is the carrier for allnutrients through your body. so, without water everything moves slow.

5-6 small "meals" a day is also a good reason, first, if your stomach is empty for too long you start to store fat. you want to keep at a constant muscle building fat burning rate. don't think of a meal as what mamma had as a meal. 3 normal meals, with a protein bar or the like in between is plenty sufficient to be called a meal.

the best way to determine portions i've seen and it's pretty darn accurate is by bill phillips they are about the size of yoru closed fist. But it's very handy to know your personal calorie intake per day (ball park) and what it takes to sustain your life ( a forumula for age and weight) for me at 6'2" 250 it's about 2300 cal. per day. not including any other work out.

a good stretching in the morning, ( which lenghtens and strengthens muscles if done hard and just keeps them healthy if done with minimal discomfort) is great as is some weight training... which can simply be done by a couple of dumbells and a 15 minute workout. muscles burn more calories and feel better than does flab.

ooh, and on a diet, if you do not have an exercise regimine and keep the right balance of nutrients and minerals. the first few pounds is lost by pure muscle not fat, (meaning if your a weight lifter you get weaker if your a runner less stamina, etc)

to my dieting THE most important thing (note i said MY) was getting rid of the soda, and other junk food conataining Corn Syrup, High Fructose Corn syrup and the like i have read and this came true in my experomenting. that these are synthetic sugars, not natural, your body does not recognize them as the major source of calories and FAT that they become, so it goes ahead and stores them and does not burn them like it normally would.

i'll close with, if it comes off fast, it will go back on fast. watch your body if you gain more than 2 or 3 pounds somethign is wrong. (up to 3 pounds can be retained water or any number of things)

[GlocknSchpiel]

As stated above, Read the book!

The reason it comes off fast in the beginning is DUE TO WATER LOSS!

I was going to make this educational (read Long, and in favor of Atkins), but I figure that people that have opinions will have the same opinion no matter how insightful the arguement.

For those of you in the know, Congrats and keep up the good work. Atkins does work, and if DONE BY THE BOOK, is a very healthy and safe method of weight loss. Keep your appoinements with the Dr. and go at a reasonable pace. Like above, BY THE BOOK!

Damn, I can still hear fat cells disolving when I'm in this forum!

Isn't that amazing?

Take care,

Bert

[Bill Nesbitt]

I just heard a neat tip. "If God made it then you can eat it."

Bill Nesbitt

[Jeeper]

Bigsaxdog,

I have been on a modified high protein diet(ketogenic) for about a year. I jog at least 3 times a week and lift 5. Dont even try and tell me that I wont last when exercising. I use to race mountain bikes and still ride a lot also. I have no problems with endurance and I am always in ketosis. As far as taking the advice of most personal trainers, I think you are better off reading a book. Most personal trainers dont know their head from the ass about nutrition. Most bodybuilders do extremely high protein diets. I worked out with a guy who was second in Mr Olympia and won the arnold classic and that is exactly what he did. I think that you need to do a little more research also instead of just taking the limited advice of a few trainers. For extreme endurance athletes their diets are to maximize energy. THere will be an advantage to glucose based since most eat pure glucose while in events. Thats not really what we are talking about. My basic point is that Atkins will help those who dont exercise more than most do. Adding exercise of course helps. You can be extremely active on atkins or other ketosis based diets. There really are no limitations to activity on any of these. There are really no proven downsides either.

[Jake Di Vita]

Big ditto to what Jeeper said.

[Steve Moneypenny]

glocknspeil

i HAVE! read the book. 5 pounds for water loss, very possible, but more, not unless dehydrating your self.

Wise decision.

Constantly going to a doctor won't help in my opinion, unless it's a nutritionist, in which case they must also subscrbie to the atkins idea's. Hate to be a hypocrit, but how can you take health advise from a doctor who is out of shape and/or overweight?

Bill, thats a great saying. atleast the way i'm looking at it. because the worst things to eat are man made, synthetic sugars, preservitives, etc. in no way are they natural thats why our body reacts poorly to them and america has such a high amount of obesity per-capita.

[GlocknSchpiel]

The reason for the Doctors visits isn't for the dietary support, but to keep an eye on the Blood Chemistry. Even a fat doctor can do that! I do agree that it would be better to see one that's also on the plan, but I don't know any right now (Too busy with the Ortho-surgeon, Cardiac Spec., and Chiropractor). And NO! The Cardiac is because of the wreck, not my diet...

I guess the best way for me to sum up the situation is;

If it works for you, whether it's the Atkins diet or some other system, then go for it!

I like my 1991A1. I also like my BHP and my G21. They all run for me, but that doesn't mean that they are right for everyone! Use what works best for you. But on the same token, just because they may not work for you doesn't mean that they are bad for everyone...

Once again, cudos to those on track to a better life...

Bert

[Jeeper]

Big agreement with what Glocknspiel said about going to the doctor. It is really a good idea after you have been doing a diet to make sure that your blood work is still good. One possible problem with a atkins type diet is getting enough nutrients. Taking in good fat, EFA's and vitamins will really help this. Having regular blood work done is a great idea no matter how fantastic of shape you are in. Even beyond the typical cholesterol checks!