What are the benefits of doing the Atkins Diet? And what made you stop doing the Diet?
I’m a student and I am doing a paper about the Atkins Diet. Thank you very much for your help!
Hi,
After reading your question I saw you were interested in optimizing your nutrition [(-:] so I thought I would give you some pointers I have learned the hard way from my own bad ‘uninformed’ choices so you could learn about good advice and bad advice.
A ‘reference’ diet plan is given below in PS1 that I have found to have been the best possible nutrition for me to cure my heart disease problem from too many carbs for too long. It is also the best diet to help with my present health issues – that I know are cholesterol and calcium related because these foods are triggers for me now.
I used to be an old advocate of the Atkin’s meat and fat diet before I knew what I now know, so nowadays I do not recommend Atkins high protein and fat diet for long term but would always recommend a "high- nutrition" 96% VEGAN diet replacing most meat with lentils – but many people will not do this. Sooo even though I give a diet plan in PS1 below, let me share a little first to help you understand how losing and gaining weight can best be done to be stronger and healthier for the long term.
You may already know this but if not let me first explain that keeping to a plan that fights against bad habits that might be on the verge of seriously tearing down your body is sometimes pretty tough – but being fit and strong versus being overweight and/or sickly is all about (1) how many calories you eat versus how many you burn and (2) IF your calories are primarily the BEST QUALITY PROTEINS or primarily junk sugar-carbs.
Please consider that it is not just how few cabs and fats and how much lean protein you eat in order to become ‘stronger,’ but how many absorbable non-toxic vitamin and minerals are obtained from the protein or fats you would eat.
For instance, egg whites have 89% protein, but egg whites are similar in its nutrition per calorie as to eating sweet corn that usually has only about 15% protein. So even though the higher protein egg whites ‘look’ good IF ALL you look at is the protein content, it is really not much better for you than sweet corn.
Not good if you understand that they identified the pellagra problem in the 1930’s south was the result of the high calories and minimal amounts of vitamins and minerals caused by a diet of primarily sweet corn. [See: <> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pellagra <>] This disease has identical long term health effects as the scurvy and beriberi problems that are also a result of eating too many calories with not enough nutrients. They cured pellagra in dogs by giving them liver and brewers yeast, but the problem with these are the long term effects of cholesterol in the liver and the short term toxic effects of elemental copper in the brewers yeast that is the rust residue from the vats the yeast is grown in.
A similar lesser nutrition choice would be when eating tenderloin versus spinach. Boiled spinach has about 56% protein to beef tenderloin’s 61% protein, but spinach has almost 700%, or seven times, the vitamin and minerals of tenderloin calorie per calorie. The problem with spinach is that the spinach calories would cost about ten times the cost of beef calories. Spending $50 per day to eat several pounds of spinach may make any animal as strong as an elite triple-crown race horse, but few people can afford to spend that much for their food – so meat protein is what people typically consume. Even so, many longevity experts like Roy L. Walford, M.D. and Joel Fuhrman M. D. encourage their clients to eat 200 calories of leafy greens a day – which ‘might’ cost about $10 per day but it is a small price to pay when considering the strength, longevity, and good health it would promote. Dr. T. Colin Campbell would also agree with this regimen.
Take a few minutes to understand ‘good’ nutritional advice versus poor advice and I hope you will have learned something from my ‘mistakes’ that will soon help you along your way.
<><
My best to you and for your good health,
A1
[(-:]
PS1 – This is my diet plan since I became a 96% VEGAN:
+
Your body’s fat with no water in it has 9 calories per gram which is about 4091 calories per pound of fat. The number usually used for body fat is 3500 calories which ‘assumes’ 14.4% water in an average person’s fat, but this would depend upon if you ate salty or spicy foods a-lot before you would start a new regimen. Protein is 4 calories per gram whether you eat it or burn it from your own body, so if you burn your own your muscles will never have a-lot of cells that are decades old ‘if’ you stay active. I choose to lose 2 pounds a week of fat by reducing 500 calories a day and adding exercise five times a week. Walking is 80 cal/mile for a 150 pound person and 110 cal/mile for 200 pounds. Also, you will lose a lot of water weight when you eliminate salt and spicy foods, probably about four to five to ten pounds the first two weeks.
+
To minimize the meat-cholesterol in my own diet I have seen that the requirements of B12 can only be obtained from eating 6 ounces of beef heart every week for 16% Cholesterol, or 11 oz of beef round steak every week for 11% Cholesterol, or 1 oz of beef liver every week for 4% Cholesterol and never chicken since for B12 it would require a whopping 175 ozs per week and a whopping 201% cholesterol a day. Soo I suppose I am a 96% VEGAN in order to satisfy the USDA’s B12 Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDAs) that ‘they’ recommend be obtained directly from food sources.
I am still researching this topic because the Schilling test for B12 anemia seems skewed against VEGANS and people that may actually have an abundance of B12, and so would dump any excess from a test into their stools, as would be normal when a healthy person’s body would automatically dump excess nutrition or toxins their body could never adequately assimilate. [SEE:<> http://www.innvista.com/health/ailments/anemias/labtests.htm <>] Also, consuming a VEGAN B12 supplement that is linked with cyanide as a ‘preservative’ might provide a quick buzz or temporary stimulant, but my liver might not ever heal from the ‘upper’ it would be causing. [SEE:<> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyanocobalamin <>]
I am always seeking for researchers who might have done more research than I, so please feel free to email me. [(-:]
Even so, for today I still crock pot for 12 hours ground up beef heart and am eating one ounce a day with lentils and spinach in one meal to improve the meats passage through my gut to the stool, and to buffer my digestion/elimination since eating meat alone ‘used_to’ cause reddish stools for me. One day a week instead of beef heart I eat one ounce of beef liver, which adds up to ~200+% the B12 recommended by the USDA with only 20% of the maximum recommended cholesterol.
For each 1400 calorie day I eat 100 calories of squeeze drained spinach with a light_sugar_vinaigrette, 600 cals from 15 ozs of organic lentils w/ 100 cals of tomato marinara, or since I might be allergic in my gut to nightshade tomatoes I recently began using onion flake-powder instead of tomatoes, [SEE<>http://www.tomatocasual.com/2008/03/01/tomato-allergies-part-i/#comment-10748 <>], 75 calories of boiled celery, 175 calories of boiled broccoli, 100 calories of sesame seeds, and no_more_than 200 calories of ‘meat’ which is about 4 ozs, and rarely rarely boiled chicken, since chicken has only ~68% the nutrition per calorie of properly grown lentils and only 7% the B12 for the equal calories from beef round steak. Beef heart has ~127% the nutrition per calorie of ‘organically’ grown lentils and organic spinach has ~500%, five times per calorie of lentils.
Again, I hope this helps you or others to understand good choices.
A1
PS2 – I posted ‘my_story’ and why I know what I know at:
Filed under: Atkins diet
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I’ve been doing Atkins for 6 years & plan on doing it for life.
Advantages of Atkins include:
>> That it works! That it works, twice as fast, twice as much.
>> Appetite control, cravings controlled
>> No hunger, plenty of calories & food allowed.
>> High calories, does not wreck metabolism (a calorie restricted diet can)
>> No exercise required (great for the disabled)
>> Exercise twice as effective: twice the muscle gain & twice the fat loss.
>> Fat loss is direct from fat stores, no need to deplete glycogen stores first.
>> After the first couple of weeks most people report that they have all this energy, they feel better than ever in their lives and that they are sleeping better.
>> That it improves health drastically, dramatically, immediately and allows the body to heal. Does not harm the body and rob vitamins (unlike a diet that allows sugar)
>> No "hitting the wall" – marathon runners, etc. don’t have a fuel change mid race (switching from burning glucose to burning body fat as a fuel)
>> HUGE bonus: that if I cheat, all those calories that would normally go direct to fat cells, fill up empty glycogen stores instead and are used as fuel for the muscles (it delays weight loss for a week, but doesn’t cause weight gain)
>> That it can easily be sustained for a lifetime.
Disadvantages – The first couple of weeks during the conversion you are sluggish and headachy (induction flu)
It’s not convenient. You need to cook and prepare food. You really can’t trust food you don’t prepare (restaurants & non low carbers cooking) You have to read labels.
You will lose more body fat eating protein & fat (don’t eat protein alone) than not eating AT ALL. To lose weight fast eat all you want but nothing but meat, eggs, healthy oils, mayo, butter and half an avocado a day (you’ll need added potassium). Keep the calories high and the fat percentage high, at least 65% of calories. Adding in green vegetables & some cheese will continue weight loss but at a slower pace.
Eating carbs while trying to lose body fat is terribly inefficient. When in glycolysis (burning glucose as fuel) you have to lower your calories (which slows your metabolism) and exercise heavily to deplete your glycogen stores before burning body fat.
The core of the Atkins program is converting your body from glycolysis (burning glucose as fuel) to ketosis (burning fat as fuel). You need to keep your fat levels at >65% of your calories, if you don’t your body will still remain in glycolysis by converting 58% of excess protein into glucose (via gluconeogenesis).
It takes minimum of 3 days to convert your body to ketosis, (but only one bite to convert back to glycolysis) you will probably feel sluggish the first week but most people feel better than ever thereafter.
Simple carbohydrates (sugar, flour, bread, cereal, pasta, potatoes, rice) triggers insulin which can store the calories you eat into fat. The more protein you eat the more the fat burning hormone glucagon is released. The more carbohydrate you eat the more the fat storage hormone insulin is released.
High insulin levels promote inflammation, weight gain, hunger and unbalance other hormones. Controlling your insulin level will balance out other hormones & allow human growth hormone (HGH) to be produced naturally so you will gain lean muscle even without exercise. Any exercise will greatly increase your muscle mass with high HGH levels.
The first 2 weeks you can have several cups a day of (mostly) lettuce and celery, cucumbers, radishes, mushrooms, peppers and more variety of vegetables thereafter add 5 grams per day additional (20 grams day first 2 weeks, 25grams 3rd week, 30grams 4th week etc) every week til you gain weight, then you subtract 10 carbs. That would give you your personal carb level (everyone is different and it depends on how active you are.) Start with meat & fats & salads for a couple of weeks and then you can slowly add in more green veg, wk4 fresh cheeses, wk5 nuts & seeds, wk6 berries, wk7 legumes, wk8 other fruits, wk9 starchy veg and lastly wk10 whole grains. You will learn how your body reacts to different foods. As long as you remain <9 carbs per hour, you will maintain insulin control, and shouldn’t gain weight.
Many people gain weight on high carb, then switch to low carb to lose weight & then are shocked when they return to high carb that they gain weight. Many people can return to moderate carb levels but very few can really eat all they want of sugar and maintain weight or health.
References :
Dr.Atkins was a cardiologist, low carb was a health plan easier sold as a "diet" Read any of his books for easily understandable science. Normalizing blood pressure, blood sugar, insulin, cholesterol, triglyercerides & hormone levels are all bonus features of doing a low carb way of eating. Lutz "Life without Bread" & Taubes "Good calories, Bad calories" are excellent books that dispel all the nutrition myths.
http://www.atkins.com/Program/FourPhases/WhatIsInduction/AcceptableFoodsList.aspx
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/07/magazine/what-if-it-s-all-been-a-big-fat-lie.html
I wondered how not only educated persons but persons specifically educated in nutrition are promoting sugar as a food essential to health but I now know that anyone that goes against the current regulations can lose their license and be sued for malpractice (even though what they are doing IS malpractice but it’s accepted practice – sigh).
Hi,
After reading your question I saw you were interested in optimizing your nutrition [(-:] so I thought I would give you some pointers I have learned the hard way from my own bad ‘uninformed’ choices so you could learn about good advice and bad advice.
A ‘reference’ diet plan is given below in PS1 that I have found to have been the best possible nutrition for me to cure my heart disease problem from too many carbs for too long. It is also the best diet to help with my present health issues – that I know are cholesterol and calcium related because these foods are triggers for me now.
I used to be an old advocate of the Atkin’s meat and fat diet before I knew what I now know, so nowadays I do not recommend Atkins high protein and fat diet for long term but would always recommend a "high- nutrition" 96% VEGAN diet replacing most meat with lentils – but many people will not do this. Sooo even though I give a diet plan in PS1 below, let me share a little first to help you understand how losing and gaining weight can best be done to be stronger and healthier for the long term.
You may already know this but if not let me first explain that keeping to a plan that fights against bad habits that might be on the verge of seriously tearing down your body is sometimes pretty tough – but being fit and strong versus being overweight and/or sickly is all about (1) how many calories you eat versus how many you burn and (2) IF your calories are primarily the BEST QUALITY PROTEINS or primarily junk sugar-carbs.
Please consider that it is not just how few cabs and fats and how much lean protein you eat in order to become ‘stronger,’ but how many absorbable non-toxic vitamin and minerals are obtained from the protein or fats you would eat.
For instance, egg whites have 89% protein, but egg whites are similar in its nutrition per calorie as to eating sweet corn that usually has only about 15% protein. So even though the higher protein egg whites ‘look’ good IF ALL you look at is the protein content, it is really not much better for you than sweet corn.
Not good if you understand that they identified the pellagra problem in the 1930’s south was the result of the high calories and minimal amounts of vitamins and minerals caused by a diet of primarily sweet corn. [See: <> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pellagra <>] This disease has identical long term health effects as the scurvy and beriberi problems that are also a result of eating too many calories with not enough nutrients. They cured pellagra in dogs by giving them liver and brewers yeast, but the problem with these are the long term effects of cholesterol in the liver and the short term toxic effects of elemental copper in the brewers yeast that is the rust residue from the vats the yeast is grown in.
A similar lesser nutrition choice would be when eating tenderloin versus spinach. Boiled spinach has about 56% protein to beef tenderloin’s 61% protein, but spinach has almost 700%, or seven times, the vitamin and minerals of tenderloin calorie per calorie. The problem with spinach is that the spinach calories would cost about ten times the cost of beef calories. Spending $50 per day to eat several pounds of spinach may make any animal as strong as an elite triple-crown race horse, but few people can afford to spend that much for their food – so meat protein is what people typically consume. Even so, many longevity experts like Roy L. Walford, M.D. and Joel Fuhrman M. D. encourage their clients to eat 200 calories of leafy greens a day – which ‘might’ cost about $10 per day but it is a small price to pay when considering the strength, longevity, and good health it would promote. Dr. T. Colin Campbell would also agree with this regimen.
Take a few minutes to understand ‘good’ nutritional advice versus poor advice and I hope you will have learned something from my ‘mistakes’ that will soon help you along your way.
<><
My best to you and for your good health,
A1
[(-:]
PS1 – This is my diet plan since I became a 96% VEGAN:
+
Your body’s fat with no water in it has 9 calories per gram which is about 4091 calories per pound of fat. The number usually used for body fat is 3500 calories which ‘assumes’ 14.4% water in an average person’s fat, but this would depend upon if you ate salty or spicy foods a-lot before you would start a new regimen. Protein is 4 calories per gram whether you eat it or burn it from your own body, so if you burn your own your muscles will never have a-lot of cells that are decades old ‘if’ you stay active. I choose to lose 2 pounds a week of fat by reducing 500 calories a day and adding exercise five times a week. Walking is 80 cal/mile for a 150 pound person and 110 cal/mile for 200 pounds. Also, you will lose a lot of water weight when you eliminate salt and spicy foods, probably about four to five to ten pounds the first two weeks.
+
To minimize the meat-cholesterol in my own diet I have seen that the requirements of B12 can only be obtained from eating 6 ounces of beef heart every week for 16% Cholesterol, or 11 oz of beef round steak every week for 11% Cholesterol, or 1 oz of beef liver every week for 4% Cholesterol and never chicken since for B12 it would require a whopping 175 ozs per week and a whopping 201% cholesterol a day. Soo I suppose I am a 96% VEGAN in order to satisfy the USDA’s B12 Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDAs) that ‘they’ recommend be obtained directly from food sources.
I am still researching this topic because the Schilling test for B12 anemia seems skewed against VEGANS and people that may actually have an abundance of B12, and so would dump any excess from a test into their stools, as would be normal when a healthy person’s body would automatically dump excess nutrition or toxins their body could never adequately assimilate. [SEE:<> http://www.innvista.com/health/ailments/anemias/labtests.htm <>] Also, consuming a VEGAN B12 supplement that is linked with cyanide as a ‘preservative’ might provide a quick buzz or temporary stimulant, but my liver might not ever heal from the ‘upper’ it would be causing. [SEE:<> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyanocobalamin <>]
I am always seeking for researchers who might have done more research than I, so please feel free to email me. [(-:]
Even so, for today I still crock pot for 12 hours ground up beef heart and am eating one ounce a day with lentils and spinach in one meal to improve the meats passage through my gut to the stool, and to buffer my digestion/elimination since eating meat alone ‘used_to’ cause reddish stools for me. One day a week instead of beef heart I eat one ounce of beef liver, which adds up to ~200+% the B12 recommended by the USDA with only 20% of the maximum recommended cholesterol.
For each 1400 calorie day I eat 100 calories of squeeze drained spinach with a light_sugar_vinaigrette, 600 cals from 15 ozs of organic lentils w/ 100 cals of tomato marinara, or since I might be allergic in my gut to nightshade tomatoes I recently began using onion flake-powder instead of tomatoes, [SEE<>http://www.tomatocasual.com/2008/03/01/tomato-allergies-part-i/#comment-10748 <>], 75 calories of boiled celery, 175 calories of boiled broccoli, 100 calories of sesame seeds, and no_more_than 200 calories of ‘meat’ which is about 4 ozs, and rarely rarely boiled chicken, since chicken has only ~68% the nutrition per calorie of properly grown lentils and only 7% the B12 for the equal calories from beef round steak. Beef heart has ~127% the nutrition per calorie of ‘organically’ grown lentils and organic spinach has ~500%, five times per calorie of lentils.
Again, I hope this helps you or others to understand good choices.
A1
PS2 – I posted ‘my_story’ and why I know what I know at:
References :
<> http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090922235820AArWxgX&r=w <>
PS3 – I currently feel that what Dr. Fuhrman MD teaches is the best nutritional information available in the nation.
http://www.diseaseproof.com/archives/cat-low-carb-high-protein.html
http://www.nutritiondata.com/facts/vegetables-and-vegetable-products/2627/2
+
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=43
http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search/
http://www.foodnews.org/index.php
Again, I hope you consider my mistakes and would not duplicate them, OK?