tlesnau

Hey Everyone,

I am also doing Atkins. I was just wondering if there is anyone out there that has an answer to my question. I have been doing it for two weeks now. There are days that i allow my self to eat whatever and then i go back to low carb. Is this going to work or am i defeating the whole purpose?

paleorainy

I think it depends what's your goal and what it means to "allow my self to eat whatever".
If you have little to loose or are in maintenance, I think it's ok you get a day off diet from time to time, but not too often and 'off diet' must not mean 'pig-out', that's a huge difference.
Instead if this is going to be a long term committment because you have plenty of weight to loose or the "allow my self to eat whatever" means "pigging out", then no, it's not ok and as you say, it really is defeating the whole purpose.

davej323

As Paleorainy said, it really depends what you mean by "eating whatever." If you haven't read the book yet, I strongly recommend that you read it (any version of the Atkins plan) so you can fully understand what it is you are trying to do and the science behind it. "The Ketogenic Diet" by Lyle McDonald is also a good resource that delves a little deeper into the science of why a ketogenic diet works. All that being said, if you are still going to eat whatever every few days then I recommend that you at least invest in some ketostix to see if your body is remaining in ketosis or not. If you don't enter ketosis, your progress will be slow or even non-existent.

clintb

Hi thanks for reading. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I'm a 27 year old male 5'10". I started atkins may 26 and went down from 220 lbs to 200 lbs in the first 20 days. Then from day 20 to day 30 I actually gained about 3 lbs without changing my diet at all. I eat about every 4-5 hours. Very light meals consisting of grilled meat and broccoli cabbage or green beans.I broke the diet 2 days ago cause I got disgusted with the weight gain. I suspected my metabolism bottomed out. But I don't know enough about this stuff. I also theorized that maybe it was because my potassium got to low cause I had very bad headaches the last week of the diet. Either way I'm not sure. Any comments are welcome. I also want to ask. If I stay off the diet for about a week or two then get back on it will it be a fast weight loss like it was the first 20 days. Added not. I did not exercise a lick during the diet and lost very well. Then I did start exercising a few days before I got off of it with no posative results. Thanks for reading

rpmcduff

If I read this correctly you lost 17lbs. in 30 days and you are discouraged? First, celebrate the great start, then take a look at your weight loss from a mathematical standpoint. Losing 20lbs in 20 days requires a calorie deficit averaging 3500 calories per day! Many people can't do 1000 calorie deficit without sending their metabolism into starvation mode. Your body thinks you are starving, and I would bet the headaches are a symptom indicating a lack of balance in your nutritional choices. The headaches could be from a lack of carbohydrates. What is your fat as a percentage of calories? If it is less than 20% you may not be getting enough to perform essential bodily functions. (Not all fat is bad for you!)

I believe your weight loss is too fast! You said you are doing no exercise so at least 50% of your weight loss has come from muscle. You need to hold on to all the muscle you can while dieting. Muscle is what burns the calories and the more of it you have the higher your metabolism.

My suggetions:
Eat more! Try to average a 500-700 calorie deficit per day. This will slow your weight loss to a more body friendly 1 to 1.5lbs per week.
Exercise! If you are fit enough do weight training with heavy weights that allow only 5-6 reps before failure. This will help you hold on to muscle.
Make sure your protein is 30% and fat at least 20% of your calories.

vic616283

Imho, atkins sucks. There's research that tentatively shows that carbohydrate restriction actually lowers your blood T3 and T4 levels, which makes it harder to lose fat. A large portion of the weight loss in the initial weeks of atkins is not fat but glycogen depletion. Your muscles and liver store glycogen (which binds to water) and a tall guy can actually have over 10lbs of glycogen+water stored in his muscles. If you plateau'd, more than likely it just means you were eating at maintenance and needed to reduce calories further. If you have a cheat day where you eat over 150g carbs, you can expect significant weight gain as your muscle glycogen stores become replenished.

I suggest adopting a weightlifting regime such as stronglifts and eating an amount of calories equal to ten times your bodyweight (in lbs). 50% of those calories from protein, 25% from carbs and 25% from fat, with up to 10% deviations being permissible for each macronutrient. Get your veggies, do cardio here and there, and you will surely lose weight.

If you want to continue to pursue the atkins route, however, I recommend reading mauro dipasquale's "anabolic diet" book or Lyle Mcdonald's "the Ketogenic diet." Adopting a modified, cyclical version of the ketogenic/atkins diet, while staying away from sugars, is also a great way to lose weight. However, you will find that once you get off the diet, some fat tends to come back because you never actually learned how to control carb cravings and how to eat sensibly in a sustainable manner.

davej323

First of all, let me say that 20 pounds in 20 days was an incredibly high rate of loss, and you probably shouldn't expect that pace to keep up. The three pound gain-back shouldn't really be a big concern in light of the fast way that you lost the first 20 pounds, but you should definitely take a look at your eating habits to make sure that gain-back doesn't continue. The new book addresses plateau periods or slow loss periods on pages 105-110. Also see the "Savor, don't smother" statement on page 57 and the protein recommendation on page 43. A man your height should be getting 1800-2200 calories per day, 86-178g of protein per day, and (if you are still doing induction) 20g of net carbs (12-15 of which come from green vegetables). Fitday is a great tool for tracking these things, and using it I actually found out that I was going over my net carbs with things I didn't normally count, like carbs in artificial sweetener packets and cheese. Thanks to the Fitday food journal, I have figured out that my food is typically 60-65% fat, 30-35% protein, and 5-10% carbohydrate. If someone is trying to convince you to consume less fat and/or more carbohydrate, then they obviously do not subscribe to the theory of a ketogenic diet and I would disregard that advice. Following the plan with that balance of macronutrients, I have steadily lost 3-5 pounds per week for the last two months, now down to 255 from 287.

Last, but definitely not least, be sure you are getting enough water and enough salt. A ketogenic diet will have a diuretic effect, and I suspect that some of those 20 pounds you lost so quickly are because of water loss. That might also explain the headaches.

Finally, as someone else mentioned, there are other publications out there that delve deeper into the science of a ketogenic diet than the Atkins book does. I am in the process of reading Lyle McDonald's book (it's a slow process involving sitting down to take notes while reading it) and it has given me a much better understanding of what my body is doing and why a ketogenic diet works.
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stats, inspired by Ron

Male, 6'0" tall, 37 y/o

Starting weight, 4/19/10 (started Atkins) = 287
6/16/10 (finished Atkins book & started Fitday) = 261
latest weight 6/28/10 = 255
mini goal (wedding) 9/4/10 = 220
ultimate goal for lifetime maintenance by 4/19/11 (one year mark, 100 pounds loss) = 187
If I can acheive this goal, it will be my lightest weight since high school

nbpetty

The first thing you should do is get back on the Atkins plan. Assuming you are still in the induction phase, you should be maintaining a daily carbohydrate intake of no more than 20g carbohydrate per day (I subscribe to the '92 version of Atkins). I maintained this diet for many years and lost 70 lbs by doing so. Stalls and plateaus are a part of the Atkins diet, so avoid being discouraged. If you stick with it, you'll be fine.

You mention you are eating light meals - I don't believe this is necessary. I was eating up to 4,000 calories per day with approx 70% being fat calories, 28% protein calories, and 2% carb calories. If you stall, be sure to check that you are receiving enough calories from fat. I experienced weight loss similar to yours in the first 20 days, then would hit a stall for a few days to a week, then go back to losing fat again. All said, I lost about 65 pounds in the first 6 months. I visited a doctor regularly and experienced absolutely zero negative effects.

By the way, you mention your headaches - your potassium theory is correct - Atkins suggests 90mg of potassium every day. Any headaches I experienced were relatively early in the diet.

Good luck, and don't be discouraged by the stalls - you'll get through them with perseverance!

clintb

Thanks for the responses guys. I appreciate it. And thanks for the encouragement nbpetty . Since coming off of atkins saturday. I have not started it back. However started sunday on a low calorie diet 1100-1400 calories a day and 5 miles of vigerous walking per day. The headaches were so severe on atkins that I'm kind of scared to get back on it. But it did a wonderful job of jump starting my weight loss. As of sunday I weighed 199 so the 3 lbs I gained toward the end of atkins must just have been weight fluctuation. I'm going to go 14 days on the low calorie diet with 5 miles a day at the track. Then check my weight to see how its coming along. If ya have any more comments feel free to drop them. Thanks again guys

davej323

A lean, calorie-restricted diet will work as well, but I would think that your weight might go up a bit as your glycogen stores are replenished. If that happens, don't be discouraged. A low calorie diet is the exact opposite of a ketogenic diet (such as Atkins), so instead of high fat and protein with low carbs I assume you will now concentrate on getting plenty of fiber-rich carbs and plenty of lean protein. Surprisingly, some ketogenic diets actually recommend cycling in and out of ketosis. This requires too much discipline for me because I know that instead of getting complex carbs from whole wheat and vegetable sources, I would go right back to the simple carb pleasures of nachos, burritos, beer, etc. To each his own. Best of luck, and please respond back in a couple weeks to let us know how the low calorie plan worked out.
__________________________________________________
stats, inspired by Ron

Male, 6'0" tall, 37 y/o

Starting weight, 4/19/10 (started Atkins) = 287
6/16/10 (finished Atkins book & joined Fitday) = 261
latest weight 6/28/10 = 255
mini goal (wedding) 9/4/10 = 220
ultimate goal for lifetime maintenance by 4/19/11 (one year mark, 100 pounds loss) = 187
This will be my lightest weight since high school!