Diet time! Anyone tried Atkins' Diet?

So certain protein bars are just a label gimmick? How nice.

My wife buys "protein bars" but I've noticed the high calorie counts and carb levels. I haven't had one since before I started this diet.

 

I think that most people could eat whatever they want IF they would tally 2000 cal/day and stick to the portions that are recommended on the packages. It's tough to eat a serving of Oreo's when the bag says the serving size is 2 cookies. Portion control is the thing IMO. I do wish I could follow my own advice though.

 

If you ask 100 people, you will probably get 100 different answers. Things that work for someone else may not work for you.

This is mine...
A few years ago I watched a subcontractor get taken off my project suffering from Chest pains. He was pretty young but over weight and not in shape.
He ended up dying within the hour. At that time I was 250lbs but didn't think it was a problem until I this day.
I told myself I was gong to change, and within 6 months I lost over 50lbs. I started using an app called "Healthi" which is basically the old weight watchers.
You can decide what your goal is and what kind of plan you want to do. I am 47 and use the sugar smart plan and initially had it set to lose weight as my fitness goal.
What the app does is give a point value to everything you put in your mouth, (food and drink). Depending on you current stats and goals, will depend on how many points you are allotted for one day. I was very surprised to find out how much I was over eating and how much sugar and crap I was putting into my body. In addition to using the app and tracking my intake, I also started to walk and work out. My gym routine is about 20 minutes on the treadmill or bike and 5 -10 minutes of lifting (No more than 1/2 hour each day) I was tracking 15,000 - 20,000 steps a day at that time. Once I lost the weight, I thought I could stop using the app and do my own thing. Well, I was wrong. I switched positions at work and was a lot less active. My step count went down a lot, and I was not staying out of town so I did not go to the gym anymore.
I gained back 25+ LBS and realized I needed a coach (the App) to help hold me accountable. I started to use the app again and get up @ 3:30 to go to our company gym for 20-30 minutes before work. That was June of 2024 and as of today I am down to 175.

One thing to remember is a diet will help you lose the weight, but you will need to change your life styles in order to keep it off and maintain the weight loss. You can splurge every once and a while but you may need to work harder the next day to make up for it. You can't give into temptation and eat or drink stuff like you used to. If you want something to eat or drink, ask yourself is it worth the points, and check the app to see how many points that item is. You will be surprised to see what some foods and drinks are.
This life style change will make you healthier and feel better everyday.
I typically eat fruits and Peanut Butter (Crazy Richard with peanuts as the only ingredient) for Breakfast after I go to the Gym, then some chicken and Protein pasta, vegetables like carrots and a fruit for lunch. For dinner, I try to eat before 5pm if possible and stay active after dinner (Harder to do in the winter) Dinner usually consists of a protein and a vegetable. As for drinks, I mainly drink green tea with Stevia (in the raw) as the sweetener or water, (No Soda of any kind)

It sounds like you are on the right track. Just keep your head up and look forward a don't get discouraged if you level out for a little while or even gain some weight back. You may need to change things up as you go and that's ok. If you need any other info or have any questions, send me a message and I would be more than willing to help out where I can.
Keep up the good work!

 

My 'simple' diet = No Tortillas (flour or corn) No Bread No Pasta and No Rice (not a kernal). Avoiding these 4 things reduced the carb considerably enough to force body to eat its FAT. It works and keeps glycemic impacts to a minimum.

Eat anything else especially proteins and veggies. Luck all.

 

To add to this, most people dont realize how easy it is to eat UNDER 1000 calories a day (going to the extreme to make a point)

For instance, during beach/pool season my go to meals are:

Breakfast- oatmeal with 1 banana and 1 stevia (always use stevia no sugar!), 1 egg and 5 egg whites and coffee and water
Lunch - Grilled chicken and brown rice maybe some veggie
Dinner - Grilled check and brown rice or a protein shake

I only drink water all day and for snacks I usually have a pound of Boars Head firesmith chicken shaved that I snack on

Thats about 350 calories for breakfast and 300-400 for lunch and either 3-400 for dinner or 100.

Just a FYI, you can eat all the egg whites you want and all the grilled chicken you want and you will NEVER get fat

(Im 6'3 1/2 and usually weigh between 200 and 212lbs depending on how hard im training)

 

I really like what Attia says in his book "Outlive," which has already been echoed in here - sustainable lifestyle changes based around not going into routine calorie surplus. He breaks it down to three basic principles:
1) calorie restriction (just put less in the mouth hole)
2) dietary restriction (eat less of the bad items associated with the SAD)
3) time restriction (intermittent fasting)
Do Atkins, keto, vegetarian, vegan, mono-meal, carnivore, whatever. Basically any of those, while aiming for clean and proper macro quantities, will help with weight management because if followed prevents a surplus. I think a particular flavor of diet makes sense if you have a goal in mind or want to improve certain biomarkers.

 

most protein bars are garbage. Loaded with ultra processed ingredients.


The way i see it, eat real food. I believe an animal based diet is healthiest. Oatmeal is garbage, it is just going to wreck your morning insulin balance and make you hungry later. Oatmeal is made out of some of the most pesticide sprayed crops on the planet also.

The healthiest i feel is when i eat mostly meat, butter and eggs, a fruit every other day or so, almost never eat a vegetable, perhaps a cruciferous vegetable once a week like roasted cauliflower. I eat almost zero fiber and have never felt healthier.

Eat the fat off the steak, your body needs it and it keeps you full. I believe cholesterol is healthy (your body will make it if you dont eat enough). Don’t even count calories, count ingredients. Less is better. You cannot overconsume a meal of steak and broccoli. But you sure can overconsume torilla chips

 

I agree with you but want to mention Lustig's "Metabolical" and his view on fiber - super important for the gut and its trickle down regarding metabolic health (assuming from an unprocessed natural food).

 

I have found sugar to be addictive. You have some, you want more. It is best not to have any on hand at all.

"If you don't have it you can't eat it." Don't buy crap and you can't eat crap.

I tell you guys.....fat does indeed absorb testosterone and it causes the (male) body to produce more estrogen. "Man boobs" are a thing! Since I've begun metabolizing the fat away my sex drive has improved a good bit. That's another thing my wife is happy about.

 

The problem with the whole body of fiber research, is that its a house of cards, so to speak, of poor observational studies. And those studies consistently fail to control for healthy user bias. Those who eat more fiber also drink less alcohol, smoke less tobacco, exercise more, and prioritize their sleep quality/quantity more often. Therefore their improved health outcomes cannot be attributed to higher fiber intakes without higher quality experimental studies, which (thus far) have failed to show significant benefits.

 

Interesting. @Red&03Taco, are you in the field?

Health/nutrition/fitness is only an interest, so I don't bother with journal articles and try to get summaries from decent books. But it seems like what you described is pretty common with clinical studies as I've heard that ethos online quite a bit. It's of course much harder to have stringent control variables when it comes to humans.

 

The best advice I’ve heard is “The greatest diet is the one you can stick with” and “Eat less, move more.”

That being said, I have a KitKat addiction that I’m not willing to quit…

I started with P90X a long time ago, moved to Les Mills Weightlifting thingy and got hooked. Now I have a full cage, proper weightlifting equipment and I’m playing around with the MindPump Programs. Good on you for starting the journey and sticking with it!

If you decide to go next-level with your workout equipment, I’m finding that Facebook Marketplace has some pretty incredible deals if you are patient.

 

Oh, yeah. To help stave off my KitKat addiction, I do have a Gorilla Protein bar on my workout days. They at least have some protein in them and taste like a candy bar.

 

Keto works... really well to be honest.
The types of foods you're eating does make it feel like the opposite is going to happen as fatty foods are the cornerstone of the plan but it does result in a fairly quick fat loss if you're strict with all but eliminating all carbs from your diet.
Like most adjustments to an eating program, the up front results will be impressive but will also be short lived if it doesn't become a lifestyle from that point forward which is where Keto is tough. You simply cannot cheat or you set your progress back between 4-6 days where your body has to reset on its way to Ketosis again.

 

I just start the Carnivore Diet on Monday 12/2. I dropped 8.2 lbs in the first week. I've been eating a bunch of eggs, hamburger patties, ground beef, a few steaks and some scallops from the local seafood market + some cheese.

This podcast with Ken Berry talking to Kelly Hogan is pretty good. Kinda made me say Holy Crap!
Woman Eats Only MEAT for 13 Years : This Happens (Kelly Hogan Carnivore Diet)

Shawn Baker also has some good info.

Bottom line for me is, I'm WAY overweight (242 lbs when I started) my goal is to get sub 200 and stay there.
Plus, I have a family member that just got diagnosed with Alzheimer's/Type 3 Diabetes if you like, and I'm hoping to avoid that in my later years.

Hope you stick with it and reach all your goals.... I'll be rooting for ya!

I was still over 200 lbs in this pic... I would have been so much faster if I could have dropped another 30 lbs or so... at least that's what I tell myself...
Mid-Ohio Sportscar Course 2008

 

Things I’ve yet to read in this thread;
after dropping weigh with whatever (X) diet, and not rebounding back to the same weight.

Long term side effects with different methods, I.E screwing with your metabolism from eating one certain foods or one time a day. Increase of cholesterol causing LDL to increase. And the big one, heart issues.



*Unrelated to this thread but still diet related as they are or were trendy like Atkins, Keto, etc . I’m whiteness now to some coworkers who took those fad diet shots and doubled back weight. Also have personal friends who had the stomach surgery but never addressed the diet, thus causing the to expand back.

 

Yea I'm a Registered Dietitian, and have been for six years. I've not kept up with as many recent studies the past year since the wife and I had our first child, but up until then was always reading the latest stuff on Pubmed.

It's actually kind of unbelievable how much of nutrition science as a whole has this same problem. Nearly everything we think we know about human nutrition has come from the same type of poorly-controlled observational studies (and therefore all of it needs to be questioned and then rigorously studied with better experimental studies). But as you mentioned that's difficult (and very expensive). So they'll just keep re-running crappy studies that analyze food-frequency questionnaires and confirming their previously supported conclusions.

 

Any diet that results in a significant amount of weight loss, that is maintained, will decrease your Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) risk. If you improve blood glucose control in the process (which is hard not to do while losing weight), then you've even further lowered your CVD risk.

 

Diet continuing. Now look forward to hitting the gym.

Biggest challenge was going to the church dinner and avoiding all the sweets they'd made. Helped that I found a guy that works at the sheriff's department. Talking about making arrests, fighting people, and guns is a sure way to keep me occupied! LOL

 

Things are going well guys. Today I had to start using the last hole in my belt. Before the diet stated I had 2 holes exposed and had to wear my pants around my waist.

Today I have my pants around my belly button in addition to the last belt hole.

I'm actually annoyed by how loose my pants are so I'll have to buy new pants shortly.

 

According to the scale, I've lost 13 pounds in a little over a month.

Hit the gym nearly every night. Headed over there in about an hour.

 

Same results for me but without hitting the gym. I just stay below 22g of carbs and 1800 calories.

You're not giving yourself a cheat day?

 

I've cheated a couple of times but never a "cheat day."

I don't get to the gym every day but most days, yes.

 

I do weigh in once a week on Mondays. So far, I'm down 11 lbs as of this morning.
No cheat days on the schedule for me and I do try to move some weight around every night.

 

Didn't get to the gym last night after all.

I ended up chatting with a friend about a dump truck I'm looking to buy.

 

Pictures of the Dump truck please....

 

If I buy a dump truck I'll supply you guys pics.

Been wanting one since Spring of this year but only got serious about buying one about three months ago. Found two I like but each has its shortcomings. Test drove the one but it has virtually no functioning brakes. Hope to test drive the other Friday.

 

a couple good points here. And a couple old wives tales.

1. You will not screw up your metabolism by eating limited foods. You will re adjust your gut bacteria yes, but we NEED that. When you eat a high sugar diet, you end up with too many sugar eating gut bacteria, which is why you crave sugary foods! Look up SIBO for the extreme disaster of eating the wrong foods.

2. Rebounding- its not really a rebounding. Its restarting terrible decisions. If you start eating shit foods again, of course you regain the weight. Rebounding is even more common for calorie cutting. Counting calories is a complete waste of time, cutting calories is a terrible diet that will fail and you have to rebound, because you cant starve the body forever. Food quality matters, the right foods matter, not the quantity. Its easy to not over eat quality foods, because your body is naturally satiated.

3. This is not medical advice, do your own research. However if a doctor even mentioned a concern about LdL cholesterol i would find a new doctor. The fear of LDL is a complete myth. The “evidence” for the theory that LDL causes heart issues is flimsy at best, there is even more evidence that higher LDL is protective and leads to longer healthy lifespans, the immune system needs cholesterol for example. If you look at the top factors for CVD, the top contributors are metabolic syndrome, diabetes, obesity, smoking. LDL is so far down the list of possible factors its a zero for me. Lots of very informative docs on this. I like Dr Bret Sher and Ken Berry for example.


If you want to keep weight off, first understand why you put it on. By eating garbage. One has to commit to not eating processed food, not really subscribe to a “diet”.

eat real food, cut vegetable oils, eat enough protein, lift weights cut down on carbs. Keep it simple.

 

Cholesterol levels are controlled by sugar intake. Yet another thing Dr. Atkins was right about.

Diet continuing.....didn't get to the gym last night but will tonight. Spent the day delivering Christmas desserts my wife made to our mowing customers. This is something we do every year but not this late! I knocked out about 1/3 of everyone today and we'll get the rest after Christmas.

Merry Christmas everyone!

 

Are you making any headway?