Starting Something New

[lsdiamond]

Interesting.

Dad and my brother have been doing the Atkins low-carb diet for awhile now, and have had great success with it. I've been doing research for a couple of weeks, and found some very interesting things about both Atkins and Weight Watchers.

It seems that about 40% of the weight you lose while on WW is lean muscle mass, and that's with exercise. I haven't been doing as much of the exercise as I need to, so I wonder how much greater my percentage is!

There's a lot of negativity towards Atkins from people who either haven't studied the theories behind it, or who just don't have the common sense God gave a rabbit. It doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out that we're dying of diseases our ancestors rarely had (heart disease being the major one). The difference between our diets is that theirs was largely natural (and laden with fat!) and ours is largely processed (and laden with sugars, white flours, and starches).

I don't know. It doesn't seem to require huge stretch of imagination to figure out that something is wrong.

Either way, I've decided to try out Atkins and see what all the hype is about. I've been off WW for quite some time now, because I was always hungry. My point range got down to the point where it was supposed to sustain me, but even eating the max amount daily, even adding exercise and gaining activity points...always hungry. Not cool, because when you're hungry you stop caring as much about what you need to be eating.

Induction is 14 days long, and I expect it to suck. I don't even know if I'll get through it, but I have proven to myself that I *can* do things if only I *will*.

Comments

[sycha.livejournal.com]

I have seen numerous success cases with Atkins and think it's a wonderful way of life.. That's it though with all these. Way of life. You have to stay on it FOREVER otherwise you start going back to your bad eating habits and that's when you gain everything back. People always say that "It's a good diet but you gain everything back if you stop." Well yeah, that's with anything. If you start eating right then decide to stop you're body is going to go to crap. If you start excercising and then stop you're going to lose your muscle and start getting flabby. You definately need to find something that works for you that you can do for an indefinate amount of time, just not for a short while.

[lsdiamond.livejournal.com]

This is the entire problem with people's view of the word 'diet'. Its very etymology suggests a 'way of life', rather than the popular definition of 'something I do for a short time to lose some weight'.

It's been a good change. Hard to believe it's been nearly a year!

[ex-myladysi.livejournal.com]

Refer to this:

http://www.livejournal.com/users/myladysilver/267557.html

(Not saying one way or another that you should do it, just pointing out all the negative feedback I got when I was going to try it.)

P. S. - Congrats on your doggie!

[lsdiamond.livejournal.com]

Hehe... This is actually an old, old post, sweetie. I seem to recall giving you some of my positive advice when you mentioned thinking about Atkins. :)

Thanks for the link, though - it's good to have things like this around.

[pavelam.livejournal.com]

We did atkins for awhile. It didn't really work out. Don't let me discourage you though. By the time we quit I was about ready to kill someone if I could just have a piece of toast!

[lsdiamond.livejournal.com]

Hehe... It's definitely not for everyone. I've been doing low-carb, although not specifically Atkins' plan, for about a year, and have little desire to go back to a "normal" high-carb diet.

I've learned which types of carbs make me feel sick, which ones my body tends to hang onto as fat, and which ones don't seem to affect me at all. Really, I'm on a more-or-less 'natural foods' diet, more than anything else. The only processed type foods I consume are the occasional sugar-free candy or diet soda. No white flour, no sugar, and very few starches - they all tend to make me feel nauseous, give me headaches, etc. I haven't had a single migraine since switching to this way of life, and they plagued me for years.

^_^ Thanks for the input!