Lisa,

No offense was intended.

As I said, both ends of the spectrum. There's a wide variance in between. I know a woman who stuck to Atkins-strict like a fiend, lost the [significant amount of] weight and occasionally cheats. She returns to induction if she gains more than a few pounds. But, she isn't on the spectrum ends, which is where the "Atkins didn't work" people typically lie. =)

None taken.

Yes! That's exactly what I mean.

It's so annoying. Though I have shut down a lot of the naysayers just by hanging in there and lowcarbing these last six years; and nothing bad has happened

Atkins didn't work for me. I read the book followed it. Low carb works wonders for me, and I think in OWL I'd probably do fine because that's basically what I do anyway. Induction on the other hand.... Although I followed it, I believe I definitely need more carbs to function. I had to count my veggies.. really? limiting my amount of salad greens, and shying away from carrots.

My average low carb meal is however much green veg I want, plus 4-8oz. of meat. The veggies would fill me up. On induction I found myself having to cut down considerably on veggies, but upping meat and fats, to get my carbs as low as they needed to be.

Could be I missed something, who knows. But I'm ok without it. Everything doesn't work for everyone in exactly the same ways.

Warning women's issues mentioned!!


Low carb hasn't worked for me so far for weight loss, but I'm sure it will, and I believe in the science. It has helped with health and with binge eating.

I've been low carbing for 5 months now and the only weight I've lost is the initial loss on atkins induction, and when I was eating less than 500 calories a day due to stomach problems.

I've read every low carb book I could get my hands on, as well as many of the low carb blogs.

For some of the time I thought the drug amitryptilline was having an effect as it seems that it has an effect on the endocrine system and people have huge problems losing weight while on it, I was also having problems with hypoglycaemia symptoms, so I stopped the drug.

It wasn't a solution but I think it was the right decision. I continued to have hypoglycaemic episodes in the last two weeks of menstrual cycle.

I got a blood glucose monitor to see what was happening to my blood sugar, with the hope of an indication of what my insulin levels were doing - I have PCOS with insulin resistance, my blood sugar has been known in the past to go as low as 34.2, but when I eventually ceased to ovulate due to PCOS, the hypoglycaemia was not as much of a problem. When I started low carb, I also started having a menstrual cycle again and back came the severe hypoglycaemia.

Anyway what the blood glucose monitor has told me, is that my bs is at its highest taken fasting in the morning 115-123. I then eat a low carb meal and it falls wthin 2 hours to 90. I then eat another low carb meal later and it falls to (for example) 77.4, and a final low carb meal will drop it to as low as 57. If I eat a high carb meal my bs goes up slightly and then down again. For instance from 90 up to 108 then down to 81 then maybe a slight rebound to 88.2.

What this seems to point to is that when I eat a low carb meal I'm still having a substantial insulin surge - even after 5 months lc, and that I need medication to fix this - the science says there is no way I can lose weight on lc with high insulin levels.

I've recounted this just to show that a person can have a medical issue that can impair atkins working - but that's not the fault of atkins, I just have some extra medical challenges that I hope will be solved with metformin. They didn't prescribe this for pcos 16 years ago when I was diagnosed. If they had, I doubt I'd be the weight I am today.

So severe insulin resistance may be an impairment to atkins working alone, but atkins plus metformin may work very well, I'll find out when I get my prescription.

Lee

Good stuff!

I never did Atkins. I tried Protein Power and had trouble - I think it was from excess protein which that plan does not acknowledge as a problem. I do better with higher carbs and lower protein like Groves and Kwasniewski.

How long did you stay on induction? It's only meant to be 2 weeks. It doesn't sound like you ever went into OWL ("I'd probably do fine" doesn't sound like you got that far). I'm just using you as an example since you posted...but this to me is like saying it doesn't work without even trying. Especially if you at the same time OWL is like what you do, and *that* works...how does it then translate to Atkins not working? If you only tried 1/4 of the plan, then it's jumping the gun a bit to say it doesn't work, no? Just like my tag says, Atkins does not equal induction. There's more to it, as you know from reading the book.

I'm certainly not saying that Atkins is right for everyone. Different strokes and all that. I think it's one thing to work through a plan and decide it doesn't work for you and move on to something else, but not ever moving past the first 2 week phase isn't really working through a plan to me.

Back to the question at hand...I think that in my experience, Atkins (or any diet plan) not working is due to people not even following it through. I'll be the first to admit, I used to knock my mother in law for doing Atkins. I thought it was terrible. But all I knew of it was HER version of it, which was not Atkins at all. It was only once I educated myself and read the book that I realized everything I thought I knew about low carb and Atkins was completely wrong. And that's what I really find true of most people *I* know that have "tried it". They didn't. End of story.

My sister is a South Beacher. She tried Atkins (and actually followed it through...she had been trying to get me to do it for years before I finally caved and tried), but she struggled with the high fat. She does well with a more moderate fat and moderate low carb plan. Leaner meats cause her less gastro issues. She was never obese or even overweight like I was. She's maintained her weight and fitness level for years by following low carb. Our plans of choice are just different. Now that I am in maintenance, our plans are very similar anyway.

I was one of those people who "tried" Atkins 3 times and wasn't successful. I also said it didn't work for me. I also hadn't read the book entirely, just sort of skimmed through it and looked at the recipes. Then I found this forum and got inspired again by the people who claimed to have lost so much weight on Atkins. What were they doing right? What was I doing wrong? They read the book from cover to cover, they got past the "induction flu" (I kept quitting Atkins when I started feeling awful on the induction flu), they found out what was their carb limit. What did I find out about my carb limit? I found out that I had to do 0 carbs in order to lose weight. I started with the Atkins diet and when my weight wasn't moving down I read in his book that he had put some of his patients who had hyperinsulism on a 0 carb diet. That's when the light bulb went off in my head. I started the meat & egg diet and the weight came off. It's actually a way of life now, not a diet because it's how I will eat for the rest of my life.
Basically, people can't just quit because it does work! They just have to do their homework and find out how they can make it work for themselves.

To say that Atkins did not work because people stop following it is like to say that we gain weight by eating to much, the question should be why do people stop following it. Atkins is hard for many. It is hard to believe in when the world is hollering "watch your fat", and "watch your cholesterol". It is hard to follow in a world where not giving candy to a baby is considered mean. It is hard to follow when every holiday, birthday or any other occasion is based on sweet, and sweet is associated with love. Carbs are convenient - they keep and they are quick to acquire, ready to eat, fully processed, in a bag.

I have also had friends that failed at Atkins, even though they read the book and did their best, and had blood tests done. I do believe there are underlining problems that the low-carb community neglects to address, such as hormonal weight gain. These 3 friends probably had a medical problem that the medical community considers within a normal range, whereas, in fact, this normal range is based on an abnormal (sick) population.
Atkins has saved me from becoming obese (I started while I was spiraling upward out of control), Atkins has saved me from hormonal weight gain - fertility treatments and pregnancy. Atkins has probably saved my health, and saved me from taking a multitude of pills. The low carb community has introduced me to a healthy scepticism when it comes to the medical profession, big pharma and food producers, and spiked my curiosity into gaining more info (Amazon is happy). This is probably why I have been successful at Atkins while my friends have failed.

Previous to trying Atkins, I had been doing a plan of my own where my ratios were around 40-40-20 protein-fat-carbs. Somewhat similar to OWL I had been playing with carbs weekly to see what I could handle, and that is what I came up with. I've posted around here before about it. I was also counting calories. Fats I had no problem with.

When I tried Atkins I stayed on induction for a month. At the end of two weeks I had gained weight, and figured it was just my body adjusting. I continued for another 2 weeks I gained still. I can't remember exactly how much I had gained. It was under 5lbs, but still disturbing.

It could have simply been that having done such a controlled ratio and calorie plan before starting with unlimited calories of meat and fat made me balloon. If I was coming from the SAD I probably would have lost weight. Or maybe the sodium made me retain water... but the diet usually has a diuretic effect. so I don't know.

I believe in the theory. I think that for most people it will probably work in the original way described in the book. But even he mentions instances where different measures had to be taken.

If you have any suggestions on what I should do to get better results I'd love to hear. For induction I had changed from lean meats to meat with more fat because Atkins requires more fat, and less protein than I was used too. bacon ground beef, etc. I usually don't eat those meats simply because they make my stomach grumpy. With the exchange of less protein for more fat was always hungry. It takes much more beef to fill me up than chicken for some reason. Fat just makes me hungrier not full. Not as bad as carbs do, but enough so that I was really over doing the butter and olive oil.

Ditto. I actually never did Atkins either as I always hated Atkins Induction. Actually the new Atkins book out says there is no reason to go on Induction if you don't want, and you can skip right past it if you choose. This is what I always felt instinctively - but was interesting to see it in print.

But I DO believe in the concept of low carb, and have lost about 115 pounds and improved health in many ways by following a LC eating plan, but I also do better on a lower protein plan like Kwasniewski.

The latest Atkins book was not written by Atkins, but by three other people: Atkins is dead for a while now. If this version didn't work for somebody, we could say that they didn't actually try the Atkins diet.

Since I was one of the early posters who suggested that "atkins didn't work" really meant "I didn't try atkins," let me clarify: I fully accept that Atkins by the book may not be the best diet for some people, it might even the worst diet for some. I believe genetics, childhood nutrition, etc., make us each unique. I really just meant to comment on the people I have met who truly believe that Atkins = living on cheese and deli meats because of poorly researched accounts in the media.

I agree that inflammation can be a tricky issue so solve. Have you seen any of the research on the oxidation of omega 3s after ingestion? Also, these, like all PUFAs are damaged to some degree with heat, no? Sashimi anyone?

Lipid peroxidation during n-3 fatty acid and vitamin E supplementation in humans.