Active Low-Carber Forums - View Single Post - Anyone do a "carb blowout day" occasionally?

There's a new article on the Atkins web site that is somewhat appropriate.

http://atkins.com/Archive/2001/12/15-370312.html

Quote:

Another more serious concern is the impact this going back and forth can have on your metabolism. (See "The Wrong Way to Do Atkins" ) You may have heard people say, “I love doing Atkins because I can cheat on the weekends, then go back to Induction on Monday morning.” While this behavior pattern may work for the short term, it will probably backfire in more ways than one. It's likely that your metabolism will adapt at a certain point—in a sense, developing a tolerance. People who repeatedly regain weight and go back to Induction sometimes find that they do not experience the dramatic and easy weight loss they initially enjoyed. Add in the facts that none of us is getting any younger and that our metabolism's natural tendency is to slow down with passing years. Finally, your body pays a price healthwise if you dramatically switch back and forth repeatedly from a fat-burning to a glucose-burning metabolism.

The Wrong Way to Do Atkins http://atkins.com/Archive/2001/12/15-535293.html

Quote:

Misconception: You can do Induction during the week and binge on weekends and still lose or maintain weight.
Reality: When you do Atkins during the week and then cheat on the weekends, for several days after your binge you are no longer burning fat. At most, you could be in the fat-burning state for only three days each week. In addition, you may have overstimulated your insulin response, increasing the metabolic risk factors underlying your weight problem. Remember that when you burn fat, dietary fat is also being burned. However, if you combine high carbs with high fat—the typical American diet—you can be increasing your cardiovascular risks.

Misconception: Atkins can be used as a short-term or crash diet.
Reality: If you do Induction for two weeks to drop 10 pounds and then go back to your old way of eating, you will be treating it as a crash diet. But that goes against everything Dr. Atkins recommends, and will lead to problems in the long run.