Since it is another person's life and not my own, I second the general attitude of it if works, go for it. It isn't my place to tell someone else how to live, especially someone with no excuse for ignorance.

People are perfectly free to screw up their lives however they want , but you can't assume that people have access to correct information. Maybe WE do, but 6 months or 6 years from now when someone stubles on this thread....?

It's funny how everyone is reacting to this. I read a lot of posts (mine included) about people talking down to us for eating low carb, for feeling the need to defend our way of eating to others, and get P.O.'d when others force their opinions on us. My parents eat low fat and have both lost weight, and they both have gotten off of meds because of it. They eat a lot of veges and chicken and meat. (sounds like the way we eat!!), but they eat whole grain breads, and a lot of beans too. In my opinion, I don't care how other people eat, I am not going to challenge their opinions, and I shouldn't have to feel the need to "dis" them because of the choices they have made, anymore than others should have talked down to me when I was fatter because I didn't understand my body. some of us get -it some of us don't.

I think atkins is pretty easy to maintain if you consider the WHOLE plan. People like the original poster who clearly think atkins is solely about induction and nothing more are mis informed.

Proteins, vegetables, fruits and even some grains can be eaten on atkins in the long run.

I think in the long run the majority of eating plans all center in on just about the same foods- there is no eating plan that focuses on flour and sugar and donuts. And the amount of carbs each individual has on Atkins in the long run also varies widely based on their individual needs.

I feel the OP is a complainer..... Atkins doesnt suggest it works for everyone, but it is a great start for those who are obese, atleast it teaches you to adjust your levels as you go along and to end up at where you want to be, some people probably end up with those some percentages.

When i was working out 6 days a week + weight training, i clearly was not eating 20 carbs.... more like 60 and this was at the START of me doing atkins.

I harp on this a lot, but people are Rationalizing Creatures.

No matter what it is that we end up doing, unless we are really striving to be brutally honest with ourselves, we will discover a way that what we did makes perfect sense. If we fail a grade at school, it's because the teacher didn't like us. If we lose a job, it's because the foreman was against us.

In Atkins, if you don't lose weight, it's because no sane person can eat bacon three meals a day for week after week.

All I know for sure is that I can lose weight overeating on Atkins, and I couldn't lose weight undereating on the low fat diet. That's even without eating bacon three times a day!

Alastair, your 40:40:20 plan sounds a lot like The Zone, another diet that isn't popular here. I agree with you that it's about calories in, calories out. Fewer calories in, lose weight. I don't understand those who say they lived on lettuce and gained weight, or fasted for a month and gained weight. Some people must have metabolic quirks that subvert the calories in, calories out scheme. But for many it works. I'm around 166 pounds now. I got there by controlling my intake. It was difficult at first but now it feels normal.

Isn't that pretty much the original food pyramid?

Did you read about the hibernating animals that you can snatch out of their burrows, surgically remove their stored fat, and then put them in a cage with no food and watch them regrow their fat?

Very convincing argument that fat grows on it's own schedule, and will find the material it needs to grow even if you don't feed it.

Hibernating ground squirrels. Yup....even deprived of calories, they will still put on fat in the fall.

See, that's the difference between an experiment and a "survey". Experiments single out a fact, and either demonstrates it or refutes it. No need for an opinion any more, you know the fact.

Of course you can have opinions about whether the fact applies in a particular case, in which case you have to devise further experiments. Then, when you get more facts, you can convert your opinion to knowledge.

Hiya -

low calorie works in the short term - but not long-term, unless you are seriously good about controlling your appetite. That's my experience, and I'm not particularly insulin-resistant. But my guess is I WOULD BE - gradually, as the years progress, without intervention.

That I cured several skin/immune disorders on low-carb speaks heaps for this WOL, weight-loss aside. Just about everything I've read is the opposite of my experience. That you have to eat lots of grains, fruit and veggies to be in good health - no way. My whole system freaks out after eating fruit.

For me the new vegetable is fat. Specifically animal fat.

Don't ask me why, but when I'm not eating tons of fruit and veggies my skin is really great. As the skin is an organ, I would think it reflects inner health no?

I did the whole 'balanced' nutrition thing - it left me having to restrict calories and then I ended up bingeing.

It's unusual for this NOT to happen to anyone who gains weight at the drop of a hat.

Are you serious???!!!! Has anyone done enough research to come up with the actual process for this? It goes totally against logic - how can it happen?!

Glenda

I don't know why anyone is wasting time responding to the OP. He never did the plan correct. I remember him always posting asking questions, basic questions, that would have been answered had he educated himself and read the book. I remember one post in particular where he was having 7 oz of cheese daily, during induction, and wondering why he wasn't losing weight He's a waste of energy people. Funny, how people are quick to say things don't work when THEY NEVER WORKED THE PLAN CORRECTLY.

Glendarc, yes, she is serious. To me it was the most compelling bit of research reported in Good Calories, Bad Calories. They regained all the surgically removed fat without any calories added to their diet.

It has made me wonder, after having complete thyroid panels, adrenal gland response tests, tests for food intolerances, etc. if whatever is going on in that situation has anything to do with why it is so danged difficult for me to lose each pound.

That's it - I'm a hibernating ground squirrel - or I have one in my ancestry.