coming off ATKINS. I need help......please

[LC_Dave]

Re: coming off ATKINS. I need help......please

It seems you have already made the decision to leave the Atkins diet, and that it was only a 'quick fix'.

I don't think anyone here can give you the advice you need, because for us it has to be a Way of Life.

You may be young now, and heavy into rugby etc, but that won't be the same forever.

Time catches up and, the foods you eat will too.

Excessive insulin excretion cause by eating the standard diet can do more damage than simply weight gain.

I don't know if ytou know this site: http://www.theomnivore.com but it's run by a Personal trainer that is a hard core low carber / Paleo food eater. It might provide you with more ideas.

If you want to stay lean, there unfortunately has to be some sort of restriction.

I see no reason why you can't be eating a maintenance level of the Atkins diet and do the thing syou want to do.

[ttdriver]

Re: coming off ATKINS. I need help......please

I couldn't have said it any better than Dave. When you hit 40, the rules change.

Betty

[Analog6]

Re: coming off ATKINS. I need help......please

Why? Atkins maintenance is perfectly healthy, and you'll never put the weight back on. It includes more fruit and other carbs, if that is what you are 'worried' about. Read the Atkins for Life book (try the library) before you make the decision.

[Desertthorn]

Re: coming off ATKINS. I need help......please

I would personnally suggest you rethink your reasons, cause why fix something that aint broken. It's working for you...
Saying that, if you feel that you have to quit, I would do so by just going up the OWL ladder until you get to maintenance. That way you won't go into carb shock.

[not2late]

Re: coming off ATKINS. I need help......please

I have a question for you. You play rugby. But what do you do during the off-season? Do you still engage in enough physical activity to compensate for your diet?

See diet and exercise are important in maintaining your weight. If you decrease your activity, you'll need to decrease your food intake if you want to maintain weight. Likewise, if you increase your food intake, you'll need to increase your activity if you want to maintain. So if you want to maintain weight, you need to learn self-control and self-regulation, otherwise, 'hello fat'.

[Bren]

Re: coming off ATKINS. I need help......please

The answer to your question is in the "Lifetime Maintenanace" section of the book. It is titled........ The wrong way to do Atkins. In that section Dr. Atkins states "Over the years I have been amazed at the way people ignore advice in this book and devise ways to abuse the Atkins Nutritional Approach by doing it their own way". He continues on to give nine of the misconceptions amoung Atkins abusers. I would highly suggest you read this short section.

Sorry, but this is an ADBB where we follow the rules of the book (or as some jokingly refer to as our bible). I am not going to sugar coat it ........... what it is, is what it is. But, here we do Atkins and we do it as the Doctor taught us. Why? Cause it WORKS!

Look around you at the success stories and read peoples signatures.......They did not do Atkins their way...... they did it the correct way and got correct results.

[bizzlekitty]

Re: coming off ATKINS. I need help......please

The reason people regain weight after Atkins is that they do not follow the entire program that Dr. Atkins developed. That includes OWL to maintenance levels. If you've lost weight and are near where you want to be, you should be in maintenance, which should allow for a healthy low carb-ish diet that isn't that tough to follow.

If you want to go out and drink occasionally, I would imagine you could still do so within maintenance, knowing that it could cause issues or weight gain.

Am not entirely sure why you are pushing for a low fat diet, however. Contrary to all the hype for the last 30 years, there is nothing wrong with healthy fats and low fat diets may even be more harmful (since they often cause you to overeat carbs to compensate). Not eating sufficient fats will likely cause hunger which would increase your likelihood to binge or cheat and get out of control.

So to sum it up, what people are saying here is that you can still be doing Atkins and living your life, if you follow the Atkins plan including maintenance.

Every person I know that have regained weight after Atkins is because they do not follow the entire plan and think they can go back to their old patterns of eating once they lost the weight. This is illogical.

[n0matter]

Re: coming off ATKINS. I need help......please

I'd like to be a little more encouraging than the other posters. You will find that on this particular board, people in general believe that when you begin your Atkin's commitment, it must end only when you die. I am basically following the same plan as you; Atkins until I meet goal and then stepping up the exercise and reverting back to a more casual diet. Following the rungs to a T is not going to allow you to eat the way that most 'normal' people do. You're still going to have to count carbs, stay away from certain foods, be very selective of exactly which fruits and grains, etc. that you eat. I believe that this is necessary for many posters here because most simply aren't physically capable of following a healthy diet and exercise program that is NOT Atkins.

What I mean is that everyone is built differently and will respond differently do changes in diet. For example, I am very capable of pretty much eating anything I want and not gaining weight IF I exercise 4-5 times/week. I will not LOSE weight this way but I will feel healthy and not have to worry about gaining if I want to eat pasta and bread and crackers and pie, etc. On ADBB, however, I've discovered that most regular posters do not possess the biological make-up for this to work for them. And so you will see a lot of people proclaiming that Atkins can ONLY be successful if applied for life. Or that you will DEFINITELY gain the weight you've lost back if you attempt to modify the diet and concentrate more on exercise as a means of weight control.

This can be frustrating and misleading when you ask for advice because many posters here believe, for whatever reason, that their experiences with what you're proposing apply to anyone else who may follow the same path. I have to stress to you that you must take all advice provided here with a grain of salt. Regardless of what statistics are provided and how adamantly people shun your outlandish ideas on weight loss and maintenance(open-mindedness is not ADBB's strongsuit, though their intentions are always good).

Always remember that there are millions of people around the world who eat right, exercise regularly, are in excellent shape and do NOT follow Atkins. You will simply have to try your new WoE + exercise and see how well it works for you. Whatever you decide, I wish you the best of luck and health. No one should be a slave to anything or anyone, be it a drug or an overbearing significant other or a diet.

[not2late]

Re: coming off ATKINS. I need help......please

As I stated in my 2 previous posts, weight maintenance for any diet depends on 2 things: your diet (food intake) and your exercise. If you slack off on your diet, you must take up the slack on your exercise. If you slack off on your exercise, you must be mindful of your diet (food intake). This is true for any diet you wish to follow.Your metabolism also influences your ability to maintain weight.

It's no secret that as we get older, our metabolisms slow down. So what you were able to get away with at age 18 is different than what you will be able to get away with at age 40. Moreover, medications and health conditions can influence our metabolic rate.

Also as I stated in my first post, Atkins On-going Weight Loss Phase, Atkins Pre-Maintenance Phase and Atkins Maintenance Phase resemble a macrobiotic-type diet----whole foods and minimally processed/refined carbohydrate, protein and fat sources. That by far is "healthier" than the "Standard American Diet", which consists of processed fats, carbs and proteins.

Atkins Induction phase is only one part of the Atkins Diet, not the whole thing. And Atkins Induction phase is a minimum of 14 days. The vast majority of us can lose weight eating more than 20 net carbs daily and by eating the carb foods on the other phases. In fact, the diet is written so that you spend the majority of your weight loss eating foods like vegetables, fruits, legumes, and whole grains.

Ultimately it's your decision. Good luck to you.

[n0matter]

Re: coming off ATKINS. I need help......please

I don't disagree with any of that. I just think that the overwhelming majority of replies to posts like this are negative and completely intolerant of the idea of going off Atkins. When someone asks for help, I believe replies should contain some degree of assistance and not common ADBB rhetoric such as "You'll gain it all back. You have to stay on Atkins for life." As you said, whether it will work for him/her is dependant upon a number of factors and not simply whether they are officially following the Atkins diet.

What I'd like to see more of are people who followed Atkins, lost the weight and still participate on the forum, even though their WoE is entirely different than what they used for weight-loss. I promise to stick around after I've shifted on to phase II of my diet(drop Atkins, work out more) and post regular updates. Lucky you guys!

[not2late]

Re: coming off ATKINS. I need help......please

I don't disagree with any of that. I just think that the overwhelming majority of replies to posts like this are negative and completely intolerant of the idea of going off Atkins. When someone asks for help, I believe replies should contain some degree of assistance and not common ADBB rhetoric such as "You'll gain it all back. You have to stay on Atkins for life." As you said, whether it will work for him/her is dependant upon a number of factors and not simply whether they are officially following the Atkins diet.

It's a fact that 9 out of 10 people who lose weight gain it back within 1 year. Of those people who keep it off, 2/3 will regain their weight in 3 years. This is true for any diet.

So, if you don't watch what you eat and don't watch your activity level, you better keep your fat clothes because the statistics say you'll be able to wear them again.

What I'd like to see more of are people who followed Atkins, lost the weight and still participate on the forum, even though their WoE is entirely different than what they used for weight-loss. I promise to stick around after I've shifted on to phase II of my diet(drop Atkins, work out more) and post regular updates. Lucky you guys!

Well, of course their maintenance diet is different from their weight loss diet. By definition, a diet you use to lose weight has different parameters than a diet you use to maintain weight because your goals are different.

[n0matter]

Re: coming off ATKINS. I need help......please

It's a fact that 9 out of 10 people who lose weight gain it back within 1 year. Of those people who keep it off, 2/3 will regain their weight in 3 years. This is true for any diet.

So, if you don't watch what you eat and don't watch your activity level, you better keep your fat clothes because the statistics say you'll be able to wear them again.

See, that's exactly what I'm talking about. It's the sort of "we're all doomed, we might as well accept it" attitude that I see far too much of around here. Why even bother losing weight at all? 90% of us are just going to gain it all back in a year! In essense what you're saying is that once you gain weight, you're pretty much screwed because you're never going to lose it and keep it off unless you count every carb and every calorie for the rest of your life. Not very inspiring, is it? I can't be bothered to investigate those statistics because it seems highly unlikely that I'm constantly exposed to people offline who have lost and kept off weight for years and years. Most of whom are individuals who believe the Atkins diet is centered around eating steaks and mayonaise all day. Statistically speaking, I should know more fat people who have tried and failed over and over again. But that's not the case.

I think I'll go with my way of thinking and hope I have the physical and mental ability to lose and keep my weight off without keeping my fat clothes. Thanks.

[Bren]

Re: coming off ATKINS. I need help......please

Hi and Welcome to


ADBB stands for ATKINS diet bulletin board. I am confused as to what part of that you do not understand? This is a bulletin board for people who have chosen to follow the ATKINS nutritional approach. Our mission here is to help our members succeed on ATKINS. We have many many success stories! Please feel free to read them.
The advise we give is based on the book by Dr. Atkins! Our intentions are to help people on their ATKINS journey. We have no intentions of rewriting the book which has proven very successful and helpful to thousands of us.
The old... "why fix it if it is not broken. "
We have found that letting posters think "Atkins My Way" is going to work is not a path we want to take, as time and time again it has proven NOT to work.
Our rewards here are the success stories of those that have succeeded in this Way of Life.
We have other boards for people chosing not to follow ATKINS WAY OF LIVING. Please feel free to check out our other sites
www.lowcarbdietbulletinboard.com. That is a general forum for Low carbers not following the ATKINS way of eating.
I am sorry if this sounds combative, but I cannot understand why you would come to an Atkins Board and give improper information. I for one want to see people succeed as I did...... and would feel terrible if someone read wrong information, followed it, and failed. The journey of weight lose is hard enough for all of us without being given false information.
So onward and upward! Let's focus on helping each other in a way that has been proven to work time and time again!!!

[MotherOfGizmo]

Re: coming off ATKINS. I need help......please

Thank you Bren!

[changing]

Re: coming off ATKINS. I need help......please

What I'd like to see more of are people who followed Atkins, lost the weight and still participate on the forum, even though their WoE is entirely different than what they used for weight-loss. I promise to stick around after I've shifted on to phase II of my diet(drop Atkins, work out more) and post regular updates. Lucky you guys!

You will find that at some other low-carb support forums on the net. One in particular (that hasn't been mentioned) that has people like that springs to mind: www.lowcarbfriends.com/bbs

Please know that I am not saying you should leave here and go there or any other dismissal of you or your opinions. I like you, actually, and I'm glad that you speak your mind even if it tends to ruffle feathers aruond here. But the site I recommended is just another place you can go to find some information that you may not have considered. I read around at a lot of different forums, blogs, and sites about lots of different low-carb plans/ideas followed by a variety of different people, and this one just sprung to mind as being a place where you might be able to find that information.