Hi all
Since joining my local gym, I've aquired a personal trainer. He's really good and definately knows his stuff.
I told him about Atkins and how I've had great sucess on it, both times around. However he was concerned about the amount of carbs I was eating as I'm on Extended Induction and he's done some research. Here is what he's come back with...
The longer you stay on a plan like Atkins, the more damage you will do; this is simply down to the starvation effect occurring in your body.
The over-riding cause of this problem centres around the fact that the carb intake does not meet even the basal requirements of your brain and central nervous system. This means you will have ZERO availability of carbs. This is where I refer to the Krebs Cycle (energy systems within the mitochondria/powerhouse of muscle cells): In order to oxidise fat (eg ‘burn fat’), your body requires a substance called oxaloacetic acid – if you have no carbohydrate, you will have no oxaloacetic acid. Your body must then manufacture carbohydrate from muscle (gluconeogenesis) which means to maintain life, you are eating yourself! This is happening every single minute of every single day.
As well as causing very gradual but increasing degeneration of muscle and internal organs, the starvation state of your body will mean you will be producing lipogenic enzymes (fat storage chemicals) whilst inhibiting lipolytic enzymes (fat burning chemicals). Your body is fighting everything you do.
Atkins also completely ignores the beneficial effects of Omega 3s and 6s and the importance of balancing these. There is no guidance on micronutrition, avoiding nutrient binding or improving the GI tract which should all figure in an intelligent and complete eating plan.
I know I have got a little advanced here – but basically what I am saying is that the Atkins diet is not healthy and not effective. This is true of a lot of diets. Most of you weight you lose comes from the loss of muscle (for every one pound of skeletal muscle you lose, you lose another 4lbs of water held within it), so your lowered metabolism ensures that any results you see on the scale are temporary.
If you would like me to completely go through a complete Diet Consultation, this takes about an hour and a half and I charge £40 for it. This gives you a structured diet plan (Day One / Day Two format to avoid monotony) and appropriate supplements too, with Carbs, Fats, Proteins balanced to the gram in relation to your current lean mass and specific aims.
I don’t mean to sound so negative about the Atkins diet but any Nutrition Practitioner would feel the same, and any competent one will be able to explain why. Any questions, please let me know!
Please can you let me know ur thoughts? I'm abit worried now. I do plan on moving on to OWL when I reach 11 stone. Then I've got 14lbs to go which I guess that I need to lose slowly?! I've only ever been on Induction when doing this WOL as I always thought that I had lots of weight to lose and the book said I could do Induction for up to 6 months safely. So when I get down to 154lbs, I will start to move up the rungs.
Since joining my local gym, I've aquired a personal trainer. He's really good and definately knows his stuff.
I told him about Atkins and how I've had great sucess on it, both times around. However he was concerned about the amount of carbs I was eating as I'm on Extended Induction and he's done some research. Here is what he's come back with...
The longer you stay on a plan like Atkins, the more damage you will do; this is simply down to the starvation effect occurring in your body.
The over-riding cause of this problem centres around the fact that the carb intake does not meet even the basal requirements of your brain and central nervous system. This means you will have ZERO availability of carbs. This is where I refer to the Krebs Cycle (energy systems within the mitochondria/powerhouse of muscle cells): In order to oxidise fat (eg ‘burn fat’), your body requires a substance called oxaloacetic acid – if you have no carbohydrate, you will have no oxaloacetic acid. Your body must then manufacture carbohydrate from muscle (gluconeogenesis) which means to maintain life, you are eating yourself! This is happening every single minute of every single day.
As well as causing very gradual but increasing degeneration of muscle and internal organs, the starvation state of your body will mean you will be producing lipogenic enzymes (fat storage chemicals) whilst inhibiting lipolytic enzymes (fat burning chemicals). Your body is fighting everything you do.
Atkins also completely ignores the beneficial effects of Omega 3s and 6s and the importance of balancing these. There is no guidance on micronutrition, avoiding nutrient binding or improving the GI tract which should all figure in an intelligent and complete eating plan.
I know I have got a little advanced here – but basically what I am saying is that the Atkins diet is not healthy and not effective. This is true of a lot of diets. Most of you weight you lose comes from the loss of muscle (for every one pound of skeletal muscle you lose, you lose another 4lbs of water held within it), so your lowered metabolism ensures that any results you see on the scale are temporary.
If you would like me to completely go through a complete Diet Consultation, this takes about an hour and a half and I charge £40 for it. This gives you a structured diet plan (Day One / Day Two format to avoid monotony) and appropriate supplements too, with Carbs, Fats, Proteins balanced to the gram in relation to your current lean mass and specific aims.
I don’t mean to sound so negative about the Atkins diet but any Nutrition Practitioner would feel the same, and any competent one will be able to explain why. Any questions, please let me know!
Please can you let me know ur thoughts? I'm abit worried now. I do plan on moving on to OWL when I reach 11 stone. Then I've got 14lbs to go which I guess that I need to lose slowly?! I've only ever been on Induction when doing this WOL as I always thought that I had lots of weight to lose and the book said I could do Induction for up to 6 months safely. So when I get down to 154lbs, I will start to move up the rungs.










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