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This board welcomes lots of newcomers to Atkins, specially around this time of year, and quite a few of them come with some misconceptions about this way of life. These are often a bit different to the critisims that are levied against it by the naysayers, but they can still cause people problems, act as a deterrent to their fully committing to the plan or confuse them about what they should be doing.
So I thought it might be a good idea to gather some of the more common ones together in a single thread and address them.
Here are five that I've seen come up quite often - have you more to add?
1. Atkins is a high protein diet
No, it isn't. It's a moderate protein diet. Most of your calories, certainly in the early stages, come from fat. Protein is metabolised in the body by a process called gluconeogenisis, which results in the production of glucose, and so eating protein excessively is almost as bad as eating too many carbs.
2. Three cups of lettuce a day is all the veg you need to eat on induction.
Nope again. That would be 3 carbs a day. Dr A clearly states that MOST of your carbs should come from nutritious and healthy vegetables. And you are allowed up to 20 carbs a day on induction - 3 carbs is a long way from most of 20.
On induction you should choose veg so that you get the maximum from them. Most people would recommend that you eat your cup of 'other veg' every day, and choose wisely from the list of salad veg so as to MAXIMISE your carbs. It's not a no carb diet, lettuce has basically nothing to offer except an opportunity to chew.
As you travel up OWL you get to add a lot of extra veg, quite a lot of extra veg. Even a quick preusal of this site will show that those who have been most successful and have had long term success eat LOADS of vegetables.
3. The fewer carbs the better.
Wrong, especially when it comes to carbs from veg. Actually I am increasingly thinking that controlled carb is a better description of this WOE than low carb. Becuase the further you take it the more of the food you eat - by volume - is carb based. You just need to get very picky about where those carbs come from. They won't be from white flour, sugar, rice or pasta, they will be from veg, dairy products and fruit.
All of these are nutritious foodstuffs that in addition to carbs are packed with minerals, vitamins, anti-oxidents and other nutrients that are good for you and which your body needs. Keeping your carbs unnecessarily low deprives you of the very real benefits of eating a lot of good food, deprives you of variety and flavour and won't do your long term chances of weight control any good at all.
4. All those fats cannot be good for you.
Not if you are eating it with a high carb, high sugar, junk-food laden diet they are not, but in a low carb way of eating fats are plain healthy. Read the book and understand why. It is the biggest critisism that will be hurled at you by those who don't understand this way of eating, so you owe it to yourself to educate yourself on this issue. If Dr A's book does not convince you, read Gary Taubes book "Good calories, bad calories" and it surely will.
5. Occasional cheats/breaks are ok, in fact they can help
This comes up over and over, with the theory that by cheating or by taking an occasional break from the plan, you then somehow shock your body when you restart and thus speed up your weight loss. It isn't true. While a fall, where you eat off plan for a time or eat something you should not have, is no reason to give up, thinking cheats are all right or that you can just take a break from time to time is a very different thing.
Those who have restarted several times will tell you that each time is harder than the last, not easier. What starts as a little cheat can end up as months of bad eating and considerable weight gain. This is a life time plan, fully taking that on board and deciding it is YOUR lifetime plan is important.
Any more.....???
So I thought it might be a good idea to gather some of the more common ones together in a single thread and address them.
Here are five that I've seen come up quite often - have you more to add?
1. Atkins is a high protein diet
No, it isn't. It's a moderate protein diet. Most of your calories, certainly in the early stages, come from fat. Protein is metabolised in the body by a process called gluconeogenisis, which results in the production of glucose, and so eating protein excessively is almost as bad as eating too many carbs.
2. Three cups of lettuce a day is all the veg you need to eat on induction.
Nope again. That would be 3 carbs a day. Dr A clearly states that MOST of your carbs should come from nutritious and healthy vegetables. And you are allowed up to 20 carbs a day on induction - 3 carbs is a long way from most of 20.
On induction you should choose veg so that you get the maximum from them. Most people would recommend that you eat your cup of 'other veg' every day, and choose wisely from the list of salad veg so as to MAXIMISE your carbs. It's not a no carb diet, lettuce has basically nothing to offer except an opportunity to chew.
As you travel up OWL you get to add a lot of extra veg, quite a lot of extra veg. Even a quick preusal of this site will show that those who have been most successful and have had long term success eat LOADS of vegetables.
3. The fewer carbs the better.
Wrong, especially when it comes to carbs from veg. Actually I am increasingly thinking that controlled carb is a better description of this WOE than low carb. Becuase the further you take it the more of the food you eat - by volume - is carb based. You just need to get very picky about where those carbs come from. They won't be from white flour, sugar, rice or pasta, they will be from veg, dairy products and fruit.
All of these are nutritious foodstuffs that in addition to carbs are packed with minerals, vitamins, anti-oxidents and other nutrients that are good for you and which your body needs. Keeping your carbs unnecessarily low deprives you of the very real benefits of eating a lot of good food, deprives you of variety and flavour and won't do your long term chances of weight control any good at all.
4. All those fats cannot be good for you.
Not if you are eating it with a high carb, high sugar, junk-food laden diet they are not, but in a low carb way of eating fats are plain healthy. Read the book and understand why. It is the biggest critisism that will be hurled at you by those who don't understand this way of eating, so you owe it to yourself to educate yourself on this issue. If Dr A's book does not convince you, read Gary Taubes book "Good calories, bad calories" and it surely will.
5. Occasional cheats/breaks are ok, in fact they can help
This comes up over and over, with the theory that by cheating or by taking an occasional break from the plan, you then somehow shock your body when you restart and thus speed up your weight loss. It isn't true. While a fall, where you eat off plan for a time or eat something you should not have, is no reason to give up, thinking cheats are all right or that you can just take a break from time to time is a very different thing.
Those who have restarted several times will tell you that each time is harder than the last, not easier. What starts as a little cheat can end up as months of bad eating and considerable weight gain. This is a life time plan, fully taking that on board and deciding it is YOUR lifetime plan is important.
Any more.....???
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