Resistant to the Atkins Diet?

[dpaca]

Re: Resistant to the Atkins Diet?

Thank you Mystic. Yes I am the same and my body does adjusts to diet and excersise. This is why I asked this question. However, I think just for a little longer I am going to continue with what I am doing and then a little later increase or decrease (depending on what works better since sometimes I have to decrease excersise to lose, and then I increase again to lose more. Just how it works for me) and tweek the diet a little.

Hey Dpaca - you should look up the BMR figures for people in your age range, you'd be pretty surprised at how fast they start dropping off after age 18. It's not a surprise to me that after five years it's harder.

My personal experience has been that my body absolutely adjusts to what I'm doing whether it be diet or exercise. I have to continually change up both to keep my weight loss going - there's plenty of research that proves the body does this, which you can find and read using Google.

The one thing I generally see in threads like this is the lack of emphasis on exercise or fitness level. I'm probably on the far end of the spectrum for low-carbers when it comes to the importance of fitness so you can take me or leave me, but personally, I believe that if you're not committed to bringing your fitness up to a high level, the whole weight loss part is much slower and much more frustrating. You're at the age where you need to create that habit cuz it only gets harder and harder down the road.

[deec73]

Re: Resistant to the Atkins Diet?

I'm a second timer and it seems to me that I'm losing more easily this time around then I did the 1st. There are a couple factors for this. About a year after I fell off Atkins I started excercising more. I still wasn't eating right so I didn't lose any weight but I did gain muscle. When I finally "woke up" and got back on atkins the muscle I had gained has been actually helping me lose weight easier.

I also feel I look better this 2nd time around then the 1st time thanks to that muscle gain 1st time I got down to 170 and currently I'm at 195.

There are numerous factors for one losing weight or not. Gender, thyroid, the awesomeness of your metabolism, age, how much weight you want to lose, how much you excercise, are you following the plan, what vitamins are you taking, smoking or non, etc. etc. etc. etc. No one gains weight the same, no one is going to lose it the same no matter how many times you have gone through atkins. Even if you follow the plan properly.

Good points. I agree totally.

[The_Doctor]

Re: Resistant to the Atkins Diet?

Hi All,

After a few months of not being on the Atkins diet, yet still not having gained the weight back (only 5 pounds out of the 30 lost), i am back to Atkins again and this time hopefully with a vengeance. However, I have been 'Atkinsing' since 2003, and every time I stop and start, I seem to be losing less and less. The first time I did the Atkins diet I lost a lot of weight in a very short period of time, whereas this time round I am struggling to lose more than 1 or 2 pounds a week. Has anyone else ever experienced this? Please post your experiences, it would be very helpful for me, and many others who perhaps have had the same experience.

Thanks

The last 5 pounds are hardest to lose. Atkins does not necessarily push you to go this far. Atkins does give the example of a guy who had lost a lot of weight, but was still 10 lbs from where he would like to be, and the guy was happy with that.

I don't really think there is any evidence that going on and off the atkins diet screws with your metabolism. Atkins does not recommend this(yo-yo ing), but there are two very good reasons, why a doctor, who wants people to suceed on his low carb diet, would tell you to not do it.
1- Carbs are addicting, and once you go off, it is hard to get back on the diet. I noticed my tastes changed once I was on the diet. And, I noticed, my tastes changed once I started eating carbs again.
2- It takes a while for your brain to get used to running on the ketones. I would suspect, also, it takes awhile for the upregulation of the enzymes that convert protein to glucose. These two things probably contribute heavily to the induction flu. It very well might not be good to go through this conversion process too often.

This all being said, Tabues talks in his book about how insulin isn't the only factor in weight loss. Taubes brings hormones into the discussion, and how these hormones regulate lpl activities. I know in men, testosterone regulates lpl, and testosterone decreases over time with men. So, it may not be as easy or even as healthy, to be as lean as it was when you were significantly younger. I know that when I got down to my leanest in the diet, this is when I got sick.

Taubes also talks about seasonsal fluctations in lpl, which could influence your ability to lose weight. It may be, that for a lot of people, it is easier to lose the weight during the warmer parts of the year.