The diet, my personal findings to share

[warbishop]

I know there is a lot of both fact and opinion out there regarding the Atkins diet. Over time, I know I have heard and read oodles of thoughts on it. Everything from what works to what to avoid. I have even had my friends trying the diet. Some made it work and others failed on it. Most times I thin the ones that failed, did so because they lacked a real understanding of what the diet entails. And no matter how often you tell people to read the book carefully, many just wont do it.

Anyway, moving on... I wanted to share a personal finding with all of you. To me it is the KEY to the diet. Now, that doesn't mean it will be KEY for everyone. And we all know that not everyone will agree with it. But honestly, I don't care. I am just going to share this and hopefully it will help someone as it did me. Thanks.

I have read the DrANDR a few times. I just reread the book. And I must admit, he was brilliant. He was obviously on to something when he built on what some people already new. He had a way of explaining and relating to people. The book trully was a revolution. Moving on....

I want to insist that everyone out there new to the diet read page 272-274 again and again. Read it and then reread it. Memorize it. To me, it is where the golden goose lies. The meat and patatoes of the diet. And of course, already there are some out there cringing...lol... but who cares.

Now, let me explain my feelings.

I got back on the diet again in early january. I'm still on it now. I had to lose roughly 70 lbs. Not as much as some of you, but more than others. And losing weight for me is never easy. My body will resist like a cow with no legs not wanting to move.

Anyway, the first bit I did lose weight. But for about 4 weeks I bascally fell to a crawl. I mean I lost at a very slow rate. So slow that I was really discouraged. I considered all sorts of modifications. But what I did was give pages 272-274 a lot of thought. And I thought I'd try the fat fast myself. I was going to try it for 3 days. So, I made deviled eggs with mayo only and of course I continued my vitamins and I also took 1000mg of L-carnitine along with it. And guess what, in 3 days, I lost around 8 pounds. BAM!! Now granted, it sucked butt. The selection is trully horrible. And the eggs sucked bad. And I made sure I ate every 4 hours except when I slept. And a couple times when I was out, I had 200 calories of walnuts in the place of the eggs. The reason was that they are high in fat, about 85% just like the d. eggs. I also, once, had a half of a container of vienna sausages. I did that because of the fat content and that I didnt want to lose my every 4 hour mark when I was out.

And let me tell you what, That fat fast kicks butt. Now granted, the book says it can be dangerous if you lose too easily on the diet itself. But if you are like me, why not. If you want to lose badly enough, the weight loss sure makes up for the awful foods.

And then once you start seeing the pounds come off, just increase it a little at a time untill you find out your "mark." To me, the mark is kinda the point where you are getting a little too many calories. But keep the fat intake to protein ratio HIGH.

And let me tell you what people, I'm losing weight like nobodies business.

Anyway, I hope this advice helps someone struggling to find there way. It works like a hammer to a nail. Mr. Kekwick was a genius.

Later!!

[Sunny_0ne]

Re: The diet, my personal findings to share

Warbishop, this is quite a coincidence.

I have lost one pound since Feb. 9. I've gone back on re-induction and was reading the book to see if Dr. Atkins could help me.

I read the same pages... and decided I'm not ready to try the fat fast, or even the modified fat fast at this point.

BUT, directly below the modified fat fast, he writes, "Try the 1200 calorie regimen for a week, then go back to Induction. Or simply follow the concept of increasing the ratio of fat to protein."

My metabolism is EXTREMELY slow, so I had already decided to try to keep my calories around 1200 to see if that would re-start the loss. But after reading that, I am modifying Induction to 1200-1400 calories and concentrating on keeping fat at 70% and protein at 25%.

I'm going to give it a couple of weeks and see how it goes. If I still don't lose, I'd drop back and try the drastic Fat Fast.

Glad you brought the subject up for those of us who are extremely resistant to weight loss.

[chinadoll]

Re: The diet, my personal findings to share

Please keep us up to date on this, both of you. I am curious as to how it goes.

[christinne]

Re: The diet, my personal findings to share

Thanks for your sharing, I hope you can always post here your experiences. That's what I need from a real person.

[Georgiana]

Re: The diet, my personal findings to share

warbishop, for me, the golden goose lies in pages 280-282 (Chapter 21, Time for Realism). While I believe the Fat Fast is the correct approach for those folks that have a very high metabolic resistance, it should not be used for breaking stalls or for satisfying unrealistic weight loss expectations. The purpose of the Keckwick diet in the Atkins Nutritional Approach is to help those individuals who cannot lose weight even by following Induction get into ketosis. It is dangerous for anyone who is not metabolically resistant and should not be started before all the other factors that might slow down / stall your weight loss were eliminated. Otherwise, all you are doing is killing the golden goose.

Of course, people are free to do whatever they want with their health and the most we can do on this board is to show them the right path, i.e. the one Dr. Atkins indicated in his book, based on his experience with thousands of patients -- whether they decide to follow it or not is out of our hands.

What I will write next might sound harsh, but it is not an attempt to put you down or anything like that. My intention is to show others who might consider doing the Fat Fast (and there are plenty every time a Fat Fast thread pops up) a real case where, I believe, this extreme diet was not the best strategy.

You say you started in early January 2009, with 70 lbs to lose. On February 4th, you posted saying you weigh 249 lbs:

I am currently 6 ft and 249. My ideal weight for my body and my goal would be closer to 210.

In a post made 3 weeks later (February 24th), your goal was 205 lbs:

Im at 244 need to get to around 205.

Good. So let's say you started at 275 lbs. This means a weight loss of 26 lbs in one month (from early January to February 4th), or 6.5 lbs per week. By February 24th, you were down another 5 lbs. In three weeks (from February 4th to February 24th), this is equivalent to 1.7 lbs per week. All these values are high or average weight loss rates. With 26 lbs in the first month (~37% of the 70 lbs), you are definitely not metabolically resistant.

Anyhow, when one is not happy about his/her weight loss rate, the first thing that should be done is look at the menu. Did the person follow a clean 2-week Induction? Is the OWL done correctly? If the answer to any of these questions is "no", then the idea of a high metabolical resistance is unjustified. In your previous posts, you wrote,

Any time I eat a salad, I eat lettuce. And I usually eat a salad about every 3 days. I eat green beans(about a cup or two), every 3 days as well. Other that than, I'm pretty much meat and diet soda and a few walnuts.

Now, as far as what rung am i on? I'm not sure how to answer that. Simply because the first couple weeks I was on the diet I just ate meat only. Then I basically make sure that my carb intake is under 20g a day.

Your menus don't follow the rules of Induction, nor do they follow those of OWL.

Other than food, exercise might also be a problem:

Excercise - well, I want to start running. I think thats a great idea. I jus thought I'd get closer to say 230 before I started to make it easier on my knees. I just thought starting out with too much might be a mistake. I do go shoot basketball from time to time but not regularly. And 3 nights a week I do curls for my biceps.

Bicep curls are great, but only when supplemented by some other form of physical activity. As Dr. Atkins writes, regular exercise is "non-negotiable".

As long as your menu and exercise still need tweaking, doing the Fat Fast is nothing more than satisfying a caprice. We can all blame the fact that we are fat or not losing as fast as we would like (i.e. overnight) on being "metabolically resistant", but to lose weigh and keep it off, I believe we should first admit to ourselves what is the real cause of our problem.

For those of you who want to read more about the Fat Fast, not2late wrote a post about it in the FAQ section of the board:

http://www.atkinsdietbulletinboard.com/forums/atkins-low-carb-dieting-faqs/37419-who-should-do-fat-fast.html

[warbishop]

Re: The diet, my personal findings to share

Wow georgiana. I am very taken back by your need to try make your opinion superior to my own. You used a few quotes without knowing the whole story but rather whatever you could find to support YOUR opinions. Like I said earlier. Some of you wont agree and like I said, who cares.

Unlike you, I simply dont have the time or energy to go around sifting through people's posts trying to nitpick every single thing to support my opinion. LOL When I post on here a lot of times, I give reasonable guestimations as to what my habits are. And you try and use them like facts. I think I'd know myself better than you. And when I started in january I wasnt 275 then, I was less. 275 was where I was when I started the diet or so the first time or there abouts. But when I post, I dont feel the ned to make sure every comment is so perfect and exact as not to experience a tear down by some opinon monger.

So, I'll tell you what. Just go ahead an delete my profile and forget my post. Heck take it out altogether. I really could care less. It would be nice to post on here sometimes and get some helpful comments and batter around some experinces without getting grilled by some power hungry, jerk.

I'm so done here.

The sad part is that someone would benefit from my experince, thats why I took the time out of my day to post it. Why did you post I wonder? Noble? LOL I think it was clear why.

Im out. If I come here I'll read some but I'm done posting. What a jerk.

[Sunny_0ne]

Re: The diet, my personal findings to share

Well, that attitude certainly negates anything positive I might have gleaned from your post, warbishop.

I am here to do it Dr. Atkins way. And I prefer to listen to people with long term proven success on Atkins.

Sorry, Georgiana. Your rebuttal was enlightening.

[warbishop]

Lol

Like I really give a crap. How about you just all kiss my ***. LOL If you think georgiana was just being helpful, you got issues. Some people are just morons. Just delete me. You jerks. You deserve each other.

[Georgiana]

Re: The diet, my personal findings to share

When I post on here a lot of times, I give reasonable guestimations as to what my habits are. And you try and use them like facts.

I am not sure what kind of "guestimate" you did when saying you are not eating enough vegetables or not following OWL correctly. I would worry if I couldn't remember whether I ate 3 cups of vegetables every day or 1-2 cups of green beans every three days. These are things you should remember without "guestimating", especially when you are asking us for advice. Otherwise, you should not be surprised when the advice you get does not fit your problem.

It would be nice to post on here sometimes and get some helpful comments and batter around some experinces without getting grilled by some power hungry, jerk.

As I have said. To receive helpful comments, we need facts, not "guestimates".

The sad part is that someone would benefit from my experince, thats why I took the time out of my day to post it. Why did you post I wonder? Noble? LOL I think it was clear why.

I hope it was clear, too. Many people, when they hit a plateau or when their weight loss slows down, are willing to take desperate measures to "rev up" their metabolism. However, the Fat Fast is not a measure one should take unless he or she is very metabolically resistant, which, based on your posts, you do not appear to be.

[mitzimarie]

Re: The diet, my personal findings to share

Just wanted to add - In my experience, IN EVERY SINGLE CASE of someone trying the fat fast, the weight comes off while they're doing it, and comes right back on after they stop.

It is a BAD idea in most cases (except when someone is extremely metabolically resistant, which is usually not the case). Most people try it as a quick fix.

[warbishop]

Re: The diet, my personal findings to share

Attention site owner. Please delte my profile. I no longer wish to be a part of this site with the ******* ***** here.

[Georgiana]

Re: The diet, my personal findings to share

Given the latest posts made in this thread, I believe it is clear why I have closed it.