Anyone just drink shakes only and water?

[snorkelman]

My wife unsuccessfully tried Atkins (2 weeks) and then a low fat diet (2 weeks) and she only lost 1 pound. She is very frustrated and has heard about a diet where you only drink the Atkins shakes for 3 or 4 shakes per day and nothing else except water. Some lady she knows did that and lost 18 pounds in 8 days.

I have read about how such protein shake diets are not healthy over several months – that is why my wife is only doing it for 1 week.

I know that this is not the Atkins plan, but has anyone ever tried this?

[not2late]

That sounds like the original Cambridge diet.

[Heidi3]

Nope I could not "live" with that.....I need to eat food!....

[Isabeau]

Nope, I haven't heard of it either. Did your wife do the exercise part of Atkins as well?

[Moochiecat]

Tough love time!..and remember, I'm not being snotty, I'm genuinely trying to help here :hug (you've probably heard this before anyway)

Your wife needs to do a mental turnaround in her thinking about losing weight.

If she wants it to come off and stay off, she needs to commit to something, and stop doing this yo-yo thing with two weeks here and two weeks there. She is affecting her body's ability to lose weight by doing this, as well as having unrealistic expectations...which means she's going to most likely be disappointed time after time no matter what she tries.

Nobody likes this answer, but time, dedication to a plan, faith and patience = healthy new eating habits and weight loss.

Losing a lot of weight by drinking shakes and water is wonderful, but what has a person learned by this, and what happens when they go back to real food?

[hulagrl1120]

You're wife is never going to be successful if she doesn't learn the word patience. What's the point of doing a fad diet of just shakes? If she hasn't changed her behavior then the weight will come back because she will go back to the same habits that got her to that place in the first place. You cannot say Atkins or any diet has failed in just 2 weeks...most likely there were things she was doing or eating wrong that made the diet unsuccessful. If she truly wants to be successful she needs to buckle down and get her behind onto this website and start doing Atkins the right way.

[spazzyhilo]

You might want to remind your wife that it took her a lifetime to gain the weight, it won't come off overnight.

[snorkelman]

i guess i opened the box when i posted the details. Anyway, I think only a few of you actually posted something helpful and responsive to my question.

Just to let you know, I dropped 11 pounds during the first 2 weeks of Atkins and my wife gained a pound. We both did it exactly the same, and she tested on the ketosticks that she was in ketosis just like me.

I later found out some of the medication that she was on is known to prevent or stall weight loss on Atkins - that is why she switched to low fat.

Then, she lost 2 pounds and saw me losing more on atkins, and figured, she will just do the shake thing for a week to drop a quick 5 pounds and then go back to low fat diet for good.

Everyone does their own thing. I know most of you are on Atkins for life. Not me. I love pasta and rice too much. I will be on Atkins for a few more weeks and then switch back to my low fat diet.

I know everyone has their own opinions on this, and I really am not interested in those - i was asking about the shake diet only.

In case someone who reads this thread later on, in about a week I will post my wife's results about the Atkins shakes only diet.

[hulagrl1120]

You cannot expect to get support from this site for a diet that is not healthy. Yes, she will most likely lose the weight if she does only shakes and water but what's the point? When she goes back to the low fat chances are it will pile back on because nothing in her habits have changed. We are trying to teach people the right way to do Atkins so that is why no one here is encouraging her to do this diet. Also, the first few pounds she will lose from the liquid diet will most likely be water weight which will come back once she starts her low fat diet again.

[Heidi3]

what Hula said!....it is true I was my own guinea pig..but if you guys have your mind set far be it for anyone to try to change it...loosing weight is the easier part of this exercise....lets see in a year if she keeps it off by drinking those wretched things!...I am stunned she can get them down :vomit

[cleochatra]

Hi, snorkelman and wife!

I see your style of writing keeps changing, so I'm assuming you are going back and forth among yourselves typing responses?

At any rate, Atkins will work for you, but as soon as you go back to playing oggly googly with your blood sugars you will probably gain everything back again. The foods you're addicted to are going to cause you to break out--in fat!

It's best for all junkies to stay away from their addictions, lest they continue to suffer the dietary/physical consequences.

Best wishes to you in the form of diet you choose, but it isn't Atkins if you're not having shakes and water. And it certainly isn't healthy or sustainable.

:hug

[not2late]

My only suggestion is if she wants to try out a Cambridge diet-like diet, then she should do the Cambridge Diet, itself, and not some homemade improvisation. The shakes used the in the Cambridge Diet are designed specifically for use as a "complete" nutritional shake. The Atkins Shake isn't. It's formulated to be a "snack" or occasional meal replacement because Atkins Nutritionals Inc believes the Atkins dieter won't use those shakes as their sole nutritional source.

Editing to add...

Just to let you know, I dropped 11 pounds during the first 2 weeks of Atkins and my wife gained a pound. We both did it exactly the same, and she tested on the ketosticks that she was in ketosis just like me.

This is the problem. Men, generally, lose weight faster and more easily than women for a variety of reasons. The 3 main ones are that men generally have a greater muscle mass (greater metabolism), their bodies aren't subjected to monthly hormonal cycles and they don't have nearly as much estrogen circulating in their bodies (estrogen can interfere with the thyroid, making weight loss more difficult for women).

If you wife ate 'exactly' the same thing you did, including the amounts, she might have over-eaten and the excessive calories masked the 'metabolic advantage' of Atkins.

Just a thought.

But anyway, like I wrote earlier, if your wife wants to do a Cambridge Diet-like diet, she should do the real McCoy so she can do it safely and get the promised results.

[spazzyhilo]

I had the same "problem" - after doing induction I had actually gained 1 lb instead of losing - even after doing everything right. But 2 days after I weighed myself TOM attacked which I believed had a lot to do with it. However even though I didn't lose any lbs I lost INCHES and my clothes are fitting better then they ever did before - even during any attempt at a low fat diet I encounted.

Not only that but if your wife has been excericising during atkins, which plays a huge factor in how much one loses, she could have lost fat but gained muscle - a very good tradeoff. The scale is a liar - it doesn't distinguish between fat and muscle whereas a tape measure is much better friend to any weight loss program.

This may or may not affect your decision in any way, but I hope you at least think about it before your hurt your bodies, blood sugar, and metabolism with a shake diet that I believe will do more harm than good.

[snorkelman]

thanks

okay, i have seen the error of my ways.

Thanks for the support and help. My wife has decided against the shake diet. I'm not sure she could go without eating food anyway -it's just not natural.

Thanks spazzyhilo - it's good to know someone else actually gained weight with atkins. Actually no, my wife was not exercising, and that is what's frustrating because she knows that she did not gain muscle (which weighs more than fat).

Also her clothes did not fit any better.

Anyway, Atkins isn't for everyone. Unfortunately, Atkins has an inherent lack of individualization. It will work for some people (it si working for me) but not work for others. For those of us who it is working for, great, but please understand that this plan is not perfect.

[bnzstar]

Snorkleman there is an element of truth in what you said. The hard truth is... any restricted diet will work eventually if you STICK WITH IT.

I tell the story all the time of eating nothing but Lean Cuisine and sugar free cookies for a month. I lost weight, actually quite a bit...but I eventually stopped doing that because the menu got dull. Did I gain weight back?..Some..not a horrendous amount about 5 pounds...nor did I permanently damage my body for life...blah blah....but that's most likely because I never hover more than 8-10 pounds over my ideal weight and even then I am still well within my healthy weight because I am very tall and muscular for a woman. Now if I were 40 pounds above healthy weight and kept losing and gaining weight that would be a different story..yet people try to apply the same standards to everyone and that just can't be done.

It could be very different for someone obese, a frequent crash dieter, someone with thyroid troubles, diabetes, eating disorder history, former athlete, current athlete, a sedentary lifestyle, meat allergies, dairy intolerance , on medications, older, younger, male, female, etc. I think you get the point.

Some things just work better for certain types of people than others, period .Frankly, none of us know enough about your wife's individual parameters (medications, illnesses, exercise habits, height, weight, body type etc) to make far flung judgements or assesments of what will or wont work for her.

Generally speaking, most people can't stay on liquid diets very long and when you go back to solid food you have to remain at the same level of caloric restriction or you will gain weight because of calories ( most shakes are about 200 calories..that means to maintain your wife would have to continue to eat solid food meals of no more than 200 calories three times a day OR be able to burn off all additional calories through exercise--very hard to do) NOT because of some magical thing that happens simply by changing from solid to liquid food.

I think people were genuinely just trying to impart concerns that liquid diets generally are not healthy, but on this board it always tends to come across as "ATKINS GOOD..everything else BAAAD" or "you just haven't read the book...been strict enough...not cheater or it would it would have worked no matter who you are or what condition you are in" and I know they don't mean it that way but it certainly comes across in that tone.