Is atkins for life?

[Jacklunn]

Lets say i lose 30 lbs on Atkins (Witch is what i want to lose, currently 200 lbs 6ft male) if i dont stick to the Atkins maintenance for life stage i was reading about will i gain all the weight back? right now at this weight i beleive i can eat 2300 calories worth of ANY food without gaining weight - infact ive been at this weight for a whole year now but i cant stick to a calorie restricted diet, so ive never lost it but ive never gained any weight for a whole year.

[ziggy]

Re: Is atkins for life?

just counting calories never works. insulin is also a fat storing hormone

if you ate pasta, spagetti, bread, and grains your body could end up starving and packing on the pounds even if you ate low calories

pasta, spagetti, bread and grains would cause such a horrible toxic blood sugar spike that it would be next to impossible to burn off even with alot of exercise so then your body would be forced to store it as fat and if it was unable to be stored as fat in a type 2 diabetics case then it would permanently damage your kidneys and if it whent on for too long you would need a kidney transplant

eating lots of bad carbohydrates are basically the 100% cause of type 2 diabetes and if your body is very insulin resistant then it needs to produce alot more insulin to beable to handle the junk carbs you eat even if its low calorie and that means your body being told to store fat alot more

anyways atkins way of eating is for life if you go off the diet and back to your old way of eating you will regain your weight

even if you were on atkins for 10 years and did good at reverseing your insulin resistant cells i still think you would regain your weight if you ate junk food again

[Elizellen]

Re: Is atkins for life?

I agree with Ziggy - if you stay eating to maintenance levels of food choices, not going back to eating white flor , rice, pasta and sugars yu will probably be able to keep your weight down to what you can lose by following the 4 Atkins phases and reaching your goal weight.

But as with any successful changes in diet, if you return to eating your 'old' foods you will get the 'old' results

[JaxMama]

Re: Is atkins for life?

it's for life, if you go back to your old ways you will go back to your old weight. but why would you do that to yourself? atkins isnt torture (except induction in my opinion)

[Mutantmom]

Re: Is atkins for life?

I differ in my opinion (I'm sure nobody will be surprised). I think Atkins should be for life, but I also think that as long as you don't go back to eating poorly you will be able to maintain your weight. Staying on Atkins for life is a personal decision. If you wanted to change to say, WW after you reached goal or South Beach or any said number of diets that restrict your intake, or if you just wanted to wing it and do the restricting on your own, you should be able to remain at your weight. What I see here is that one can not go back to making poor food choices, which is what got all of us in this position in the first place.

I am learning a great deal about my body and how it relates to the foods I choose to eat, in the end, I hope I love Atkins so much (which I do right now) to maintain this for my lifetime (it looks as if the last two phases allow quite a variety of foods), but again, I think it is a personal choice.

Good luck!

[MarlaSinger]

Re: Is atkins for life?

Is Atkins for life?

Take a look around this board and you'll see people on maintenance, who have been holding their goal weight for years. You'll also see plenty of people who lost weight, started eating carbs, gained the weight and are back to take it off again.

What I haven't seen are posts by people who dropped weight on Atkins, went back to eating high-carb, low-fat who have maintained their weight loss. Maybe these people just don't visit, but I find this unlikely.

[Mutantmom]

Re: Is atkins for life?

Is Atkins for life?

Take a look around this board and you'll see people on maintenance, who have been holding their goal weight for years. You'll also see plenty of people who lost weight, started eating carbs, gained the weight and are back to take it off again.

What I haven't seen are posts by people who dropped weight on Atkins, went back to eating high-carb, low-fat who have maintained their weight loss. Maybe these people just don't visit, but I find this unlikely.

My SIL did just that, she is on the WW board now because that is the plan she follows and has successfully maintained her Atkins loss now for about seven years (she was close to 400lbs when she started and weighs 167 now). It is possible, eating the wrong foods is what brought us to this place, maintaining while eating on another plan is not impossible. It makes sense that people who are now following other plans do not post here anymore...they are following other plans and if they are posting online are probably on those boards.

[forbey]

Re: Is atkins for life?

Having been "on Atkins" 3 or 4 times officially, and probably another 3 or 4 times unofficially, if you don't end up back on Atkins it would really surprise me.

I don't know how anyone else does when they go off Atkins, but it seems now that I need to be on a controlled carb diet for the rest of my life, my body now does not respond to going on Atkins as well as it did when I was 22.

So here's my take on "going on Atkins". I'm here & I need to stay here. If I don't, The health conditions I have placed on myself over 53 years will finish me off before my grandchildren graduate from high school. (Maybe sooner!)

For those of you playing with your diets and yo-yoing up and down, let me give you the update on the health of a 53 year old diabetic:

Three or four years ago I developed folliculitis on the back of my head. As a diabetic with my blood sugars out of control, it not only didn't heal right... it spread. I'm still dealing with lesions that are just now (amazingly enough) finally healing, since my blood sugars went below 200.

Diabetics have greater chances for joint, muscle and bone problems. Duh! I've got that! Between carrying 300+ pounds and having syrup running through my veins my ankles, knees, elbows and shoulders are a mess.

This past Monday, I had the priviledge of going to my eye specialist to have INJECTIONS in my eyes! No fooling! They injected a medicine to absorb the water seeping into my eyes from the blood vessels and to reduce the growth of new blood vessels in the eyes. Next month I get to start laser treatments to cauterize the leakers. Yupp! The beginnings of diabetes related retinapathy.

I could go on, but so far, I'm scaring the heck out of myself, so I'm going to stop.

IS ATKINS FOR LIFE?

Doesn't have to be, BUT, if you are insulin resistant, prone to diabetes and its destroying effects, it had better be!

You younger guys (and gals) who still believe that you've got this life thing nailed down and what is happening to us older fat people, just remember, we were once young, dumb and invincible ourselves.

Since deciding that Atkins has to be my last WOE, my level of health has improved, continues to improve and my degree of hope for what is left of my Earthly existance is looking up!

(Sorry, that soapbox was a real downer, but it needed to be said and this seemed like the perfect thread to say it!)

forbey

[Mutantmom]

Re: Is atkins for life?

Having been "on Atkins" 3 or 4 times officially, and probably another 3 or 4 times unofficially, if you don't end up back on Atkins it would really surprise me.

I don't know how anyone else does when they go off Atkins, but it seems now that I need to be on a controlled carb diet for the rest of my life, my body now does not respond to going on Atkins as well as it did when I was 22.

So here's my take on "going on Atkins". I'm here & I need to stay here. If I don't, The health conditions I have placed on myself over 53 years will finish me off before my grandchildren graduate from high school. (Maybe sooner!)

For those of you playing with your diets and yo-yoing up and down, let me give you the update on the health of a 53 year old diabetic:

Three or four years ago I developed folliculitis on the back of my head. As a diabetic with my blood sugars out of control, it not only didn't heal right... it spread. I'm still dealing with lesions that are just now (amazingly enough) finally healing, since my blood sugars went below 200.

Diabetics have greater chances for joint, muscle and bone problems. Duh! I've got that! Between carrying 300+ pounds and having syrup running through my veins my ankles, knees, elbows and shoulders are a mess.

This past Monday, I had the priviledge of going to my eye specialist to have INJECTIONS in my eyes! No fooling! They injected a medicine to absorb the water seeping into my eyes from the blood vessels and to reduce the growth of new blood vessels in the eyes. Next month I get to start laser treatments to cauterize the leakers. Yupp! The beginnings of diabetes related retinapathy.

I could go on, but so far, I'm scaring the heck out of myself, so I'm going to stop.

IS ATKINS FOR LIFE?

Doesn't have to be, BUT, if you are insulin resistant, prone to diabetes and its destroying effects, it had better be!

You younger guys (and gals) who still believe that you've got this life thing nailed down and what is happening to us older fat people, just remember, we were once young, dumb and invincible ourselves.

Since deciding that Atkins has to be my last WOE, my level of health has improved, continues to improve and my degree of hope for what is left of my Earthly existance is looking up!

(Sorry, that soapbox was a real downer, but it needed to be said and this seemed like the perfect thread to say it!)

forbey

Very well written, believe it or not for me personally, I agree, but do I think this applies to everybody who loses on Atkins? No. For me with a family history of diabetes I have to be very mindful of what goes in my mouth, obviously at my weight, I have insulin problems...but this is not true for all and it is indeed possible to maintain on another plan.

[atkinsgal08]

Re: Is atkins for life?

>>it is indeed possible to maintain on another plan.>>

True. Just as it's possible to lose on another plan.

What I don't understand is why someone doesn't do maintenance on the plan they lost the weight on. It's as if they started Atkins as a "diet" (just to lose) but didn't have enough belief in Atkins (or understanding) to do the maintenance phase.

Maybe it's a case of the grass is always greener somewhere else.

[MBchrono]

Re: Is atkins for life?

This has been on my mind for awhile. I have been on Atkins for going on 2 years now. It worked great. However, I will be leaving for basic training with the Air Force very soon and that is when I will have to get off the diet. I figured that with the amount of exercise I will get in the Air Force that will keep me in shape, but I do wonder how my body is going to react to eating carbs again.

[poobears1972]

Re: Is atkins for life?

No matter how you lose the weight if you return to old habits you will regain it. Plain and simple, that is the way it is. So no IMO you don't have to do Atkins for life but you have to change your eating for life.

I lost on WW and I kept it off, didn't regain it. We have a family friend that lost almost 300lbs when we were little kids and has never regained it. Know others that did South beach with long term success etc. The key to all of them is they never went back to old eating habits.

[bykerdruid]

Re: Is atkins for life?

Everyone here has good advice. And everybody has their own body and reacts differently to things. But the bottom line is, a singular theme in all the advice, make wise choices in what you eat.

You already know healthy foods from unhealthy foods. Eat healthy foods, stay healthy. Eat unhealthy, like you did when you got fat, you'll get fat again, and unhealthy again. It's not just calories. That's an old way of thinking that has caused a lot of people a lot of unnecessary grief. While calories do count, don't get me wrong, it's more important the kinds of calories you eat. Eating 2000 calories a day in Doritos and Ding Dongs is not the same as eating 2000 calories of veggies, fruits, whole grains and healthy meats (processed isn't all that healthy) which are all allowed in Ongoing Maintenance.

Atkins is not a life of meat and cheese like so many misguided and misinformed believe. As you move up the rungs, you get to put almost everything you ever ate back into your diet, as long as it's REAL food. Junk food is junk food no matter what diet you're on. And while the occassional Twinkie won't kill you, I don't suggest giving in to the craving. At least I know I can't. Some people might have the will (or won't) power, but I don't and I don't tempt fate without consequences.

[liv]

Re: Is atkins for life?

If "atkins for life" sound like a prison sentence it is not likely for you For me it sounds like liberation. I love having not to worry about weight because lowering my carbs helps me regulate my appetite and keep cravings under control. Because of my addition to sugars and starches it I eat those I will be heading straight for obesity again. So I am good where I am. More than good If I am ever in doubt I look at pictures of sugarfree Sheila.

[Mutantmom]

Re: Is atkins for life?

>>it is indeed possible to maintain on another plan.>>

True. Just as it's possible to lose on another plan.

What I don't understand is why someone doesn't do maintenance on the plan they lost the weight on. It's as if they started Atkins as a "diet" (just to lose) but didn't have enough belief in Atkins (or understanding) to do the maintenance phase.

Maybe it's a case of the grass is always greener somewhere else.

I think for my SIL the grass was greener on the other side. She loved Atkins and has bouts of Atkinish eating now. But she is a WW girl and states over and over she loves the 'freedom' of eating on WW. I'm sure people have many reasons for not doing maintenance on the plan they lost the weight on...for her she wanted more variety and wanted to learn how to manage that (which she has done beautifully). I know for sure she started and ended Atkins as a diet to lose the weight, I don't think I can say she did not have enough belief in Atkins (or understanding) because she lost over 330lbs while on the diet so she must have understood the plan fully. She also went through all the phases, she stayed on induction for over a year, but she progressed through the phases and has no problem telling everybody around her about her experience on Atkins, which was VERY positive. She regained her sense of self on Atkins, but prefers WW now...which is perfectly fine.