I have started a form of the Atkins diet. I plan on going completley to it but I have not bought the book or have enough info so I was hoping to get some from those of you that have done it. What can I eat or not eat on this? I know that is a broad question but some basic ideas would help.

Most importantly though I have given up soda pop completley. Specifically Pepsi! I was drinking close to a 6 pack a day of the stuff. All that sugar couldn't be good. It has been a week and I am starting to fell a little better already. So far no major withdrawl symptoms like headaches. Is Gatorade OK, or on this is there to be no sugar at all? I think it has like 5% in it?

Unfortunatly due to an injury I am not able to excercise alot yet, but am building on that slowy as well.

Thanks for any and all info

IAJack

Hello.  I'm not an expert on the Atkins Diet but I tried it a few months ago.  I limited my intake of Carbs and ate mostly chicken, red meat, a little bit of vegetables and fish.  Peanuts and other nuts were my main dessert (if you consider them as such).  Additionally, soda pop, orange juice, etc were dropped from my diet.  I drank a little bit of diet coke (non-caffeine) but not that much.  I lost 15 lbs in the first 2 weeks.  I was 180 lbs and dropped to 165 lbs.  

It was a positive experience for me for the most part.  However, I decided to just run/walk everyday for about 1 hour and eat plenty of healthy goodies after reading some bad things about diets that are high in animal protein and fat.  I heard from researchers that it's the leading cause of osteoporosis (sp?), arthritic conditions and other bone type diseases.  I've learned that most of the foods we eat today (vegetables, chicken, meat, etc) are so devoid of nutrients that it doesn't really matter what we eat anymore.  Sad, but true.  I take mineral supplements and vitamins that are actually digestible and usable by the body.

Sorry this is a long post. If you want to lose weight quickly however, the Atkins diet is unequaled.  I hope this helps.  

The Adkins diet works but is a dangerous way to lose weight for some. Have you ever heard the old saw that you can starve to death eating rabbit three times a day? The reason is that rabbit and other rodents are almost totally lean  protien with you need carbs to burn. Animal fat will suffice for this, which rabbits don't have much of, but your body really likes the simple carbs like sugars and starches because they digest easily. When you starve your body for carbs it turns to its' stores of fats and so you burn off the chub. This can cause you to become acidotic, which may lead to kidney, heart, and brain damage in extreme cases. If people start to note that you have a "fruity" smelling breath you may have this going on. I would suggest you see your Dr. before starting whole hog into the Atkin's diet. Whatever you do, while you are on this diet drink at least twice as much water as usual. Good luck with the program, and don't forget to exercise. Oh, BTW, Gatorade is full of carbs, read the label.

My GF is currently on the Atkins Diet.  She has the book for reference.  Here is the website: [url]http://atkinscenter.com/[/url]

My fiancé went on it, and did Very well. The jest of it is no/low carbs, no caffeine, and no alcohol, and you shouldn’t drink/eat things with aspartate (sp) as one of the first (3-5) ingredients. (i.e. crystal lite).  You can also go to Sam’s and buy the Atkins’ Bars, they taste like shit or saw dust but they do put something in your stomach.  It wasn’t that bad for me because eating to me is a necessity except for a big steak dinner.  I lost about 10-15 but I didn’t always stay on the road.  I’ll ask her if she has any additional information I can pass on.  You might try here to

[url=http://atkinscenter.com/] Atkins Diet[/url]

It is not a diet that you would want to remain on all your life, However; if you are looking to lose some poundage quickly it really does work...combine it with a goodly dose of daily excercise and it works even better...

I started the Atkins diet about a week ago.  If my bathroom scale is to be believed, I've lost 6lbs so far.  However, my weight normally fluctuates +-5lbs from 185, so I'm not jumping for joy yet.  I'm doing it for 2 weeks to see if/how much weight I lose, then may do it for a week or so longer.

Basically, cut out all sugars, all starches, and almost all carbs out of your diet.  No bread, grains of any kind, corn, potatoes, candy, diet soda only, etc.  I found giving up my customary 3 slices of potato bread with each meal kinda hard.

For the first 2 weeks, you get 20 carbs per day.  Subtract dietary fiber from carbs listed on nutritional information, you cannot digest dietary fiber.(5 carbs-1 dietary fiber=4 net carbs)  This will force your body to burn fat for energy, since you're basically not taking in anything other than fat that your body can use for energy.  After 2 weeks, add 5 daily carbs per week until weight loss becomes steady but gradual.  After losing all the weight you want, gradually ad carbs until weight stabilizes.  

If you're hungry on this diet, you're doing it wrong.  I have 3 bacon, 3 eggs for breakfast, chicken salad for lunch, and meat + veggie + salad for dinner.  Sugar free jello makes a good snack when you're craving sweets.

Good luck!


FooBarBaz

That's a rough dietary plan.  I think that you have to limit yourself to 20kcal from carbs for at least two weeks.  This is supposed to put you into something called ketosis.  Basicly, you will be running almost entirely off protein and fat.  You need to stay down around 20kcal for longer periods of time if you want to lose more weight.  Your breath will smell like dogschit.  You will find it very difficult to workout.  If you try to run for more than ten minutes, you will deplete your blood soluable glucose.  Your body will find that the low carb intake has drained your body of glycogen.  With no glucose and no glycogen to be converted into glucose, you will hit the wall with every conditioning workout.  I have heard of other side effects, but also many great results.  The bulk of the initial weight that you lose will not be body fat.  It will be water.  I think that two glucose plus one water molecule make up the glyogen molecule.  As a lifelong diet, you are supposed to lose as much weight as you can and then raise the carb intake until you meet some type of body weight equilibrium.

Additionally, you need to be very careful with low carb/calorie foods.  You will find that many foods that claim to be zero carbs are really around 1%-2% calories from carbohydrates.  If you load up on these, you can easily pass the 20kcal daily intake.

You can get a lot of information from www.atkinscenter.com The site shows you what you can eat through different stages of the diet and also has suggestions as to what you should eat to substitute your favorite foods. Hi-Health or any other health food store has a ton of products such as bake mixes so you can still eat bread that is low in carbs. They also have sugar free syrups that you can add to club soda and it actually tastes really good.
There are a lot of alternatives to foods that are high in carbs. Check out the web site it is very informative.

I did the Atkins thing and it is quite effective (I lost about 14 pounds in the first two weeks, but I had a lot to lose).  I would recommend getting the book.  It's actually a good way to go if you stick with it but some people can have good results with a more moderate version of the diet.  The biggest problem with the Atkins diet is that people don't truly understand it and either trash it because all they hear is about the first two week "induction" and think that's it, or someone may attempt the diet but really aren't on it and they get discouraged.  When you read the book you'll understand what it's all about and you'll realize it actually makes a lot of sense.
Let's face it, not everybody's body processes food the same.  Some bodies are better at running on carbs while some are better at running on proteins.  I've known people who could eat twice as much as I can, were less active, yet had no weight problems while I struggled.
The premise of the book is that not all carbs are bad, but useless carbs are, and after so many years of pastries, pizza, bread, cookies etc... a system that might have had trouble to start with has become poisoned with carbs and the system goes into a constant cycle of insulin spikes and drops until the insulin may stop being effective (diabetes).  The purpose of the induction phase is to get the blood chemistry back to a balanced level quickly and your system into ketosis.
Essentialy, on Atkins white flour and most sugars are to be considered poison.  (That Gatorade you asked about is LOADED with sugars so definitely a no-no).  On induction (two weeks) you're supposed to keep your carbs under 20 grams.  After two weeks, as was said earlier, you increase the carb intake by 5 grams a week until your body finds its balance.  The absolute key to it all is [i]not[/i] to ultimately eliminate all carbs, but get all your carbs from valuable sources.   I don't know what the book says now, but last I checked some of the guidelines had recently changed.  Throughout the entire diet you can eat pretty much all the leafy greens you can handle as well as stuff like peppers and cucumbers.  As the diet progresses you can begin adding things like potatoes and beans and later small amounts of fruit (Atkins prefers berries because of nutrition content but says fruit juices are the WORST as they provide nothing but sugar).  Later you can even begin enjoying alcohol in moderation if you wish (though not during induction).  You just gotta keep an eye on your carbs and watch out for hidden sugars.
Like I said, if you read the book and think about it, it makes a lot of sense.  Was the human body designed to run on Ho-Hos and Cheetos, or was it designed to run on meats and leafy green vegetables?

The only carb that I consume is BEER (and a few green veggies).
How do you give up BEER?
I just can't imagine giving up BEER.....

Oh boy, me too!
Miller Lite and Milwaukee's Best Light have the lowest carb count, and I actually prefer Miluakee's Best of the two.  I think it's something like 3.5 or so per beer so you just plan your day accordingly.  [beer]
Then there's hard liquor which has virtually NO carbs.  You can do rum and Diet Rite (no asparataime ).  Personally, I'm partial to Martinis.  BTW, olives are okay on the diet. [:)]

Depressing...  [puke]

You know it!  [BD]

I'd suggest checking out the book "protein power" it is a low carbohydrate diet like atkins, works just as quickly, but is just as extreme, and doesn't have the "unlimited protein" facet that atkins does that most people complain about.

The protein power diet in a nutshell consists of first determining your lean body mass. a table then tells you how much protein you should get at a minimum each day. then you figure out how much you have to lose, this puts you into "phase I" where you eat less than 35 carbs per day (subtracting fiber from carohydrate counts since it isn't digested) or phase II where you eat less than 60 or so per day. You eat a fair amount of fat to get the calories up there. After you lose the weight, you slowly increase the carbs per day until you stop losing weight, then that is  the way you eat for the rest of the life.

[url]http://www.theidealdiet.com/aboutProteinPower.htm[/url]