Is anyone doing the atkins diet or a low carb diet?

I think I'mma start it very soon.

I think I'll give Atkins a try.

I am and doing great! So great in fact my narcisism kicked back in this morning when I looked in the mirror and thought "damn you're hot".

One little tip. The first 2 or 3 days of induction are hell. But ride it out and you'll be thankful you did.

atkins...i lost 10 lbs in 13 days !

could b a song there somewhere !! lol ha ha !!

Atkins is cool to do for a few weeks, but it seems a little unbalanced. Of course, cutting down on carbs and sugars is the key. I like The Diet Cure. It's more balanced, it does focus on proteins, but also on correcting your brain chemistry imbalances that cause carbohydrate cravings.

www.dietcure.com

danielboon said:

However what you want to lose is fat, not lean mass. You didn't lose 10 lbs of fat in 13 days...unless you burn 3140 calories per days which is nearly impossible for non-athletes.

And still you'd lose a lot of lean mass.

VinaBlue said:

with atkins, you're supposed to balance things back in gradually. some people don't get that part, though...

The ONLY diet that will work is excersise. People lose these mass amounts of weight but they put it right back on because nobody can keep up with those stupid eating rules forever. Just excersise people and you won't have to worry about a thing when it comes to eating.

lovemachine said:

Very true, it's all about changing your lifestyle.

lovemachine said:

Atkins is SUPPOSED to be a permenant change in one's eating habits that is supposed to be coupled with an excercise regiment. But like you said, people refuse to stick with it for one reason or another. But if they take the time to find low carb. alternatives to foods that they are used to eating it would a lot easier to stay on. Couple that with regular excercise, you can't lose!

have fun with the heart disease and gout

oh and osteoperosis. getting too much protein leeches calcium from the body. without being on atkins the average american get about twice too much anyway.

lovemachine said:

No. Excercise can assist in losing weight, however it's not the key to losing weight. If you consume more calories than you burn, you'll gain weight. If you consume less than you need, you'll lose weight. It's as simple as that.

conch5184 said:

Apparently you have no clue what osteoporosis is. Do some research.

LittlePill said:

Good for you! My parent shave been doing it a long time now and have lost a lot of weight. I did it for 3 or 4 weeks, lost a lot more than I expected to and then gave up , but I think I'm gonna start again.

J0eyC0c0 said:

osteoperosis occurs over a period of time through lack of calcium. get too much protein -> calcium loss -> osteoperosis.

but thanks for the attitude

I think I'm going to try it the first of the year.

conch5184 said:

First of all, you could start by spelling it right. Secondly osteoporosis is a disease which is not related to high protein intake.

what does it matter that i didn't spell it right? it doesn't impact the fact that When you get too much protein the human body starts taking away calcium. perhaps osteopErosis is not the exact term i mean. i'm simply referring to bone loss.
semantics
[This message was edited Fri Dec 26 10:54:09 PST 2003 by conch5184]

Rhondab said:

a couple of guys at my old job did it... yes they lost a lot of weight but they appeared to look very unhealthy... flushed cheeks, wobbly walk... didn't look right... I think they looked better overweight, honestly!

conch5184 said:

Here's something you should read to put everything in the right perspective:

Excerpt from:

Protein Paranoia: What is There to Fear?
By Dr. Greg Bradley-Popovich


A high-protein diet will make you pee your bones out!
Protein and the minerals calcium and phosphorous have a complex relationship. The net effect of protein alone is to cause calcium loss in urine. The net effect of phosphorous is to decrease urinary losses of calcium in order to increase calcium retention.

The belief that increased dietary protein results in a disturbance of calcium balance arises at least partly from studies that administered isolated proteins missing their natural phosphorus while keeping dietary calcium and phosphorus constant. Such was the case with a study by Anand and Linkswiler (1974) that tested calcium retention against diets containing 47g, 95g, and 142g protein per day, with the protein above 47g per day being supplied as protein isolates. They found that the extra protein significantly increased urinary calcium excretion. That could be interpreted as peeing away your bones. Similarly, Allen, Oddoye, and Margen (1979) tested a diet containing 75g protein daily versus 225g protein daily while attempting to hold phosphorus intake constant. They, too, concluded that the high-protein diet increased calcium excretion, also showing that maximum calcium excretion occurs within 3­5 days of beginning a high-protein diet and remains elevated for at least 3 months. A minimum of eight other studies were conducted in a similar fashion, keeping calcium and phosphorus intakes constant across various protein intake levels (Hegsted, Schutte, Zemel, & Linkswiler, 1981). Again, whizzing away bones!

In contrast to the above findings, another study raised protein and phosphorous consumption proportionately. Protein intakes were 50g versus 150g per day. No significant disturbances to calcium balance were documented (Hegsted, et al.). It is noteworthy that, to this point, all previously cited studies allowed only 500mg calcium/day (<40% of the 1989 RDA). A more recent study showed calcium losses are minimized when an increase in meat protein is accompanied by an increase in the phosphorus naturally present in the meat. This study also tested a high-protein group including dairy products to bring the calcium ingestion from 590 mg per day to 1370mg per day, which resulted in a highly positive calcium balance. In simple terms, the high-protein diet containing plenty of calcium in dairy products actually built bone. Dairy products are helpful not just because of their calcium content, but because lactose may enhance calcium absorption (National Academy of Sciences National Research Council, 1989), if this pesky sugar doesn't give you the trots and make you gassy.

Epidemiological studies, which look for associations within large numbers of people, have failed to show a negative impact of high amounts of dietary protein on bone. Two studies, one on fracture rate and another on bone mass, showed no adverse effects of protein on bone (Arnaudá& Sanchez, 1996).

Regarding calcium losses and protein ingestion, the National Research Council, which formulates the RDAs, states, "Urinary calcium excretion increases with increased protein intake if phosphorus intake is constant. If phosphorus intake increases with protein intake, as it does in U.S. diets, the effect of protein is minimized. It has been suggested, but not demonstrated, that a habitual high intake of protein might contribute to osteoporosis. This seems unlikely based on present evidence, at least for the range of intake for most people in the United States" (National Academy of Sciences National Research Council, 1989, p. 72).

The National Academy of Sciences National Research Council (1989, p. 178) further expounds on the relationship of phosphorus and protein intakes to calcium status: "The level of protein and phosphorus can affect the metabolism of and requirement for, calcium, primarily as a result of their opposing effects on urinary calcium... An increase in protein intake... results in an increase in urinary calcium excretion. In contrast, an increase in phosphorus intake... causes urinary calcium to decrease. Because of the opposing effects of protein and phosphorus on urinary calcium and calcium retention, a simultaneous increase in the intake of both, a pattern characterized by milk, eggs, and meat ingestion, has but little effect on calcium balance at recommended levels of calcium intake."

In consideration of the resistance training enthusiast, even many protein supplements for strength-trained persons are fortified with 25-100% of the RDA of phosphorus and 25-160% of the RDA for calcium. It must also be considered that resistance training itself is a strong stimulus for bone mineralization (Burr, 1997; Conroy & Earle, 1994). Indeed, a very recent study comparing body builders with other athletes did not find an increase in calcium excretion in bodybuilders even though the body builders consumed nearly 50% more protein and more calcium than the other athletes (Poortmans & Dellalieux, 2000).
In view of this mass of evidence, it is unlikely that increased protein consumption will have negative effects on calcium retention in individuals engaged in resistance training who consume the majority of protein as meats, eggs, dairy products, and even fortified whole-protein supplements. Much to the contrary, there is evidence to suggest that your bones will become stronger on a high-protein diet combined with resistance exercise.

[This message was edited Fri Dec 26 11:30:05 PST 2003 by J0eyC0c0]

Here's something you should read to put everything in the right perspective:



Excerpt from http://milk.elehost.com/h...rosis.html

In our most recent past, American women have been consuming an average of two pounds of milk per day for their entire lives, yet thirty million American women have osteoporosis. Does this make sense?

In short, drinking milk does not prevent bone loss. The shocking part is that bone loss is actually accelerated by ingesting too much protein which forces the body to leech calcium from the bones to lower the acid level in the body. It's not how much calcium you eat. It's how much calcium you prevent from leaving your bones.

WHY DOES CALCIUM LEAVE BONES FROM MILK? (find out why)

In order to absorb calcium, the body needs comparable amounts of another mineral element, magnesium. Milk and dairy products contain only small amounts of magnesium. Magnesium is the center atom of chlorophyll:

"Osteoporosis is caused by a number of things, one of the most important being too much dietary protein."
Science 1986;233(4763)

"Countries with the highest rates of osteoporosis, such as the United States, England, and Sweden, consume the most milk. China and Japan, where people eat much less protein and dairy food, have low rates of osteoporosis."
Nutrition Action Healthletter, June, 1993

"What appears to be important in bone metabolism is not calcium intake, but calcium balance. The loss of bone integrity among many post menopausal white women probably results from genetics and from diet and lifestyle factors. Research shows that calcium losses are increased by the use of animal protein, salt, caffeine, and tobacco, and by physical inactivity."
Neal Barnard, M.D., Physician's Committee for Responsible Medicine, Understanding Health, December, 1999

"Dietary protein increases production of acid in the blood which can be neutralized by calcium mobilized from the skeleton."
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 1995; 61 (4)

"About 50,000 Americans die each year of problems related in some way to osteoporosis."
Osteoporosis International 1993;3(3)

"Even when eating 1,400 mg of calcium daily, one can lose up to 4% of his or her bone mass each year while consuming a high-protein diet."
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 1979;32(4)

"Increasing one's protein intake by 100% may cause calcium loss to double."
Journal of Nutrition, 1981; 111 (3)

"The average man in the US eats 175% more protein than the recommended daily allowance and the average woman eats 144% more."
Surgeon General's Report on Nutrition and Health, 1988

"Calcium intake demonstrated no protective in preventing bone fractures. In fact, those populations with the highest calcium intakes had higher fracture rates than those with more modest calcium intakes. "
Calif Tissue Int 1992;50

"There is no significant association between teenaged milk consumption and the risk of adult fractures. Data indicate that frequent milk consumption and higher dietary calcium intakes in middle aged women do not provide protection against hip or forearm fractures... women consuming greater amounts of calcium from dairy foods had significantly increased risks of hip fractures, while no increase in fracture risk was observed for the same levels of calcium from nondairy sources."
12-year Harvard study of 78,000 women American Journal of Public Health 1997;87

"Consumption of dairy products, particularly at age 20 years, were associated with an increased risk of hip fractures...metabolism of dietary protein causes increased urinary excretion of calcium. "
American Journal of Epidemiology 1994;139

Good grief, not that "article" again. It's bad for the fact alone that it doesn't show any of the "conclusions" (which are in fact merely excerpts of conclusions) in the right context. For example, you could use what I posted to "prove" your point by just citing a few lines. It's just another article written in a very modern and popular fashion, supposedly backed up by scientific evidence.

As an athlete I can tell you that there are no scientific findings which would suggest that increased/high protein intake would cause calcium loss. I've discussed this many times with other athletes, nutritionists and people with a medical degree. However, it doesn't seem you are willing or able to understand how even scientific studies can be performed poorly or be subjective.

oh and of course there's the estrogen factor. the more animal fat a woman consumes has a dramatic effect on negative symptoms of pms [snip- flame removed. annabel] as well as more severe menopause, ovarian cancer, etc. for men there's significantly higher risk of impotence, hair loss, infertility (that's manly!!). hormone-free products are becoming more available but are more expensive. of course there will always be some amount of natural hormones, and the more animal products you consume, the more unnatural your levels of the female hormone estrogen become.
[This message was edited Fri Dec 26 13:31:32 PST 2003 by conch5184]

of course my point in posting that article was that for every thing one nutritionist says, another nutritionist says something else. i'm making my point [about bone loss] because it's a Risk that i want other orgers to be aware of before messing with their chemistry.
[This message was edited Fri Dec 26 11:59:33 PST 2003 by conch5184]

my scientists can be wrong but yours can't

conch5184 said:

You made your point by submitting a bad non-scientific article which seems to be talking about high volumes of casein protein?

oh and make sure you're getting enough fruits and vegetables if you go on atkins. vegetarians live an average of six years longer due to higher plant consumption. it seems that the more meat someone eats, the less plants they eat. so please be careful of that.
there's also the relation between meat consumption and colon cancer (i believe the third greatest killer of americans behind heart disease and lung cancer)



and if you want to go on atkins to lose just about 15 pounds, remember that on average individuals lose 14 pounds when they become vegetarian.
[This message was edited Fri Dec 26 12:15:17 PST 2003 by conch5184]

I thought this was gon be a thread about clay atkins