Atkins diet: do physicians/nutritionists support it?

[IceKid]

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i think people just eat too much. why can't people just eat less? once you get cut, its not like you have to work out all the time to maintain it either.

i eat like normal food, but i do stay away from junk as much as reasonably possible, it works.

i don't understand how people get themselves so fat. and if they can let themselves get so big, why do they care to get skinny again?

people eat too much for MANY reasons- boredom, or as comfort are two big ones i think. and a reason people eat too many carbs- say you eat a big bowl of sugar. sugar is processed by the body very quickly, so you get a huge blood sugar spike with a corresponding spike in insulin. so the glucose is taken quickly into the cells, and then you get a huge drop in blood sugar to below normal. so even though you just ate that big bowl of sugar an hour ago, your body feels hungry again and wants to eat because your blood sugar is low.

yes, i do agree that americans eat too much as a whole. i'm not really sure why; probably b/c we are such a ME ME ME society. but i do also know that some people are carb intolerant, and have a much easier time maintaining a proper weight when they control their carb intake.

 

[skiz knot]

I laugh at the Atkins diet. Know why?

Because it is scientifically unsound? No.
Because it has major health ramifications? No.
Because it doesn't work? No.

Because it's another example of fat people who want to EAT their way to skinniness. Because this is another 'fad' diet -- yep, it sounds great now ...can you do this for the rest of your life? (Once you stop, you gain all your weight right back again.) What the hell is so hard about eating moderate portions, a balanced diet, and moderate exercise? Nooo ...I'd rather eat a grapefruit for breakfast and lunch and a milkshake for dinner. Or I'd rather ingest heavy cream and baconbits 24/7. Or I'd rather just wait until I had a humongous pannus hanging off the front of my body and then undergo bariatric surgery, leaving me with a disproportionately large head-to-body ratio (anyone seen Al Roker? that is the most funny look I've ever seen in my life.).

Hell yeah! Get off of your asses and do a little exercise! (slouches back in chair at work while rubbing belly)

 

[Rose122]

I say eat whatever was available as we evolved. That means everything from Atkins to a Vegan diet is out of the picture. Besides, if Atkins goes away I can finally stop hearing the word "carbs." I hate that abbreviation.

 

[leviathan]

I think the kidneys are a little bit more intricate of organs than you are giving them credit for.

No, you're contradicting yourself. The kidneys are indeed intricate organs in the sense that they are excellent at preserving water, which is why we don't need to drink 800 glasses of water a day to keep ourselves hydrated.

 

[drakkan2001]

IMO, this debate doesn't really matter much because the effects of low carb diets in the long term hasn't been studied in great detail. Wait another 20-30 years and then we'll see what low carb diets do to the body. I'm a nutrition major and it seems to me that low carb (atkins) diet is impossible to follow up on. The short term effects are excellent but it seems that those who do go on this diet lose lots of calcium and are more prone to osteoporosis. So if you're on the Atkins diet, make sure you're getting bone scan. 🙂

 

[logos]

IMO, this debate doesn't really matter much because the effects of low carb diets in the long term hasn't been studied in great detail. Wait another 20-30 years and then we'll see what low carb diets do to the body. I'm a nutrition major and it seems to me that low carb (atkins) diet is impossible to follow up on. The short term effects are excellent but it seems that those who do go on this diet lose lots of calcium and are more prone to osteoporosis. So if you're on the Atkins diet, make sure you're getting bone scan. 🙂

I'm curious...whats the reasoning behind this? How does a low carbohydrate diet promote the loss of calcium?

 

[orthoman5000]

No, you're contradicting yourself. The kidneys are indeed intricate organs in the sense that they are excellent at preserving water, which is why we don't need to drink 800 glasses of water a day to keep ourselves hydrated.

I agree that water needs for the average individual have been overstated, but it would be very hard to make yourself hyponatremic by overdrinking. It can be done and deaths in marathon runners have been attributed to it, but it's not going to happen on even a gallon a water a day. Remember it works both ways, the kidneys are good at conserving water, but also eliminating water, so I'm not contradicting myself. Go study some renal physiology.

 

[fullefect1]

actually- if you do some research, MANY body builders follow low carb plans. some of them low carb during the week, and then eat more carbs on the weekends.. or some variation thereof. i know a low carb body builder myself, and he is definitely cut!

It would be very difficult to make gains on a low carb diet especially for someone who wants to gain a large amount of mass. Post workout consists of mainly carbs high in the GI index to cause a jolt in insulin levels to produce more gains. Most body builders train in cycles, so during a precontest regimine they my significantly lower carbs that raise insulin levels because it would be difficult to drop down to the desired bodyfat. But the overall scheme of most programs is that they typically do not go over 10% overall body fat, which would make a large majority of their year in a mass building cycle of food intake.

 

[leviathan]

I agree that water needs for the average individual have been overstated, but it would be very hard to make yourself hyponatremic by overdrinking. It can be done and deaths in marathon runners have been attributed to it, but it's not going to happen on even a gallon a water a day. Remember it works both ways, the kidneys are good at conserving water, but also eliminating water, so I'm not contradicting myself. Go study some renal physiology.

It's funny that you are telling me to study renal physiology, when you're obviously clueless to what medullary washout is. What made you think we were talking about hypervolemic hyponatremia here? I believe I would take the word of my physiology professor who has studied nephrology intensively and published studies on the effects of water overload on flushing sodium out at various regions of the juxtamedullary nephron, leading to the termed "medullary washout". Please do yourself the favor and review your notes on nephrology, if you ever payed attention at all.

 

[jeremyh42]

anything that can fight the krispy creme juggernaut is good.

Krispy Creme... evil incarnate, but a fresh donut is SO Yummy

 

[Fermata]

Krispy Creme... evil incarnate, but a fresh donut is SO Yummy

Hehe....a company from my hometown area that I wish I would have bought stock in. :/

 

[DadofDr2B]

Atkins is artifical diabetes. You digest the fat you have accumulated which gives you a byproduct namely ketones. The long term effects of ketone production has been shown to cause kidney failure if the ketones are not flushed from the kidneys. Without the water Atkins good kill or maim. Who knows what will show up after 20 years of Atkins dieting? JMO

 

[flighterdoc]

Atkins is artifical diabetes. You digest the fat you have accumulated which gives you a byproduct namely ketones. The long term effects of ketone production has been shown to cause kidney failure if the ketones are not flushed from the kidneys. Without the water Atkins good kill or maim. Who knows what will show up after 20 years of Atkins dieting? JMO

Well, people have been on the Atkins program for 30 years, and we haven't heard of any drastic results - except they're still alive.

 

[missbonnie]

Atkins is artifical diabetes. You digest the fat you have accumulated which gives you a byproduct namely ketones. The long term effects of ketone production has been shown to cause kidney failure if the ketones are not flushed from the kidneys. Without the water Atkins good kill or maim. Who knows what will show up after 20 years of Atkins dieting? JMO

u sure you're not getting ketosis confused with ketoacidosis? 2 very different things.

b

 

[JohnHolmes]

u sure you're not getting ketosis confused with ketoacidosis? 2 very different things.

b

the atkins diet is the most amazing diet ever designed imo, it finally got modern medicine to think outside the box.

 

[JohnHolmes]

maybe ppl should read the atkins book before saying what they think they know.

I Completely agree.

 

[MrTee]

actually- if you do some research, MANY body builders follow low carb plans. some of them low carb during the week, and then eat more carbs on the weekends.. or some variation thereof. i know a low carb body builder myself, and he is definitely cut!

Serious bodybuilders (ones who earn a living doing it) do not follow low carb diets because they're healthy. For them, it is to get cut at all costs. For these people, nothing about bodybuilding is healthy, except the exercise aspect of it. The massive amounts of drugs and diuretics these people put in their bodies are quite detrimental for health, but it gives them the lean look needed to compete.

Sure Atkins makes you lose weight, but the question is, what do you do when you come off of it? And are the results significantly different than what could be accomplished with a diet high in fruits, vegetables, and low in fat? Personally, I couldn't imagine using any low carb regimen except if I'm peaking for a photo shoot or something like that.

 

[MrTee]

the atkins diet is the most amazing diet ever designed imo, it finally got modern medicine to think outside the box.

Is this a serious statement? If so, why do you believe it to be so amazing?

 

[JohnHolmes]

Is this a serious statement? If so, why do you believe it to be so amazing?

Ah, a bodybuilder. Hey, whats up.

It was serious, perhaps I was overenthusiastic.

1) It has forced science to reexamine weight and health advice.

2) STEAK and lose weight 😉

 

[SlopinMunkyDude]

if you do some research, MANY body builders follow low carb plans.

To be fair, most bodybuilders do not spend nearly as much time cutting as they do bulking, which is definitely not low carb.

 

[JTrojan]

All I have to say about Atkins is that the man died of some heart failure (sorry, read it a while ago at work, and don't remember specifics) and he was fat. He weighed in somewhere over 250 at his death, and his people claim it was because of 60+ pounds of water gain. Now, they had a picture of the man, and there's no way that at under 6 foot he only weighted 190lbs in that picture. Yeah, you can't always practice what you preach, but it still bothers me, just like that Dr. Phil writing a diet book...I don't think so.

 

[beriberi]

Anyone who has worked in an ICU will know that sick patients are given a ton of fluid and can gain tremendous amounts of weight in a short period of time (especially those with head injuries, underlying heart dysfunction). I had an otherwise healthy young man who had an unfortunate encounter with a substance who put on 24 kg in the ICU (yes, that is more than 50 lbs). I watched him pee off that fluid over the next ten days (an even better weight loss plan).

Also, heart failure can be secondary to a whole lot of things. A lot of skinny people with good lipids get heart failure. It can be caused by viral infection (just like the Atkins people maintained.)

Things I think are disgusting:

that someone would release Dr.Atkins medical records in an effort to make people stop eating meat (the people behind this are fringe physicians who are militant vegans who did something illegal and unethical).

that someone would cite Atkins cause of death as a way to judge his opinions. Skinny people do not necessarily have the right ideas about how to eat, and fat people do not necessarily have the wrong ideas. The way we judge ideas as scientists (okay, soft-scientists) is by evaluating them in randomized, controlled trials. Those are notoriously difficult to do with a diet, but it beats the he** out of judging something based on anecdote.


____
Let me borrow someone elses tagline for a minute: the plural of anecdote is not data.

 

[lotanna]

I've the atkins book, tried it for a week, and realized its not for me. Its for those who need drastic weight loss, and even then its hard to make it a lifestyle which is what u need to do to make any program work. I love working out, runnin and lifting, and the prog www.bodyforlife.com by Bill Phillips is awesome, many people are not only losing weght, but they are cut/well defined. Many start off with 12week challenge and by the end they are cut, lose inches, whole nine. Its 1 thing to lose weight, its another to still have slobby/flabby skin on ur body. The guy has a new book out called Eating for life www.eatingforlife.com, and its extremely wonderful. I made a healthy chicken pizza using whole wheat pita, and u couldnt tell the difference between that and regular pizza, and it was probably like 200 calories, 80 of it being from the pita, but it was good carbs anyway. I eat 60% protein, 40% carbs. I run, lift weights, and this chica is like on top of the world right now

 

[IceKid]

Atkins is artifical diabetes. You digest the fat you have accumulated which gives you a byproduct namely ketones. The long term effects of ketone production has been shown to cause kidney failure if the ketones are not flushed from the kidneys. Without the water Atkins good kill or maim. Who knows what will show up after 20 years of Atkins dieting? JMO

yiiiiiikes some people are so misinformed that it is truly scary. if you don't know ANYTHING about something, perhaps you should not give an opinion that is based on ridiculous things you have heard from the media.

 

[flighterdoc]

All I have to say about Atkins is that the man died of some heart failure (sorry, read it a while ago at work, and don't remember specifics) and he was fat. He weighed in somewhere over 250 at his death, and his people claim it was because of 60+ pounds of water gain. Now, they had a picture of the man, and there's no way that at under 6 foot he only weighted 190lbs in that picture. Yeah, you can't always practice what you preach, but it still bothers me, just like that Dr. Phil writing a diet book...I don't think so.

Bull****. He slipped on ice on the sidewalk in NY, he hit his head and was in a coma for something like 6 weeks. The steroids he was given to try and prevent additional swelling of his brain caused massive water gain. You're taking the spin from some vegan group (that got his death certificate and released it without the correct context, something the ME in NYC had to explain).

Yes, he died of a heart attack (or at least his heart stopped), after his brain stem herniated. BTW, almost 100% of people who die, die of a heart attack (heart stopping).