Synaesthesia

Ordinary, diverse and Balanced Diet: +1
Fad Diets: 0

wildernesse

The article referenced in this thread was not exclusively about the Atkin's diet--it only explored low-fat versus low-carb diet ideas. Which was interesting to learn more about, and made me more curious about diet and nutrition in general. I'm not interested in trying anyone's diet--I'm perfectly capable of deciding what I want to eat for myself. But I am interested in how what I eat affects my body.

What I do find amusing are the posts that say, "that's bunk--try what I've been using". Which is just as scientific as those who champion the Atkin's diet.

--tiba

NialScorva

Ok, bail this out to high, high level. Ignore the biochemistry for a bit--

EnergyIn - EnergyOut + LardInMyAssToday = LardInMyAssTomorrow

This is the absolute thermodynamic bound for all possible diets, you can't beat it. If EnergyOut > EnergyIn, then LardInMyAssTomorrow is going to be smaller than LardInMyAssToday. That's all there is to it, everything else is a trick. The Atkins diet or the Carb diet say "buried deep in the equations for determining EnergyIn, you can play a trick were some calories aren't real calories". What do you save, 5%? What's the cost involved in saving that 5%, a 50% increase in your food planning?

It's called over-engineering the system. Explore the system as deep as you need to and no deeper. Increase EnergyOut and decrease EnergyIn, and keep them that way. That's all the mechanics. Everything else is psychological.

Now, I must go to bed so that I can bike my 10 miles tomorrow to shed these 50 pounds I somehow gained since college.

Red Expendable

If you are want good health - to be lean, strong and muscular, you need to eat both carbs and protein. That Atkins diet is a bunch of bull. Carbs are essential for maintaining proper energy levels. At least, this is MY personal experience. I'm in the gym every other day and inline skate about 3 to 4 times a week. Those activities along with a 50/50 carb/protein intake have made me lean and energetic. The Atkins diet, and any other 'diet' that tells you what you need to eat - is designed to make money for the person who created it. And relies on the people that are overweight and out of shape to get their money from them -- knowing that generally, it's easier to be told what to eat, as opposed to THINKING about what you NEED to eat -- creating goals for a proper program for exercising your body.

My workout partner often has said to me: "I wish I could just take a pill, that way I wouldn't have to workout." This isn't an exact quote, but you get the idea.

He's not the only one, I'm sure.

brighid

Most fad diets will help one lose weight, but it is mostly lean body tissue and water and this loss sets your metabolism WAY back. In effect you are now fatter, although lighter then when you began the diet and your metabolism is slower. So once you resume your normal eating habits you will pack on the pounds quicker then you did before. Carbohydrates are important for the regulation of vital hormones in your brain and they are a main source of energy. I am just really starting to study and understand the implications of carbohydrates and protein as they affect brain chemistry, as mine has been a bit whacked out lately and I DON’T want to take drugs if I don’t have too.

The concepts behind the Atkins diet are sound, but their application is wrong and unbalanced. Protein causes insulin to be released in steady levels over a longer period of time then does carbohydrates. All food can be rated according to its glycemic index and how that affects insulin release. Insulin production especially spikes in that production signal the body to produce body fat and because certain foods, high on the GI scale cause a quick spike in insulin many people become overweight. Any processed food like white bread, pasta, white rice, etc. are high on the GI scale and a staple in the American diet. Many fruits are high on that GI index, such as bananas, which have about a 77 out of a 100 (100 being the highest) and will cause your insulin to spike right away and then plummet. Carbohydrates don’t make you fat, unless of course your diet is overloaded with them and you eat lots of them that have high GI indexes. Fats don’t make you fat either, but too much saturated fat will. The body needs fat to regulate hormones especially those Essential Fatty Acids (EFA’s) that the American diet is typically deficient in. Red meat is also not the culprit, unless of course the only thing you eat is bacon, hamburgers from McDonald’s, etc. Lean cuts of red meat are very healthy and as in all things, should be eaten in moderation.

Every person’s body is different and because of age, gender, disease, activity levels, and other factors each person will require a different type of diet although those diets will adhere to basic nutritional principles. Also, energy in and energy out equations are NOT the same for men and women. Men have a higher resting metabolic rate because generally they have a higher lean body mass ration then women do, and they also don’t have to fight certain hormonal deficiencies common among certain age groups. But that is an entirely different discussion.

The best way to eat healthy and avoid diets is to eat a well balanced diet and know how your body reacts to certain foods. Eat a portion of protein and complex carbohydrates with every meal, eating 6 small meals a day. Include lean meats, whole fruits and vegetables, whole grains, nuts and legumes. Processed fruit, vegetables and grains remove most of the nutrients and fiber from the food and add sugar and preservatives, thereby increasing their GI rating and eliminating their positive nutritional value. Make sure to exercise (resistance and aerobic), drink plenty of water and get as much sleep as your schedule allows. Allow yourself a treat or cheat day once a week to make sure you don’t deprive yourself of those “bad” foods that are okay for you in limited quantities. Make these practices part of your life style and not occasional habits to eliminate weight gain and you won’t have to worry about something like the Atkins Diet. One other thing to add is to make sure you take vitamin supplementation. Preferably one that isn’t all compacted into a single tablet and coated in wax, but rather in a vegetable cellulose that will dissolve quickly. Also keep in mind that the RDA requirements are based off the needs of (if I remember correctly) a 13 year old boy based on info from the 70’s. If you can afford the prices I recommend checking out <a href="http://www.vitacube.com" target="_blank">http://www.vitacube.com</a> for a pretty good vitamin line.

Brighid

theyeti

The concept may be sound in regards to helping you lose weight, but it is very unsound in regards to your health. The Atkins diet relies on you cutting carbs out of you diet down to next to nothing. The energy you get from food normally comes from carbs and fats. Proteins, with small exception, are broken down and used to make your body's own proteins, unless you're starving. So you go on the Atkins diet and you don't have carbs, so your body burns fat, right? Well, most of your body. Unfortunately, your brain, which consumes massive amounts of energy, can only run off of glucose. The amount it needs equals about 2 cups a day. And without carbs in your diet, you get no glucose. What your body is forced to do is break down proteins to make glucose with, otherwise your brain would cease functioning. Some of the amino acids are glucogenic, but many of the others are ketogenic (meaning that they make ketones -- acetone is the simplest ketone). So while your body is breaking down proteins to make the sugar you need, it's also creating lots of ketones as byproducts. This causes a condition known as ketosis, which is not very good for you. Makes you smell bad among other things.

The best diet is the one they recomended years ago, with lots of veggies and low on the saturated fat. Combine that with lots of exercise, and you'll be healthy. All it requires is self-discipline, which is why it's so unpopular.

theyeti

Dr Rick

While there are very few, good randomized, controlled trials comparing weight-loss regimens or evaluating their safety, a recent conference report from the North American Association for the Study of Obesity suggests that a low-carbohydrate, high-protein diet such as the Atkins Diet may be both safe and effective:

The cholesterol and lipid effects of the Atkins
Diet were essentially a "wash" in this study; also, because this type of diet is usually only a temporary one for most people, it's direct lipid effects are unlikely to be clinically significant.

It appears that it was easier for the subjects in this multi-center study to stick with the Atkins Diet and to lose weight than it was for the control subjects to successfully adhere to a "conventional" weight-loss diet.

This study was a short-term one; a good long-term study on the subject has yet to be published or presented.

Individuals with any chronic medical condition, pregnancy, or morbid obesity (BMI&gt;30) should initiate a weight-loss program or diet only under the supervision of a health care professional

Rick

[ July 09, 2002: Message edited by: rbochnermd ]</p>

brighid

Theyeti -

THANKS! You illuminated what I meant in a more accurate fashion. Fruits, veggies, lean meats that are low in saturated fats, whole grains, exercise, rest and vitamins are all it takes.

It is difficult to stick to a healthy life style when there are so many easy, cheap and delicious ways to sabatoge ones health. I know that the Atkins Diet helps people loose weight, and in the short term it has some benefit but the problems with fad diets aimed only at loosing weight is that they don't address the life long needs of healthy living. I would be interested to see what the over all body fat percentages of these people were before, during and after the Atkins Diet. I find that actual weight is a bad indicator of over all health, but rather lean body mass to body fat ratios as the better indicator of physical fitness and health. It really doesn't matter what kind of diet you eat if you are sedentary and overweight. An inactive lifestyle will kill you quicker then any diet!

Brighid

Dr Rick

None of the current recommendations are adequate in this regard; despite the "good advice" offered by various organizations and diet "experts," the US population is currently in the throes of an obesity epidemic. For whatever reasons, the recommendations to exercise and eat a "healthy" diet are not working; some other approach other than continuing to offer the same cliches and advice is necessary to meet the needs of the majority of adult Americans.

This need has fueled interest in dietary manipulations such as the Atkins Diet, as well as research into genes and signal receptors that trigger hunger and satiety, and bariatric (weight loss) surgery. These methods may leave much to be desired, but so does continuing to preach dogma that sounds good in principle but nonetheless fails.

Rick

Dr Rick

Excess weight is the result of consuming calories in excess of bodily needs. There is no reason to believe that a banana is more likely to result in obesity than any other food type with equivalent caloric content.

<strong> The typical American diet is rich in fats and contains more than adequate amounts of essential fatty acids. Essential fatty acid deficency is an extremely rare condition usually observed only in states of prolonged starvation.

All weight-loss diets are ketogenic to one degree or another; ketogenesis is a normal physiologic adaption to fasting and low-caloric intake and is generally well-tolerated in healthy individuals.
Metabolism. 1983 Aug;32(8):757-68.

In the unfed state, most ketones are produced from the metabolism of fats which have been mobilized from body stores, and not from amino acids or proteins. It is only by converting fat stores into energy and ketones that excess body fat can be eliminated, which is one of the goals of most weight-loss diets. A healthy individual can readily excrete in the urine most of the ketones produced by the body.

Rick