Tuesday, May 10, 2011

full-on Atkins

I had the false start, but today's the day it all begins in earnest. Wish me luck as I try to survive two weeks with almost no carbs in my diet.


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4 comments:

Sperwer said...

Fighting!

Sperwer said...

Make sure you eat LOTS of protein in 5-6 meals spread out over the day and drink a lot of water. Will fill you up and make you feel satiated for a long time. Which will help with the cravings you still will have for all the sugar into which carbs are quickly converted until at the end of the attempt at ketosis your system will have begun adjusting to the absence of massive amounts and spikes of sugar.

Elisson said...

It's a mistake to give up all carbs... without them, your metabolism goes into partial shutdown.

Better to eat five small (~110 calorie) meals a day composed of a 50:50 protein:carb ratio, along with one more substantial meal containing 5-8 ounces lean protein plus plenty of green veggies. Eat every 2-3 hours. Drink lots of water. Abstain from fruit and dairy. You'll be amazed at how fast the weight comes off... and how easy it is to keep it off by maintaining that 50:50 balance for most of your meals.

Kevin Kim said...

Elisson,

Well, Atkins is all about producing a reaction called ketosis, which is a shutdown of sorts, but also an activation: the body is forced to eat away at its own fat stores to provide the energy no longer coming from all the carbs.

Also, it seems that Atkins isn't about the total elimination of carbs; it's more about the minimization of carb intake, and the reorientation of the dieter toward eating better carbs. Very few foods on the Atkins Diet are totally carb-free, as it turns out; even those leafy green vegetables contain some carbage (ooh, there's an unfortunate pun).

As for eating small meals throughout the day-- that's not possible given my schedule and the way my digestive system works. I wish it were.

By the way-- please don't take the above as some sot of "convert's endorsement" of Atkins; I consider this two-week induction period to be probationary, and I remain skeptical. If, at the end of two weeks, I don't see significant results, I'll very likely stop Atkins and try something a bit more my style.