Atkins dieters rant
 

So, I was reading various posts over the Internet and I keep coming across a VERY common frase "I did Atkins and lost 30 ( 40, 50 etc) but I gained it all back as soon as I got out of it"

Really???? Did all these people gained 30, 40, 50 lbs over night as soon as they took that bite of bread???? Please!

I guess I'm just annoyed by the same thing over and over again. They use Atkins as if it was a weight loss pill or something.

If you want to get off of Atkins you still need to have another plan to control your weight, just because you did Atkins for 2 months it does not mean that you will be skinny and fit forever!






Ahhhhh... Nice to get it out :p

This is true of any "diet" if you quit "dieting" you will gain weight, better to make a lifestyle change that you can stick to.

While it's true that going off any diet results in weight regain, the regain and appetite/hunger rebound is far more rapid and dramatic with low-carb, which I think is why you hear more about weight relapse in relation to low-carb than to other plans.

There are a couple reasons for this. The first is the water differential between low- and high-carb diets. Your body holds onto less water when eating low-carb, so when you switch to low-carb eating some of the intial loss is water loss. Likewise when you return to high-carb eating, you have a dramatic and sudden weight gain that is also just water.

I use both low-carb and higher-carb eating plans, and I can't "count" the five or six pounds of water weight that I gain or lose depending on my carb-intake. I look at it as my current low-carb weight is about 290 lbs and my current high-carb weight is about 295.

This water discrepeancy can make people think they're gaining faster than they really are when they return to a higher carb eating.

Hunger rebound is also a larger issue when switching back to higher carb eating. Low-carb eating for many of us suppresses hunger, so returning to high-carb results in appetite rebound. And it usually doesn't rebound to our old normal, instead we have uncontrollable carb cravings, so people don't just rebound to their old carb levels. Instead, they are hungrier for carbs and large quantitites of them than they've ever been.


So the consequences of going off low-carb really are greater than for going off high-carb, and that fact can inspire people to villify low-carb rather than realize that carb-restriction will have to be a life-long struggle (especially since carbs are pushed so aggressively in our culture).

Great post kaplods.

Also, Atkins appeals to people who have metabolic issues and have finally found a way to control hunger in a way that low fat low calorie doesn't provide. Eating higher carbs again after being low carb rushes those cravings back again. If I'm counting calories and eat over one day, it's no big deal, I can eat less the next day, it doesnt really affect the scale. But if i try to have even one high carb meal, i find it amazingly hard to reign in the carb monsters again, it is so hard and the water regain is so demoralising. Atkins was right when he called it the kiss of death! I have beeen struggling with this as i cant have long term success if im living a life of missing foods, falling off the wagon and the struggling to get back on (and yeah, its not overnight but i gained 20 pounds in about 6 weeks when fell into toast and pasta as quick dinners when i was sick).

While the big water weight loss of induction and going into ketosis is great i have been experimenting with eating higher carb ( more like 50-100) and counting calories. It's working for me because I can have the fruit I missed and if I go up in carbs one day then the calorie counting stops me eating high fat and higher carb. Its been great because on the days when I have higher carbs I'm not getting the water gain because I didn't lose it in the first place.

I have pcos so maybe my insulin resistance is worst. OP, if you don't have insulin resistance you might not have such dramatic reactions to one slip up. Which is great!