The low-carb diet. Wow. It actually works.

Ashrem Bayle · Feb 2, 2004

Lost 7lbs. in 7 days. I'm so happy I felt I just had to share. Of course, I feel like I could eat an entire loaf of bread right now, but I'm still pretty stoked.

Anyone else on this diet?

Chauzu · Feb 2, 2004

Ashrem Bayle said:
Lost 7lbs. in 7 days. I'm so happy I felt I just had to share. Of course, I feel like I could eat an entire loaf of bread right now, but I'm still pretty stoked.

Anyone else on this diet?

I'm a bodybuilder, so I've tried quite a few fat loss diets, including a couple low-carb diets. Which low-carb diet are you on? I just got off a cycled ketogenic diet for a couple months during my cutting cycle, and it worked fine. Still, I'm gonna stick to a balanced 40/40/20 diet when on my next cutting phase.

Only 1 or 2 of those lbs is fat, if any. The rest is water weight.

Are you doing any cardio or weight training? If not I would suggest to do them to increase fat loss.

If you have any questions, let me know. Also, you could check out www.bodybuilding.com . They've got hundreds of articles regarding health and nutrition, including articles about low-carb diets.

Good luck and stay motivated! What always helped me stay motivated in my early years of dieting was to take a picture of myself in the mirror every morning.

Ashrem Bayle · Feb 2, 2004

I'm on the Atkins. So far, so good.

I'm really not getting the exercise I want though. I spend most of the day rotting in front of the computer here at work.

Hopefully, that'll be changing soon though. The best workout I've ever experienced was with kendo, so I think I'm about to pick that up again.

d20Dwarf · Feb 2, 2004

Even saying 2 of 7 lbs is fat is probably a little generous during the first week of induction (assuming Atkins).

In any case, great job Ashrem! I lost 40 lbs. early last year on the Atkins, so definitely stick with it. But once I got off the diet, I gained the weight back fairly quickly, so you really have to be careful once you leave it.

The advice about exercise is sound, as I really jacked up the exercise regimen when I was on Atkins. I recommend it wholeheartedly, and don't listen to the people that say it's unhealthy--because they are just talking out their ass. It's really just a programmed response after 30 years of low-fat, high sugar advice from the government.

Ashrem Bayle · Feb 2, 2004

d20Dwarf said:
I recommend it wholeheartedly, and don't listen to the people that say it's unhealthy--because they are just talking out their ass. It's really just a programmed response after 30 years of low-fat, high sugar advice from the government.

From what I read, this is very true. The only real danger I see is cholesterol, but I don't plan on being on this diet that long (about 2 months) and I've never had problems with my cholesterol before so I'm not really worried about it.

BTW - I love your new sig.

EricNoah · Feb 2, 2004

I took off about 15 lbs in late October and have kept them off since then with a low-carb diet. It's easy to fall off the wagon now and then, but also easy to get back on with pretty quick results. Also upped my exercise a bit and even a little his helping a lot. Keep it up!

diaglo · Feb 2, 2004

i've been on a low carb diet for the last 17 years.

but i'm diabetic.

HellHound · Feb 2, 2004

There is one honest-to-goodness health hazard with the Atkins diet. The whole diet is focused around ketosis.

But the reality is that if your kidneys work at all well, it's not really an issue. But it -is- a health hazard associated with the Atkins diet and is a reason it is not recommended for people with kidney damage (or at least it wasn't early last year when I was researching the effects of ketosis). So people who say it is unhealthy aren't ENTIRELY speaking out of their posteriors - but most are confusing ketosis with ketoacidosis.

EricNoah · Feb 2, 2004

And it's totally possible to do low-carb without doing ultra-high fat. I find that, in general, I just eat less overall on this diet which certainly doesn't hurt.

Umbran · Feb 2, 2004

HellHound said:
There is one honest-to-goodness health hazard with the Atkins diet. The whole diet is focused around ketosis.

There are at least two - the one you aren't mentioning is gout.

There may be more - Atkins has not been out long enough to have good long-term studies done. Most studies on Atkins cover only months, not years.

d20Dwarf, it is downright incredibly rude to characterize the arguments of others without actually hearing them, even with a smiley. Some people can actually disagree with you without being government stooges.

Starting a heavy exercise regimen at the same time you start any diet is of questionable wisdom without a doctor's consultation. This goes doubly for Atkins, which removes a major energy source, and yanks around your metabolic processes to boot. Goes triply for a low-fat and low-carb diet. Burning protein for energy leaves a lot of metabolic poison in your system. Even with a high (really, really high) water intake, you can pooch up your kidneys or otherwise hurt yourself if you aren't careful.

The anecdotal evidence of people here in no way, shape, or form replaces the advice of a single competant physician who actually examines you.