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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Michael Tree" data-source="post: 1247800" data-attributes="member: 1455">I may be misunderstanding the process then, because the Atkins diet involves eating a lot more calories than most diets, precisely to avoid a lowering of the metabolic rate.  It certainly does involve a shifting to a fat-burning metabolism, but the overall metabolic rate is essentially unaffected.What is a "long period of time" for this?  The Atkins diet only puts the person into a fat-burning metabolism for a few weeks to a few months, during which the person gradually increases their intake of carbohydrates. The intake is never increased back to the level of the typical American diet, though, which is way too high in sugar and simple starches.Though you're quite right that the long term effects are purely theoretical, since to my knowledge there aren't any long term studies. I wouldn't say that it's been lost, but a lot of people certainly do try to do it without being informing themselves about it.  Every once in a while there's some story in the news about someone who came to harm because of the diet, and invariably it was because they were doing it drastically wrong (though the stories don't mention this).  The diet is a lot more involved than just "don't eat any carbohydrates" and requires preparation and care.I was just making up some argument on the spot, and completely forgot about the conversion into fat. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />  But is it possible for a protein and fat metabolism to be more efficient than a carbohydrate one?  As for the importance of exercise and the laziness factor, I completely agree.  People place much too much emphasis on weight, and not nearly enough emphasis on health.  Granted, since being overweight is a health risk, there is a fair bit of overlap, but it's not entire. Diet is a key part of health though, and until most recently the unhealthiness of refined carbohydrates and sugars has been downplayed in favor of an obsession with low-fat.  If low-carb diets have no other lasting effect, hopefully they'll make people more conscious about the amount of carbohydrates they eat as well as the amount of fat.As I see it, the Atkins diet's greatest strength is with extremely obese people, and people who have or are at risk of getting diabetes.  Not coincidentally, these are the same group of people, especially for type 2 diabetes.  Before the creation of insulin injections, a diet very similar to Atkins' was the most effective method of controlling diabetes.I'm amazed when I hear about people who are at a healthy weight using a diet like Atkins.  I certainly think it's reasonable for such people to reduce their consumption of sugars and simple starches for health reasons, but to reduce it to the point of entering ketosis seems to be overdoing it.</blockquote>

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