Healthy Diet at Home

Is a Low-Carb Diet Sustainable? (Photo by Alpha ) As most of you know, I’m extremely partial to the 1972 and the 1992 versions of The Atkins Diet. The ’72 version was based on Dr. Atkins own experiences following a low-carb diet and a few initial clinical observations. The original ’92 version (the first edition) was based on the feedback that he actually got from his patients. Many of them were cheating by adding a few vegetables to Induction along with the salad, which they eventually admitted to. Since Dr. Atkins patients still lost weight easily eating that way, Dr. Atkins decided it was okay to add 2/3 of a cup of cooked vegetables to his Induction Plan. Because of that addition, he lengthened Induction from one week to two. The second edition printed around 1999 was exactly the same as the first one except for a one-line comment he made about how he couldn’t find anything unreasonable about deducting soluble fiber grams from the total carbohydrate count – the type found in the ps

Atkins Induction is often the first introduction that many people have to a low-carb diet. It jump-starts your weight-loss program, can help if you’re experiencing a weight-loss plateau, or get you back on track if you’ve been stumbling around and eating too many carbs. It’s also useful if you’re in pre-maintenance or maintenance and you’ve slipped and fallen out of the wagon. Induction can give you a leg up, and help you regain control of your appetite, drop those few pounds you’ve regained, and help you get your life back on track. But Atkins Induction can also be abused. Do You Run Back to Induction Every Time You Stray? I hear this all the time. You went to a party, it was a holiday, your birthday, or a family gathering. You planned to stay on program, stick to meat and salad, eat a snack before you left, and had a strawberry cheesecake waiting in the refrigerator for dessert when you got home. But something went wrong. You kept looking at the dessert table. You had to sit and watc

A low-carb diet is an effective, but highly restrictive, weight-loss plan. It works well when you follow the rules. If you waltz into the room thinking you can do your own thing without having read and studied any of the weight-loss plans, you’ll probably find yourself asking, “Am I doing low carb right?” A dead giveaway that you aren’t. However, if you’ve been carefully following one of the low-carb programs, and weight loss has slowed, or stopped, you might want to check and see if you’ve been making one of these low-carb mistakes.     Where Are Your Carbs Coming From? Most individuals enter the Induction phase on a diet-high. Motivation is strong. The weight loss you experience from losing the glycogen needed to get you into ketosis keeps you pumped. Motivated by the new lack in cravings and sense of well-being, low-carb diet mistakes are few. You stick to the rules, start experimenting with new foods and recipes, and make the decision that this low carb stuff is going to be a life

What Am I Not Losing Weight On Atkins? When it comes to weight loss, patience is vital. We all lose body fat at different rates, and each body undergoes different protective processes that we sometimes have to simply wait out. While some people lose weight slow and steady, others lose weight in stages. But if you’ve crossed over that 4-week line where you haven’t lost pounds or inches, what then? What can you do to encourage your body to let go of some of that excess body fat? 1. You Might Be Eating Too Much Fat There are many reasons why your weight loss might have stalled, and some of them are extremely contradictory. Eating too much fat is one them. While today’s low-carb mantra claims raising the amount of dietary fat you eat can cure everything from weight loss stalls to the Atkins Flu, before Dr. Atkins passed away, that wasn’t what the Atkins Center was telling folks. In fact, checking out the amount of fat you’re eating was the first thing they always asked you to look at back

(This is part 3 of a multi-part series on How to Tweak a Low Carb Diet . It discusses my weight loss journey so far. If you didn’t read part 1, you can do so by clicking on the how-to link. There, you will also find links to the entire series.) In 2007, I was not gluten free, dairy free, or corn free. I didn’t know about the Celiac Disease or other food sensitivities back then, so I was working with what I did know. Looking back now, I can see why a very low carb or no carb diet did not work for me. Untreated Celiac Disease and food sensitivities keep your intestinal tract inflamed. An inflamed digestive system interferes with the way the body absorbs dietary fats and other nutrients. In addition, corn allergies and sensitivities can be especially problematic for low carb dieters because most of the meats, poultry, and fish at the supermarket are contaminated with corn. Plus, many fresh vegetables (including organic varieties) are waxed or gassed. Around this time, there was a rise in

There is a lot of confusion these days about metabolism. It seems to be a scapegoat that people like to blame when weight loss doesn’t happen easily. If they’re following a low carb diet and struggling to succeed, then they believe that all of those years of eating carbohydrates must have destroyed their metabolism and made them fat. On the other side of the argument are those who oppose low carb dieting. These people claim that carbohydrate restriction will permanently alter your metabolism, but what’s the truth? Will eating carbohydrates or following a low carb diet ruin your metabolism – or not? What is Metabolism? Low carb dieters generally do not like to hear about the energy equation. Dr. Atkins told us that we no longer need to worry about calories, so most people believe the energy equation isn’t applicable to them. Calories don’t matter, they say. Dr. Eades has tried to set the record straight, but far too many people still do not want to go outside and drag the equation bac

My experience with low carb dieting began in the 70s when I ran into Dr. Atkins’ original diet book at the library. At the time, it made a lot of sense. I could relate to everything he shared – and when I tested it, the plan worked better than anything I’d tried. I was 19, weighed in at a hefty 160 pounds on a 5-foot frame, and with virtually no metabolic resistance, that one golden shot earned me maintenance within only 6 weeks. I realized the other day, that’s exactly where I’m sitting again today. I’m back to where I started from in 1975. A whole lot older, hopefully wiser, but despite finding out how to deal with my health issues, I’m still at the same starting line. Yes, I managed to shed a whopping 80 pounds in 2007; and another 30 pounds last year – but that was above where I first began my low carb journey. I’ve regained a good 10 pounds of that last 30 though. So what gives? WHY is weight loss so hard to maintain? Atkins 72: What was the Original Atkins Diet Like? I can tell y

There’s a thread over at Low-Carb Friends specifically devoted to those who have decided to return to a low-carb diet. It isn’t really about anything. It’s just a place to announce your intention of trying again. In a way, it’s a spot where you can declare your New Year’s Resolution to return home to where you know you belong. To return home to where you know you can shed the weight you’ve regained over the past few months or years. The problem is that achieving success with a low-carb or moderate-carb diet often takes more than just a choice to return to carbohydrate restriction. Only a strong nutritional foundation can convert a low-carb diet into a lifestyle. Yet, most of these individuals have returned wearing their dieting mindset on their sleeve. They believe that this time things will be different. This time they will do better. This time they won’t stray. If that’s your attitude as well, you might want to reconsider what you’re doing, and why. Weight Loss Success as Taug

Beef Sensitivity? I’ve wrestled with myself for the past couple of days about “where” to place this post. I didn’t want to discourage anyone from entering into, or sticking with, a typical low carb diet. Atkins and The Protein Power Lifeplan both work equally well for most individuals, though they do differ in application. Honesty finally won. But since the relevancy of this topic falls across several of my blogs, I’ve decided to focus here on how my current problem relates to general low carb diets. Recently, I decided that since my weight had reached the upper limits for a maintenance phase, I would enter into Atkins Induction to carve off the body fat I’d gained – knowing that the first week’s weight loss would be mostly glycogen and water. That held true; I weighed in at 158 pounds last Friday, down almost 5-1/2 pounds for the first week. But I didn’t expect what happened next. I have one more day to go to keep my Atkins Induction commitment, but…I’m seriously reconsidering that de