Healthy Diet at Home

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...

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...

I’ve received a few questions lately asking me how I managed to make a low carb diet work so well for me. These questions are coming from individuals who have tried The Atkins Diet, as written, but have not found it to work as promised. With all of the various Atkins' diets to choose from – Atkins ‘72, Atkins ‘92, Atkins ’99, Atkins 2002, and the latest version called A New Atkins for a New You – which one did I use? Which version worked best for me? Other questions have asked how to make a low carb diet work, period. What can people do when Atkins stops working or when it doesn’t work to begin with? How can you tweak a low carb diet to achieve success? So this first post is going to be an introduction to that topic, and then future posts will go more into detail of how I actually lost over 100 pounds following a low carb diet. The Atkins Diet as written is an attempt to reach the greatest majority of individuals. It is a general guideline that works for most people, but it does no...

Tracy Rose, the Topic Editor at Suite101 for the Weight Loss Section, posted a link on Facebook this morning to her latest diet article. This article deals with the latest trend being marketed to brides: the K-E Diet. Now, we know that low carb diets in general are not new, and we know that when followed correctly, protein-sparing modified fasts are not dangerous. In fact, if you’re relatively free from additional food sensitivities, allergies and health issues, low carb programs are easy to implement and many varieties offer a luxurious living style. The latest fad diet (the K-E method) casts a dark shadow over low carb and PSMF diets. It involves inserting a feeding tube through your nose and into your stomach. This feeding tube delivers a protein solution that totals about 800 calories per day, so in essence, this diet scheme is a low carbohydrate protein sparing modified fast. You don’t eat. You just take in this solution of protein and fat for 10 days and magically shed 20 pounds ...

(This is part 2 of a multi-part series on How to Tweak a Low Carb Diet . If you didn’t read part 1, you can do so by clicking on the how-to link.) When I started low carbing in January 2007, the 2002 version of Atkins was considered the bible of low carb dieting. However, even among those who proclaimed you HAD to follow that version by the book, they were using the latest Atkins Nutritionals’ (ANA) recommendations to override the book’s instructions. So if you were not eating a minimum of 20 net carbs per day on Induction and getting the greater majority of those carbs from vegetables (12 to 15 net carbs per day), you were either blasted for not doing Atkins, or you were written off as someone who was playing an I-am-on-a-diet game. You were also counseled to spend the majority of your calories on consuming tremendous amounts of fat. Those calories had to be a minimum of ten times your current weight in order to avoid starvation mode. You had to drink a minimum of eight glasses of pur...

Find Low Carb Success Going Through the Back Door Most folks who start a low-carb eating plan, begin by walking through the front door. They read the book, study the first phase of Induction thoroughly, and then just do it. Some throw out, or give away, all of the high-carb items in the house, stock the refrigerator and cupboards with low-carb foods, and map out a solid plan of action for emergencies. Others take a more haphazard approach. They read the book, but skip over the boring information to get to the food list and rules. They don’t much care how low carb works, or why, they just want to know what to eat, and what not too. They may, or may not stock up on allowable foods, and they may, or may not think about what to do if they find themselves in a tight situation. Both dieting styles can lead to problems sticking to a new diet, because no matter what your degree of motivation, switching to a low-carb eating style brings drastic change. Initially, you might have enough determina...