Atkins Diet Advice

[NeverDespair879]

Hello,

I am 23 year old Male, medium built, in overall good shape, healthy, not taking any medications.

However, my goal is still to get very toned. I work out a lot and feel good. I seem never be able to get rid of the extra layer of fat that is covering my lower torso and ABS. I decided to take a new approach - Atkin's diet. i want to get my 8 pack showing and have no fat on my hips and stomach.

In the morning I eat: 1 Cup of Oat Bran and 1 egg, 1 egg white with 2 glasses of water. Then throughout the day I have 4 more meals, consisting of either Chicken Breasts, Lean Beef or Fish. I drink water only and supplement with Glutamine (20 grams a day), Multivitamins, Vitamin C, Fish/Flax seed oil and Chromium.

My main question is this: Is this safe? I have been reading a lot about dangers of Atkin's diet, but they seem to be centered around people abusing the diet and eating high fatty, high cholesterol foods. Is my approach ok?

I would only like to do this for about 12 weeks, will I be ok?

THANK YOU VERY MUCH IN ADVANCE.

[peekawho]

Where are your vegetables?  Dairy?  

I know you said you don't intend to eat at McDonalds when you are finished with your diet, but often when you stop a SEVERELY limited diet such as you are describing, ANY introduction of higher carbohydrate items (even if they are complex, healthy carbs) will cause a rebound gain that is rapid.

For example, years ago I did South Beach and lost a good amount of weight (probably 20 pounds).  It seemed that the very minute I ate one piece of bread, I gained 5 pounds.  I'm exaggerating just a bit (not much), but you are limiting yourself to a far, far greater degree than even Atkins or South Beach condones.

You will regain if you severely restrict yourself and simply resume a healthy diet afterwards.  If you can then keep eating in a healthy manner and relose the weight, great.  The concern is that some people keep up the extreme diet for prolonged periods of time, fearing any regain of weight.

Your eating plan is almost devoid of fiber, fruits, vegetables,dairy, and complex carbs.  These are not optional items if the diet of the human species.  You can do without them for a while, but not forever.  Please be careful.

[2ndBaby]

Um...I'm thinking I said I feel BETTER eating low carb...sluggish and tired when I do eat carbs...

[NeverDespair879]

thanks everyone for the input, means a lot.

I decided to ditch Oat Brand and replace that with mixed berries in the morning. Then have some more berries during the middle of the day.

I am feeling great and my workouts are great too so far (I am 3 days into the diet).

[Gaui]

One of the arguments people have against low-carb diet is that you regain the weight you loose when you go of it again. Well, of course this is the case, it's so for all diets that causes you to loose weight, exercise aswell. When you dive back into the sugars and starches you will certainly gain weight - that's a promise whatever your way of loosing weight. But you can adjust the low-carb from being so low in carb that you loose weight into being just the right amount to maintain the correct weight.

I do not agree to that one gets sluggish and tired on low-carbs, actually the reverse is my experience. I get sluggish and tired on high-carbs. I get ALOT more energy when I am on a low carb diet.

[2ndBaby]

The thing is, if you go back to your regular way of eating, chances are very good you will regain those 4-5 pounds in no time.  I love eating low-carb.  I've done it on and off for several years.  It keeps me away from things that 'sound' healthy for me, like whole wheat crackers, which I might as well staple to my belly for all the good they do me!  I recently had my cholesterol checked and my numbers were terrific.  And I actually feel better eating low-carb!  When I go back to carbs I feel sluggish and tired.  Carbs are necessary to your body, though...hence the LOW carb, not NO carb.  I'm with Gaui in sticking to veggies (add corn to the high carb list) and fiber-rich fruits.

[Gaui]

Yes, it's totally safe. I have used low-carb diet for long time. I eat alot of protein (all meat and fish (as long as it is fresh and un-contamintated), cheeses and eggs). It's known now that eggs do not have this bad influence on cholesterol as thought before. It's also known that fat doesn't make you fat. So, I never look at calories, I only look at carbohydrates. Besides the protein I eat alot of vegetable (except high carb veggies like carrots, borccoly etc). Once a day I eat 1/3 of my meal carbos (that's by my choice the evening meal). It's just bull that it's dangerous to eat healty, so dont listen to it. I'd skip the oat bran if I was you and wanted to loose weight. It's better to get you carbos from fruit, best are berries and wild fruit. Look up low carbs on the internet. I can reccommend the Heller's site ww w . carbohydrateaddicts .co m

[NeverDespair879]

peekawho,

Thank you very much for your input. I asked if I would be OK because I am only planning to do diet like this for about a month, to get very cut. I would like to have really good definition and my current fat is blocking the muscle I would like to shine through.

I am 5'10", 169 lbs. and I would like to be about 162-165 lbs. So, I am shooting to lose about 4-5 pounds in a short period of time. The thing is, I am a healthy eater. I always eat complex carbs, lean proteins, take multivitamin, vit c and omega3-6-9 supplements, but I seem to fail in riddance of this tiny layer of fat, so I am willing to take extreme, but cautious measures.

I would basically like to get as cut as possible till the end of summer, so I can still show off my ABS (yeah, maybe sounds shallow, but that is what my goal is).

The bottom line is, once this is done, I am not planning to go and gorge myself with junk food or hamburgers from McDonald's, because my regular diet is very balanced and healthy as it is.

I would like you to advice me further.

much appreciation.

[peekawho]

You asked "Will I be ok"?

I think (and I'm not an expert) that the short answer is yes, you will be ok.  However...will you have a good long term result?  That may be trickier to answer simply.

Yes, you will lose weight doing what you describe.  No doubt.  But you are describing a very severely limited diet that is NOT safe over the long run.  It is devoid of nutritious fruits, vegetables, dairy, and complex carbohydrates.  In the short run, you probably won't be hurt.  

But whenever someone follows a severely restricted diet, they will inevietably either return to their previous eating habits and quickly regain whatever they lost, or they will get overly involved in the new way of eating, and be very reluctant to add back in any foods they consider to be counter productive.  If you ate in the way you described for a long time, you would be risking your health.  

You are working out a lot,  Your body needs good quality fuel in the form a balance between proteins and complex carbohydrates to work at its top efficiency.  How much weight do you have to lose?  It would be far better to adopt a modified plan that includes some vegetables and complex carbohydrates, in my opinion....something that you can keep up over the long run.  You can make it heavier on the protein side if you are trying to build muscle.  Your body also "needs" healthy fats, or you will soon notice your hair falling out and your skin and nails drying and cracking.  Pills alone won't do it.  

That's just my opinion.