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Summary: It works!!
Review: A common misconception I have noticed in several reviews indicate that no carbs are allowed in the diet. This is incorrect I am currently out of the intro stage and maintaining my weight loss. The evening meal you can have carbs, I eat what I want including moderate portions of carbs. So I get carbs everyday. I try to limit carbs for breakfast and lunch. I also get a desert everyday. I workout 3 times a week for a hour and a half. At night before bed if I'm hungry I have 150 cal. bowl of cereal. I'm satisfied and still down 18 pounds from where I started. With some common sense and my own modifications the diet works well for me. Throw in a vitamin E everyday and your home free.
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Summary: I'm sorry, but please don't do this to yourselves.
Review: I've been doing research on different diet strategies--reading books, AND going through the diets themselves. Naturally, this study wasn't complete without reviewing the Atkins diet. You already know how I feel, from the one star I gave it. Allow me to elaborate. The Atkins Diet works because it starves you. The average person is disgusted by the thought of eating a tub of butter for sustenance. The average person bows down after a large steak, not going for a second part of the meal. And to be quite honest, you'd rather not be seen eating five courses of London Broil while your friends enjoy salads, pizza, ice cream, and burritos. When you're eating with friends, you eat even less than your Atkins limits because it just looks disgusting to eat too much beef, or to be ordering hamburgers just to eat the patty. The thought of a "ketosis" and separate "fat-burning" and "carb-burning" metabolisms... this is all snake-oil salesmanry. Not only will any other doctor tell you it's not true, but Atkins has yet to release credible (that means peer-reviewed) evidence of those things happening. They simply don't happen. I've seen in my eyes that they don't happen. The Atkins diet basically makes fruits, bread, cake, cookies, and (during Induction Phase) veggies, all "shameful foods." Because just about every food available is, under the Atkins diet, taboo, you eat much less, getting relatively few kilocalories of energy. Which works, but it's basically the same as every restrictive diet out there: it's just starvation. Side-effects of the Atkins diet: If you don't take a fiber supplement (like metamucil) you get constipated. If you don't take a vitamin supplement, you cramp up all the time, and have spurious aches and pains. And, if you truly eat as much food as you did before, taking the time to make lots of hot dogs and steaks, you lose no weight at all (A friend did this with chicken wings, which he "could eat all day long", and we documented him GAINING weight for three weeks straight, after which he quit). I'd like to address one other thing: acid balances. I once heard someone say "My piss got bright yellow and I could FEEL my body PISSING OUT THE FAT!" Sadly, fat doesn't just go into your urine and out of your body. If you can feel your urine, then that means that it is more than 1% uric acid. Which is BAD. The Atkins diet actually advocates this... You're supposed to test your urine with sticks (which are actually litmus-paper rods; try dipping them in vinegar) to make sure that "the fat is leaving." Most people don't feel their urine burning them slightly as it exits their body; Atkins dieters feel it all the time. I would like to address this because it's a deeper underlying problem. Under the Atkins diet, almost EVERYTHING you eat is an acid-forming food, loaded with nitrogen. Your body normally turns uric acid into urea so that it's easier stored and less harmful to the body; with the Atkins diet, your body is trying to expel all the acid it can find. Your urine will actually have a high acid content, as your kidneys try to keep you at an efficient pH. This leads to a problem with hydration: The more water you have, the more acid your body can shove out of your body safely. If you're not getting sufficient water, your pH changes. This will make your body a very inefficient place; your metabolism lowers and you feel lethargic... also, less blood will go to your brain, which is a more sensitive organ to pH changes. I have observed this in long-time users of the Atkins diet. I had a group of long-time Atkins users, and most of them drank around five liters of water a day. Most of them had more fat than muscle on them; the ones that didn't drink water even confessed to not exercising regularly, and had nearly no muscle remaining on their body. This diet is an extremely unhealthy thing to do, and it is destructive in the long-term. The only thing it does is starve the user, and I recommend that about as much as I recommend anorexia nervosa. My advice? If you're concerned about obesity, consult a trained dietician, and not a snake-oil salesman with a ridiculously high diet failure rate.
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Summary: Atkins works for me
Review: This book and diet are very easy to follow. I actually no longer feel I am on a diet. It is a permanent way of changing the way I eat and think about food. I started Atkins in March of 2003 and have lost and maintained 30 pounds. The hardest part is changing your mind set on carbs vs. fat. Also counting carbs instead of calories and not worrying about fat. This way of eating and exercising too has sped up my stalled out metabolism and I feel fabulous! Once you get on your way to losing weight you can add in carbs as you go and see what works. An occasional roll or bite of candy is fine for me now. I eat what I want during the holidays and maybe gain a pound or two, but lose it quickly within a few days. Try it and give it a fair chance. If you like meat and cheese it is the easiest way to lose weight. Good luck!
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Summary: Please read this before buying the book.
Review: An interesting diet plan. Bottom line is that you do lose weight and its long-term safety is still in question. Be aware that it restricts calories (look at the menu plans) which contributes to weight loss as well. Also, check out "Treat Your Own Knees" if you suffer from knee pain.
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Summary: Common Science!
Review: Finally... for us carboholics the answer. After years of 'low-fat' a diet with proven science!
That said I would suggest getting out of the diet idea and adopting a lifestyle which controls carbohydrate intake.
I note that the Americans are loosing themselves from the 'low-fat, high-sugar' corporate giants and have acknowledged the common sense truth behind the Dr Atkins metabolic science!
I also note in true fashion the UK is about five years behind and the papers are full of the 'terrors' of carbohydrate control.
Still eventually we will have to 'wake up and count the carbohydrates'!
If you are going to give it a go... the first days are hard and proof of carbohydrate addiction (as if being overweight is not!). Don't get obsessed with the thing and continue the two week induction 'forever'... it won't work. Do the two weeks and then find your maintenance or 'slow reduction' level. This way you will re-educate your body over the long term. Nothing else works..! Good luck!
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Summary: Dropped 5 dress sizes over the holidays!
Review: I have been on the Atkins Program for several months and contined to lose weight through the holidays which included Thanksgiving and Christmas right up to today, 1 day before New Years Eve.Even more impressive though was my wife who I finally convinced to go on the program. She went from a size 10-12 to a 6-7 and lost 6 inches from her waist during this period. What really impressed us is that we both went to many banquets and parties and still lost weight and inches while having a good time with friends and colleagues during the festive season.Atkins rocks. It's the best!
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Summary: 2nd Review: 6 mos after Atkins & comments on other reviews
Review: In my first review I was happy to report losing 20 lbs in two months. Now, at 6 months, I've lost 30 lbs, and feel better than ever. It's been over 20 years since I was this light! As for the book itself, it is clear, persuasive, easy to follow, easy to use as a reference (looking up answers to specific questions), and it includes helpful extras, such as recipes and a pocket carb-counter. The diet has always been controversial, but the medical community seems to be turning around to grudging acceptance of the Atkins approach to health. A recent study (not Atkins-sponsored) confirmed that when two control groups dieted using prepared meals from the same source, one using a traditional low-fat approach, the other using Atkins' low-carb approach + 300 additional calories per day, the Atkins group still lost more weight! Now to the reviews. I've perused the negative reviews, and in most cases they are an attack on their perceptions of the diet itself, not on Atkins book. One reviewer even turned his post into a polemic against obese Americans in general. Silly stuff. Another asked, "Why does a body need to be in a state of ketosis when others have lost weight without doing so?" Obviously, the reviewer did not read Atkins' book--he answers this question--ketosis allows your body to naturally burn fat instead of carbohydrates, resulting in a much more efficient operation, and freeing us to consume fats without fear. Yes, there are other ways to lose fat, but being in ketosis is easier and more efficient. Bottom-line: If you are looking for a rich, creamy, full-tummy'd approach to weight loss and good health, read the Atkins book for yourself, and give it a try. Most of the naysayers have not read the book, have not given the diet an intelligent try, and some negative posters here are clueless about how hard it is for most of us busy, office-worker types to lose weight.
At the risk of sounding corny, the only you have to lose by trying this diet out is fat and pounds.
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Summary: Beware
Review: The march of events is catching up with this rubbish. Fad diets and get rich quick schemes are in the same class of mental trailer parks. In this case, Mad Cow Disease will bring Atkin's heirs to penury.
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Summary: Goodbye Fries & Cola - Hello Skinny Thighs!
Review: The first contact I had with Low carbing was with an interview with Jennifer Aniston, at the time I did not know all the facts and thought this way of eating was stupid and dangerous. How wrong I was. A couple of months later I read Dr Atkins book and it all made so much sense, I was suffering headaches and all over cramps all the time, I was lethargic but was never able to sleep - not to mention being 20 kilos overweight. I was unhealthy my doctor said. I started the induction phase and never looked back. Don't be fooled by critics of Dr Atkins who tell you you can't live without carbs, this way of eating - DOES NOT EXCLUDE ALL CARBOHYDRATES, it just removes all those nasty over processed foods like candy bars and takeaway, things your body just can't process. How wrong they are. Low carb is how I decided to live and I haven't looked back. I lost the killer 20 kilos and have kept it off. No more headaches and every night I sleep straight through the night and wake up refreshed. My doctor is impressed although still a bit skeptical. Recently, I decided to have a blow out and have Mcdonalds Big Mac fries and a Coke. Yuck - the food I used to adore tastes so bad now I couldn't get through the first 2 mouthfuls before I threw it all away - it tasted awful. Read this book - it may change your life
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Summary: What a great diet plan - lost 65 lbs so far and feel great!
Review: I love the Atkins Diet. Get to eat steaks, chops, shrimp, lobster, and eggs; lost 65 lbs, toned up all over and feel fantastic. What is not to like about this program? And I kept the weight off during the holidays too. What a diet!
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