Atkins Diet ?

[cheeps]

I just stopped doing low-carb. Same problem - my cholesteral skyrocketed - 247 with an LDL of 187 (I think it's supposed to be something like 60!). I'd been doing it around a year and a half. You do lose weight, but, and this is purely my opinion, I don't think Atkins is good for anyone. You can cut out alot of carbs and fat and lose weight just fine on your own. Just knock off white bread, white rice, white potatoes, and white sugar. Stick to whole grain breads, pumpernickel is best, substitute basmati rice or Uncle Ben's Converted Rice - it doesn't affect your insulin levels the way regular white rice does for some reason, for the white rice (brown rice actually isn't much better for you than white rice carbo-wise anyway), and avoid potatoes - eat sweet potatoes instead. THe sugar is a no brainer - any diet you cut out sugar with. I actually don't mind Splenda so I use that. And as long as you buy quality pasta made from hard duram wheat and cook it al dente, not to the mush stage, you can still have pasta.

The Atkins diet is extreme, and hard to maintain. If you have 100 pounds to lose, it is definitely the way to go, but for the average person like me who is only trying to lose 10-15 pounds, it doesn't work well. I only ever lost 6-7 pounds total and that was the first 2 weeks. The entire year and a half after those first 2 weeks I didn't lose an ounce and it's very common to "stall" after the first couple weeks and go months and months and not lose any more weight. If you can do it and control your saturated fat intake, then you will probably be very successful, but I don't know how you can stick to it for very long without eating too much fat. The point of the diet is that the extra fat satiates you so you're not hungry - take out the fat and you starve.

I bought a book on the glycemic index when my husband was diagnosed borderline diabetic. I was still doing low-carb, but looking for a better "version" to follow as Atkins was just too hard for me and others like Carb Addicts Diet just wasn't working for me. The South Beach Diet follows the glycemic index alot I've heard. ANyway, you basically cut out all the refined white carbs as I mentioned above, eat alot of veggies and fruit, whole grains, unsaturated fat and lean meat, etc. - in other words it's much more common sense. And healthier for you - I think anyway. And you can still enjoy your wine! A glass or 2 a day is good for you using the glycemic index!

Sorry to ramble on, but unlike wine advice, I know a bit about low-carb and can contribute finally lol!! Again, cutting carbs is a good thing, but from my own experience anyway, I wouldn't advise anyone to do Atkins. Good luck!!

Lisa