edgecrusher1120

ive finally decided to try the diet that alot of my friends have had success with. ive heard that atkins, when followed properly, is great diet. especially for a person with type 2 diabetes like myself. ive tried alot of other stuff and nothing works. im not a fat guy, but at 6'5" 290lbs, i figure i can afford to loose some weight. i know im never gonna be a "skinny" guy, and i dont want to be, but i need to get healthier. just wanted to see if anybody here has tried it and what kind of results theyve had.


ps
im also going to be quiting smoking, at least trying to, so this should be greeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaattttttttttttt.

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warman

South Beach > Atkins

You'll lose weight on Atkins, but it won't be healthy. No carbs is bad for your kidneys, and if you eat anything that doesn't have carbs, that can include a lot of bad fatty foods.

Try South Beach instead. I lost 45 lbs from dieting alone on South Beach. The doctor who created it did it to make money for his patients with heart disease, so it'll probably be good for someone with diabetes. Check with your doctor before you do anything, though.

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edgecrusher1120

^yeah thats a def. i have a couple of friends who did south beach and they did pretty good. i know the people who have done atkins and just ate 5 pounds of bacon a day have had problems, but ive heard that if you keep the fat down and introduce chicken and vegetables that are low in carbs after the first 2 weeks it works well. either way i do have to see my dr anyway for my bi annual bloodletting. thanks for the advice.

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Vertabreaker

In before teh Dru :runsandhides:

mandingomeatsteak

I might just try the South Beach too, im trying to gain definition, already dropped all fast foods, and exercise at the gym 3 times a week. Can you offset your body's "omgwtf" reaction when you start adding various things to your diet by exercise?

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edgecrusher1120

not me. usually the first couple of days im ready to die and hungrier than ever. after that ill be in a groove and be ok. i havent had a regular soda or mcd's in a couple of years. its amazing how much you miss the little things once you get diabetes betes betes.

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Jaymzx

OK here's my thing with low-carb and dieting in general:

I went low carb a couple years ago and lost some 60 pounds. I promptly gained it all back and became another low-carb statistic. The diet is such a 180 from a diet that your family will also eat with you, and there are alot of low-carb traps that are really bad for you, like eating hotdogs for lunch every day. I'd do it again but I need a break from a diet every once in a while and it's very hard to do on low carb since it will take a week of 20grams a day to start losing again.
If you eat healthily and in moderation, the diet can be quite healthy. There are wild amounts of speculation out there in regards to its nutritional value and long-term effects but last I checked there weren't any peer-reviewed studies that cited specific long-term problems. Most people think to treat it like any other 'diet', where you get to your goal weight and go back to your old habits, where while being on low-carb for long enough to lose a substantial amount of weight, you 'forget' how to eat healthily when you're not in ketosis. It comes right back.
Not saying it won't work for you, just saying it's a tough diet to stick to. Kick yourself out of ketosis on one 'slip' and you'll need to be back on it for a week to get back in gear.
The most successful diet I have done didn't come from a book, DVD, internet download or anything. It was a restricted calorie diet of 1500 cals a day. I ate 5 times a day, drinking protein shakes to replace two 'meals'. I ate a bowl of cheereos (2 servings) in the morning with a cup of light vanilla soymilk for breakfast, shake at 10, a sensible sandwich for lunch, shake at 3 and then something filling and lean like chicken and rice for dinner. I was never hungry. If I needed a snack, carrots did the trick because I like carrots. Just keep it to 400 cals per meal or so and start taking the stairs and the weight comes off pretty quickly. I lost 30 lbs in about 2 months. I took every Sunday off as a 'free day'. It gave me something to look forward to, like BBQs and candy and shit where you REALLY want a big fucking steak. You just go to the store, buy a 2in thick ribeye and put it in the freezer. Come Saturday night, you put it in the fridge and it will be thawed by Sunday afternoon, just in time for the grill.
I'm a routine-oriented person and if I lose my routine, I lose the things that rely on that routine...specifically, my diet. I was on a pretty good roll on the last diet before I was laid off. Once I was at home with all the time in the world on my hands I started eating the wrong shit and here I am again, back at my 'base' weight of 330 lbs. You can ask anyone, I don't look a pound over 250 but it's still not healthy to be this weight and as I get older it's getting worse and worse for me. I used to be 'big all over' before I lost the weight on low-carb. When I gained it back, it all went on my gut, which is even unhealthier. Good times.
I don't blame anything other than myself for being the size I am, however. I don't cop out and blame my genes, my medication, or anything else you see on headlines in the check-out isle at the grocery store. I'm fat because I eat like shit, don't exercise enough. I know that once I cut my caloric intake and start walking, the pounds come off. I just need to get off my ass and do it again. It's all discipline.

mandingomeatsteak

Yeah my problem is I dont last longer than a week with diets. I have to take up a class which requires me to be able to dive and lift all kinds of weights and bring them up to surface by Dec. and i need to be in the best shape possible. I figure 40-50lbs loss will do it. May just do this reduced calorie thing.

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Jaymzx

Getting in the pool and hitting the press as much as possible will help just as much. If you're blasting your muscle groups every day or swimming laps every day, 1500 cals may be too little for you. If you go too low, your body will shutdown and will start storing as much as it can as opposed to burning. I learned this when I dipped to 1200 cals. I actually lost the most at around 2,000 cals. If your gym has a nutritionist talk to them about your goals. Bear in mind that they will probably tell you that losing more than 2lb a week is 'unhealthy'. I say that being 130 lbs overweight is far unhealthier than losing 4-5 lbs a week ya know?

mandingomeatsteak

Yeah, I'm roughly 220, 5'10. I was much smaller in 07' but started doing 10hrs a week at the gym + some supplement called Luekic. Made me blow up with mass, no real definition. I'd much rather be the way I was before

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