Why is Atkins coming back?

[RaikuFA]

Last week I saw a commercial where Sharon Osbourne was promoting the diet. Now I'm seeing foods that are "Atkins friendly". Plus my mom keeps on bothering me to do this diet.

What the fuck? I thought this diet was classified as a bunch of hooplah? Seriously, it promotes you to eat bacon yet can't have an apple.

 

[Jarek Mace]

I'm 6.1ft and weigh 9.5 stone and I'm on that diet!

Well... kinda... I mean, I can't remember when I last ate fruit and my meat to veg ratio is somewhere along the lines of 3:1 so I suppose that's sorta like the Atkins diet I suppose?

 

[Darken12]

Actually, the Atkins diet is kinda dangerous, since it ironically mimics the effects of decompensated diabetes (ketoacidosis). If you're a healthy person, you can have a compensated ketoacidosis without any major ill effects, though combining that with excessive and intense exercise (which leads to lactoacidosis) might strain your body's bicarbonate buffer and hyperventilation capacities. Again, if you're a young, healthy person, it's probably nothing to worry about, but it has "disaster" written all over it if you have any underlying conditions.

Also it's a really awful way to lose weight in the long term, as all diets are. You're not supposed to diet to lose weight, you're supposed to change your whole lifestyle and nutrition. Any weight you lose dieting is going to come right back soon after you stop.

 

[ohnoitsabear]

The thing with Atkins is that you will probably lose weight on it. The problem is, cutting out almost all of your carbohydrate intake is probably the worst long-term weight loss plan. For one, it has the problem of virtually all diets in that once you go off of the diet, you're probably going to gain all of the weight you lost right back. Cutting out carbs has the added problem of making your body crave carbs, making it much harder to keep on the diet, and you'll probably eat way more carbs than you should once you go off the diet.

If you want long-term weight loss, you need a permanent lifestyle change, not a short-term diet. And making that lifestyle change is very hard, which is the biggest reason that I don't criticize people for being overweight.

Also, my understanding is that rapidly losing and gaining weight (which will probably happen if you frequently go on and off diets) is worse for you than if you had just kept the weight on. I might be wrong, though.

 

[Melon Hunter]

Well, everything goes in cycles... makes sense we'd eventually exhaust all the possible fad diet permutations and go back to one of the original fad diets! I'd imagine it's probably been altered slightly from the original Atkins diet, if only so it can have the caveat that all the flaws with the original diet have been ironed out.

It's an odd trend, but one that repeats time and again. Someone famous or a well-known media outlet recommends something as healthy or weight-reducing (bonus points if you're able to do whatever you want some of the time), and enough people take it at face value to give it momentum. More people try to cash in, and you have your new fad diet/exercise plan. This tends to ramp up in January (for the New Year's Resolutions people), and in the spring (for those who want to be able to wear only a bikini/pair of swimming trunks at the beach in the summer without feeling self-conscious), and they never work out, unless, as other users have pointed out, you change your entire lifestyle to support your new weight. Although, quite depressingly, most fad diets tend to get popular on the back of 'hey, for X days a week you can eat what you like!' Which is really the opposite of the attitude you want to be cultivating here.

 

[The Artificially Prolonged]

Because there are only so many fad diets out there that eventually it comes full circle and they return to become the latest fad diet again. Why it keeps happening? I guess some people would rather believe there is a miracle cure for being overweight that will excuse them from having to put in the real effort to lose that weight, namely eat better, exercise and fundamentally change their life style.

 

[BoredAussieGamer]

I remember David Mitchell's rant about the atkins diet:


And I think to myself, that's a god-damn excellent question you have there.

 

[Raddra]

Don't I remember news of people dying on this diet?

At any rate most weight issues are caused by lack of exercise in this modern world of ours, we spend so much of our time sat behind desks or leisurely strolling that's where the problem is. Most people who jump at diet fads in my experience have been people who just can't be bothered doing proper exercise. Even ten minutes a day can do wonders for your body.

 

[somonels]

I'm pretty sure knowledge of any kind of dietry is harmful to your health. The only thing you need to know is to buy as little premade stuff as possible.

I must go now, my potatoes need me.

 

[Guffe]

I have no idea of any diets except for "karppaus" (karping/carping??)
I have no diet, I need no diet and I don't care about any diet.

 

[thiosk]

All fad diets will come and go.

Atkins is going to stick around for a while, because disgusting though it is (I know a guy who drinks a raw egg blended with a cup of half and half for lunch, skinny as all get out) it does work.

I think theres also a difference between the atkins diet and some of the more extreme zero carb forms- atkins, as I understood it, still wants you to eat a bit of lettuce to keep the digestive system, well, moving, if you catch my drift. Or rather, catch my ooze, which is more appropriate to describe the situation where you eat nothing but meat and protein.

 

[Neverhoodian]

Wait, it's making a comeback already?

Oh well, at least it give me the excuse to trot out Foamy's rant about it.

WARNING: NSFW language.

 

[lechat]

damn so much misinformation in this thread and since i don't feel like writing a wall of text that noone will pay attention to i'll just say:
read this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_research_related_to_low-carbohydrate_diets
watch this (warning long movie)

i done a 3 month trial of a zero carb diet and while i was not impressed with the results myself i doubt it was really designed for ppl who exercise 4-12 hours a day and generally eat right. i do however see the benefit of it for those who struggle a little more with their weight management and take offense to those who spout bullshit because they seen some thing on oprah saying it was evil or remember 5 minuets of their health class and thus know fat is bad and fruit is good.

again don't feel like wall'O texting so:

PROS
you lose body fat quite fast
bacon
blood tests showed all positive improvements except for a slight (average) increase in LDL which was accompanied by huge increase in HDL
near normal bowel function

CONS
lack of long term energy
lack of cupcakes
arguably harder than eating right and exercising
poor muscle growth
impossible to look cool when you tell your friends you can't have a beer cause you are low carb'n

 

[Fluffythepoo]

The 19 day diet is a new diet that is going viral. Its carbless, so all carbless diets would be making a comeback. So this is all the 19 day diet's fault.

 

[bluepilot]

I have a medical condition where I have to eat low-carb and yes, it does keep your thin, but oh god I really really want a bacon sandwich.

Sugar has been outed as the new fat so the low-carb diets have made a comeback.

I do not think that a low-carb diet is the best solution for long-term weight loss and it can damage your kidneys and liver and leaves you prone to stomach ulcers.

 

[x EvilErmine x]

The Atkins diet is fucking ridiculous.

Why?

Because see that all that weight you are loosing? Well that's not really fat, it's water and you loose it because of the way the body burns protein. You will put it all back on when you stop the 'diet'. Basically Atkins tricks your body into starvation mode. This produces all kinds of ketone's and aldehydes as a bi-product which can strain the liver and kidneys, not to mention that the high fat intake wont do your heart any good at all.

Look loosing weight is not complicated. Eat smaller portions of a nutritionally well balanced meals and get your ass down to the gym.

The equation is very simple:

Calories expended > Calories consumed = Weight loss

 

[dmase]

Because everyone wants to get skinny without doing the hard work associated with exercise and diet. And the Atkins diet pretty much promises that.

Interesting fact the diet is being studied for use in treating epilepsy.

 

[wooty]

If other people want to do these fad diets then let them. I'm hardly in a position to criticize seeing as my diet for the last few days has consisted of breakfast cereals, mugs of tea and beer. Then again, it is my week off so I feel entitled to eat shit for the duration of it.

 

[LetalisK]

I've always thought Atkins, and diets in general, were a great example of how our society always seems to want to get something with as little work as possible. Why are people so scared of exercise?

 

[Something Amyss]

Actually, the Atkins diet is kinda dangerous, since it ironically mimics the effects of decompensated diabetes (ketoacidosis). If you're a healthy person, you can have a compensated ketoacidosis without any major ill effects, though combining that with excessive and intense exercise (which leads to lactoacidosis) might strain your body's bicarbonate buffer and hyperventilation capacities. Again, if you're a young, healthy person, it's probably nothing to worry about, but it has "disaster" written all over it if you have any underlying conditions.

Also it's a really awful way to lose weight in the long term, as all diets are. You're not supposed to diet to lose weight, you're supposed to change your whole lifestyle and nutrition. Any weight you lose dieting is going to come right back soon after you stop.

I've noticed that a lot of people end up with cholesterol through the roof and the like, too.