Some common misconceptions about Atkins

[kate58]

This board welcomes lots of newcomers to Atkins, specially around this time of year, and quite a few of them come with some misconceptions about this way of life. These are often a bit different to the critisims that are levied against it by the naysayers, but they can still cause people problems, act as a deterrent to their fully committing to the plan or confuse them about what they should be doing.

So I thought it might be a good idea to gather some of the more common ones together in a single thread and address them.

Here are five that I've seen come up quite often - have you more to add?

1. Atkins is a high protein diet

No, it isn't. It's a moderate protein diet. Most of your calories, certainly in the early stages, come from fat. Protein is metabolised in the body by a process called gluconeogenisis, which results in the production of glucose, and so eating protein excessively is almost as bad as eating too many carbs.

2. Three cups of lettuce a day is all the veg you need to eat on induction.

Nope again. That would be 3 carbs a day. Dr A clearly states that MOST of your carbs should come from nutritious and healthy vegetables. And you are allowed up to 20 carbs a day on induction - 3 carbs is a long way from most of 20.

On induction you should choose veg so that you get the maximum from them. Most people would recommend that you eat your cup of 'other veg' every day, and choose wisely from the list of salad veg so as to MAXIMISE your carbs. It's not a no carb diet, lettuce has basically nothing to offer except an opportunity to chew.

As you travel up OWL you get to add a lot of extra veg, quite a lot of extra veg. Even a quick preusal of this site will show that those who have been most successful and have had long term success eat LOADS of vegetables.

3. The fewer carbs the better.

Wrong, especially when it comes to carbs from veg. Actually I am increasingly thinking that controlled carb is a better description of this WOE than low carb. Becuase the further you take it the more of the food you eat - by volume - is carb based. You just need to get very picky about where those carbs come from. They won't be from white flour, sugar, rice or pasta, they will be from veg, dairy products and fruit.

All of these are nutritious foodstuffs that in addition to carbs are packed with minerals, vitamins, anti-oxidents and other nutrients that are good for you and which your body needs. Keeping your carbs unnecessarily low deprives you of the very real benefits of eating a lot of good food, deprives you of variety and flavour and won't do your long term chances of weight control any good at all.

4. All those fats cannot be good for you.

Not if you are eating it with a high carb, high sugar, junk-food laden diet they are not, but in a low carb way of eating fats are plain healthy. Read the book and understand why. It is the biggest critisism that will be hurled at you by those who don't understand this way of eating, so you owe it to yourself to educate yourself on this issue. If Dr A's book does not convince you, read Gary Taubes book "Good calories, bad calories" and it surely will.

5. Occasional cheats/breaks are ok, in fact they can help

This comes up over and over, with the theory that by cheating or by taking an occasional break from the plan, you then somehow shock your body when you restart and thus speed up your weight loss. It isn't true. While a fall, where you eat off plan for a time or eat something you should not have, is no reason to give up, thinking cheats are all right or that you can just take a break from time to time is a very different thing.

Those who have restarted several times will tell you that each time is harder than the last, not easier. What starts as a little cheat can end up as months of bad eating and considerable weight gain. This is a life time plan, fully taking that on board and deciding it is YOUR lifetime plan is important.




Any more.....???

[pamelainaustin]

I think that the whole "fat" thing is a misconception due to the fact that the human body needs fat to function properly and that there are many fats that are HEALTHY and GOOD for you. Additionally, fats of any kind cause satiety (feeling satisfied) in the diet which is why this WOE is so successful in eliminating hunger and why people on a "low fat" diet are hungry A LOT and do not usually succeed in weight loss.

Monounsaturated fats (found in olive oil, olives, avocados, fish, nuts etc.) are extremely healthy and will lower triglycerides and increase HDL levels which is GOOD for your heart. I personally eat from this list OFTEN (except the nuts since I am OWL Rung 1) since I am not a big fan of red meat and love all of these foods.

There are unhealthy fats, the worst of which are found in commercially prepared crap like chips, cookies and other baked/sweet snacks but none of these foods provide "jack" in terms of nutrition and are not essential to ANYONE'S diet. Junk like this is the MAJOR cause of epidemic obesity and the resulting health problems.

By eating a lot of fiber (like we do on Atkins) you are also sweeping excess fat and other crud out of your body which is good for your health.

Limiting carbs and choosing only HEALTHY carbs just makes sense. It stabilizes blood sugar and controls appetite. I think this is key to why this WOE is effective and why people who can "never" lose weight are successful doing Atkins. Myself included!!

[ValidRouge]

On the subject of fats. There is no proof that even saturated fats are bad for you. It's the combination of the saturated fats (butter, red meats, dairy products etc.) with CARBOHYDRATE that is bad. My cholesterol, blood pressure, blood sugar levels, triglycerides couldn't be BETTER and I eat saturated fat every single day.

I'll add my two cents to the low-carb/Atkins misconceptions.

LOW CARB JUNK FOOD IS STILL JUNK FOOD! The eating behaviors and patterns that got you fat eating carb laden junk food, will KEEP you fat if you continue to eat low carb junk food!! You may get lucky and lose a little bit in the beginning, but eating low carb sweets, candies, tortillas, condiments, etc. will just keep you fat.

[Pie4me]

On the fewer the carbs the better misconception........QUESTION

So a low carb intake has nothing to do with how much weight
you will loose?

I figured if you did not have a whole lot of weight to loose you
should try to limit your carb intake to loose faster.

Or would it just take longer to loose the weight if you weren't
strict about your carb consumption?

I'm confused.....

[jimmie 48]

Originally Posted by pie4me

I figured if you did not have a whole lot of weight to loose you
should try to limit your carb intake to loose faster.

faster does not equate to better.
if you don't have much weight to lose, you still need to start out with induction, for 2 weeks, then then go to OWL. while climbing the rungs, you are learning your CCLL and what it's going to take to keep the weight off for a life time.

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my dh and his boss were talking about diets the other day and the bossman told my husband "oh, that atkins diet... that'll kill you. all they eat is meat and butter. and
that ketostuff that those people do is bad for you."
what a misconception! he is confusing the ketosis and ketoacidosis for one thing. and eating just meat? only people who have never cracked the pages of the DANDR would make a statement such as that.