Journal Chacham's Journal: Rant: Atkinizens are nearly as crazy as Evolutionists 7
Wow! The amount of people going on the new low-carbohydrate fad is amazing. Hopefully, they will all be successful and lose weight. Fads can be good now and then.
The best part of it is arguing with its ardent supporters. They refuse to listen to facts that don't seem to help their cause. For example, a high-carbohydrate diet generally ends in the dieter consuming a lesser amount of calories. People argue back and forth, though anyone who has tried it knows it. Since the body can only store a certain amount of carbohydrates, plus carbohydrates add to the feeling of satiation (not a "stuffed" feeling, rather, a "not hungry" one). if a person was to eat too many carbohydrates one day, and the next day he will inevitably eat less. The USDA has a small study of the lower-calorie aspect here.
Now, the intelligent Atkinizen will admit to this, but point out how that is not a factor. Well, i have yet to meet such a person.
Personally, i love carbohydrates. Matzoh (cracker made of *only* flour and water) tastes sweet to me. If it's thin and slightly burnt, i'm in heaven. I can eat one-fourth to half a loaf of bread at a meal (one-pound rye for example). Though, if it isn't white bread, i'd want some fatty spread on it.
For me, a diet is simple. No gimmicks. Lower intake, and/or increase outtake. When advocating this to Atkinizens they start babbling about the body resisting it. They fail to realize that if intake is decreased or outake is increased, the body cannot possibly produce the same amount of energy without going into the fat stores. They claim disbeleif, and this is about how far i get.
I understand why Atkinizens like their diet. Good, go for it. If it works, use it. But why must they bash the most logical diet of all. The one that will always work. Either expend more claories, or take in less calories. I challenged one such dieter to one-hundred dollars if it didn't work for him (he claims it won't). He almost took me seriously. I hope he does (if his current diet fails).
Bah. Just like the Evolutionists. Evolution *must* be true, so nothing else is. Yeah, there are those who think for themselves, and accept evolution as a possibility, or better put, as a methodology for further study, but they aren't the crazies. And they sure don't exist on solidus full-stop.
Well, Atkins diet's will be out within two years (popularity will be gone by the end of 2004, and the large groups will disappear in 2005). Then, it'll just be a diet that one can try if they'd like (like it was a few years ago) yet not given any godly status.
spam (Score:2)
My take... (Score:3, Insightful)
I know I was getting a bit plump. I tried basic dieting and just did not seem to see any real results. Granted, I was traveling almost 100%, which makes it a bit rougher - but the short of it is I had let myself go. 6', 200lbs... I was wearing 35 waist dress slacks and loose fit 34 jeans - and those were a pretty tight squeeze in the end. (/terrible joke) Many of the folks in our EMEA office did the Atkins thing this summer, with a fair amount of success. I did a bit of homework and gave it a whirl, figuring I would try to loose my gut.
The difference was phenomenal - I'm sitting between 167-170lbs right now and actually built a little muscle mass along the way. The no-carb thing is the perfect block's diet - meat and hard liquor were OK, portions did not matter, and exercise was not really required. Initially, I did eat lots of steak, egg, and mushrooms - but what happened was even more gradual... I paid attention to what I was eating and what was in the food I ate. Most pre packaged snacks would not qualify, nor fast-food or holiday goodies. Had to take over cooking for the most part. In short, without having to deal with 'hunger', I was able to shift into good habits.
Most things worth eating have carbs. I'll give you no/low carb food lacks that 'rush'. My problem is I did not eat less the next day - even if I ate too many the day before. Go figure. On the same note, I won't even touch Evercrack... Anyhow, I'm in the process of phasing carbs back into my system. I used urinalysis strips to measure ketone levels to try and stay in medium ketosis for two months. Now I'm trying to hang on the edge of ketosis for the next month. Off to France for a few weeks in February, so I plan to be on a conventional calorie diet by then. British cuisine was not as great of motivator. (grin)
I've seen the Atkins food, but I'm not sure why someone doing this diet would use it. It is ludicrously expensive, and those 'low' carbs add up in a hurry. Great gig for the grocery stores, however.
Anyhow, it is extremely effective mechanism for shedding fat. Working out three or four days a week, I doubt I could burn more than three or four hundred calories a session - and for me, that was a lot of work (compared to pushing code at my day job). At 3,500 calories per pound of fat working out alone is a lousy way to trim the gut. Cutting calories on top of working out is really rough way to do it. For maintaining weight, and just better health - eating right and working out are great ideas.
The biggest downfall doing carb free and then jumping right into the old cycle of eating and burning calories that caused the diet to start with. The fat comes back as fast as it goes.
Anyhow, my take on it.
Rember... (Score:2)
I'm not using Atkins but I do take in fewer carbs (Score:2)
The thing about Atkins is that it's doomed to fail because it's not a diet that can be kept for the long-term. Many studies have shown that people DO experience a good deal of weight loss, but it all comes back b
Re:I'm not using Atkins but I do take in fewer car (Score:2)
The books do say how to acclimate the body slowly. So, that issue is dealt with. But, you are correct, if someone just jumps back, they'll gain a great deal.
no white rice
Whole wheat flour i can handle, but no white rice? White rice is one of my favorite foods!
Re:I'm not using Atkins but I do take in fewer car (Score:2)
Re:I'm not using Atkins but I do take in fewer car (Score:2)