Atkins Scares Me A Bit….
Low carb used to scare me because I didn’t understand it.
When I joined a group of folks doing a guided home-based ER Fat Burn program I was afraid I couldn’t follow the food plan. It was based on eating low-carb using the basic foods from Atkins and Gary Taubes book. Good Calories - Bad Calories.
I’ve known people who have done Atkins, lost 40+ pounds eating pork rinds and pork chops and mayo and real butter with almost no vegetables. Their cholesterol shot up, and their skin looked gray, it was thin and kind of the color of cardboard. Or pork rinds.
The weight didn’t stay off for long, they gained it all back and quite a bit more, as I was afraid they would.
But, I felt this would be different, because Dr. Heid would be guiding and suporting us along the way.
Does Atkins scare you like it did me? Let me respond to both the gaining back and the cholesterol.
Atkins’s personal work (he was an MD - a cardiologist) showed that bad cholesterol went down on his low carb diet. He encouraged people to measure their cholesterol before starting so they could see for themselves.
Important note, that was 30 years ago. A difference today is in the quality of the meats and fats people are eating with low carb diets like Atkins (and all everyday foods.)
Feedlot livestock is full of antibiotics and hormones, not to forget they’re often mistreated and sick. They’re force-fed grain and soy. But their digestive systems are designed for grass.
It may be that eating these feedlot meats, eggs and fats exclusively, as most Americans do, can indeed contribute to high bad cholesterol. With or without Atkins. See Omnivore’s Dilemma here.
1) only 100% grassfed beef
2) pastured chickens and eggs (see mini egg video here), and
3) only non-damaged fats and oils.
But to his surprise, his bad cholesterol went down during and after ER FB. So did his blood sugar, which is now in the normal range (90-110) for the first time in 30 years, he said. Plus he lost 15 pounds in 6 weeks and has kept it off.Dr. Frech had been on low carb for years and never lost weight before ER Fat Burn. Plus he was always hungry. Not anymore. We suspect his results are due in part to the ER quality of the protein, fats and oils he ate.
If a person goes back to the eating habits that made them overweight in the first place, what should we expect - except weight gain again.
What’s been surprising to the ER FB participants is that the biggest weight losers have not gained anything back. One gal has now dropped 38 pounds and is still losing.
A computer programmer lost 20 pounds in 6 weeks, and five more since. As a programmer, he sits all day. And a month later, he has kept it all off.
Hope that helps anyone who has the two concerns I did.
Mail this post