Atkins Review

Overall 2.97 of 5 view all 30 reviews

add to my favorites email to a friend view more Diet Reviews

estroud55
Marion, IL

It's not just a diet..it is lifestyle

A frequent snacker, try to eat healthy, not rich, a busy person, A realist, health conscious, almost always wishing for a lower weight, a lover of protein and fat

show all »

Pros

eat foods like bacon, supposedly you burn fat for energy, never hungry, weight says off, no calorie counting

NOV

2007

I would like to say that I have been on every diet imaginable since I was a teenager. I tried every new one that came out, every fad diet no matter how crazy, etc. Then one day I bought the Atkins book. I read it from cover to cover and decided to give it a try. I have never been real, real overweight. I usually just want to lose 20-30 lbs. And I would and then I would gain it all back. One thing the book said that was going to be hard for me was to give up caffeine. I generally drank 3 pots of coffee a day. One pot in the morning, one throughout the day, and one at night right up until I went to bed. Never kept me awake. Immune I guess. So, for some reason, I decided to start this diet on a Thursday which is a work day. I got up, had decaffeinated coffee, ate my eggs, bacon, etc. and went to work. By 10 a.m. I had the worst headache of my life. I could barely hold my head up. At first I didn't know why and then I knew it was the lack of caffeine. By time 4 p.m. rolled around I was done in. I went home, hit the couch, and was like a drug addict in withdrawal. I stayed there until the next morning when I had to go to work again. Same thing...went home that night, hit the couch, and felt so bad I couldn't hold my head up. I should have done this over a weekend when I wasn't having to go to work. But by Saturday night I was starting to feel better. Once the caffeine got out my system I felt like a new person in the mornings. But I still didn't have the energy that the book says you will have. And I did not lose weight quickly at first. It took almost 2 months for me to start losing and I never cheated one bit - at all. Once I started losing it came off rather quickly. I felt better, looked better and what I really love about the diet is that my husband and I eat out a lot and it is very adaptable. Now that I have been on it for over 3 years I cheat now and then. I eat more carbs than I used to and I never gain weight back. I will go up 5 lbs. at the most and then kind of watch it a bit and go right back down. It is the only diet that I have never gained the weight back. But you do change your whole way of eating. I rarely if ever, eat bread (except for low carb bread) and never eat potatoes or pasta. Every great now and then I eat the low carb pasta. I have always been a meat lover and this diet works for that. On all the other diets I have been on I just felt so deprived because of the small amounts you have to eat and the small amount of meat. With Atkins you can eat all you want of the things you can have. And that is what really works for me. Before the diet I had perfect cholesterol levels and all my friends said I wouldn't while on the diet. I went to the doctor and had it checked after almost a year on the diet it was just as good as it ever was so I don't believe it has had an adverse affect on my health - in fact just the opposite. Because I, too, take the vitamins that are recommended and I have had less colds, etc. since I have been on Atkins. And I promised myself never to get hooked on caffeine like I was before. When I realized how bad I felt coming off of it, I knew that was something that could not be good for you. Every now and then I will drink a regular cup of coffee if decaf is not available but it is rare. And since the Atkins diet is so well known, people do not look at me funny when I order sandwiches without the bread or bun, or substitute the potato for broccoli.