Need Some Opinions/Experiences in Regards to Atkins

I've been following atkins for a month now (I had to change up my diet to jumpstart weight loss), and I find that it works really well.  What my plan is, is to lose about 100-110 more lbs and then slowly incorporate more carbs so that I can eat normal and not be strictly on atkins ( and by normal I don't mean the junk or the calorie amount I at before)  I have been doing a lot of researching and I find people who say you will gain back all your weight and more when you go off atkins and others who say that incorporating carbs slowly back in and maintaining a healthier lifestyle will prevent you from gaining all your weight back.  Here's my issue: for any kind of diet, especially a more restrictive one, everybody always says once you go off the diet you'll gain all the weight back; and I'm thinking yeah maybe 10-20lbs, especially with adding carbs back in and how they retain water, but is it seriously true that you could gain over 100lbs back by just incorporating carbs yet still eating healthy and exercising?  I don't understand how people could believe that because to me that's crazy.  Yeah if I went off and started eating tons of cookies and icecream and bread etc therefore consuming thousands of calories again I could see why you would gain all the weight back, but just adding in carbs will bring back 100 plus pounds?  I would love opinions and experiences if anyone has any to share, I just want to understand and I don't want to freak out over stuff I shouldn't really be worrying about.

 

Thanks :)

you should be able to go off atkins if you watch your cal and say on your plan , measure and track all food

 don't know what surgery you had or when , but if you eat crap you will gain weigh if you eat good healthy food in proper amounts

 you should keep the weight off

I could be wrong about this, but I think the main problem of regain after losing so much is portion control.  For people who have had WL surgery the portion control aspect is already there via restriction, but in your case you would have to find a way to do that.  It all comes down to the numbers, ultimately, and also possibly to the types of carbs you would be adding into your daily intake.

Even with portion control in place, postops can still regain if they start eating more slider foods and less of the dense, lean proteins and plan-friendly vegetables that got them to maintenance in the first place.  That happens to many postops even before they hit maintenance ... that creeping in of "treats" and such.  I have only a vague idea of how a true Atkins eating plan runs, but I would imagine that there is lots of dense, lean protein in your daily plan and little or no carb intake (especially slider carbs like pasta, rice, sweets, etc.).  You would want to keep that going and tread cautiously in the realm of carbs.

I would also say that it will be very important to continue to plan your food and beverages for the day and to log everything you eat or drink, as you probably are doing now.  I know I will be doing that for the rest of my life even after I hit maintenance so that I can see where I'm going wrong if I start to regain significantly.  Vigilance, vigilance, vigilance. 

Keep up the great work, btw!!

 

I think most people go off Atkins and then just start eating bad carbs and processed junk foods and that can cause rapid weight gain after a long period of restricting these foods.  My ultimate goal is to live a lower carb lifestyle. So definitely not a strict Atkins diet but not a diet where I would regularly eat sandwiches or carbs.  I just feel better, look better and my body responds really well to eating protein, veggies, dairy, and healthy fats.  I am strict with carbs doing my weight loss phase but want to add back some fruit or occasional healthy carbs to my maintenance diet. 

Good luck!

Some people have a severely limited tolerance of carbohydrates. This is what causes them to gain huge amounts of weight to begin with. Once they start eating carbohydrate it becomes like an addiction where they just can't stop. There is actual hormone imbalances that cause this. Leptin specifically is the hormone that tells your brain that you can stop eating when you have had enough food. When people with carbohydrate intolerances eat over a certain number of carbs their brain stops recognizing the Leptin signals telling them that they can stop. There is a lot of information on the internet about this. Pretty much everyone who is Super Morbidly Obese (SMO) and most Morbidly Obese people have this problem - that is how they got that big to begin with.

Check out the youtube video called "Sugar: The Bitter Truth" Or the book "Why we get fat" by Gary Taubes

Here's the deal - once you have lost all your excess weight from being on Atkins you can (very slowly) start adding carbohydrates back in to your diet. During this time you have to keep a careful eye on the scale. As soon as you seen that you start gaining weight back than you go back to the carbohydrate level you were at previously and you will know that where you need to stay on order to maintain your weight. Also - you want to make sure that the carbohydrate that you DO ingest are the most close to nature as possible, ie: Vegetables and a little fruit

 

My experience is that I am triggered by carbs, so when I went off atkins and started eating carbs again, I lost control and ate a lot and gained all my weight loss back. 

My sleeve has really helped me losing weight, but I keep my carbs really low ( under 20 grams per day).  I am losing weight at a decent rate, but I don't know what would happen if I ate carbs again.  I am really terrified that I'll lose control and gain the weight back again, so I am going to stay as low carb as I can for as long as I can. 

Have you had weight loss surgery yet?  It really helps with both losing weight and maintaining the loss.

best wishes,

Crol

Thanks for all the great replies :)  No I didn't have the surgery, couldn't afford it and I'm afraid of going under the knife.  I had been eating healthy, but I came to a plateau and switched to atkins and it works really well.  See I think the problem I have with finding the specific info I am looking for online, is because of a lot of what you guys said; most people go off and it triggers carb cravings, or they start grazing and adding in treats and the pounds creep back on.  The one really good thing I have going for me is my willpower, at least for the last 6 1/2 months, so when I try to search online, would I gain if I added in carbs but still lived a healthy lifestyle I couldn't find any information.  It just seemed crazy to me that people would think you could gain over a hundred pounds with maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

In my case I am a big supporter of the Atkins plan. The real plan not the BS some people Interpret it as. At one point I leveraged the plan and exercised like crazy lost 120-130 lbs. the problem on my end was I never changed my lifestyle including my way of eating. At that time a simple fall off the wagon and I stopped working out and went back to my old habits. Gained it all back plus another 100 lbs. none of this was because of the Atkins plan, but rather what I did.

Now after WLS and being successful I basically follow a plan which is very much Atkins low fat version and low calorie. The difference is that I have changed my way of eating and I have a few tools from WLS to help.

It's not going off that will hurt you it's not getting back on the plan in my opinion.

Everyone has provided good advice!!

Im not low fat, but definitely low carb. I agree with what you've said, our healthy plans and our healthy tools dont fail, if I am being honest it would be something that I did.  I love the low carb way-of-eating, the combination of VSG and low carb are a win-win for me.

The added bonus is being even keel mentally and emotionally - most of the time.  I dont have the crazy spikes in hunger or mood swings that I used to, and noticed this benefit when I was doing Atkins pre-surgery.  It really helped me chemically somehow, and though my hunger was still off the charts pre-surgery, it was nothing like it had been pre low-carb/Atkins.  There are many benefits to a low carb lifestyle that I am grateful for every day.

I had Gastric bypass. I lost 110 lbs and then put back on 20.. (still looks good on me - my lowest was to low..) 

I am on maintenance, to be able to maintain - I need to eat relatively low carbs, and most carbs comes from nuts, veggies, dairy and some low sugar fruits,,, 

I don't exercise much, just too busy with life, but I walk at least 7-10,000 steps a day for an average of 4-5 miles a day. 

Low carb diet keeps me not very hungry and allows me to make good choices when I eat.. I do eat every 2-3 hrs... when I don't - I tent to grab the quick fix foods (not best decision) and eat too fast and sometimes too much. 

I watch my diet, scale and my clothes ... if one of them gets out of hand (clothes getting too tight) I know i need more exercise... 

strong will - I had that... healthy food - I ate that - too much I guess.. 

But every time I try to increase my carbs to more than 50 net per day - I start gaining weight even if I eat the same calories per day.. . I still eat mostly all natural foods, very little processed, and stay away from sugar, gluten and starches (they make me sick) But too many fruits - and I start gaining...