After being stuck at the same weight for more than year, my desperation was reaching new heights - I was willing to try anything and then I chanced upon Atkins Diet (www.atkins.com). This was the first of many low carbohydrate diets that I have encountered in the last decade. This ofcourse is so low carb that one can even call it "no carb" diet. The good part is that there is no calorie counting - you can eat as much meat and fat as you want. After 3 years of trying different low calorie diets, this diet seemed tailor made for me.
Atkins diet starts with a 14 day induction, that you can extend to even a few months if you have lots of weight to lose. The induction is the toughest part of Atkins. Your day starts with eggs and meat, continues with meat and ends with meat. Carbs are restricted to such an extent that even lemon juice, balsamic vinegar, cheese, eggs and sea food are allowed only in limited quantities. And ofcourse no sugar, no fruits, no bread, no rice, no milk, no vegetables (except the boring ones allowed as part of diet and that too restricted to two cups uncooked). In addition, coffee is also banned as it causes sugar cravings and so are sweeteners as they for some reason interfere with weight loss (especially aspartame) Basically for 2 weeks your taste buds wont get to taste anything sweet. The science behind the diet is to get the body into ketosis stage where it burns ketones (supplied by high protein diet) and fat for energy. It takes atleast 14 days of no carbs to get to this stage.
I started the 14 day induction program and then I realized how difficult it was! First day you are kind of okay as there is some still sugar in the body, second day the sugar withdrawal symptoms kick in and by third day you are willing to climb walls for coffee and carbs. However, come fourth day (assuming you didn't cheat first 3 days) your cravings start to die down and you are full of energy. For the 14 days, I followed the diet religiously - I lost 7 pounds and lots of inches from my waist and hips. After 2 weeks when I had a cappuccino at a local cafe, to me it felt like the best coffee in the world :)
I found it tough to maintain the low carb factor of the diet beyond 14 days as we Indians don't like the meat grilled, we prefer it with spices and curry. The latter has onions and tomatoes and that takes the carb count beyond what is allowed in the diet and the diet stops working. In addition, the high protein diet resulted in bad taste in mouth and my sweat developed a horrible smell (ketones I guess) - so, I decided to intersperse Atkins with GM Diet.
For the uninitiated, GM Diet is also known as Cabbage Soup diet - it is a 7 day diet where you eat one kind of food each day of week. First day is cleanse - so only low calorie fruits like melons, papaya (no banana, mango etc). Second day you eat veggies (boiled or with very little fat). Third day low calorie fruits and veggies both are allowed. Fourth day milk and bananas. Fifth day meat and tomatoes. Sixth Day meat and veggies and last day veggies, fruit juice and brown rice. If followed 100%, you can lose 4-6 pounds in one week. (some of it being water weight). If you are interested in doing it (its a great cleansing diet) you can get detailed plan on www.gmdietworks.com
I didn’t lose much on GM diet as I had already lost water weight on Atkins but it made it easier for me to do Atkins for another 2-3 weeks. I lost another 7 pounds and finally left obese zone for first time in 5 years and then I lost the motivation to stick to it and went back to normal diet. However, I upped my exercise to make up for this lack of "dieting", I also started running and started working on my fitness levels.
This crazy diet phase made me realize that while these difficult diets always yield results in short term, they would, more often than not, fail in long term because its not easy to give up on any one element of food for life.
Atkins diet starts with a 14 day induction, that you can extend to even a few months if you have lots of weight to lose. The induction is the toughest part of Atkins. Your day starts with eggs and meat, continues with meat and ends with meat. Carbs are restricted to such an extent that even lemon juice, balsamic vinegar, cheese, eggs and sea food are allowed only in limited quantities. And ofcourse no sugar, no fruits, no bread, no rice, no milk, no vegetables (except the boring ones allowed as part of diet and that too restricted to two cups uncooked). In addition, coffee is also banned as it causes sugar cravings and so are sweeteners as they for some reason interfere with weight loss (especially aspartame) Basically for 2 weeks your taste buds wont get to taste anything sweet. The science behind the diet is to get the body into ketosis stage where it burns ketones (supplied by high protein diet) and fat for energy. It takes atleast 14 days of no carbs to get to this stage.
I started the 14 day induction program and then I realized how difficult it was! First day you are kind of okay as there is some still sugar in the body, second day the sugar withdrawal symptoms kick in and by third day you are willing to climb walls for coffee and carbs. However, come fourth day (assuming you didn't cheat first 3 days) your cravings start to die down and you are full of energy. For the 14 days, I followed the diet religiously - I lost 7 pounds and lots of inches from my waist and hips. After 2 weeks when I had a cappuccino at a local cafe, to me it felt like the best coffee in the world :)
I found it tough to maintain the low carb factor of the diet beyond 14 days as we Indians don't like the meat grilled, we prefer it with spices and curry. The latter has onions and tomatoes and that takes the carb count beyond what is allowed in the diet and the diet stops working. In addition, the high protein diet resulted in bad taste in mouth and my sweat developed a horrible smell (ketones I guess) - so, I decided to intersperse Atkins with GM Diet.
For the uninitiated, GM Diet is also known as Cabbage Soup diet - it is a 7 day diet where you eat one kind of food each day of week. First day is cleanse - so only low calorie fruits like melons, papaya (no banana, mango etc). Second day you eat veggies (boiled or with very little fat). Third day low calorie fruits and veggies both are allowed. Fourth day milk and bananas. Fifth day meat and tomatoes. Sixth Day meat and veggies and last day veggies, fruit juice and brown rice. If followed 100%, you can lose 4-6 pounds in one week. (some of it being water weight). If you are interested in doing it (its a great cleansing diet) you can get detailed plan on www.gmdietworks.com
I didn’t lose much on GM diet as I had already lost water weight on Atkins but it made it easier for me to do Atkins for another 2-3 weeks. I lost another 7 pounds and finally left obese zone for first time in 5 years and then I lost the motivation to stick to it and went back to normal diet. However, I upped my exercise to make up for this lack of "dieting", I also started running and started working on my fitness levels.
This crazy diet phase made me realize that while these difficult diets always yield results in short term, they would, more often than not, fail in long term because its not easy to give up on any one element of food for life.
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