Atkins Diet Quick Hits: How fast should I lose?

In this Atkins Diet Quick Hits video deal the question “how quick did I lose the weight?” and “if you lost it slower, do you reckon loose skin would be less prevalent?” I responded that I averaged about 4.3 pounds per week during much of the weight loss phase, and over 3 pounds throughout the 15 months of the diet. I advised against intentionally slowing down the diet by overeating or eating when you aren’t hungry. I do HOWEVER recommend eating above one’s Basal Metabolic Rate to avoid starvation mode and crash dieting, such as water restriction. I have read a tale where the winner of the first Largest Loser gained 35 pounds of water within 3 days after their weigh-in due to lost water weight. Eat according to the plot and ~3-5x per day, and you should be fine. The whole point is to lose stout cells not muscle mass as much as possible. If you are worried about lost muscle mass, keep exercising and gauge your long term performance as a key indicator.

Atkins Diet Quick Hits: I Cheated, What do I do now?

In recognition that unfortunate events happen to many Atkins Dieters in which temptation or poor plotting caused terrible behavior, I made a video on what to do after one’s cheated. I intentionally did not address the plotted cheat days as those who plot for those days typically have a plot for afterwards as well. I am still very much a believer that it is realistic to not cheat on one’s diet if one is vigillant and accountable, but cheating does not have to be a death sentence to your weight loss. I separated the group of cheaters into two groups – those who failed to plot for a hard situation and simply have to get back on the wagon. They were in control and made the rational choice to hop off the diet. Their path back on the wagon is simply get the excess glucose and glycogen out of their system and resume the phase (IMO) where they were at. The group that succombed to cravings I thought about differently. These are more often less rational decisions and more often spur of the moment decisions. With these situations, I would encourage the person to examine what happened and how to prevent it from happening again, eg progress to OWL phase, diversions to the temptation, etc. I might encourage another 14 day Induction cycle if you feel out of control of your eating. I say this only because I want you guys to get to goal and stay there. This isn’t a race to goal. It’s a marathon or a journey, and I had to learn a lot of things along the way as well. I hope this helps …

Atkins Diet Quick Hits – How long to do Induction?

I produced another Atkins Diet Quick Hits videos. In this one, I deal with question of how long to stay on Induction and what the warning signs to progress to the Ongoing Weight Loss Phase. I normally get this question from those with lots to lose or those people who become carb phobic. My response normally goes – you can stay on Induction for a really long time, but you should progress to OWL when you hit one of the warning conditions. Here are the warning signs: 1. poor exercise performance, prolonged fatigue, or tiredness 2. Blood work comes back out of whack – One of mine came back borderline for globulin, the doc recommended I start eating nuts. I had it rechecked shortly thereafter, and it was fine. 3. Boredom with the food choices. For additional information: www.atkinsdietbulletinboard.com