giving atkins a try

very interesting, i've also given atkins some thought, but wondered what it would do to my energy and running please update and let us know how it goes

Dont try Atkins. It is a low carb high protein diet. It will be harder for you to do the Training you want on the Atkins diet becuase you will have less energy gained from the carbs.

If you do the atkins diet you can say good bye to any success in running. I dont have time to really get into it, but I have my Bachelor's minor in nutition. The atkins diet is a very bad diet especially for an athlete. To sum it really quickly the atkins diet deplete's your immuine system and breaks down muscle.

What do you think would happen if I only stayed on the diet long enough to lose the weight (around 2 weeks I'm hoping) amd then got off of it? How does it break down muscle? I thought that I would be safe doing weights and stuff since protein is good for your muscles.

Eat Healthy, Drink Gallons of Water, Run, Cross train, Lift weights, cut back a few calories if needed but do not try the Atkins, south Beach, of whatever Fad is next.

If you want to tone up, shed a gew pounds and even help your running, try swimming laps 3 times a week. You will see great results. I gained 23 pounds over a 5 month period when I was was on Chemotherepy and swimming was the best way to get my overall body back in shape before I started running seriously again.

curvaceous cross country cutie wrote:

What do you think would happen if I only stayed on the diet long enough to lose the weight (around 2 weeks I'm hoping) amd then got off of it?

You'd balloon right back up to your current weight.

Atkins is a temporary solution, and that's it. Plus, as several posters have pointed out, it'll leave you with zero energy.

Basically it's the worst diet an athlete could be on, period. Please, for your sake, do not even attempt it.

Drink a lot of cold water in place of other drinks during the day. Watch your calories, and make sure you're burning more in a day than you're ingesting.

yo...there are not enough cute curvy xc chicks...keep the weight on!!! yum!

Be very wary of any restrictive diet especially if you are a distance runner or run high mileage. There are doctors that attribute the deaths of a number of very emaciated distance runners, who were doing high mileage and restricted their diets, to their diets. You need a well rounded diet. You can lose weight other ways. Listen to or read books by nutritionists who run. I was doing high and hard mileage under Hungarian coach Mihaly Igloi in the 1960s. I was about 133 pounds and yet one day he said that I needed to lose weight. I asked him what I should do and he said "Nothing". The very hard workouts got harder and longer. A few weeks later I was 125 pounds. Remember that you you need a well rounded diet. Get professional advice rather than restricting your diet.

why not just do your high intensity training and see the weight come off from that? if you restrict calories too much, you won't get any of the benefits of your training because you wont be able to rebuild muscle. i had the same problem summer after my freshman year and made the mistake of essentially cutting my calories in half to lose the weight. when i got back to school, i only changed my diet mildly and the workouts got really difficult. i dropped another 5 pounds in about 3 weeks and was racing really slowly, and having trouble even completing the workouts. now i eat about 2,800-3,000 calories a day (5'5"/120) and I'm a lot faster than I was then. if you weighed less pre-stress fracture, the weight will come back off from running alone. don't try to diet it off.

pic please

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I\'m a triathlete who logs some huge miles. When I\'m in a building phase and trying to chisle myself down to my \"playing weight\" (about 156 when I\'m in top shape, and hover around 161 regularly) I routinely go to a high protein/high fat diet. I can\'t do it if I\'m over 100 per week, but I don\'t have any problems if I\'m under 100. I especially like it if I\'m lifting quite a lot. You will have problems with energy on some days, but I think you\'ll find the weight coming off with few, if any side effects. A high-protein diet (I wouldn\'t follow Atkins to the letter, just cut out breads, sweet drinks and sweets and eat more meat/fish/beans) is not something you want to be on when your competing, but if your in a build stage it can really work well. Don\'t be a slave to Atkins or South Beach, and take in some carbs if you start to bonk. Atkins was designed for the truly obese, but if you cut back on carbs you will definitely see changes in the way your body regulates blood sugar - it\'s great for losing weight, but makes it tough to compete.

Get the weight off, then up your mileage and eat better. Make sure you lift if you go high protein. If you\\\'re 15 lbs overweight, then you are not an elite I\\\'m guessing, and you\'ll have a better chance of keeping fat off if you use the high-protein phase to build muscle.

You before your fracture, when you were training, with normal diet = 115 pounds.

You after fracture, not training, with normal diet = 129.

You after fracture heals, training, with Atkins diet = 115.

You after fracture heals, training, normal di ... wait a minute, just look up above, you've done this one before, how much do you think you will weigh?

dumbass

screw atkins! the guy freakin died of a heart attack. or a stroke. and he was fat too. try gaining an extra 20 lbs or whatever it takes till you're pleasantly plump. then you'll be a real curvaceous cutie! keep doing mileage, just eat more. you'll feel good about yourself as will everyone else (at least me anyway). running isn't forever. a bangin bod is though. :)

The atkins diet is idiotic. Don't do it. The bad parts of today's diets are simple sugar, like refined sugars such as sugar, high fructose corn syrup, and even white bread and regular pasta. These have no or low fiber and enter the blood stream at a rapid rate causing a very dramtic and wavy blood sugar level. Some other problems are hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated oils. These oils are in just about all packaged and prepared foods. Other problems are transfats found in hydrogenated oils and in cooked food and fried food. Other problems are saturated fats and cholesterol. Fast food contains all of this stuff. When you buy foods look for whole grain foods. Eat five servings of fresh fruit and vegetables a day. If you burn more calories then you consume you will lose weight. If you stick to a mostly vegatarian diet with lots of whole grains fruits and vegetables you may find that you can eat all you want and still lose weight as long as you maintain an active lifestyle, which it looks as though you are. I'm my own opinion I don't think you'll find running very fullfilling if you run to lose weight. Competitive running and running, I think, is a passion; a lifestyle. You should still consume protein, however. If you want to stear clear of meat products because of the fats and saturated fats they contain powdered soy protein makes a pretty good protein source. Boca Burgers also have a lot of protein, but there are two kinds of boca burgers. One type is small, more oily and has more fat and less protein. Wholesale stores usually sell the good boca burgers which are large, low fat and high in protein.

bob marley wrote:

If you do the atkins diet you can say good bye to any success in running. I dont have time to really get into it, but I have my Bachelor's minor in nutition. The atkins diet is a very bad diet especially for an athlete. To sum it really quickly the atkins diet deplete's your immuine system and breaks down muscle.

don't you mean nutrition!

NO has it right. The belief that high carb diets will cause weight gain is a myth. This only happens if you dont eat a lot of whole grains, and eat carbs like white bread, because of high sugar, etc. Choose a diet high in whole grains, fruits and vegetables

Thanks for all your help and advice. I've decided to not do Atkins from everything yall've said. Also, I realized that since I absolutely hate cheese that I would not be getting any calcium in my food. Since I have had a history of stress fractures, that would probably not be a good idea. So, I think I'm just going to eat mainly yogurt, salads, and raisin bran with skim milk. These are all healthy foods that I enjoy, and I realized that they are pretty much all I ate when I was in my 108 lb. best running shape. We'll see how that goes.

Dr.Atkins died from smashing his brains on the sidewalk.

I've dropped down from 160 pounds to 140 in the past year, eating pancakes with maple syrup and peanut butter for breakfast, either spaghetti or rice and beans every day for lunch, and dinner of whichever of spaghetti or rice and beans I didn't eat for lunch. I probably get about 90 % of my calories from carbs. How the heck did I lose 20 pounds? I stopped eating a dozen snacks every day. The only things I drink are water and coffee (about 2 cups of coffee and about a gallon of water every day). Its easy enough to maintain, I just eat cheap stuff that I like.