There's No 'After' With Low-Carb Living
It's always funny to hear how people who watched me lose weight two years ago question me about what I am doing now to keep my weight off. While some of them realize I am still livin' la vida low-carb and will be for the rest of my life, there are others who wonder what I am doing now "after" being on the low-carb diet to keep it off.
For the life of me, I can't seem to grasp why I would ever abandon this way of eating that has produced such incredible weight loss results just because the weight loss phase is completed. If it helped me lose those 180 pounds, then surely the Atkins diet can help me KEEP IT OFF for good, right? Why wouldn't I keep eating this way forever?
Oh, but the supposed dangers of long-term low-carb dieting is the great mystery of our generation and I suppose you'll have to consider me and the millions of others who have decided to eat this way permanently to control our weight the first generation guinea pigs to prove the safety and effectiveness of livin' la vida low-carb. I'm proud to be a pioneer on the frontline of this debate because the very future of civilization could rest upon it!
The old saying "if it ain't broke, then don't fix it" certainly applies to livin' la vida low-carb for me. Before I started eating this way, I didn't have a clue what eating healthy was about. All I knew was the low-fat diet was heavily pushed as the best way to lose weight, but I don't know anyone who can stand to eat that way for the rest of their lives! That's why it is so amazing when I began the low-carb lifestyle how free I felt to eat with such pleasure and yet still doing my body a lot of good.
Once the weight loss was over, I didn't even think about the "after" part of low-carb because I quickly realized there's no "after" with low-carb living! If I'm not supposed to eat low-carb for the rest of my life to keep my weight off, then how the heck am I supposed to eat? AND DON'T YOU DARE SAY LOW-FAT, LOW-CALORIE, OR PORTION-CONTROL DIETS!
If you don't mind, I think I'll stick with livin' la vida low-carb forever and ever amen. It's worked for me so far and it'll keep on working for me for the rest of my life. What should you do "after" low-carb? JUST KEEP ON LIVIN' LA VIDA LOW-CARB, BABY!
7-14-06 UPDATE: Fellow low-carb blogger and huge weight loss success Kent Altena blogged about this issue today during a recent visit his wife had to her doctor. Can anyone legitimately explain why I should ever get off my low-carb lifestyle...EVER?!
For the life of me, I can't seem to grasp why I would ever abandon this way of eating that has produced such incredible weight loss results just because the weight loss phase is completed. If it helped me lose those 180 pounds, then surely the Atkins diet can help me KEEP IT OFF for good, right? Why wouldn't I keep eating this way forever?
Oh, but the supposed dangers of long-term low-carb dieting is the great mystery of our generation and I suppose you'll have to consider me and the millions of others who have decided to eat this way permanently to control our weight the first generation guinea pigs to prove the safety and effectiveness of livin' la vida low-carb. I'm proud to be a pioneer on the frontline of this debate because the very future of civilization could rest upon it!
The old saying "if it ain't broke, then don't fix it" certainly applies to livin' la vida low-carb for me. Before I started eating this way, I didn't have a clue what eating healthy was about. All I knew was the low-fat diet was heavily pushed as the best way to lose weight, but I don't know anyone who can stand to eat that way for the rest of their lives! That's why it is so amazing when I began the low-carb lifestyle how free I felt to eat with such pleasure and yet still doing my body a lot of good.
Once the weight loss was over, I didn't even think about the "after" part of low-carb because I quickly realized there's no "after" with low-carb living! If I'm not supposed to eat low-carb for the rest of my life to keep my weight off, then how the heck am I supposed to eat? AND DON'T YOU DARE SAY LOW-FAT, LOW-CALORIE, OR PORTION-CONTROL DIETS!
If you don't mind, I think I'll stick with livin' la vida low-carb forever and ever amen. It's worked for me so far and it'll keep on working for me for the rest of my life. What should you do "after" low-carb? JUST KEEP ON LIVIN' LA VIDA LOW-CARB, BABY!
7-14-06 UPDATE: Fellow low-carb blogger and huge weight loss success Kent Altena blogged about this issue today during a recent visit his wife had to her doctor. Can anyone legitimately explain why I should ever get off my low-carb lifestyle...EVER?!
Labels: diet, low-carb, low-fat, success, weight loss, weight maintenance
posted by Jimmy Moore at
7/13/2006 09:42:00 PM
3 Comments:
I'm with you. Every time I go off plan (I am currently off plan for 5 whole days - EEK! - for a glucose tolerance test) I feel so much worse. Tired, run down, just blah. Why would I want to feel like this all the time.
While I am enjoying my vacation from the diet - it is just that, a vacation, and with a very specific purpose - GTT is a blood test that must be done with a body that is carb adapted, and that takes a few days eating a high carb diet to accomplish. Right now I am protein and fat adapted, and when I eat high carb I get the worst cravings for protein! It's the same as the carb cravings I used to get before I started Atkins.
I have a blog post explaining about carb and protein/fat adaptation.
I can also say that I am looking forward to getting back on plan because I know how much better I will feel once the detox phase is over.
some of us are wired differently. everytime i go off Atkins, I gain weight. it's just not fair. I realized this has to be a permanent change. I tell ya what, the food tastes a whole lot better than low fat/non fat. I can't take that stuff any more. Hail to Dr. Atkins! I have never read anything as informative as his book and I am reading it again. It just makes plain sense.
Mr. Fat
After losing 30 or so pounds on Atkins and getting totally off oral diabetic drugs in 1999-2000, I just stayed on Atkins, enjoying that great ice cream and other artifically sweetened products - Splenda really does taste like the real stuff. I developed some diabetic retinopathy (from the old days) and had to have laser a few times in the past 2 years. 9 months ago I decided to give up artificial sweeteners. To my surprise, I lost another 8 pounds, going from a size 6 to a 2 (at 5'2") over the next 2 months. Even better, my Ha1c dropped from 6-6.9 to 5.2 and the retinal edema has gone away. I've been diabetic for a long time and believe me I know what I eat and that was the only change I made. So maybe there is life after Atkins -- more of the same delicious protein, fat and high value carbs, better health, higher energy and the opportunity to inspire others to the same success!
By the way, I have tried to find research on the Splenda connection and although there is a biological model that would explain it, there is no interest in the medical community in improving health with food (other than putting those aggravating "heart healthy" labels on sugar coated cereal boxes). Give me some poached chicken over a bed of spring greens slathered in some high fat lucious dressing any day - and before the season is over, would you please pass the blueberries?
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