Dr. Atkins' Diet Cookbook

I went on the Atkins diet 2 years ago, for about 5 months, and lost 25 pounds. I never felt better; my headaches went away, fatigue during the day was gone, I was able to wake up earlier in the morning. I need to lose 25 more pounds to be at my college weight. Even after I stopped the diet, and ate a lot more carbs, my weight loss remained. I noticed as I added back more carbohydrates, that many old symptoms returned. I am back on the more restricted part of the diet again because I want to lose the rest of the weight. I will say that you eat a moderate amount of protein, vegetables, fish, good oils, and I think it is a balanced, long-term diet that can work for many of us. Once you reach your weight loss goal, you add back in a lot more carbohydrates, all in the form of healthy vegetables, nuts, seeds, and moderate amounts of fruit, bread, etc. I have two friends who lost 40 pounds (him) and 60 pounds (her) on this diet, their blood pressure normalized, and their cholesterol count actually went from high to normal in 6 months. I have another friend who told her doctor she was going on the diet, he warned her not to. In three months she came back, her blood pressure was almost normal, after being very high, and she felt better than she had in years. Her doctor told her to keep doing whatever she was doing, because it was working.Another friend went on the high carb/ low fat diet. She did lose at first, but was hungry all the time and gained the weight back and more when she went off of it. There are people who do well on this kind of low-fat, high carb diet, and Atkins talks about this and why. No diet is for everyone, each of our bodies are unique. I have found this diet to be excellent in balancing blood sugar and eliminating the resultant fatigue, emotional swings, and headaches. Furthermore, I am rarely hungry on this diet, and after you get used to the change, it is delicious and very healthy. The people I have talked to who feel this diet is unhealthy haven't really read and studied the diet, or actually followed the diet for a period of time. I read tons of nutrition books, was a vegetarian for years, and got so sick, autoimmune disease, low thyroid, indigestion, heartburn, and so on, that I began searching for a diet that would restore my health. It was only after being on this diet that I got well, completely. So for some of us, it really works.

You will see from the comments following mine that most people succeed on this diet. You have probably heard bad things about this diet, from people who either never did the diet, people who tried it for a week and gave up, or from "doctors" and "nutritionists".One person commented on this diet (you can read her review here): "We have only been on the diet for 4 days but we have never felt worse." Well, you didn't read the book, or do enough research. You will feel weak when you withdraw from carbohydrates, just as you will feel bad the morning after you eat a lot of candy, or drink a lot of alcohol. It is not because your body needs carbs. It is because of the withdrawel process. Once you eat lo-carb, you will find that anytime you eat carbs, you will feel weak, because it is the carbs that make you feel weak. You only will have problems if you do not follow his advice; you must take the supplements, you must eat more fiber, and you must drink lots of water. The Atkins Starter kit contains most of the vitamins you need, plus it includes a booklet that explains the whole diet (you don't need to actually buy the book). Plus look for the lo-carb FAQ's on the internet, and read the lo-carb support group on USENET, and you will have great success!

My wife and myself both started the Atkins program in Sept of 99. Now Dec 99 and we both have lost inches and at least 25 pounds each. We even cheat on weekends. If there is a special event going on, like Thanksgiving, we didn't miss a thing. We enjoyed any food we wanted and then went back to a maintences program the following week. This past week was my ten years olds birthday and I enjoyed cake and icecream like everyone else. But I know that on Monday I must go back to a maintences program and it works. I truely believe if I didn't cheat at all, I would have lost a lot more weight, but I didn't gain it over night, so I don't expect to lose it over night. It's a great program, don't give up before you've started!

I've been on this diet (if you can call it that) for 4 weeks and I've lost 18 pounds. When I started this diet on March 15 I weighed 194 llbs (I'm 5'7"). Many people at my office have been on this since Jan. and I've seen the results first hand, so I thought I'd try it. I read the whole book, went to the grocery store, and started the very next day. Immediately, I felt better, had more energy, slept better and my hypo-thyroid problem has since disappeared. I still can't believe the food you can eat! I chose not to give up caffeine, rather, I drink only diet pop. I still lost all of this weight! The scale is now my best friend. Just a word of advice: there are many people out there that bad-mouth this diet. It seems that everyone has a horror story to tell! IGNORE IT. But after digging a bit deeper, it seems the person didn't follow the exact diet, or forgot to take vitamins, or drink plenty of water. THIS DIET WORKS! I can't wait to show off my new body to the biggest critic of this diet - my father in law!

I started this diet 4 weeks ago, and as of today I have lost approximately 22 pounds. I think it's the greatest. Every morning I have bacon and eggs then for lunch I have chicken fajitas without the tortillas of course! Then for dinner I have a steak, hot dogs, sausage, or almost any meat I want. I have tried weight watchers, pills, exercise equipment but, this seems to work best. My doctor thinks it is a safe diet. It is healthier than being overweight. I have noticed inches coming off faster than pounds. This book has the most information in it of the 2 books Dr. Adkins has written. Also the little carbohydrate counter is very helpful. I would advise anyone overweight to try this diet for 2 weeks, then see what you think. I was skeptical at first, but now I love it!!