Carl Tyler's Blog

1 - In the UK Press today it stated that a comparison of people on low fat diet and Atkins diet over 12 months showed that the Atkins group ended up with a lower cholesterol than the low fat diet people. The dietitians didn't understand and couldn't explain the reason for this. The arguement has always been that the Atkins diet would increase your cholesterol level.

2 - "The arguement has always been that the Atkins diet would increase your cholesterol level."

This is what troubles me about so much medical science these days. There is a load of received wisdom on dietary matters (low fat is good for you, fatty foods increase blood lipids, and so on and so forth). None has any real research behind it. Much is actually sponsored by the government who would seem to like to tax fatty foods.

In fact the Atkins approach is not new. My mother (a general medical practitioner until her untimely death in 1982) was a long time proponent of just this approach and this is why, despite a liking for eating too much, I was never more than a little bit overweight until I somehow forgot her advice in the mid to late 80s and eventually got very large indeed - all the while eschewing cheese, butter, read meat and so on while eating plenty of "healthy" food like pasta.

It was only at a company sponsored medical two years ago when the physician there noted that I was generally healthy but way too fat and offered some advice on correcting the situation that I rediscovered it.

His advice was all about managing carbohydrate intake. I modified what he told me until I found an approach that I could live with. And I have lived that way ever since, never feeling particularly hungry or as if I am in a diet. The weight fell off and I now buy clothes the same size as I did when I was 18 (which is longer ago than I care to point out here).

3 - Atkins saved my life ... 40 lbs lighter, blood pressure's 90/60 total cholesterol is 122, ratios are excellent ... this is the healthiest unhealthy WOE I've ever been on.

4 - Blimey - that's 5 stone in UK money - well done mate

5 - Congrats Carl - I can't wait to see the new svelte you in London on Wednesday. Though I fully intended to throw fruit at you at te user group meeting, now I know I must sit up front to have a chance to hit you

I've hit and stuck at a 60lb loss for 9 months now and plan to stay here for a good long time. I think that it's just a matter of what works for the individual - for some, low fat works, for some, low carbs. Exercise doesn't hurt either one.

See you in a few days!

Rob

6 - The BBC did a big programme on Atkins a wile back, trying to work out how it worked. As I recall, they finally reached the view that meat satisfies you faster than carbohydrate, and that over the medium term you consume less energy, and thus lose weight.
All the arguments about fat burning were debunked.

They didn't go into the long term health effects though.

FWIW, I followed Atkins for a month to lose 8 kilos, and then switched back to a low fat maintenance diet. I have found that the month on Atkins re-educated my body to eat less, and that has stuck.

Guff