Diets have to be pretty personalized to someone's lifestyle and this one definitely meets all my needs. I LOVE to eat; especially between meals. On Atkins, you can eat all day if you want just as long as you stay under a certain alloted amount of carbohydrates. Atkins gets a lot of heat for being "unhealthy" since you are permitted to have things like butter and bacon and because, like I said, you can eat any time.
As all that is true, it's your choices that make it an unhealthy diet. For example, I had eggs and cheese for breakfast, tilapia and green beans for lunch, and a salad with mahi mahi for dinner. See? That's not so bad. Not to mention throughout the day when I wanted to "snack", I just ate some cheese and a pickle.
Another reason Atkins works so well for me when I'm trying to lose weight is the fact that I'm not allowed to eat fruit. I know, not allowed fruit on a diet?! BLASPHEMOUS. But this rule is perfect for me because I'm ALLERGIC to fruit! All the other diets I've been on contain meal plans revolved around fruit as a snack or it's a necessity for breakfast. There's no real substitute for fruit so I'd always be missing out. On Atkins, fruit has too many carbs to eat during phase 1 and 2... which is a-okay by me.
Most importantly, Atkins doesn't FEEL like a diet to me. As soon as I get set limitations, I panic. I'm not a "boundaries" type of girl. Knowing it is perfectly fine to eat any time I want makes me feel better. I'm a classic case of wanting it more when I'm not allowed. Half the time, I don't even need a snack. I just want it more because I know I can't have it on other diets. On Atkins, if I really want to snack or eat at a particular restaurant, I can. Nothing is worse than going out to eat (and we eat out a lot) and being limited to just a salad. And don't even get me started on fast food. I don't even like fast food but sometimes the situation calls for it and on other diets, I'm stuck with yet another salad (and a soggy one at that). At restaurants I can have all the steak or chicken I want with a side of veggies and at fast food restaurants, I can get that cheese burger all day as long as I take the bun off. Score!
And the number one reason Atkins works so well for me? Two words: fast. results. Don't get me wrong, I know for health reasons you are only suppose to lose 2-3 lbs a week, and you do... eventually. Once your body starts adjusting to your new lifestyle, that does become the typical pace for your weight loss. But on phase 1, which is the first 2 weeks, the most drastic changes happen to your body as you experience dramatic changes in carbohydrate consumption. Because you are only allowed 20g of carbs (an average overweight person consumes 180-230g a DAY), your body starts going into survival mode because it doesn't understand. You start to burn off what little carbs you are eating at a faster rate and when it runs out of those, it starts burning fat. Imagine carbs as little fat cell protectors. If you want to burn fat, you have to get through the carbs first. You exercise and eat right on other diets, but you are still only working off the carbs first. So, it only makes since to reduce the "protectors" so you can get right down to burning the poor, defenseless fat. And, boy, does it burn. In phase 1, really overweight people have been known to lose as much as 25 lbs in 2 weeks. Now as that isn't at all permanent unless you stick with it, it sure is the best motivation EVER to stay strong. When I started Atkins after high school, I lost 16 lbs in my first two weeks. Once I saw what results looked like (remember? VISUAL LEARNER, people!), it was much easier to remind myself to stay on track.
What kind of plans have been the most successful for you guys? Did the plan work because it matched perfectly with your lifestyle?
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