Atkins Diet Review

How Big is the Atkins Diet Craze?

If you do Atkins Diet keyword research then you can get the idea of just how popular the latest dieting craze is. I think it is absurd that hundreds of people are searching for "atkins diet pregnancy" each month. Tip: the Atkins Diet may not be that good for your soon to be child.

Atkins Diet & Marketing

I have seen low carb signs at Arby's. Some franchises are going one step further to protect their position by investing so heavily into Atkins friendly diet options that Subway and TGI Friday are listed on the home page of the Atkins website (that probably costs some serious $$$).

Atkins Diet & Marketing Crap

Another website by the name of AtkinsDietSucks.com was created which tries to market diet pills at people. If you go to their page about how the Atkins Diet works they tell you that it is highly effective too. Complete marketing crap.

Often times media in any form exploits any and all angles of a news story for profit. The web makes it easy for a single source to exploit them all...

What is the Atkins Diet?

The Atkins Diet (official site) takes the food pyramid and flips it upside down. Instead of carbohydrate containing food being the foundation of the diet carbohydrates are viewed as the devil Atkins Diet Food Pyramid. The main foods in the Atkins diets are meats and other high fat / high protein foods.

How Does the Atkins Diet Work?

Eating low levels of carbohydrates help reduce the amount of insulin in your body. Often times overweight people have a hard time losing weight by just cutting fat out of their diet since hyperinsulin conditions cause their body to constantly want to convert carbohydrates to fat.

Problems with the Atkins Diet

The American Heart Association, American Dietetic Association, and the American Kidney Fund have all published statements warning about the various dangers associated with low-carbohydrate, high-protein diets. ...Scientific studies show that low-carbohydrate diets raise cholesterol levels in considerable number of individuals, sometimes to a dramatic degree. These diets also typically accelerate calcium losses and have led major health organizations to raise important questions about their possible contribution to heart problems, kidney abnormalities, osteoporosis, and other health problems. Source: Atkins Diet Alert.

Atkins Diet Alert has also created a dieters registry for people on the Atkins Diet.

Other Atkins Diet Crap

In my entry where I talk about the low carb potato and show the image of the low carb potato with a small crap stack underneath it the crap stack's reason is because studies have shown that among other side effects some on the Atkins diet have had:
Diarrhea 23 percent
Constipation 68 percent

Spudlet: the OriginalTM Low Carb Potato

I created the idea of a low carb potato a long long time ago. I often design original T shirts for my friends. This is the design for my low carb potato T shirt.

evidentially this low carb craze is hurting potato farmers and they actually are going to come out with a low carb potato.

A Dutch seed company has developed a "low-carb" spud which it claims is "the future of the potato". ... Atkins Nutritionals, the company behind the diet, was skeptical about the "spud-u-lite". A spokesman said: "Normally we wouldn't recommend potatoes. It sounds as if you could eat these potatoes during the later stages of the diet, once you have reached your target weight." source: Independent News in London.

I think Spudlet is a way cooler name than Spud-U-Lite. What do you think about low carb potatoes?

Weight Loss Day 16

Lame Points: Yesterday and the day before I got to play frisbie, hit a ball, and play kickball over at my friends mom's house. It was all really fun, but I did earn one lame point. I gave myself a blood blister playing frisbie...

I the mechanic: The last couple days my roommate and I were fixing cars. I am not a mechanic. I was reminded this when it took lock channels, a hammer, and a crow bar to remove my distributer cap's rotor.

Eating Slow: Last night I ate barbecue chicken with my roommates family. A few of them were telling me to eat my ckicken with my fingers. I was using a plastic fork. Also on my ride home I had orange juice out of the cardboard container. I drank out of the straw hole without a straw. If you find yourself frequently eating too quickly until you are full a good way to lose weight is to just eat slower.

Living Fast: In the American society we are rushed into thinking that everything needs to be done right now. Operating at that level we are no better than plants. At that level why do we deserve to eat them?

Good News: Well I have not really lost that much weight yet. I need to focus on exercising more. Tomorrow I will actually buy a bike. A girl I like alot called me recently and perhaps that will motivate me to exercise some more.

Bad News: Of course no good news goes unchecked. Out of the navy and they still inflict pain on my mind...bastards. I just got an email from a friend who is still in the navy who said his friend killed himself recently. THAT FUCKING SUCKS.

Join the Navy...See the World
more like Join the Navy...Want to Die

Navy Nuclear Power: "Worse than you could ever imagine^TM."

Fatty Weight Loss on the Web

So I got my email from the Yahoo! Directory today stating that my site was accepted into the Yahoo. In addition my site has already been listed in DMOZ. My biggest problem though is that I have not been as active as I would like.

When I was younger (only a year or two ago) I was really pissed off at the world and had no problem exercising for 8 hours in a day. Today I am not as angry and would feel artificial if I created some anger to drive me. I am going to buy a bicycle tomorrow. Bicycles are fun.

Weight Loss Day Nine: 5 HTP, Tryptophan, Serotonin, LNAA, Hypothalamus, & Depression

Well I noticed a big difference in how I felt when I took that 5 HTP yesterday. I have come to the conclusion that the amino acids I was taking was lowering my blood ratio of serotonin to overall large neural amino acids, thereby lowering my brain serotonin levels.

Serotonin does not cross the blood brain barrier as easily as many other large neural amino acids do. If the other amino acids are elevated then less serotonin can make it's way to the brain.

When people eat they usually do not eat until they are full, but they usually eat until their mind tells them they are full. Our often rushed diets do not contain enough tryptophan (a precursor to serotonin) sometimes and thus the brain serotonin levels may be a slight bit low. Right before you eat (and once you begin to eat) your serotonin levels in your hypothalamus continue to rise until you are no longer hungry. Thus by increasing the steady state level of serotonin (assuming you have low serotonin levels) you find satiety much earlier in the eating cycle and eat less food.

Often times depression is caused by low serotonin levels and frequent overeating can be a suggestive symptom of depression.

Day Eight

Corn on the cob & tuna fish sandwiches...

Well I have not been exercising enough to feel content about it and am off to the park. I also think regularly I have somewhat low serotonin levels. Due to my taking those amino acids I think they have either put my neurochemistry a bit out of whack by either increasing dopamine and other neurotransmitter levels more than the increase in serotonin or that they have increased my serotonin levels too much. I took some 5 HTP and if I feel better I know it will be due to the ratio of neurotransmitters. If I feel worse then my serotonin levels are already too high.

More on serotonin in future posts :)

Day Seven

Bla... Kinda tired. I have been getting a bit burnt out doing so much. I went to an ACLU meeting last night and today and they had lots of good food. I think tomorrow I will try that 48 hour miricle diet crap - why not? :)

Weight Loss Day Five

The jog to the post office and back is evil. It is only about 6 miles, but after you get about a mile into it there is a downhill that lasts for a half mile. After you get done with the half mile down there is a half mile up.

I made it all of the way to the post office (~3 miles) and part of the way back, but those hills are some evil stuff. I had to walk the last couple miles. I may buy a bicycle soon too. Wal Mart had a chopper bicycle. I figure it would be really good exercise since I would get exercise fighting people off as they tried to beat me up for riding it around.

Weight Loss Day Five

I was so busy on the phone yesterday and stuff that I did not get to exercise. Frustrating. One of the guys I talked to owns a few gym's though and talked to me some about fitness stuff.

Two months is a really long time. I was thinking this blog would be way more fun if I used myself as a ginnie pig. I could use the 48 hour miracle diet, feel gross for a day or two and let you know how I feel - this way you do not need to.

One thing my new fitness guru friend told me about is Muscle Milk. He said they taste delicious and if you drink some right before you go to sleep your body stays in an anabolic state throughout the night. Some people get night sweats from it, but I do not think I will. I ordered pineapple banana and peanut butter chocolate. I will let you know how they taste and how much a sweat.

I also just got a popunder spam for diet patches. They said it is the safest, easiest, and fastest way to lose weight without starvation diets or strenuous exercise. Is this saying that starvation diet are safer? Not a good marketing angle in my opinion.

If you agree to have them send you the free one week supply (where you pay only $2.95 for shipping) they include this cool line in the terms and conditions box.

If you are enjoying the product, do nothing, and we will send your full 3 month program of the diet patch 15 days after your trial order. We'll bill the same credit card information you have used for this transaction for the amount of $159.95

If I wanted to lose weight in unhealthy ways I could do it for a whole lot less than $159.95.

Today breakfast was a banana and some orange juice. Woke up at 7 AM. Time to go for a jog to the post office.

Weight Loss Day Four

Well I did play a bit of basketball at the end of day three, but I also ate a couple candy bars like an idiot. The good thing is that I woke at 6 am this morning again and my legs are no longer sore from that last jog.

When I was in junior high I lost a bunch of weight when my mother cooked oatmeal for me. Thinking about that today, I ate oatmeal for breakfast. Have you ever noticed how hard it is to eat a bunch of oatmeal? With cereal I can eat a half box and not think twice. (and with Fruity Pebbles 1 box = 1 serving).

I think it would be nearly impossible to gain weight eating oatmeal. I am going to eat oatmeal (and maybe a banana or some other friut) for breakfast every day. I am sure it will start to get old, but that is ok. I am going to eat plain oatmeal as well (no flavor / no sugar / no sin). If it is for the best then why not make it as good as possible for me?

Weight Loss Day Four: Vitamins

Again I woke in the morning an hour later (7AM today). I guess this is part of the benefit of working for yourself.

I woke up and mixed up my breakfast routine. I did the ham and cheese + yogurt for breakfast. I already notice an increased energy level after only a few days.

Often times people feel like crap because they do not get the right nutrients in their food. I take vitamins and other suppliments to help out with my random diet:

• Mega Man Vitamins
  
• vitamin E
  
• vitamin B complex
  
• royal jelly
  
• amino acid complex (these are huge and taste super duper gross)
  
• vitam C (these are nummy...a just reward for eating those gross amino acids)

If you have a random diet then I think vitamins and amino acids are a really good call. What vitamins do you use? Why don't they make adult Flinstone vitamins?

Weight Loss Day Three: End

Played basketball with roommate for about an hour. We both need to buy / rent / lease or otherwise procure a shot. We then went to the grocery store. Soon (tomorrow maybe) I will be eating some Manicotti. The closer a food tastes to / looks like lasagna the more I feel like a kid watching Garfield...Garfield is good. Being young is good.

My roommate bought some Ben & Jerry's and I actually didn't. I only had a turkey and swiss sandwich and yogurt (raspberry cream savor flavor) for dinner.

Promoting Fatty Weight Loss

I am not certain which will be harder, losing 30 lbs. or promoting this site. The term "weight loss" gets about a million searches a month. There are tons of people out there trying to sell weight loss pills and making thousands of dollars a day doing it.

It will be no small feat to outrank all the people who want to sell you prescription weight loss drugs you usually do not even need. Google shows millions of pages in their index mentioning "weight loss."

Weight Loss Day Three: Jog

Went to park again. Ran about 6 miles and walked the last one back. Did not feel as good or hurt as bad as the last one. Seeming as though I am typing with increased energy. :)

My roommate was hungry after we went shopping and we went to Dairy Queen. I resisted the evilness and only ate literally one french fry. All the pleasure without the guilt. I still am really hungry though and need to go grocery shopping. Always bad to shop hungry...

Weight Loss Day Three: Breakfast

Again cereal. Combining half Blueberry Morning with half Crandberry Almond Crunch makes a delicious day. Today I slept in to almost 6 am. Had lots of crazy nightmares last night. Not sure if that was because the movie I watched or just because I am psycho.

The earlier posts I actually posted today. I just got this blog set up today. The nice thing about using a blog or journal online is that it makes your life transparent. If you want to be honest in what you type (and who wants to be a liar) then you have to think twice before you do something.

Even taking a habitual problem and putting it more in the forefront of your mind can cause you to approach the situation with more caution. If something is anoying you then make a blog for it. It requires a good bit of honesty, but if you lie to yourself is there any point in living?

Blogger is 100% free. Many people would do far better if they had a creative outlet to express their thoughts. I already have a few blogs, but they all have their own focus. A blog is usually only good if it is focused or extremely random.

For example, in my diet I do not intend to eat kittens, although while I was in the navy they tried to feed me pero burger off the shores of Spain.

Weight Loss Day Two: On Evilness

So I went and watched a movie. While I was there I had baked pretzels with the cheeseque sauce they use. Not good. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was probably about the first movie I have watched in about a year. I liked it a bunch too. They also had Beck sing a cool song for the movie(who recently played at Coachella).

I will need to run far day 3 to make up for the evilness of day 2. This site is powered by Blogger, who is owned by Google, who goes by the mantra "don't be evil."

Kate Hudson has cool hair in this movie. I recently get a hair cut I do not like. Time for a new hair color. Blue, green, purple, orange? Let you know when I "fix" my hair.

Weight Loss Day Two: Breakfast + Exercise

Cereal again. Refreshing to wake up early, but 4 am was a bit early. Ate cereal again. Lots of Powerbars (Peanut Butter flavored) throughout the day. Went to park again but I only shot around playing basketball for about an hour. Need to exercise more than that if I want to lose weight.

Weight Loss Day One: Jog in the Park

Stayed up exra long time today to get that whole day vs night thing straightened out. Also went to the park and for a jog. Haven't ran in a long time, but I am crazy so I went to the park and ran about 4 miles and then walked back.

Anytime I exercise really hard I start to see holes in my vision. Little black spots. While I am sure this is somewhat bad, I like it...I know it means I worked out hard. I saw some of those black holes.

For that second wind of energy which kept me up through the jog and until night time I had Ripped Fuel. I do not intend to use legal speed for the foundation of my diet / weight loss though.

Weight Loss Day One: Breakfast

Today I had cereal for breakfast. One of the adult kinds. Many people skip meals and then get stuck overeating on junk snack food.

I am going to try to have cereal or oatmeal for breakfast every day. I know all of those people on the adkins diet will tell you I should go to hell (and they are probably right). There are better things to go to hell for, and not eating carbohydrates is, um, stupid. :)

Fatty Weight Loss...The Beginning of a Blog

Just got my copy of "Bringing Your Talents to the Web,"
but I realize I need to take a step away from it.

I have had too much McDonald's and too much monitor.
Not enough heartrate.

Today I tipped the scales at 222 and now that I am disguisted it's time to lose 30 lbs in 2 months.
Here is how I will do it.