Jaydef03

dont forget zero-sugar as well. some crystal light stuff may have zero carb, but some sugar in it.

ferizzo

sugar alcohol or sugr substitutes, but not sugar (very different I believe).

Crystal lite is good as are some diet sodas (although sodas are bad in general but no carbs if diet).

Doom878

So salad out and Jello in?

Lister00169

Good luck chief. I could never go on Atkins, I love my carbs; breads =

Doom878

Thanks. I feel like killing everyone I want junk food so bad.

Crazy Bimmer

How will you gain muscle without carbs?

Jaydef03

i did... it wasnt easy. i could only work out during a few couple hours during the day when i actually had energy.

but in the first 3 or 4 weeks of atkins youre just walking around half dead.

Crazy Bimmer

Well whats the point of losing weight if you will be flabby?

Whiskers

Why flabby?

Crazy Bimmer

Dont you lose muscle mass when you are starving your body of carbs? Most Atkin people i see start fat then turn into a slim fat. Why not just build muscle the proper way with a real diet and weight training? Build the muscle and it will burn the fat off.

Guess i shouldnt talk since im a porker

Whiskers

I think Atkins has more issues then that.

SpeedyV6

That may have been what physioligists conjectured but it simply is not borne out by any empirical observation Quite to the contrary the opposite is what was actually observed in clinical studies. Atkins resulted in a more favorable lipid profile.

Jaydef03

well the thing with atkins is this: you lose the weight first, and then you work on the left over muscle mass so that you could get cuts. this is what worked best for me. ive tried regular diet and lifting, but all it results in is heavy muscle mass without that ripped look. and then once you cut out the diet, all that muscle turns into fat. (maybe this is just me, b/c i am (or was) a big guy to begin with.

after a few months of atkins, you are left with a more slender body to work with. then you could start hitting up the gym to get lean muscle.

ferizzo

Don't forget that it's the proteins you need for building muscle. Carbs are used for energy but when you are on the Atkins you are actually using fat for energy.

Crazy Bimmer

You cant build muscle if you have no energy. Thats where carbs come into play.

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-car...earch_kw=carbs

Whiskers

Can't argue with the Wisegeek.

youngTL

Please do not spread misinformation. Muscle NEVER "turns into" fat! Muscle can do one of three things: grow, stay the same, or atrophy. If it atrophies, you look smaller. What happens is that you end up eating the same amount of calories, but have less muscle to burn them off; therefore, you gain fat while you lose muscle, making it APPEAR as if it's turning into fat.

Jaydef03

ok lets put it this way.

if you have a good amount of muscle and do not work out over a long time, then it will eventually just look like bulk b/c it is no longer cutup. so even though its still technically "muscle" it still will look like fat.

SDCGTSX

There's a BAD misconception about alcohol and calories. Just because something is "low carb" like Michelob Ultra, doesn't mean it doesn't have calories. Some people think hard liquor doesn't have calories, but they DO! Most lite beers including Ultra, has 100-120 calories. The normal beers will have between 120-150, and the fat ones like Ginness has like 210.

Any 80 proof liquor has 64 calories per shot. Add that to fruit juices, a mixed drink is usually around 150 calories. There's no protein, fat, or carbs, but alcohol itself gets oxidized and used for energy. It's a HORRIBLE diet food because it messes up all sorts of processes during its oxidization and removal from body.

Whiskers

Michelob Ultra has 95 calories.

Jaydef03

green light has 65. becks is like 54

and i havent had a sip of fruit juice in almost half a year. same with gatorade, etc.
the reg bottle of gatorade has almost 60g of carbs! if im going to have that, id rather indulge in a hero sandwich.

all my alcoholic drinks, if mixed at all, are with diet coke, or occasional red bull (sugar-free only)

Jaydef03

if your allowing yourself whole wheats, they have a good amount of crackers out there, like "Wheat Thins" that are multi grain. this is what ive heard, but havent gotten the chance to buy them yet.

Adam_Schwartz

Why don't you just lose weight the right way, which means include complex carbs, low fat lean meat, fish and poultry in your diet and incorporate cardio into your life to burn fat without sacraficing valuable muscle. When you say you have tried "regulat diet and lifting", what are you specifically talking about? What did you eat? What exercise did you do? Are you SURE what you were doing was the ideal program to lose fat? IMO, anything that cuts out carbs for any duration of time is comeplete crap.

Jaydef03

my current status:
i eat any carbs with lots of fiber in it (multigrain, whole wheat. i do not eat any white bread, regular snacks (such as crackers, pretzels, chocolate, candy) i do not eat pizza or any fast food of the such. im allergic to most seafood, so thats out. i have a good amount of fruits, but not watermelon or pears. and have a salad everyday.

i go to the gym 4x a week. i have a standard lifting routine. and i do 20 min worth of abs and run 1.5 - 2 miles on the elliptical everytime.

my previous diets were just to stay way from junk food and snacks, but it wasnt enough, maybe bc i wasnt as strict with it. and did not limit any alcoholic drinks, mixed drinks, soda, etc.

Adam_Schwartz

OK, sounds like a pretty good foundation. I'd suggest more than 1.5-2 miles on the elliptical if you want to lose fat. I can remember going for 30-40 min on the elliptical and I'd be over 5 miles according to the little meter.

Do you eat 6-7 times a day? When I lost fat I ate 6 meals a day and upped it to 7 meals/day about 1/2 way through and that really made a big difference. Even going from 5/day to 6/day would have a positive effect. About 60% of my calories were also from carbs, believe it or not. Like you mentioned, it was complex carbs, nothing simple or processed. Brown rice, sweet taters and oatmeal were my top 3 carbs. Talk about fiber alert!

Doom878

What's your 20 minute ab routine consist of?

Adam_Schwartz

I missed the 20 min abs part - must have thought it was 20 min of lifting. 20 min of abs might be a bit too much, esp 4x a week. 2-3x a week at 10 min each time is more than enough for abs.

Jaydef03

i do so much abs that the muscle actual hurts for the rest of the day. it feels as if i worked it out like it was a bicep. love the feeling.

heres what i do for abs...its hard to explain these machines... (most of them are non-mechanical / nonmoving equipment)

before run-
3 sets leg raise
3 set (per side) oblique- (35 pound weight)
3 sets crunch (on decline seat) i hold on to a 10 pound weight and completely extend my arms all the way back when i go down so that the weight hits the floor 3 feet behind my head. try this out, if your back doesnt hurt, this exercise is killer for abs.
3 set foward drop (cant explain) 35 pound weight

these are for after i run-
3 sets twists (seated) 10 pound weight
3 set seated crunch @ 130 lbs.

i do about 4 or 5 out of the 6 exercises listed above every gym session.

youngTL

I do the advanced Winsor Pilates for my abs. They usually are sore for the next day or two after that. It's VERY difficult (I think 55 minutes or so, but 10 minutes of that is hip exercises, and antoher 10 is like other core exercises. )

Doom878

How many reps per set?

Jaydef03

anywhere from 8 to 25... depends on the exercise.

the one where i extend my arms backwards is about 8 reps b/c it is very straining. whereas doing twists is at least 25 reps