Health

Carol from California is 42 years old, and has been on the Atkins program for 16 months. She has lost a total of 84 pounds, 51 inches, and has dropped from a size 26 pants to a size 16!

In a cloud of utter boredom, I drag my feet to the school cafeteria. It's chaos, as usual. I blink in a slow, salamander-like motion and head toward my table, resigned. All around me are the wonderful smells of empty carbohydrates: soup, garlic bread, macaroni, French fries.... The list goes on, but it doesn't really matter, because I can't eat any of it. I'm a low carber.

Cinshad, from Michigan, is 39, has been married for 21 years. She is the mother of four children. Cinshad has been low carbing for a year, and recently reached her goal weight of 145. In fact she has dipped below her goal weight and now weighs 138!! That is 35% of me gone through low carbing!" she declares proudly.

Pasta in all its various types constitutes a large part of our fast living, fast food culture. Busy mums and dads can very quickly throw together a selection of meat and/or veggies in a stir-fry or casserole to produce a quick tasty filling meal.

You've been doing great. You've been losing weight by adopting the low carb lifestyle. You feel better. You have more energy. You sleep better. Your clothes are looser. And then you blow it.

In 1996 I weighed 208 (or maybe more) and wore size 22 jeans. Two years ago this month I hit a body fat percentage of 24% and realized that at 137 I had reached goal. At 5'-4", I wore sizes 8 and 10.

Mary from Alabama is 30 years old. She has been following the Atkins diet since February 29, 2000, and has lost 56 pounds, even though she takes the Depo Provera shot, which is known to cause problems with weight gain in some women. She told me she started having a problem with her weight at the age of 12, a time when many young girls will start to struggle with extra pounds. She has a wonderful support system.

Every human endeavor, it seems, has got to have its very own set of buzzwords. Why? I think it's because we like to think that we are in a secret club, like the ones we had in elementary school. Only certain kids knew the secret password or the secret handshake, and we felt really smug around those who did not share the secret. Well, low carbohydrate dieting has its buzzwords, some self-explanatory, and some downright scary. In the scary group, the scariest for a diabetic are ketones and its friend ketosis.

There are many things that happen to your body to cause your blood pressure to increase. I have been asking this question of physicians that I know, and the consensus is that they feel that obesity is a much greater risk factor than any diet. They would prefer that their patients lost the weight on a low carbohydrate diet and just monitored their blood pressure to make sure that it did not get dangerously high. There was also a general consensus that they actually saw their patients' blood pressures decrease when they followed a low carbohydrate regime.

Pam from Florida is 45. She had her first child at 17, and has struggled with her weight since she was about 20 years old. Pam has been following the Atkins Plan for a year and a half now, and has lost 62 pounds since she began low carbing in October of 1999!

The medical community is finding is that low carbohydrate eating is not causing any harm to people with normally healthy kidney function. It is important when beginning any diet to have a physical to determine your overall health. When you start a low-carb diet, drink plenty of water & add the recommended vitamins and supplements to help your success.