Atkins Diet Statistics Reveals Significant Fat Loss not Water Loss

by Tanya Zilberter, PhD

I included in my analysis over 600 reports about weight loss while following Dr. Atkins diet.

I included in my analysis over 600 reports about weight loss while following Dr. Atkins diet. I used feedbacks from my community members collected during the period between 1998 and 2000 when I was a guide to weight loss at About.com.



I happened to read, listen, and even view on TV, opinions expressed by MDs, nutritionists, and dietitians, that weight loss due to the diet is in fact a water loss. Hard to agree, if you look at this chart.

What you see here is: how much weight have lost every of over 600 dieters who reported both how much they've lost and for how long they have been dieting.

As you can see, the absolute champion is the person who lost an incredible 248 Lb. in 48 weeks. There're also a few people who were dieting the same 48 weeks with less Lb. lost, but still there are impressive results, from 25 to 100 plus Lb. Can anybody imagine it was pure water?

You can also see that there were failures - look at the dots sitting on the zero Lb. on the time axis. Some people were trying hard up to more than 20 weeks still losing nothing. We'll see later if they gained anything instead, here I'd like to emphasize that nobody has reported weight gain.

There were differences in what weight could be lost in the same time span: see how some of the dots are lined up vertically? For instance, while dieting for 12 weeks, some lost up to 50 Lb. and one person lost nothing. It can be easily explained by differences in exercise regiments or in cheating habits. However, there is the clear trend: the more time on diet - the more Lb. lost (the red curve). How long did it last?

Source: http://www.dietandbody.com/article1022.html

Linda