One of my friends told me that she was watching on the discovery channel that when someone does Atkins it is a proven fact they gain back the weight they loose.

I don't believe it... err Low-Fat skeptics!

Actually that works the same with ANY diet. If you go back to your old behaviours you will gain back plus.

When I loose down to my goal I intend to STAY on Lifetime Maintenence. I have worked to hard to see the weight come back on!

I know you will!! Me too. WAY OF LIFE HERE!

Those of us with weight issues know we have to give up somethings. I think it is finding the best way to enjoy eating and life... feeling the healthiest we can.... that will keep us being consistant.

It is all so very personal.

I'd be curious to to know if that person went back to old habits.

Yeah, I had an 18 lb experience with "returning to previous way of eating" this past school year. Hah! I learned! This WOE and exercising have become new priorities in my life. I KNOW I will keep the weight I've lost off if I continue to eat properly. (The reasons I returned to my previous bad eating habits were due to too many extra hours at work, not enough time to shop and eat properly, and no exercise. Not this school year!)

Too many (likely uneducated to this WOE) people use Atkins as a quick-weight loss method and expect that the weight will not return when they are "done" with the diet. Most likely they only picked up bits and pieces of this WOE from various places and never read DANDR from cover to cover (or even half way through - which is enough to teach you the important concepts). Of course they will gain back!

Joan

I think insulin control also figures into it -- we accustom our bodies to low and even blood sugar levels, so we don't have much insulin floating around in our systems to store fat. When we eat "normally", we go into insulin overdrive, and the pounds pack on. It evens out eventually, as your system gets used to running on carbs again, and you go back to maintaining or gaining at pre-LC rates. If high-carb is what made you gain before, high-carb will do it again! Lisa is so right -- eat like you used to eat, and you'll weigh what you used to weigh!

Also, you put on a fair bit of water weight if you suddenly shift to high-carb eating -- that's why a 4-oz serving of ice cream can make you gain 5 lbs overnight. It's the exact reverse of that big induction water/glycogen weight loss. When I went on my honeymoon cruise, I ate dessert every day and drank more than usual, and the scales went up 8 lbs in a week. They were back down 8 lbs after a week of clean eating, so I didn't gain any real fat weight. But If I'd started doing Atkins with only 10 pounds to lose, and didn't really understand about water/glycogen storage, I could easily have thought I gained it all back and given up entirely.

Yeah, this person pretty much said a "no duh" tidbit of wisdom. If you go off a diet, you gain weight?! NO! NO WAY!

atlee - You hit on one of my other threads - why the weight comes back so quickly. I'd wonder, if we went back to poor eating - say not as bad as before, but still not really good - would the weight come flooding on? I wouldn't THINK so since I would imagine your body would readjust. I was just worried wondering why the bad eating for a few days resulted in such a gain - after all, I figured we were eating that way before and not gaining 8 pounds in week!
I got scared wondering what would happen if I had a couple slices of pizza now and then!
Traci

My brother-in-law lost weight on Atkins, then gained it back b/c he went back to eating the things with white sugar and white flour. Let's not forget the addiction part of all this. Once you decide to go ahead and eat whatever, then it can easily become a slow progression. One cookie leads to another, etc, and so on.....

I personally am commited to this WOL b/c of the health benefiits and the way I look and feell-the energy, etc, etc.