hi everyone,
i'm 16 and have decided to give this diet a try, partly b/c i know many people who have had great success with it. I'm just not sure if it's safe for me since i am still growing, and other things like that.
any advice is greatly appreciated

Hi Adam,

You're very wise to think about the growth factor, as you may have up till the age of 20-22 to continue growing, and you dietary choices are very important.

Talk it over with your doctor, and you might be able to adapt a special version for younger people, such as high protein, and low(er) carbs than the average diet, yet not as low as some of the strict(er) plans such as Atkins. At your age, you have a higher metabolism that the average adult, and you might lose weight with a diet of 60-100g carbs, especially if all carb choices are low-glycemic and complex carbs.

Have you read any of the books on the subject? Carbohydrate Addicts might be worth checking our as it allows for much more carbs, if taken withing certain time limits (called reward).

Wa'il

i'm 17 and am SOOOO happy to see someone around my age!!!! *woo-hoo* anyway, if you have any questions please feel free to ask!!! i've been doing this WOL for a few months now *not religiously...ahem...* but i keep jumping back on the bandwagon and i keep trying and haven't lost hope yet that's the trick, i think. anyway, i talked to my doctor about it, amazingly he was very pro-atkins!!! be careful though, some doctors *most even* are very against it because they've built up this tunnel vision that really doesn't make sense. if they tell you to get off it, don't despare completely...figure out what's right for you!! that's always the most important thing. i've been tampering with what works for me and what doesn't...my carb limit, what foods i enjoy, what are some good craving curbers...stuff like that. so good luck to you sweetie keep us posted

-RedAngel

thanks guys that helped a lot