My friend and I went to the health store yesterday to check out a few different diet books because we are having very little success with the Atkins diet. I have lost a few lbs, but I am pretty sure it is muscle mass and I have more cellulite than ever. I have never had a problem with cellulite and know that it is because of the diet. I have also gained inches in fat and so despite the scale being lower it is due to loss of muscle mass and increase in body fat. I guess my body just wasn't made for this diet. One of the employees was trying to help us pick out books that he thought would best work for us. He said something about the Atkins diet only working for people that are a blood type O. A B and AB (or whatever they are ) have some success but it is very minimal and the loss is very very slow. He also said that if you are not an O you will gain the weight back if you ever go off of the diet. He gave us a book that has 4 diets for 4 blood types. I skimmed it and it sounded pretty sketchy to me and to be honest it sounded like a bunch of crap. Anyway, I was just curious what blood type everyone is? I'm not quite sure, but I know it is not O.

I'm A+. It worked fine. Still does, in fact.

And yes, if you go back to eating 300+ grams of refined carbs with tons of fat (e.g. french fries), you will gain the weight back -- regardless of blood type.

The Atkins Nutritional Approach is designed to be a lifelong way of eating.

I am A and should not lose on Atkins but I have. So I don't think highly of that book's ideas.

I am not sure how you have determined that you are losing muscle mass or gaining inches in fat.

If you are following the eating plan in the Atkins books exactly, then you are getting an adequate - even rich - protein intake and your body will use that for fuel and tissue repairs, not your existing muscle mass. You could even be gaining lean muscle as your body now has the protein it needs.

When you lose some weight on LCing, partly water and partly fat to begin with, your layer(s) of fat will become softer and kind of 'jiggly'. My favourite word is "flubby" instead of solid. I believe that the cellulite that a person has always had, becomes more visible at this stage of the losing.

You had very little to lose when you began only last month and have already lost 42% of the way to goal. You are actually doing much better than someone of your weight could have reasonably expected.

You have ONLY 7 pounds to go to get to your goal. These will NOT be lost quickly. And should not be, as the extended months it may take, will allow you to really learn how to eat LC for the rest of your life. NOT at Induction levels, but at MAINTENANCE levels.

Any change in eating takes patience and time and so does losing weight. Atkins always said that low carbing was NOT a quick weight loss diet. So anyone who believes it is, is not correct.

I am an O. I just don't see how weight loss depends on your blood type. Sounds a bit sketchy to me also. I think when it comes to keeping the weight off it has more to do with healthy eating then blood type.

Yeah, the book picked out foods that were supposed to work better for weightloss depending on bloodtype, but overall it was a low carb diet. I couldn't even finish reading it was such BS. As far as the weightloss thing goes, I just haven't updated my profile I am really only at 138, my scale was way off. I know that I have gained fat and lost muscle mass because my body fat percentage has increased also. The nutritionist said that because muscle weighs more than fat that my weightloss is water and muscle only. I wasn't expecting quick weightloss, but I also wasn't expecting to gain 2 inches on my waist and 1 inch on my theighs and then an inch on each leg. I have been following the diet exactly how I should and for some weird reason it just isn't for me. I have been doing some research on the web and there seems to be a couple other people out there that had a similar problem. So for now I think I am just going to give the body for life plan a try and see if that has enough carbs in it to get my system back to normal, knock off these inches and hopefull keep me full too. Thank you everyone for all of the wonderful support and advice.

Ok, here's a thought - you are 5'5" and 138 pounds - seems to me what you are forgetting is that this is a NORMAL weight!!! Of course you are not going to lose tons and tons of fat if you haven't much to lose Perhaps instead of attempting a diet you should focus on weight training and toning to get rid any extra fat. But don't blame Atkins for your cellulite - you aren't a teenager, face it - as we get older, yup, cellulite happens - as do baby stomachs, saddlebags etc!!

I think the"losing muscle instead of fat" theory is quite interesting and I find it really, really important to insure that I AM really losing FAT not muscle. I'm not very knowledable on this topic, but I found this article very interesting.

http://www.geocities.com/~slopitch/drsquat/fredzig.htm

If you read towards the middle, it talks about cutting calories and how when you reduce your calories (3500 calories=1gram of fat, so cutting down 500 a day consecutively will result in 1 lb weight loss) The article says that, in fact, this is not always the case.

"Actually, much of the weight you'll lose will come from muscle tissue, NOT fat! Why? Because your body tends to use ("excess") muscle tissue for needed energy before it reclaims fat deposits.
The answer is to TAKE YOUR TIME with fat loss, and either preserve or build muscle tissue by integrating scientific weight training, mild aerobics, dietary manipulation, supplementation and other technologies into your lifestyle. Follow the rules above!"

Is it possible that when we lose very fast we are actually losing muscle? And this is why its much easier to gain it all back when its a crash diet?

Now, I try to take this diet as WOE and lose my weight slowly and not rush the weight loss so that I can hope to keep it off forever... but it does bother me as I hope what I'm losing is all fat and not muscle. I'm guessing its important to keep protein levels up so that our body will use this for fuel and to repair muscles, while I should also keep my calories moderate, not too low.

He emphasizes in the article that one should

"NEVER attempt to gain or lose "weight!"
Instead, you should always strive to
gain muscle and lose fat!"

For those of you who are knowlegable on this issue, read the linked article and tell me what you think. =) I cant really respond like I want to because I dont have the knowledge backgroud to really "back up" any of this. Thanks everyone.

Brittany

Brittany

Hi Brit, that was a very interesting article! You will find people that both support and oppose that theory. Unfortunately the research done on LC diets is not Longitudinal so you kind of have to take the studies done, read them and decide what you want to believe. Another problem is that most of the studies done have not been replicated, and have about a million other things causing them to be invalid and unreliable. Maybe in about 15 years we we actually have some research that offers insight to LCing. But until then all you can really do is read what is out there now and decide for yourself. Everyone is different and what one persons body may do anothers may not.

teresamay- Although I appreciate your insight, I completely disagree with you about the cellulite thing. I am only 23, until three weeks ago when I started the diet i had one tiny littly spot on my left thigh where you could see an itsy bitsy dimple when I sat down. Now all I have to do is stand, my rear end, my thighs my stomach, it is definately without a doubt from the diet.

Synergygrl
You do know that fat redistributes as you lose. Co can it be that your "gain" of one inch is from elsewhere and soon to be gone too? As the water transfers again?

My mother in law has been using the "blood type" book for quite some time. As she has gained, I have lost. She was on Atkins quite some time ago and did well losing, but didn't maintain her ways. Everytime I go over there she brings out some sort of cake or cookie, or she eats a few candies. Of course she always tries to get me to join her. She is supposed to be the type that loses on high carb... the only thing she's lost is her waistline.

GL
Cori

BTW I'm AB... whatever that is supposed to mean, it's the opposite of O... and I've lost 50lb, and plan on losing at least 50lb more.

Synergy, I may have missed it if you mentioned it, but do you exercise? That might be a way to build muscle while losing fat. If you add weight training and cardio to a low or moderate carb WOE, the results can be exactly what you want.

if you are eating a lot of fat in your diet, the body fat measuring tool will register higher--they are not as acurate as you would like.

I don't see how cellulie could manifest itself in such a short time... just 3 weeks from hardly any- to a lot....that sounds very strange to me.

As for the inch gained on the waist... my waist goes up a lot during TOM.... could that have anything to do with the gain in the waist?

Speaking of TOM.... I probably won't show any loss this week cause thats where I'm headed right now....you get depressed enough with PMS and then add to that not losing or maybe even going up a few pounds (even if it is temporary) that just makes the depression worse.

Here is a thought for you on your "FARMERS" diet
Back in those days they didn't even know much about blood types let alone say that is has to do with blood type aka "FARMERS" DIET
I am A negative and this diet is working great for me

I was talking to a lady at the store yesterday. We were both buying Atkins bars.She said her nutritionist said you lose muscle on Atkins + told her to go on South Beach diet. She was really against Atkins. Her Husband has heart problems + his dietian said Atkins + all the fat would kill him for sure. They are both doing South Beach. I don't know anything about that diet.My Dad just had a Quadruple heart bypass last month due to plugged arteries, + they read him the riot act about not frying anything. He has to broil everything, so I don't feel right about all the bacon etc. I am eating. I hope we don't all get plugged arteries one day after eating all this fat for years.
Do any of you have heart problems? And - does your Dr. approve of Dr. Atkins, if you do?