We were discussing this today, thought it would be good fodder for this board

Do you think that an overall radical diet change is better than a gradual shift in dietary habits?

Asking this because I've heard of so many people talking about how they eat fast food 3 times a week, never eat a vegetable or fruit, and drink a litre of pop a day. Then they want to go on a diet, changing their eating habits to yogurt for breakfast, salad for lunch and grilled chicken for dinner

I mean - you are almost setting yourself up for failure that way! I think there would be a huge reduction in the weight of the average American if people just stoppped drinking POP, for crying out loud!

So interested to hear what others opinions are. I guess I can steer this in the direction of Atkins-talk, because this has gone a bit off topic - is it reasonable to think that someone can successfully adopt atkins if their eating habits are absolutely atrocious, to the point where they don't eat produce?

I personally had to go cold turkey so to speak on carbs. I saw no point in doing the gradual reduction. I wanted to see quick results. I literally went from probably 300-400 carbs a day to 20 overnight.

It has been a year now, and I had no problem adjusting.

I started my weight loss about 7 years ago when I got tired of weighing 170+ pounds and my size 16's were getting too tight. I started simply by cutting out my "bedtime snack", which usually consisted of either a pint of ice cream or a huge bowl of buttered popcorn while watching the evening news. When I adjusted to that change I then omitted the 4 slices of buttered toast I was eating for breakfast every morning and switched to Carnation Instant Breakfast. I didn't have a scale, but could tell I was slowly losing weight. I also started morning walks, and then jogging, caving twice a week, and then I joined a gym.

To me it wasn't starting a diet, but weeding out bad eating habits and incorporating some good exercise habits. I got my weight down to about 125, but in 1999 a vacation to London and France and all the ale and good food I consumed started a weight creep back up to around 140 or so. I was still going to the gym, but the twice a week caving research project came to an end, so I ended up with less exercise.

I started low carb eating 2 years ago at around 143 pounds. That summer I approached it as a diet (changed everything at once), lost down to 127, figured I was done, and went back to eating carbs. Last May, back up to 143 and too-tight clothes, I went back on incuction. When the school year started and I knew I would not be able to get as much exercise I found my maintenance level of carbs, and have been maintaining my current weight (around 131) since fall. The last few weeks of school I have been gradually reducing my level of carbs, in preparation for getting rid of the last few pounds and daily gym attendance.

So to make a long story short, and answer your question, I have found that the gradual change is better for me, especially since I view this as changing my eating habits and not a "diet". You can't learn something well overnight. You have to have repeated exposure to really reinforce the concept. So a radical change in eating habits doesn't teach anything and sets one up for failure. In my opinion.

Joan

well personally I think thats the key. I think the whole concept of "diet" is half the problem, because a diet is something that typically is very restrictive, requires willpower, and is temporary. In other words, doesn't help a whole lot at all

Again I'm not trying to shoot down Atkins - I've seen the improvement that some of the Atkins principles can make, and I'm not even ON the diet yet. But I'm also already pretty healthy. There are scores of people with horrific diets out there, for those people, I think small gradual changes would be key

Just like everything else I do I jumped in with both feet. My eating habits WERE atrocious. I ate chocolate by the pound at least twice a week,fast food just as often if not more, and a meal without potatoes...no way. I drank liter after liter of pop.
For me, going cold turkey and getting everything out of my system at once was best.
I also quit smoking many years ago the same way.
Just stop and never go back.

Absolutely the same for me as Justjen and Gidget. When you're heavily, and I mean heavily addicted to sugar and grains, as in "sneak-out-at-2AM-to-get-your-fix" addicted, the only way I can see out of this is to go cold turkey. Otherwise you're almost doomed to failure. Do alcoholics and drug addicts cut down gradually?--that's almost funny to think about. If you can't comprehend that, then you've never been addicted.

On the other hand you, runnr, only needing to lose 15 lbs., don't appear to have terribly dysfunctional eating habits, or at least if you do, they aren't causing you to gain hundreds of pounds, so maybe a gradual shift would work for you.

I jumped in with both feet as soon as I started. I think it's easier to change everything in my diet all at once instead of introducing changes gradually. It takes approximately 60 days to form a habit. I'm halfway there, with 30 days left to go.. I am forming the habit of low carb eating until it becomes second nature to me.
Giving up carbs is a lot like Gidget said--like quitting smoking. Many people find it easier to go cold turkey and get the withdrawl over and done with, rather than dragging it out for months with nicotine patches. Dump the carbs immediately, get over the three day withdrawl, and get on with a new, healthy lifestyle.

It definetly depends how addicted you are to sugar and fast-food. People who eat fast-food and drink pop everyday should definetly aim at cutting it out a few days out of the week to start. I think the majority of the population knows this is not healthy for you and probably only eats like this rarely. For me I had to go cold turkey for sure, I really wanted to rid my body of all junk once and for all.

So, I guess to answer your question if people are not committed to their health then yes convincing them to at least stop drinking pop is a step in the right direction. However, for most people to commit to a life-changing diet they must go cold turkey on sugar!!

I actually eat a very natural and wholesome diet, but it is carb rich and I feel like that has contributed to the small weight gain I've experience lately (about 7 pounds) which is why I'd like to try atkins. So in my case, it would be pretty gradual anyways, because all I'd really be doing is switching my fruit consumption to more veggies, switching yogurt to cottage cheese, and altering my lunches, which are my real carb heavy meal

Interesting responses - I haven't yet gotten over the sugar addiction (mostly natural though) - maybe when I see the effect that has I'll understand the "cold turkey" approach better?

I jumped straight in both feet first. I almost never ate junk food or preprepared foods so It wasn't such a huge shift for me. The most difficult thing for me was living without bread and biscuits (cookies) and starting to take artificial sweeteners in tea etc.

It depends on the person. People have different needs, and different abilities and willpowers. If someone wants to stop drinking pop, great! If someone wants to go vegetarian Atkins from your typical American cuisine, or some other radical change, great! So long as the change is healthy overall, best is relative.

I went from one day to the next, just like flipping a switch.
But I suffered the consequences for that, just like most people do, which was big time carb withdrawal with headaches and fatigue. But I needed to to that for me and now I am happy I did.

I will be going to the USA in 8 weeks and hoping to find that a swimsuit will look good on me! I know I will not be at goal yet, but perhaps 165 which will at least be on the high side of the "healthy weight" chart for my height! Cant "weight" for my blue dot on fitday to cross that line!

what a great quote!

I agree with the above quote.

It really depends on the person and the situation as well as the type of plan you want to follow. For Atkins I had to jump right in and cut out all the junk. I know there are people who cut their carbs gradually but for me, I needed the dramatic impact and induction to get over my carb cravings and addiction.

I feel that the beauty of a successful Atkins experience is that it is both a radical change and a gradual one at the same time.
Induction requires one to jump in with both feet first. This allows one to see immediate results and is the best encouragement to continue on. With other diets that I have been on, I would try for a month, hate the radical change, and see maybe one to two pounds lost at best. Then I would get depressed and slip back into my previous eating habits. (which were worse than horrible).
I feel that the initial stages of the diet allow people like me (with portion control issues) to feel very sated by allowing unlimited food and calories.
The strange thing started to happen about two months in, I no longer had portion issues. In fact I no longer really needed my food scale. I was eating a more normal volume (amount) of food and still feeling sated. It was as if the first two months were a gradual change to more normal portions of considerably healthier food in stead of a radical change. When I began to track with fitday I noticed that my amount of calories has continued to drift down without any hunger or need to increased volumes of food. I am willing to bet that the most successful people on this board have made that transition from very high calorie, high fat diets to a much more healthy combination of meats and veggies, perhaps without even realizing it. Something that previously would not have been possible.
BTW, I refer to volumes of food because I feel that there is also an emotional component to my eating and the volume of $8it I shoveled into my mouth when depressed was usually Fat and Carbs in an ungodly combination.
So in summary, as I have wandered abit, Atkins is both a radical diet and a gradual change in lifestyle and perhaps because of that dichotomy there is such disagreement among Critics and Supporters.
Finally, in conclusion there is really just one more thing that has to be said.

Thank You Dr Atkins.