Some time ago there was a thread about Atkins diet and exercise. I am wondering if anyone has some good advice about using this diet when you are an athlete. I work out every day, whether it's 4,000 yards in the pool, or 3-4 miles on the treadmill, or dryland training (weights). I went on Atkins a week ago to lose 10 pounds, so far I've lost 4 and feel terrific. Last Saturday I had a 5000-yard workout that was the best in ages. So much energy!
I'm just wondering if it's because I've added much-needed protein to my diet (I'm a carb junkie). A fellow athlete poo-poo's the Atkins plan and says it's a bunch of hogwash, that athletes HAVE to have some carbs and they won't kill you.
Anyone?
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Former Member
The science behind the water weight issue is very well established. Carbs are stored in the human body in the form of glycogen (essentially glucose molecules strung together), mostly in the liver and muscle tissue. Muscle glycogen is bound up with significant amounts of water. The weight ratio can be two to five parts water to one part glycogen. If the glycogen stores are depleted (e.g., by prolonged exercise or starvation), this water is released. This mechanism accounts for water weight being lost when the diet is deficient in carbs.
Still, it is correct to say that many people confuse the Atkins diet as a whole with the initial two-week phase of the diet, which is quite severely low carb. If these Atkins dieters then go on to re-introduce carbs, as prescribed in the latter phases, they could (could!!) very well end up eating a sensible, nutritionally balanced, calorie controlled diet. (This would technically require more fruits, veggies and whole grains than even the maintenance phase permits, however.) My point is this: why not just skip ahead to a sensible, nutritionally balanced, calorie controlled diet?
The science behind the water weight issue is very well established. Carbs are stored in the human body in the form of glycogen (essentially glucose molecules strung together), mostly in the liver and muscle tissue. Muscle glycogen is bound up with significant amounts of water. The weight ratio can be two to five parts water to one part glycogen. If the glycogen stores are depleted (e.g., by prolonged exercise or starvation), this water is released. This mechanism accounts for water weight being lost when the diet is deficient in carbs.
Still, it is correct to say that many people confuse the Atkins diet as a whole with the initial two-week phase of the diet, which is quite severely low carb. If these Atkins dieters then go on to re-introduce carbs, as prescribed in the latter phases, they could (could!!) very well end up eating a sensible, nutritionally balanced, calorie controlled diet. (This would technically require more fruits, veggies and whole grains than even the maintenance phase permits, however.) My point is this: why not just skip ahead to a sensible, nutritionally balanced, calorie controlled diet?
