Atkins Diet was a disaster diet

by Jenny Lee
(Santa Clara, CA)

My aunt's wedding was coming up so I decided I wanted to look good since I was in the wedding. I decided to go with the Atkins diet cutting down to no carbs and sticking to mainly meats and vegetables.

I ate a lot more red meats, cheeses, spinach, and other vegetables.

In about one month and a half I lost 20 pounds and never looked better! It was amazing and I lost the weight for my aunt's wedding and was able to fit all my old outfits.

It didn’t take much exercise either. I was doing a bit of yoga and pilates here and there. I was happy while it lasted.

However, I went in for my annual physical and ran the usual tests. I was explaining to my doctor that I had been having hearth burn and other issues.

After the tests, we found out that my cholesterol level became abnormally high due to all the meats and cheeses that I ate. My health was declining and I was advised highly from my doctor to get off Atkins.

Shortly after, during dinner one day, I had a slice of bread and butter. It tasted delicious and I quickly returned back to my usual eating habits and gained all the weight back in one month plus 10 more pounds on top of that!

This ended up being a disaster diet and I've been working on changing my eating habits to just healthy food and exercising. This has worked out a lot better and I've been spending months to repair my cholesterol.

Note from Dr. Dan

Jenny,

Your experience is similar to a lot of other people who have lost weight quickly. When you resume your regular diet your body is all primed to store calories.

You don't just gain the weight back. You tend to gain even more than before.

This is the best reason to follow a weight loss program that allows you to eat your regular foods and that helps you gradually reach your goal weight and stay there, rather than on a diet, off a diet.

Dr. Dan