Diet and Health FAQ

Tagged As: what can you eat on the atkins diet

Question:
Has anyone here ever tried to combine the Weight Watchers diet with the Atkins diet? My family says I should go on the Atkins diet because you can eat more and better food. I wonder what foods could you eat if you combined the two diets? Please let me know if you have tried it

Answer:
How successful you are depends on a lot of things. If you like eating fruits, pasta, or whole grains, then you probably won't be very happy on Atkins, because those foods are allowed only in limited quantities. If you are big on high protein foods, you will like it better, because those foods are virtually unlimited. The way it works is that eating high protein foods with very low carbs induces a state called ketosis, which burns fat and causes a decrease in appetite. There have been studies done which indicate that this does not have any negative physical impacts in the short term, unless you have kidney problems (high protein diets are hard on the kidneys), but no long term studies have been done. WeightWatchers is simpley a reduced calorie diet which uses points instead of calorie counting. In the United States, points values for foods are based on calories, fat content, and fiber. You are assigned a restricted number of points, and keep track of how many points you eat. You can get extra points by exercising. There are no known drawbacks to limiting caloric intake, as long as it isn't done too severely. Obviously, I prefer the weight watchers program. It doesn't seem natural to me to eat a diet that is so low in carbs. I try to eat a balanced diet, with a variety of foods. I believe that WW is a program that teaches me how to eat properly, rather than emphasizing fast weight loss. This is good, since I will have to stay on the program pretty much forever. No diet will help you lose weight and keep it off unless you change your eating habits. That's what I don't like about fad diets, including Atkins. Their focus is on losing weight, not learning to eat in a way that you can maintain forever. You can lose a lot of weight on Atkins, and who knows, you may be able to keep it off. Most people on the program won't keep the weight off, because they'll go back to eating the way they did before the program. I suppose you could combine the two diets, but I'm not sure what the point would be. If you stick with either program you will lose weight, combining them may help you lose weight faster, but studies indicate that the faster you lose weight, the less likely you are to keep it off.