I’ve been on the Atkins Diet for a little over four weeks and I’ve lost 11 pounds. I knew the diet worked before trying it because I watched several co-workers where I use to work just melt away their weight on this diet. For the most part they kept it off for over a year. A little weight came back over that time but what’s a five pound weight gain over a year when you dropped forty pounds the previous six months?
However, I’m considering changing over to a similar diet, the South Beach Diet. My reasons aren’t due any lack of confidence in Atkins, I know it works. The reasons for this is that I do not believe I can sustain Atkins for the long haul. I’m also concerned about the ambivilence that Atkins seems to have toward saturated fats.
Both diets are based on keeping blood sugar levels stable, keeping the body’s need for insulin at a flat rate. Both diets eschew sugars and highly refined flours and meals. The difference is that while Atkins wants you to limit your intake of all carbohydrates, South Beach just wants you to limit your intake of certain carbohydrates. While Atkins doesn’t care about the amount or types of fat you consume, South Beach wants you to avoid saturated fats and transfats.
I switch over this weekend to South Beach. I’ll keep you posted on the results. I want to lose another ten pounds. Let’s see if I’m there in another month.
About Larry D. Burton
I'm a 55 year old controls engineer who just likes tinkering with stuff.
Finished high school at a local institute of learning. Decided it wasn't a good time to be a healthy, physically fit 18 year old with no college experience. Entered college and started working toward a degree in animal husbandry.
1975-1976
Discoverd that I was not going to be a very good husband of animals so I left school to figure out what I might be good at. A local beverage company took pity on me and paid me to go from place to place making sure their on tap beverages were maintaining their high quality.
1976-1979
Got out of quality control and into vending. Learned about control systems and refrigeration also learned that vending machines are heavy and vending doesn't pay all that well.
In 1977 I found myself married
1979-1981
Dedicated myself to installing and maintaining commercial refrigeration equipment. Found myself on the roof of a local grocery store one night in the middle of an ice storm replacing a compressor and figured it was time to get back into school.
1981-1986
Got my but back into school at night and changed jobs to keep the mechanical and electrical systems of a local coporate hospital in working order. The job expanded to unstopping drains and burning lab samples and amputated body parts.
1986-now
Finished school and took on a job designing, installing and maintaining industrial control systems. Along the way I picked up a bunch of computer skills that became very useful connecting various industrial controllers to one another and moving the data into coporate databases. I now operate Dallas Bay Technologies, a one man shop specializing in technology solutions for industrial problems.
