Originally posted by 2LAP
Well done on your changes and keep them up for some good health benefits. I have no doubt that much of the changes in your blood lipids were caused by your loss in weight (well done on both counts), this could also have been acheived on a non Atkins diet too.
--In summer of 2002, by staying hungry on a low-fat diet for several months, I reduced my weight to almost what it is now, in preparation for riding the TdF mountians, etc., on a 17-day tour. I had a blood test done just before leaving for France. Lipids then were higher than the pre-Atkins test six weeks ago. That suggests neither low-fat diet nor lower weight accounts for current numbers.
Your TG has changed a lot (again well done); but be aware that things like what you eat the day (and month) before, any exercise taken, how you fast, etc. will effect your fasting TG. A single 1 hour exercise bout on the day before a fasting TG test can lower fasting TG by up to 25% when all other conditions are the same, and a meal can increase TG by 300% or more (depending upon what you eat) in the period following the meal (peak TG is recorded at 4 to 8 hours and staying elevated for 12 to 16 hours later)!
--The Sunday night (12 hours) before my recent blood test, we had company. I ate a large steak, salad with fatty dressing, green beans with butter, and drank water and a glass of Aussie Shiraz. I did ride that morning, but only 42 miles at moferate pace.
The day before my pre-Atkins test, I don't recall my food intake, but I rode 58 miles at moderate pace.
While your LDL and HDL have changed (again well done) this is by a much smaller amount. If I was your doctor I would like to see these changes maintained or improved over the next two blood samples given that day to day variability alone might account for this level of variation and thats before we get into the variability we could expect as a result of analysis
It is difficult to say if the composition of your new diet is the cause of your blood lipid changes v's weight loss. Particularly when I don't know what you were eating prior to this or your medical/family history. You must be a very fit 54 year old completing that distance at that speed!!!
-- My pre-Atkins diet was nearly vegetarian diet (I did eat meat, fish chicken and turkey before, but in very limited quantities) which was heavy in vegetables, pastas, starches, multi-grain breads, skim milk and cereals.
My Atkins diet included foods I was seldom allowed to eat before. I ate bacon, sausages, and hotdogs, generally nitrate-free, often turkey and chicken-based, but still fatty. (Atkins specifically recommends against foods with suspected carcinogens or other health dangers.) I also ate "healthier" fats, such as olive oil, olives and nuts. Frankly, I piad little attention to the nature of the fats I ate, except I avoided processed foods that were hydrogenated, etc. That was easy, because most such foods have carbs as well. I avoided Nutrasweet, so drank only Diet Rite sodas and water. The salad dressings I choose (caesar, blue cheese) were fatty. I did and do eat broccoli, green beans, asparagus, cauliflower, and spinach, all either raw in salads or cooked, which are among the veggies approved for the induction phase. The only conscious departures I made from his recommendations were that I continued to drink caffeinated tea and coffee, in modest amounts, and had an occasional wine or beer.
I am fitter than most people I know in my age range, but I am not at the top of the local fitness range. I have several riding buddies who are world class plus-50 triathletes. When they are hammering, I am often off the back within an hour.
How do you feel being on the Atkins; that you will start to have to reintroduce the foods that you have excluded so far (i.e. taking the number of calories from carbohydrates to 40%) now that you will be moving into the maintenance phase? Do you think you will stop imporving or even go backwards during the Atkins 'mantainence phase'? This must be difficult mentaly?
-- Now that I near my weight target, I will begin moving to the later Atkins phases and introduce a wider variety and greater quantity of veggies and perhaps a little fruit. I feel fine and have good endurance, but my climbing hurts more. Even though I am a bit lighter, I feel like a lack a glycogen reserve or some other energy source to take the larger rolling hills at full throttle.
I expect that once I have hot my weight target I could relax about my intake and backslide to "bad carbs" largely because they are so readily available at social functions and everyone else eats them. I do miss a good baguette, a baked potato, and good pasta, and the thought of foregoing all those forever is daunting.
