I scared the bleep out of myself when I thought I was 280 but found out I was over 300. Imagine rockhopping at 300 pounds! Sucks. Ten years ago I weighed 205-210 when I seriously blew out one knee. ACL shot, MCL partial tear, miniscuss cartilage shaved off with a flap of it jammed under my kneecap (I damaged the other knee a couple times less seriously since then). I had no insurance and had to go with the minimum operations to get by. As a result, over the next almost decade of marriage, kids, 60 hour weeks, and junk food stints I added nearly 100 pounds.
So I went on the Atkins. Did the 2 week induction period which is probably the only difficult part (well, that and not eating bread
). From the start off the diet to when I stopped (lots of parties, vacation, and events) I had lost 28 pounds in just short of 6 weeks. After a couple days of feeling very mildly queasy, I suddenly had far more energy that I remember having in a decade. My diet related heartburn stopped. The induction period is very strict on what you can eat but the big thing is no carbs. None. You don't need to eat Prime Rib followed by a T-Bone for your protein. You eat smart like you would on anything else, chicken, fish, pork, the occasional lean steak. Instead of fries and potatoes, simmer some mushrooms with seasonings and some onions. A good salad with some ham and cheese slices. Have a couple slices of bacon with your eggs, not a pound. Stuff like that. Have celery with some Blue Cheese Dressing for a snack. It's really not too bad... After the two weeks, you can have your ham & cheese sandwich on low carb pita (regular carb less dietary carb). You can have a burger on this pita too.
And drink LOTS of water. A gallon plus a day - yeh it sucks with waders on. When you switch off the carbs and on to the proteins your kidneys WILL be working a lot harder as you turn stored fat (from all those carbs you've eaten) into energy. Much like how a bear fattens up before winter and starts to exchange stored energy in from the built up fat. Drikning lots of water is CRUCIAL as it will flush out the kidneys and keep the toxin levels at easily tolerable levels.
I am going back on it in the next week or so but my goal is to be at 250 or so by the end of 04 and more by next spring.
I encourage anyone that needs to lose some weight and needs more energy to at least consider this. Make sure you know where your cholesterol numbers are before you begin. Go buy the book and read it. I'm going to leaf thru mine soon and get geared up for another induction period. I lost almost 30 (and put almost 10 back on after falling off the diet) but it has worked for me and I've seen a lot of people take advantage of this.