metabolically less fortunate than they are. Doesn ' t that make a lot more sense? Most people eat when they ' re hungry and stop when they ' re full. And if that ' s the case, how could they be overeating? They ' re doing what their bodies tell them to do.
Which is why the critical factor is not how much you eat, but what you eat. And if you ' re overweight, the what is likely an excess of carbohydrates.
It ' s What You Eat
Do you believe that a man can go from gaining 0.5 pound a week to losing 3.9 pounds a week without significantly altering the number of calories he consumes? Let me introduce you to Harry Kronberg. I want you to pay close attention to his story and try not to give way to disbelief, because these results are real. Harry Kronberg, the 39-year-old manager of a lumberyard, came to me with a heart arrhythmia and a desperate weight problem. He had been chubby even as a child, but now things were out of hand. A few years before, he had gone to a low-fat diet center and had managed to drop from 245 to 185 pounds. Sounds good. But before long, Harry had gained it all back with an added dividend of another 35 pounds.
That ' s right, when Harry came to see me, he tipped the scales at 280 on a five-foot six-and-ahalf-inch frame. In the previous thirty-five months, eating a relatively starchy, lowfat diet of approximately 2,100 calories a day, he had gained 70 pounds, exactly 2 pounds a month.
Harry started Atkins, radically restricting his intake of carbohydrates while eating freely of meat, fish, fowl and eggs. Harry was told he could eat as much as he needed to feel satisfied. The calorie count was strikingly similar to what he had been eating on his previous diet. Three months into his new regimen, he had lost 50.5 pounds( almost 4 pounds a week), and then continued to lose at a steady 3 pounds weekly. His heart symptoms vanished, his total cholesterol level dropped from a mid-range 207 to a dramatically lower 134 and his triglycerides went from 134 to 31.
OK, It ' s What I Eat, But Will I Still Enjoy Eating?
It will really surprise me if you can ' t. Let ' s take a look at Patricia Finley ' s menu. She ' s been doing Atkins for three and a half months, and she ' s lost 31 pounds. Patricia, who used to eat quite a lot of starches and who would sometimes go, on massive dessert binges when she was under pressure, has converted to tasty, controlled carbohydrate eating.
For breakfast, she eats a cheese omelette, or some vegetables with blue cheese, or bacon and eggs. Lunch can be tuna fish or chicken with a sumptuous salad. But sometimes she ' ll have chopped sirloin sauteed with onions, chili powder and peppers. Patricia enjoys having olives or asparagus spears for snacks, but she puts the greatest amount of energy and attention into dinner. She finds that it isn ' t possible to feel deprived when you ' re enjoying a meal consisting of guacamole( mashed avocado mixed with tomatoes, onion and seasoning) and strips of chicken and steak. Add to that her passion for grated zucchini in olive oil with butter and nutmeg, her taste for broccoli with lemon butter sauce and her homemade recipe for chicken soup, and what do you get? Starvation? Not. Patricia also enjoys lamb shanks with chopped onions cooked with olive oil, herbs and " Crazy Mixed Up Salt." And she assures me this is only a small sample of
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