Atkins Induction

I received the following email, which got me thinking:

Hey Max, I emailed you way back a few months ago about some Zone stuff and I've been continuing to follow your blog since then from over here in Washington, DC. Wanted to throw something your way as I see you are trying to hit 14 blocks on the Zone with no additional fat blocks.

I have a fairly similar build as you and was also having the exact same problems of doing really well in the Zone relatively, and still not losing those extra pounds. I just finished reading "Good Calories, Bad Calories" by Taubes, and kind of decided that I was going to give up on the Zone for a little while and see what happened. I was still training hard and regularly both before and after.

I'm now three weeks into doing the Induction Phase of Atkins and I've dropped 9 lbs. I've also set PRs on three different WODs during that time, including a shaving four minutes off of the 4 rounds 400m Run/50 Squats WOD since June 3rd (www.bswcrossfit.blogspot.com).

I feel good and the food prep and eating is WAY easier than Zone. I'm planning on going to back to a Zone-similar diet once I get down to 205 and see how it goes, but wanted to pass that your way b/c it looks to me that you and I may have a similar carb sensitivity issue that may preclude us from doing the Zone, even if we just ate veggies all the time.

Anyway, thought I'd throw that your way b/c 14 blocks sounds tough and might be a lot more work than you need to do to get the same results.

Let me know what you think.

-Brian
Co-Owner/Trainer, Potomac CrossFit
Arlington, Virginia

I went out and got "Good Calories, Bad Calories" By Gary Taub, and the "Atkins New Diet Revolution" by Dr. Atkins.

A few days later, the national site (CrossFit.com) posted a link to this further vindication of Atkins: Weight Loss on Low Carb Diet Study.

This led me to find a link to a LECTURE BY GARY TAUB

After delving into all this, I am convinced, more than ever, that everything the USDA nutritional guidelines is based on, is to put it kindly, bullshit.

I embarked on day one of the Atkins two-week induction phase yesterday. It will be interesting to see how I do on "Fran" today with almost no carbohydrate in my system: it sort of sucks that the dreaded "Fran" came up today, as day two of Atkins induction is probably the low point: ketosis has not set in, there is barley any glycogen in my system, so I expect this to suck. I would happy to finish in under 10:00, or just finish. Last time was 6:20, PR is 5:20.