It’s ridiculous. Atkins books are usually available at the public library. Failing that, Goodwill and Half-Price Books often carry them when people give up on their various weight-loss attempts and declutter their homes of all the diet stuff. There’s no excuse for pretending to have an opinion about the diet plan if you have not even read the primary source material. Anyone here who’s guilty, and you know who you are, shame on you and you don’t deserve to be considered any sort of dietary authority.

I am not saying anyone has to go along with what the guy said (although more and more research studies come out every day that vindicate him). I AM saying it is irresponsible to dismiss something when you know nothing about it. I bet I’ve read more about veganism from vegan sources than your average vegan has bothered learning about low-carbing, for example. Come on now.

My 2 cents on the comment above: I’ve done Weight Watchers more than once and always lost weight easily, but found it too expensive to keep up for long.

I found the WW meetings themselves fairly pointless, although other people get a lot out of them (my mum included!) I liked it that they encouraged a sensible low calorie and low saturated fat diet, simplifying calorie counting into points. But we all know you could diet at home for free. For me, the reason it worked so well was because, after forking out all that cash every week, I was determined to have some weight loss to show for it!

What I really disliked was that WW is totally focused on food, with almost no mention of exercise at all (at least, it was 4 or 5 years ago when I last did it). I know that not everyone wants or is physically able to exericse, but for me it’s absolutely vital, not only to burn calories, but psychologically – it makes me feel fantastic and it naturally makes me want to eat more healthily.

Basically, the only thing I got out of WW was the accountability that paying every week just for the privilege of standing on some scales brings. However, in future I think I’d get even more out of just eating healthily, exercising and (for accountability) doing a sponsored slim for charity.

I’m just starting training for strength and also to shed some remaining body fat, so I’m back on their nutritional plan, but open for suggestions. Thoughts?

Awesome site!
Morgan

The master cleanse is a fast but you drink water mixed with fresh lemon juice, grade b maple syrup (closest to its original form and where the calories come from) and cayenne. If you drink a lot of it, you get some calories and really get cleaned out.

My other concern is weight training while vegan, I eat about 55 grams a day – soy, beans, veggies, etc.

Thanks for getting back to me

Every so often (3 times a year) I do a cleanse called the master cleanse for 4-14 days. Despite the fact that you don’t eat any food, you get around 1200 calories a day. I love doing it because it changes the way I look at food, as you pointed out above, and I feel cleansed.

Is this a really bad idea? Should I not lift while doing this?