I was wondering is there a general rule as to the ratio of different foods? Thanks

There are two main schools of thought on the carbs:protein:fats question.

The conventional wisdom has been that most of your energy from complex carbohydrates, plenty of protein, and no more fat than your body needs. The carbs:protein:fats ratio would be about 7:2:1

More and more people now are saying that most of your energy should come from polyunsaturated fats. The 'zone' and Atkins' diet would be examples. This school of thought suggest a carbs:protein:fat ratio of 3:4:4

UK government guidelines have been that up to 30% of your daily intake of energy can come from fats and still be considered a healthy diet. Its nothing new. unsaturated fats and EFA's are actualy beneficial to the body, but in high quantites boost your calorific intake considerably, thus increasing the chance of excess energy storage (body fat increase). The 'atkins' lack of distinction between types of fats, and recommending large amounts of bacon and sausage for breakfast for example, is a health problem waiting to happen IMO.

A correction to my previous post - the ratio of carbs:protein:fat should be 4:3:3

Cord, Atkins does distinguish between different types of fat. He recommends that most of your calories come from monounsaturated fats.

Because Atkins has become so mainstream, he is misquoted here and there and his diet plan is grossly misinterpreted.

One thing I wonder - how many people actually go to the doctor for the obligatory check before starting the Atkins diet? I doubt it's so many!

If done right, the atkins diet can be extremely beneficial. I myself lost over 100 lbs doing atkins, over the course of about 5 months. While I agree that there may be some negative side effects of having bacon with your breakfast. My guess is that the significant health benefits of loosing that much weight would outweight the dangers of 4 strips of bacon in the morning. All in all, I figure I am eating significantly healthier than I ever did before, just by cutting out all of the snacks and goodies. (I'm a major chocoholic) Its because of the atkins diet that I started doing tkd. Originally weighing over 300 lbs, I never saw myself being athletic, but when I lost all that weight I found there were so many things that I could do that I never thought I could, and since I had no idea what I couldn't do anymore, everything became possible, and as for the question you asked, while I didn't see the doctor before I started atkins, I have had two cholesterol tests since, and both have come back well within the healthy range. Over the past year, I relaxed on how strict I followed the diet and started having difficulties in class because I had cut back on the amount of red meat I ate, and became anemic. I started taking iron supliments about a month ago, which has worked wonders, and sunday I started the induction phase of atkins again, and have already lost 6 lbs. at 225 lbs, I am very concerned about being able to perform my next pattern (chung moo: it has a jump 360) so I want to loose as much weight as possible before I get there. My goal is to get below 200 before that.

The Before

The After

Laura

Incredible!! Stupendous job, there Laura! Keep it up, I'm sure you can reach your goal!

Well done! . I am pleased that you are having health checks along the way, and watching your cholestorol.

Remember that you can get your fat requirements from efa's and unsaturated fats as well as red meat. There is more info coming through on a regular basis confirming long term health risks associated with consistently high red meat intake.

Good luck with the 360 jumping kick- remember its more down to practicing the technique than being the right shape- ask Samo Hung. Plenty of skinny MA's in the world who cant do a 360 any better than him

Omg! Awesome with the weight loss. Great Job!

Thanks everyone. I appreciate the support. Now if everyone with chocolate chip cookies would please NOT keep coming around me... lol

Laura