During my student days, my then flatmate went on the Atkins Diet. I honestly thought she was nuts (and also, a little vain!). What, no carbs??? You're eliminating a food group here! And high fat? What's that about? She showed me the cookbook, and said she is aware of ketosis, and because of the the induction phase was only 2 weeks. Okay, I said, but don't expect me to do the diet too (we cook together and share our food). So we ate Atkins-legal main courses, except I added my daily white rice must-haves. I was quite surprised that she actually lost weight, and tolerated the diet well, no hunger pangs and such.
Ah, those were the days when I couldn't gain weight even though I tried hard. I remained consistently underweight for my height. For years I maintained a UK size 8.
Now I have ballooned into a size 14. Argh! At first I was pleased, as I had always wanted some curves, plus it is a good excuse to go shopping. But then I discovered a lot of the stuff I liked was made for skinny Asian pre-teens. And people started commenting on my weight. :-P!
But still I didn't care so much, after all a size is just a number, right? Until a lot of chronic diseases hit home, to family members. Suddenly I started to realise being too fat may be bad for your health. So we did all the usual low fat, low sugar stuff, cutting down on processed food, etc.etc.
And now it seems that it's the carbs/sugar that is making us fat. Seriously????? Now you tell me???
I am the sort of person that NEEDS her daily servings of rice. Otherwise I feel hungry. And now I might just need to watch out coz diabetes runs in the family??? I guess being young(er) just made me feel invincible, like, it could not EVER happen to me, right?
This is Day 2 of restricted carbs. And I have these slight pangs of hunger, but when before I would just down some rice/noodles, now I should snack on eggs. Or nuts. Argh. Yesterday was the worst; I actually fasted yesterday, but managed to pretty much sahur and iftar on the diet. Alhamdulillah. So far it has been a frenzied cooking learning curve for me: adjusting meals so we get enough nutrients yet remain low carbs.
I recommend Gary Taubes' 'Why We Get Fat and What to Do About It' for further details.
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