By far my biggest delta between where I am now and where I feel I need to be for survival is physical fitness, and by far my biggest challenge there is weight. As soon as cherry season is over I'm planning on a second round of Atkins - I permanently lost about 65 lbs several years ago, but have stayed about a hundred (yes, one zero zero) pounds overweight since. I've been reading through the Primal threads and it seems like from a dietary perspective that it's pretty much the same as Atkins with an added exercise strategy. Any other real differences from those who have done both? Apologies if this has already been discussed a million times...
The Primal Blueprint diet is a lot more lenient when it comes to carbohydrates. You can basically eat as many carbohydrates as your body requests, but they ought to come from primal sources, ideally vegetables, nuts, and fruits. Grains are not allowed for except on occasion. From what I've gathered about Atkins, that type of diet is more focused on the general idea of eating low amounts of carbohydrate matter and less focused on the specific foods you're eating. For example, eating a conventionally-raised steak fried in canola oil might be low in carbohydrates (and therefore acceptable on the Atkins diet), but it's also going to be high in rancid fats, growth hormones, antibiotics, pesticide residues, imbalanced omega-6 to omega-3 ratios, and so on and so forth. Look at the ingredients for this Atkins protein bar: Atkins by the book isn't much different from the PB, but the focus is on carbohydrate restriction, which has led a lot of people to conclude that they can eat anything as long as it is low-carb -- Atkins bars, fast food meals, dressings and sauces made with soy or corn oil, low-carb pasta and low-carb tortillas. But these foods aren't healthy and the PB doesn't allow them. Atkins - carb controlled; meat, vegetables, fruit, dairy, grains Primal - meat, vegetables, berries, dairy Paleo - meat, vegetables, berries Here's a great illustration from HuntGatherLove.
Thanks - the way I implemented Atkins was meat, eggs, cheese, salad veggies, oils, spices,etc.. I got most of my carbs through tomatoes, onions, and olives. I learned there were many foods that are naturally sweet without carbs, including meats. Every three or four weeks I gave myself a "free day" where I could eat carbs, then back to basics. My first free day I had two scoops of Baskin Robbins, then got a nasty headache shortly afterwards. After that I found I could tolerate pizza better on free days - just got sleepy, but ice cream/sugary foods just weren't worth pain.
Atkins - Questions and Answers | Mark's Daily Apple Paleo - Questions and Answers | Mark's Daily Apple Primal allows nuts, fruits, dairy and most importantly, lots of saturated fat. Start here: Welcome to Mark's Daily Apple | Mark's Daily Apple
