"Atkins scares me a bit, Kim"

So wrote Lulu just now, an old acquaintance. She emailed about being a tester for the guided home-based ER Fat Burn experiment.

She continued:

"My brother did Atkins a while back, lost 30+ pounds eating pork rinds and pork chops and mayo and heavy cream and almost no veggies. His cholesterol shot up, and he looked a bit gray. Thin, but sorta the color of cardboard. Or pork rinds.

"Then, he gained it all back and quite a bit more, as I was afraid he might."

Then she added, hopefully,

"This will be different though, with Dr. Heidi at the helm, right?"

Yes, Lulu, day and night different - in a few critical places.

Anyone else afraid of Atkins? Let me respond to both the cholesterol and the gaining back.

Re the cholesterol
Atkins's own work (he was an MD - a cardiologist) showed that bad cholesterol went down with his diet. He encouraged folks to measure it before starting so they could see for themselves.

However, that was 30 years ago. The big difference today is in the quality of the meats and fats people are consuming with Atkins (and all everyday foods.)

Feedlot livestock is full of antibiotics and hormones, and they're often mistreated and sick. They're force-fed grain and soy. But their digestive systems are designed for grass. It may be that eating these industrial meats, eggs and fats exclusively, as most Americans do, can indeed contribute to high bad cholesterol. With or without Atkins. See Omnivore's Dilemma here.

Folks in ER Fat Burn have reported reducing their bad cholesterol. That's likely because in the ER Fat Burn, people eat only ER-quality meats, fats, eggs and oils. ER quality means:

1) only 100% grassfed beef
2) pastured chickens and eggs (see mini egg video here), and
3) only non-damaged fats and oils.

ER Fat Burn participant and psychologist Al Frech, a diabetic for 30 years, worried that "eggs and other saturated fats" would raise his bad cholesterol. He's on statins, he said.

But to his surprise, his bad cholesterol went down during and after ER FB. So did his blood sugar, which is now in the normal range (90-110) for the first time in 30 years, he said. Plus he lost 15 pounds in 6 weeks and has kept it off.

Dr. Frech had been on low carb for years and never lost weight before ER Fat Burn. Plus he was always hungry. Not anymore. We suspect his results are due in part to the ER quality of the protein, fats and oils he ate.

Re gaining weight back
If a person goes back to the eating habits that made them overweight in the first place, I don't know what else we should expect - except weight gain again.

What's been surprising to the ER FB participants is that the biggest weight losers have not gained anything back. One gal has now dropped 30 pounds and is losing a pound a week. One of our programmers lost 20 pounds in 6 weeks, and five more since. As a programmer, he sits all day. And a month later, he has kept it all off.

Here's what's most gratifying to me: ER Fat Burn participants say they'll never go back to their old ways of eating (industrial food) - they're ER food converts. That doesn't mean they will never have ice cream or pasta once in a while. They will. Because they'll be on their coasting cycle.

Hope that helps anyone who has the two questions Lulu did. Any others? Post them here at the bottom.

P.S. Soon we'll have an ER food guide you can use to buy and prepare everyday ER food for your family.