well what do you know skeeter. i told you i wasn't going to play your games and waste my time searching for an example of a top-flight athlete on dr atkins just to respond to your false premise. but i did tell you that if i just happened to come across an example i would provide it to you. here ya go. an orthopedic surgeon who runs iron man contests and qualified for the world championships--on atkins.
‘Donahue’ for Jan. 29
msnbc.com
Guest: Robert Atkins, Stuart Trager, Barbara Woodruff
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DONAHUE: Let’s talk with Dr. Trager here. Dr. Trager, M.D., Chairman of the Department of orthopedic surgery, at Graduate Hospital, Philadelphia. What’s your heartbeat at rest?
DR. STUART TRAGER, ORTHOPEDIC SURGEON: Probably 50, 48 on a good day.
DONAHUE: Wow. You’re my hero. You are my hero. You’re going to live forever. Your heart hardly works at all to keep your magnificently toned and conditioned body going. You’re a, what athalon are you? You do the Ironman? What do you do?
TRAGER: I just did the Ironman in Hawaii this year. I run marathons.
The triathlon is what I really do, enjoy, at this point.
DONAHUE: Runners who do this endurance thing, as you do so well, and you have a 256 marathon in Boston?
TRAGER: That’s correct.
DONAHUE: OK, OK. I want your autograph before you leave us tonight.
These guys load up on carbos before a race. And you’re going to other way.
You’re on the Atkins diet.
TRAGER: I really come to the whole diet debate from a different perspective. I grew up as a recreational athlete like many people. And would show up at the 10K races, and the longer races, amazed at how many people were running a pretty good amount, 30, 40, 50 miles a week, and were struggling to lose that last 10 or 20 pounds. And somehow, it never really made sense.
About three years ago I wanted to get more serious, and started training harder. I wanted to qualify for the Boston Marathon. To do that I really did some research and tried to put as much science as I could into my training. As an orthopedic surgeon I had access to plenty of textbooks.
But the one thing that didn’t make sense was struggling to lose weight. Friends, other physicians, colleagues who were using Dr. Atkins approach had had wonderful success. I decided it was worth a try. Low and behold, my weight came down, my energy came up.
Just like in some of the studies I think you started to mention earlier, my mood was better. My energy felt better. I wasn’t having heart burn and other problems like that. So what was happening was, I was doing better. I qualified for Boston, started running more.
A friend challenged me to run in the Ironman triathlon which is a two and a half mile swim, 112-mile bicycle, and then the 26-mile run. And then in fact, I did it. I did it a couple of times, and then qualified and went to Hawaii for the world championships. At the same time, decided that there was more to this weight loss and nutrition approach and contacted Dr. Atkins in the Atkins Center and then came down and had a talk. And that’s really where I opened my eyes and started reading more about it. |
