Low Carb (Atkins) Diet Question?!?!?!
 

Ok I don't get this at all. I read up on the Atkins diet. Currenly I am doing a low calorie diet. And there is this one thing I don't get at all.

Ok so the standard beleif is that:
Calories OUT > Calories IN, will result in a weight loss

But yet the Atkins diet claims you don't have to count the calories at all if you limit the carbs. So in essence I can eat 3,000 calories a day, and as long as there isn't more then 20 grams of carbs I should lose weight. Makes absolutely no sense to me.

I mean I understand how the process works. Carbs is what we use FIRST for energy. But this is just one aspect I do not get at all. How on earth do you lose weight without burning more calories then you are taking in???

Someone help me out.

someone please answer, this is really fucking with me

in short... your body either burns sugar or fat for energy. stop eating sugar (carbs), deplete your stored sugars and your body switches over to burning fat for energy.

since its the single principle that seperates it from any other fad diet, it would seem that you didn't "read up on it" at all.

Basically the 'I'm not hungry any more.' signals work better with less carbs in the food.What you'll really end up doing is eating less without having to think much about it.
Problem with carbs is that very little of them contain huge amounts of energy.

One major difference most people on atkins report is that they no longer feel like they have to eat more between meals.

carbs, like protein contain 4 calories per gram. fat contains 9.

"less carbs" is not the point of a ketogenic diet. its not simply "less carbs" that forces your body into a state of ketosis

What they dont tell you is this...

If you eat a balanced diet and exercise (especially if you weight train at all)..a lot of water gets stored within your heavily used muscles. Carbs are necessary for building that muscle and it is healthy to store this water in those muscle groups so that you can increase your lean body mass.

One of the primary reasons people lose SO much weight right off the bat with atkins is; if you cut out your carbs; your body doesn't store that water in those muscles anymore because there are not carbs around anymore. Not only does it stop that storage process; but it sucks the existing water out of there as well. Doctors think that anywhere from 5lbs to 10lbs of water is lost in the process and does not replace until...You guessed it...you start eating carbs again.

Funny how when people start eating carbs again they put on that 5-10lbs again overnight isnt it?

People should worry a lot more about their body comp than "weight" per say. For all you techie nerds out there like me...think of it like this...

Do you assume someone's site is good because it has high google PR? Or do you take into consideration a number of factors.

Bottom line: Control your portions, eat good stuff, when you need some unhealthy stuff go for it but just dont pig out on it, and sweat everyday :thumbsup

Carbs = Sugar = energy

fat = stored energy

Fuck the atkins diet, just eat healthy and excercise. And I know that without a doubt you know how to eat healthy, don't need a book, or someone to tell you what's healthy and what's not, it's obvious.

First of all I would like to thank everyone for all the responces.

Yea thats called water weight. That happens to me every time I go on a diet. The first week or so I'll drop like 10 pounds, then the rest of the weight comes off slowly. I dont think it has THAT much to do with carbs per say thou. I think its more less volume of food in your stomach. Either that or I am doing a low carb diet without trying to. I just eat very little calories a day, i dont even look at carbs.

go to amazon and buy the book. Most say its the eat bacon all day diet its not.Read the book and you will understand all. you can get it used for a couple of dollars on amazon.

hey gators boy! it does work cos without carbs your body can't store fat. your body burns fat for energy but I don't think its great unless you are well fat and need to lose a lot of weight the most quick way cos it makes you feel weird

if I was you I would get your arse down the gym and exercise and eat well its the best way to lose weight and feel better

you live in gainesville right? check out alter ego fitness near starbucks they remodelled it and they are doing a free week! talk to raymond for a personal trainer he will whip you into shape!

There's a metabolic advantage with the Atkins diet, where by eating less carbs (under 20g), you actually burn more calories. Calories do count on low carb - they just count differently. One way it happens is that your body uses up calories converting protein into glucose for your energy source...with carbs you are providing your body the glucose right away.

Calories on Atkins could be getting wasted as the protein is being converted to glucose or they could be going to building muscle or to generate heat from the increased metabolism.

Hope this helps!

you dont burn more calories by cutting carbs down and being in a state of ketosis. you burn more fat. big difference. calories are a unit of energy, nothing more. you can't expend more energy "just because". it requires increased physical exertion or a faster metabolism. not my opinion... thats the laws of physics.

it is commonly believed that a lot of the dietary fat consumed is not stored and passes through your system, which accounts for significant calorie increases in diet and simultaneous fat loss. for optimal fat loss, there is a ratio of fat to protein. can't remember what it is, but basically the bulk of daily calories should come from fat (75% or more if i recall).

also, you can't build muscle on a ketogenic diet anyway, primarily because you are in a constant of dehydration. the benefit of this diet is that it also is that it is somewhat anti-catabolic whereas other calorie restricted diets will often cause significant muscle loss with it not being uncommon for total weight loss to be 40-50% muscle mass. bodybuilders first recognized this fact in the 50's when "fish and water" diets became popular for cutting down without losing muscle mass, although no one understood how or why it worked.

the fact of the matter is that apart from marketing BS, misinformation, poor, unscientific and wrong assumptions by critics, there are not a whole lot of studies about ketogenic diets and its role in fat loss. the diet itself has been popular for almost a century as it was recognized for its role in controlling epilepsy in children. most of the studies about this diet revolves around its use in epilepsy and not about fat loss. one of the best contemporary writings about ketogenic diets and fat loss is a book by Lyle McDonald called The Ketogenic Diet.

Its a different process though with carbs specifically....

"The reason you do lose weight so rapidly on this," explains Anderson, "is that you are not eating carbohydrates, which are usually converted to quick energy, so you are burning glycogen, a quick energy supply stored in your liver alongside a supply of water. When you burn the glycogen, the water is excreted. Most of the weight you lose at first is that water."

After the 2-week "induction period" of small amounts of carbs prescribed by Atkins, dieters are allowed to phase some carbohydrates back into their reinvented lifetime diet. "As soon as sugar or starch crosses your lips," Anderson says, "you may find that water coming back on board."

Dude it's horrible for you, just eat low fat subway sandwiches daily and even better take off the cheese. Also eating high fiber cereal with low fat milk is good.

You can even eat crap a couple times a week if you do this.

I dunno, I lost 50 pounds on Atkins, kept it off 4 years now, and I'm not on strict atkins anymore, I tend to eat a pint of Ben&Jerry's two or 3 times a week and Chipolte burrito just as often..

I think the key to staying slim is drink a gallon of water a day.. literally, sounds alot harder than it is, and when you do you won't be hungry anymore and you won't be "drinking" 30 - 50% of your calories like the average person with all their juices and sodas...

again people dont know what they are talking about, on atkins you will eat more veggies then you have before lots of fiber.read the book :
http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listi...3329184&sr=8-1

Dont do atkins, just fucking exercise and take walks and stay off the fast-food, everyone knows this, i just cant understand how it's such a dilema to loose weight, everyone seems to need a diet of some kind when its so simple

because doing atkins you can lose a ton of weight while eating food you love.... steaks vs pasta. hmmm I choose steak. granted I've put on 10 lbs after losing 75 on atkins but I'll take that 65 lbs lose.

this is not a scientific response, but when i wanted to lose 25 lbs i started on atkins type diet a few years ago.

the first thing you will notice is that you will not be so hungry between meals.

you will see weight loss.

and after about 90 days on this i lost about 4-5 lbs per month and then switched to a more balanced unprocessed foods diet and added in 45 minutes of exercise daily (15 minutes bowflex for upper body, and 30 minutes bicycling either indoors or out).

and i am now 57 with the muscular slim "swimmer's build" i had when i was 25 and i am in the best shape of my life, BMI about 21.

lots of whole grains, fresh fruit and steamed veggies, grilled chicken or fish for meats, oatmeal with walnuts, flaxseed and raisins every morning, etc.

no baked goods, no processed foods, no bread, nothing fried, no fast food, etc.

had my FAA medical recently, blood pressure 112/72, perfect health. have not even had a cold in 5 years.

no more heartburn, lots of energy, quick on my feet, and married to a 21 year old girl.

life is good, and it starts with diet and exercise.

Good on ya, ofcourse it depends on what you weight in at from the start. As I see it though atkins is no better than regular calorie diet

you used to live in Gainesville???

I didn't know that. Or maybe I did, has been a while since we talked. I hardly ever post here, just every now and then.

Don't go on those stupid diets... just eat properly and exercise.

I recommend the book called "Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle"

dude, you can eat all the steak in the world without gaining weight...problems start when you eat deep fried shit, full of fat, full fat dairy products and so on. Stop eating fat and fried meals, processed meats like salamis, bacons and shit, useless white bread and pasta, all kind of "snack" products.
Atkins and all "diets" = for suckers. Just read about food and use a little common sense. Less processed food = healthier.

hate to break it to you... but you can't eat all the steak you want and not gain weight. look up how many calories and grams of fat is in a Rib Eye.


:disgust

True.
But if you do some regular cardio, you can. I lost 15 pounds while eating 1-2 pounds of meat daily. Low fat meat, like chicken breast, pork tenderloin and so on. I said above, some common sense helps.
:disgust

I did the Atkins diet and I lost 40 pounds over 6 months, I didn't do it right (stayed on phase 1 since I liked seeing the pounds drop) but then I gained it all back and then some. It probably works if you do it by the book. I have been told the SouthBeach Diet is basically a safer version of the Atkins, and I know people have lost on that too. Basically I think if you eat sensible and excersize and weight train you will lose too.

Here's my Diet plan. Ive so far lost 20 pounds in 5 weeks. Granted about id say 45% of that was strictly water weight. So in reality I only lost bout 11 pounds of fat.

Very simple
1) Eat no more then 1200 calories a day (usually less, but 1200 is the absolute limit) I don't look at carbs and fat, although what I eat tends to naturally be low in those since its mostly low cal foods

2) Run on the tredmill every day, 5 miles a day 1 hour a day. (60 minutes at 5mph hehe)

Thats it. Simple works. Only reason I asked about the Atkins thing is because if its really true..... its a hell of a lot easier then eating 1200 calories a day. I could eat 0 grams of carbs a day and be completely stuffed on meat. Ofcourse as with just about everything, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

you've found the perfect muscle burning plan! ;)

Nick, starvation level diets all tend to fail. You move your body in to "famine" mode, and it becomes increasingly difficult to lose weight. If you eat even 1 calorie over your limit, your body will try desperately to turn it into fat.

Even on atkins, you never eat 0 grams of carbs, but you eat few enough to move your body in Ketosis. At that point, your body uses what carbs are in your system to convert body fat into energy, rather than using incomgin high protein food.

No matter the diet you are on, you never eat to be stuffed, that is pointless. Eat to be full.

I would highly recommend you read an Atkins book before you choose to starve yourself into submission.

Here is the simple explanation how the Atkins diet works.

When you over eat a lot of fat your body can only process so much and you shit the rest out.

When you over eat (or drink) a lot of sugar your body processes most all of it by giving you what energy you need for now and then stores the rest of it as guess what? FAT.

Eating fat does not and can not make you fat.
Sugars (carbs) makes you fat.

[QUOTE=RawAlex;12038601]Nick, starvation level diets all tend to fail. You move your body in to "famine" mode, and it becomes increasingly difficult to lose weight. If you eat even 1 calorie over your limit, your body will try desperately to turn it into fat.

true.

My dad did the atkins thing and it really works. He cut out the carbs completely i think his limit was 20g daily) and he lost the weight.

hah thats nothing

I weighed 215 about 1.5 years ago (right now I weigh 165). I dropped it to 160 in a matter of 3 months. I was eating 600 calories a day and spending 2 hours on the tredmil. What Im doing now isn't nearly as extreme.

and for the most part I kept it off. I was only up to 185 5 weeks ago, still 30 pounds under the original. And I can lift way more now then i did when I weighed 215. Referring to this quote...

(I wanted to elaborate further)

Infact I don't buy this notion at all. The fat is stored on your body for the sole purpose of keeping you going during times of starvation. If you're excersizing then the amount of muscle you lose is minimal. One month of working out and your muscles are back and then some. And guess what the fat is still gone.

Not trying to sell my diet plan. Infact I wouldn't even recommend it. Its way too difficult and can cause major health problems on the wrong person.

Just sayin...

metabolizing fat for energy, catabolizes muscle no matter what.

if you are basically starving yourself and "exercising" - you are forcing your body to burn muscle and fat for energy. "exercising" has nothing to do with anything. you can lift weights 5 days a week and get smaller and weaker. "exercising" is still breaking your body down. and it still requires adequate calories from macro nutrients to maintain and repair.

your body has 3 primary sources of energy.... 1) blood sugar 2) muscle which is converted to glucose and 3) fat.

metabolizing fat for energy is the least efficient and less preferred source of energy. add a starvation diet on top of that, reducing your glucose stores and adding substantial exercise is going to result in significant muscle loss.

of course your muscles have memory and you quickly restore muscle mass there isn't much harm in that either, except for the fact that your heart is also a muscle which will can also be significantly damaged as well, not to mention, you are devistating your immune system.

interesting

I wouldnt consider 1200 calories a starvation diet thou

i dont mean to argue or sound like i know it all. i definately dont. besides being in the gym 5 days a week and having these conversations regularly and reading constantly, its been years since i have studied anatomy and physiology or nutrition.

i have read several books on ketogenic diets and piles of scientific studies after cutting carbs from my diet many years ago and being baffled at how i was losing .5 pounds a day without reducing caloric intake.. and actually, increasing it significantly. its an interesting topic and people, even the medical field continue to stubbornly argue that it doesn't work, isn't healthy etc even though after so many years, there is CLEARLY no proof to support those notions.

to be honest, i am always intrigued by discussions about health, exercise and diet. the one thing that we have dealt with for 10-20 million years... and the most important thing we own is our own body... yet people lack even the most basic, common understanding of diet and nutrition. that has always fascinated me.

how the hell can someone know PHP or HTML or run a business and at the same time make a comment like "fat can not and does not make you fat"? to me, thats just bizarre.

ok you seem pretty knowledgeable, and I appreciate your input

here's a question thou

wouldnt you AWLAYS lose muscle first thou. With ANY diet plan, whether youre eating 2000 or 1200. Cause when it boils down to it, when youre losing weight you HAVE to have a caloric deficit.

i was thinking you weighed over 200... i see you said you weigh 160. thats debatable. it depends fully on your metabolism. you might require 3000 calories a day at rest... you might require 1500. depends on you.

a reasonable assumption would be that you need between 2000-2500 calories a day at rest, without knowing your height, body fat % etc.

HOWEVER - i used "starvation" because you are burning 800-1000 calories a day with cardio and claiming to eat 1200. that leaves you with a total of 200-400 calories a day for your body to function on. thats starvation by any definition. at best, i would guess that 1/2 the weight you are losing is muscle.

Stick to the calorie diet but make it a life change not a diet, counting calories will be a permanent situation if you want long term goals. Atkins is impossible for normal people to follow. Trust me I started with Atkins and learned a lot from it but I lost 50 lbs by watching what I eat (calories etc) and working out regularly..

1500 a day is starvation and will have adverse effects on your metabolism, you want to eat agressively, eat every 2 hours but only small portions that way you're never hungry and your body thinks it has all the nutrients it needs so no need to store those extras

Actually here's how my calculation works
I eat really about 1100 calories a day, 1200 is absolute max

according to caloriesperhour.com and my tredmill I only burn about 750-800 calories on the tredmill

I figured with reduced metabolism (starvation effect) I only burn about 1800 calories during the day, if not less. Im small frame.

so I figure a loss of about 1500 calories a day.

To be honest I dont really feel like I NEED anymore. I feel fine, not starved at all. If I drop it to like 700 calories I feel the effects right away. But at about 1100 calories I am not really that pressed for food.

you can have a caloric deficit, lose fat and gain muscle. you just have to be very strict with your diet and very mindful of what your eating, when, how often and maintaining stable blood sugar levels,.. you can't gain muscle though as efficiently as you could by simply eating a lot and constantly, to make sure you your body NEVER goes into catabolic mode and turns to muscle for energy. thats why bodybuilders go in cycles... gaining mass/cutting fat.

there really is no easy answer to this. it depends on the individual, the daily caloric requirements of that individual, their body type, their metabolism, the amount of physical activity, the amount of exercise, the types of food you are eating, how often you are eating etc. thats why when people say "all you have to do is..." - its usually bad and wrong advice for most people.

True true

I know what my problem is. I have the will power of an OX (which most people lack). I know I can either lose 10 pounds in 2 weeks or I can lose it in 5. I have enough will power to do both. Until now really Ive always figured that both diets essentially gave the same result. Only difference is one was harder but faster, the other one was easier but slower. So naturally I took the 2 week plan.

Now im starting to wonder. Im almost done with my diet 12 days left. At that point I should weigh 160. Finito, complete. All I really have to do is figure out a plan to keep the weight off (which is much easier), and regain lost muscle. This is probably where this thread comes in.

Maybe I should talk to a fitness expert.

i would read bodybuilding.com and other bodybuilding forums. the best info about weight loss, good diet and nutrition will always be found in bodybuilding forums because for all of them, it has to be dialed in to a science. there is a solid reason why they are all basically eating the same and doing the same things... only tweaking the same plans to fit their individual needs... because the fundamentals of nutrition and a bodys needs are universal.

otherwise, its just going to be people chiming in about "what works" never stopping to consider that what they think they did that "worked" for them, doesn't take into account 100 other important factors that are affecting people from diet, fat intake (good fats), body type, genetics, daily needs, metabolic rates, daily physical activity (sitting at a desk or delivering mail) etc.

Wow! i thought i'm the only one who's undergoing Atkins Diet here.

Been on Atkins for morethan a week now. The 20g of carb limit is really essential. Their reason is for our body to switch from burning carb to burning fat as body fuel.

As i read their manual i run into their explanation that our body burns carb to fuel our day to day activity because carb consist almost 70% of daily diet of a person

Example of carbs:
Bread
Rice
Potato
Corn
Wheat
Cereals
Sweet potato
Pasta
etc

and so we must refrain from eating those mentioned food and limit the carb to not morethan 20g per day. They also said that after 2-3 days of having low carb diet, your body will automatically switch to burn your stored and uneeded fats and thus you will lose weight.

Here's the good side about atkins... since i started it, my energy is always on the peak. Unlike before that after eating, im feeling lazy and sleepy (coz of carb)

Try it! You'll never regret it! :thumbsup :thumbsup :thumbsup

http://www.atkins.com

PleasurePays I appreciate your posts, You are dead on and its obvious that you have done your research! (and have real life experience with it)

Without getting detailed, I will just say that ketogenic diets absolutely work. I started at 250 and am down to about 180 now. Do it right, read a book, don't starve yourself. Once you are to the level you want to be at, you can bring back some of the better carbs and its so easy to keep off the weight while eating what you want.

Its not as simple as calories out > calories in = weight loss

When you eat less calories your metabolism slows down and you burn less calories and the opposite is also true to a certain point of course. I have done the atkins it works if you are very strict and follow it to the letter. But do not do any type of diet without exercise.

If you diet without exercising you will lose muscle mass and after you are done dieting gain all the weight back plus more because of the loss of muscle.

Weight is not a good measuring stick anyway because muscle weighs more then fat. If you were in good shape when you were 18 years old or so you should try to get your waist to be roughly the same size. Waist size has shown to be a much better indicator of overall health the weight.