watch calories or Carbs or both?

[Jue]

Hello All:
Jue here and i have a question. Yes, i did read the book, but I'm confused. Should i be watching my calories? I see everyone mentioning Fitday.com and I'm just wondering.
Thanks !
jue :nod

[spirittalker]

The main thing is to watch your carb intake. We recommend the use of fitday to track the food you are eating. It can be helpful to determine the cause of stalls or weight gain. Watching calories is not as important. The main thing about watching your calories is to make sure you get enough calories to avoid starvation mode. Sometimes it can be difficult to eat enough on this WOE(believe it or not) due to the lack of hunger you will feel once your body enters ketosis. I am sure someone else can put it better than myself.

[Jue]

Susan:
Thank you you for your prompt reply. And you answeres my question very well, thanks. I just get scared, b/c i 've been eating bacon in the am and lunch and sometimes dinner and when i log it into fitday its a lot of calories. Maybe, i should justeat it once a day?
thanks again.
Jue

[cleochatra]

When it all comes down to it, you could eat the same number of calories on a low-carb diet or on a regular low-fat diet, and by eating low-carb you'll lose 15 more pounds than the low-fat dieter!

Yes, while watching calories is still somewhat important (taking into account that 3500 calories = 1pound either lost or gained, depending on whether you ingest it or burn it), on Atkins, you really are self-limiting how much you can eat, simply because you won't be as hungry.

I went from ingesting well over 3,500 calories a day to having to try to get down 1200 calories a day, on top of walking 4 miles at an incline of 2 each evening! You lose weight quickly when you've made such a drastic change!

so keep an honest food diary. Fitday.com is a good place to start!

Long post for a short answer. Yes, calories still count, but not to the degree that carbs count. Counting carbs is more important and gives results!

BTW, bacon is processed and salty, so it's good to limit it to some degree anyway...

[Isabeau]

Fitday is also really helpful to make sure you're eating 65% fat, 30% protein, and 5% carbs, which is what is recommended for induction. And most of those carbs come from the acceptable veggies.

[snorkelman]

Unfortunately it is not quite as simple as suggested above. When a calorie deficit is first introduced (regardless of low-fat or akins diet), weight loss generally occurs rapidly. However, it never takes long before weight loss slows & eventually stops. This can be explained because the body goes into a starvation response and slows your metabolic rate.

Think of it like earning a paycheck. if you make $5,000 per month, you will live on that. If your pay gets cut to $2,500 per month, you will make adjustments, but you will still live on that.

That is what your body does if you cut calories severely. For example, if you drop from 3,000 calories to 1600 calories per day, then your metabolism can drop about 40%. This explains why it is so hard to lose tose last 20 pounds.

Also very low calorie diets result in muscle loss. Whether you like to think of it this way or not, much of the initial weight you lose with Atkins is not really fat. It is water, glycogen and muscle.

So - bottom line - do not worry about cutting calories - focus on the carbs and make sure you exercise.

[Jue]

Thank you all for the insight....it all puts everything more in line.
I did well today so far.
B= 2eggs + 2 eggwhites
and 2 turkey dogs

S= low fat (1 carb) string cheese

L= 2 turkey dogs & cup and a half of fresh collard greens
lowfat (1 carb) string cheese

S= another, l-fat (1carb) string cheese, for a combined dailey total of 3oz.

D= probably, some more 1.5 cup of collards and grilled chicken

I know the trukey dogs are processed, but I already bought a gigantic package of them and i have to finish. I'm going to try to lose some pds before my husband comes home from out of town...So i am siked, you all have been very helpful and inspirational and motivating!
Thank you!!!!!
Jue

[Elizellen]

Looks fine Jue, but you don't have to eat 'lowfat' cheese - full fat is better on this woe (way of eating)

Your turkey dogs may have a lot of sodium in them too - so maybe check the label?

[snorkelman]

yeah - basically low-fat is very bad on atkins It means that usually there is some kind of filler in the product, which usually means carbs.

I looked at hot dogs and almost all but some of the jewish ones had carbs. be careful - i got chicken hamburger patties and they had 2 carbs each!

Some hotdogs even had 5 carbs each! So, be careful with any type of hot-dog looking product (some sausages and most kielbasa also have carbs, though not many).

[Jue]

Hey ya'll:
Well thats another problem, i have about 12 more sticks of cheese left in the fridge, so i as going to eat them, or should i not? I looked for string cheese in the reg version ,but all i found was the big blocks. You know i do own a knife and i do have baggies, so nest time i'm at the store i'll buy the big block of cheese. I'm so silly, i just answered my own question.
Thanks! :geek
Jue

[Jue]

Hey Snorkleman:
I meant to list the carb count of the turkey dogs i eat in my last reply, the brand is by Jenne and they have 2 carbs ea.
Bye!
Jue

[Elizellen]

Jue - if you look at the list of ingredients of the dogs you can check them against the list of acceptable foods to make sure they are OK for induction.
Same goes for the cheese too.

[Jue]

Elizellen:
Okay thank you.
Bye!
I'll check in later, i have to do some Finite math now.....Yuck!
Jue :yikes

[2big4mysize]

most mozzarella string cheese is low fat because it is made with skim milk you can eat it as part of your 4 ounces of cheese allowance and get your fats else where in your diet.

Dr Atkins could have had you count carb cals as 1 gram is 4 cals but to get you away from the diet mode mentality and freaking out about the cals of fat you are eating he said to just count grams so 20 net grams or 80 net cals of carbs is induction limit.
As Cleo said Dr Atkins thought we would limit our own caloric intake if he placed a brake on our carb eating. he describes fats and proteins as self satisfying and really expected us to lower out total cals intake to that which matched our hunger and only our hunger and stop. He even has directions about only eating 1/2 the food on the plate for new folk so they can learn to feel and feed only their hunger.
Very few folk if they are feeding their hunger will need to worry about starvation mode. Happy low carbing.