Do Calories Matter or Not?

[fetch]

Re: Do Calories Matter or Not?

wrong page, nm.

[adreliluc]

Re: Do Calories Matter or Not?

By the way, that's one great thing about Atkins - it takes all the crap out of your diet (for the most part lol) - so what's left is real, whole foods.
When eating a whole foods diet and when you eat when you're hungry and stop when you're satisfied you really can't go wrong!
I have and continue to learn to listen to my body..
I ♥ Atkins..

[valkyrieh]

Re: Do Calories Matter or Not?

Thanks, everyone for your replies. I found another thread that is talking about this same thing, and there was a link to a study about the metabolic advantage of a low carb diet. Makes sense! Thanks for all the encouragement too.

I really don't like being hungry all the time.

[adreliluc]

Re: Do Calories Matter or Not?

Nobody likes being hungry all the time... if that was the case the Atkins diet would fail as so many others diets do!

[James S]

Re: Do Calories Matter or Not?

I've never really counted calories even as I edge up in my OWL phases. *crunches nuts* I just ... don't see the point. Perhaps if you're sensitive to caloric intake, then yes. I eat well over 2300 cals per day. However, I also exercise. I think calorie counting is more important if you're sedentary than if you are a heavy exerciser. With Atkins I'm never hungry and I don't feel deprived. This is a low calorie diet if you want it to be, I just don't think it is necessarily so.

[Skeptika23]

Re: Do Calories Matter or Not?

Thanks, everyone for your replies. I found another thread that is talking about this same thing, and there was a link to a study about the metabolic advantage of a low carb diet. Makes sense! Thanks for all the encouragement too.

I really don't like being hungry all the time.

What sucks is when you're hungry all the time, do the low calorie dieting, and gain ten pounds regardless.



That was the straw that drove me to Atkins, and I will never go back again! Now I'm hungry... when it's time to eat!

(off to nuke my delcious green veggie & beef soup piping hot for lunch... mmm....)

[James S]

Re: Do Calories Matter or Not?

What sucks is when you're hungry all the time, do the low calorie dieting, and gain ten pounds regardless.



That was the straw that drove me to Atkins, and I will never go back again! Now I'm hungry... when it's time to eat!

(off to nuke my delcious green veggie & beef soup piping hot for lunch... mmm....)

Don't you just love having to remind yourself it's time to eat? It makes the whole dieting process much more pleasant. With Atkins I feel more in control of my body and my diet and not the other way around.

[Rayjax]

Re: Do Calories Matter or Not?

I eat around 2200-2300 calories a day, however I work out hard and I still lose weight. Don't worry.

[valkyrieh]

Re: Do Calories Matter or Not?

What sucks is when you're hungry all the time, do the low calorie dieting, and gain ten pounds regardless.



That was the straw that drove me to Atkins, and I will never go back again! Now I'm hungry... when it's time to eat!

(off to nuke my delcious green veggie & beef soup piping hot for lunch... mmm....)

I didn't gain, but I also didn't lose. At all. So I was starving all day for no results. :-(

[Skeptika23]

Re: Do Calories Matter or Not?

Don't you just love having to remind yourself it's time to eat? It makes the whole dieting process much more pleasant. With Atkins I feel more in control of my body and my diet and not the other way around.

Yessir, I certainly do!

I didn't gain, but I also didn't lose. At all. So I was starving all day for no results. :-(

I was just so darn mad that I did what everyone says - controlled the calories, the fat, ate what they said, exercised like a demon, was starving all the time and just living for the time when I'd get to eat again...

And over that period I gained ten pounds! It was as if my fat just sat on top of the really cool muscles I was developing!

Even if you get no results or gain like I did - it's torture to do that to people, in my opinion!

So I switched to Atkins, got results immediately, and stopped starving!

[valkyrieh]

Re: Do Calories Matter or Not?

Yessir, I certainly do!



I was just so darn mad that I did what everyone says - controlled the calories, the fat, ate what they said, exercised like a demon, was starving all the time and just living for the time when I'd get to eat again...

And over that period I gained ten pounds! It was as if my fat just sat on top of the really cool muscles I was developing!

Even if you get no results or gain like I did - it's torture to do that to people, in my opinion!

So I switched to Atkins, got results immediately, and stopped starving!

Sounds very very familiar!

I'm also the type of person who needs to see results or I will get unmotivated very easily. I'll be like, Why am I making myself miserable for nothing? My doctor recommended Atkins precisely because of that tendency. He said it usually produces quick results, which would help me stay motivated. Once I start seeing the weight drop, it gets easier and easier for me to stick to it.

[Skeptika23]

Re: Do Calories Matter or Not?

Sounds very very familiar!

I'm also the type of person who needs to see results or I will get unmotivated very easily. I'll be like, Why am I making myself miserable for nothing? My doctor recommended Atkins precisely because of that tendency. He said it usually produces quick results, which would help me stay motivated. Once I start seeing the weight drop, it gets easier and easier for me to stick to it.

I didn't need to see fast results - I did that for three months (I'll never forget the summer of 2008 - it was the Starvation Season ) but SOME positive result, not the exact opposite, would have been nice!

I don't lose weight quickly. Last year before I got pregnant I was on Induction/OWL and lost 15 pounds total over about three-four months.

However, I lost two pants sizes - measuring, ahh, how it compensates for the weirdness and vicousness of the scale! Now THOSE are results!

[valkyrieh]

Re: Do Calories Matter or Not?

I didn't need to see fast results - I did that for three months (I'll never forget the summer of 2008 - it was the Starvation Season ) but SOME positive result, not the exact opposite, would have been nice!

I don't lose weight quickly. Last year before I got pregnant I was on Induction/OWL and lost 15 pounds total over about three-four months.

However, I lost two pants sizes - measuring, ahh, how it compensates for the weirdness and vicousness of the scale! Now THOSE are results!

Hhhmmmmm Yes, that scale can be pretty hostile! I need to remember to measure myself before I start. I am afraid to though.

[Skeptika23]

Re: Do Calories Matter or Not?

Hhhmmmmm Yes, that scale can be pretty hostile! I need to remember to measure myself before I start. I am afraid to though.

Measuring from the start makes a world of difference - 5 pounds isn't much, but losing 2-1/2 inches off your waistline is a lot!

[givingitatry]

Re: Do Calories Matter or Not?

Hi Valkyrieh,

I'm only a few weeks into this so I don't back this up with much experience but...

My first few days I ate ALOT. I didn't count calories but I'm sure they were way up there. I still dropped my initial 'water weight' the first week.

Since my first week I find I eat less everyday. I just gradually have become less hungry. I tracked my calories for a few days last week (for the heck of it - something I refuse to do on an ongoing basis ever again in my life) and found I was only eating 1200 - 1400 a day. I couldn't believe it. I'm like you, on low-calorie I would have starved (as I did on weight watchers).

Give it a try in the new year and keep us posted. I believe calories matter (calorie in/calorie burned - maybe I'm wrong), but when you aren't eating carbs you might find your hunger meter to be completely different.

Good luck.