The magic # of carbs is 20G ..but can you eat too few?

[Carb Addict]

I really am careful with my carb consumption - or I try to be. When I plug my food into fitday, I am very rarely over 12 g per day. Does anyone know if this affects weight lose - either good or bad? What seems to be the magic number that allows people to still lose and stay on track?

[julirama723]

Re: The magic # of carbs is 20G ..but can you eat too few?

There is no "magic number"; or at least, everyone has a DIFFERENT magic number.

The 20g figure was chosen because 95% of the people who begin Atkins will successfully be able to get into ketosis by eating 20g of carbs. There is a small percentage of metabolically resistant people who cannot get into ketosis at 20g and require the fat fast. However, most of us probably could get into ketosis at 25g, or 30g, or 35g, or perhaps higher. But we won't know what our CCLL (Critical Carbohydrate Level for Losing, how many carbs you can eat and still lose weight) is until we've gone through OWL properly.

Atkins is not NO-carb. It's really important to eat your 3 cups veggies per day on induction. Since so many veggies are allowed, there are an infinite number of possibilities for what veggies a person could eat each day. 20g is not the REQUIRED amount, it's simply the daily LIMIT on carbs. If you eat all salad veggies, your carb count will be lower than if you had 2 cups salad and 1 cup other veggies. Generally on induction I only got up to about 15g carbs--not because I was trying to eat as few carbs as possible--simply because of the particular vegetables I liked and ate.

I did find that as I moved to OWL my losses actually increased, and I benefitted from extra veggie carbs. Many people are afraid to add healthy carbs, thinking it will slow their loss, yet for many, adding those extra carbs means more weight loss. It all depends on the QUALITY of the carbs (veggies vs. "other" stuff) and each individual's CCLL.

[Carb Addict]

Re: The magic # of carbs is 20G ..but can you eat too few?

Great post - thanks~ What was your rate of weight loss? My understanding of 0wl rung 1 is to just add another 5 g of carbs. This should be done for a week right and then you move up the next rung and more food choices. How long did you stay on induction and how long were you on each rung?

[julirama723]

Re: The magic # of carbs is 20G ..but can you eat too few?

Rung 1 is indeed 5g more of induction veggies.

After adding 5g that first week, you have two options. You can either move up to Rung 2, keeping your carbs at the same level, or stay on Rung 1 and add 5g more carbs. NEVER go up a rung and increase carbs in the same week--it's important to only have one variable in an expirement!

It's suggested that you stay on each rung for a minimum of 2 weeks. So, your first week of Rung 1, add 5g carbs to whatever your average induction level was. If you normally averaged 15g carbs on induction, adding 5g would take you up to 20g. Therefore it might be a good idea to stay on Rung 1 and add 5g more carbs (until you're at 25g/day) before moving up another rung.

I was one of those people who thought that if I stayed on induction longer (because I had so much weight to lose, over 100 pounds) I would lose MORE weight. WRONG! I stayed on induction for a month total then finally took the advice to move on to OWL. I actually don't think I lost much of anything those two extra weeks. My first week on OWL I lost 3.5 pounds. I stayed on the lower rungs for about 2 weeks each, and as I got up to higher rungs (6 and above) I stayed at least a month, sometimes 6 weeks on a rung before I moved on. I did this so I could keep increasing carbs before I added new foods.

Looking back I wish I would have stayed even longer on each rung! It is so much simpler if you take things slowly, trying out new foods belonging to the rung you're on. Make sure to try foods you've never eaten before, and try foods you haven't liked in the past. I had never eaten cottage cheese before (in fact, I had convinced myself that I "hated" it though I'd never eaten it) and it ended up being one of my favorite foods!

So take things slowly, and remember, don't ever sacrifice your veggies! They remain the focus of your carbs and many people find that if they let these other foods take precedence, their weightloss suffers.

[makinbiscuits]

Re: The magic # of carbs is 20G ..but can you eat too few?

you should get as close to those 20G of carbs as possible. They are needed for proper brain function and they also help give you energy for your workouts.... oh and I should mention they help keep everything moving right through your pipes.

veggies are good for you too.