The Atkins Theory

[wannabethintoo]

You have to find the diet that first of all, you can follow and secondly, will make you lose weight. When it comes to maintaining, portion control is what's important unless you go with a low carb WOL. What is good about Atkins is that you can eat a lot more and feel fuller and still lose/maintain. If you're the type of person who doesn't always feel hungry then portion control should work for you. It doesn't work for me. Before I started Atkins, I was ALWAYS hungry...and I mean ALWAYS. I had cravings for chips (my weakness) constantly and would always give in to them. Now I just avoid them and the cravings are gone.

[tickletussler]

Hi Xcape,

I can say that BECAUSE of Atkins ie eating enough fats etc, it means you feel MORE satiated, and following that you would EAT LESS and therefore your caloric intake WOULD be less - make sense?

My caloric intake is often somewhere between 2,000 - 3,000 calories whilst keeping my carbs very low. As you can see, I've reached 139lbs and I'm only 5'5 and yes, for many caloric-intake matters, but in my opinion, it is the low carb-intake that has more effect in weightloss than calorie-intake

I also once read about this interview, where various universities in Europe did a study of people on Atkins, low-calorie diets with a control group of people who weren't on diets. All did the same exercise. They did find that the Atkins group of people EVENTUALLY ate similar low-caloric amounts as those on the low-cal diets BECAUSE the Atkineers were more satiated eating enough fats. As all 3 groups were exercising, all of them did lose weight but they found that the Atkineers were more likely to keep the weight off and be happy with what they ate compared to the low-cal group who said they were often hungry.

The most surprising aspect of the interview (and what they thought Dr A didn't realise) was that it seemed that Atkins worked because it had a high % of protein in the diet - so yes, some of it could be because of exercise, low-cals, or low-carbs, but it seemed that eating a high enough protein amount seemed to be the key to Atkins working well. Everything ELSE about Atkins seemed to help the dieters STAY in this WOE.

[G-Mom]

I find that controlling my carbs AND my calories works best for me. I will do this until I am 5-10 lbs away from goal, then I will up my carbs with fruit (I am going to avoid wheat forever as it disagrees with me) and other healthy carbs until I feel comfy with what I am eating and not be hungry.

You may have difficulty with just controlling calories, AND you may start to gain IF you up your carbs considerably, due to this causing insulin to be exceted more often. You need to control how often and how much insulin your pancreas produces. Insulin is the key factor when we store fat. Dips in blood sugar due to hunger may make you eat more carbs (I doubt you would binge on a protein/fat snack), which will make your blood sugar rise considerably, which will force your pancreas to squirt out a lot of insulin. If you don't exercise often and a lot, those carbs can and will be stored as fat.

I am convinced that a high carb/low calorie diet is a ticket to binging especially if being on Atkins really helped you stay controlled with your insulin.

[Alienore]

I work in a supermarket at the weekends and am surrounded by carbs in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Sometimes I've known myself to grab a lowfat yogurt for a snack on my way home and I do feel like then having a chocolate bar or something sweet having done that... so am gonna try my damndest to stay off the lowcal stuff because I can't afford the sugar spikes. Then I come off ketosis and have to get back into it again.... swings and roundabouts - so it's no wonder that the pounds aren't going as fast as I'd like. I am exercising so I am at least losing inches...


Deborah

[not2late]

One of the Rules of Induction (and the rest of the WOE for that matter) is to adjust your food portions to suit your appetite. In other words, your 180 pound body won't need to eat the same amount of food/calories as your 275 pound body did. That's a mistake alot of Atkineers make---they ignore that Induction rule and continue to feed their smaller bodies the same amount of food their pre-Atkins larger bodies were eating. Dr. Atkins even says in the OWL/Pre-Maintenance chapters that if you overeat, the metabolic advantage of his diet won't work as well.

The thing about not counting calories is also misunderstood by folks. Dr. Atkins relied on you to re-learn your natural satiety cues. That's why he insisted in the Induction chapter to only eat until satisfied and not until you were "stuffed" or "full" and why he added the Induction rule to adjust your portions according to your appetite. Many of us are fat because we have lousy eating habits, such as overeating. And if we don't learn how to eat properly for our bodies, maintaining our weight will be tough.

A 180 pound person who does moderate exercise does not require the same amount of calories as a 275 pound person who does moderate exercise. So if you're still eating the same amount of food you ate when you began this WOE, you really ought to re-examine your eating habits.

[FightingTheFight]

That whole calorie argument is getting rather boring. Its repeated over and over and I think thats why people just keep repeating it, because they hear nothing else. Noone takes in the fact of ketosis, some still just don't know what it is. Most people that have sorta knowledge thinks its just burning fat.

Well, how does your body burn fat? How does your body burn calories? by using calories. But Fat is stubborn. Fat takes more energy to burn than carbohydrates. Actually, Carbs are really the easiest to burn.

In the long run, you are using Healthy calories(not all calories are the same) to burn fat calories.

Hence the wonderful metabolic advantage.

[G-Mom]

FtF, limiting calories are less of an issue for young men, as they tend to have higher metabolisms and burn more calories at rest than an older man and most women. But I always mention calories because the foods we eat on Atkins are very high in calories and we can easily eat too many calories IF we do not listen to our satiety center. I am not just talking smack here, I've done it myself.

[tickletussler]

How about let's agree that we're all different - for some of us calorie-counting is a factor in our weightloss, for others it isn't.

I often eat 2,000-3,000 cals a day and for my height, that is way more than what I should be eating. I am not a hugely active person, but I think my metabolism is improving and I can get away often with eating 75% fats as well.

When I eat that much fats, I also find that I am less hungry and less likely to snack between meals and there are some days where I am struggling to even get 1,200 cals and just have to keep adding a few tablespoons of olive oil or something.

so you see Xcape, all of us are different - YOU need to find out for yourself whether low-cal works for you or not.