atkins and calories

[fivebyfive]

I just have a question.. I keep seeing people who are against low carbing saying.. u arent losing weight because you are low carbing you lose weight because u are consuming less calories..but from personal experience when I was using fit day when I first did atkins this isnt true.. I ate more calories on atkins but less carbs than I did before atkins and I lost weight.. so is the calorie thing a myth? or is my body just a fluke of nature.

[G-Mom]

Re: atkins and calories

I think the calorie thing only comes into play down the road in the plan when we add more carbs. During Induction, for sure we don't need to count calories. If we take in fewer calories, it's due to ketosis. But, since Atkins is a high fat plan, and fat has the most calories, it is obvious to me that we take in more calories than low-fat dieters.

[ttdriver]

Re: atkins and calories

"I never said calories don't count; its just that carbs count more."

- Robert C. Atkins

Betty

[dreamof145]

Re: atkins and calories

Dr. Atkins said when you control your carbohydrate intake...your body will switch from burning glucose derived from carbohydrate and instead burn fat for energy. In this way, you can eat higher amounts of calories and still lose weight. Burning fat takes more energy, so that means you use up more calories. That doesn't mean that calories aren't important, it just means that you won't be as hungry doing the low-carb and you'll still burn calories. Thats why he recommends that you don't have to count the calories because if you are controlling the carb intake, then eating low-carb and doing exercises will be sufficient in losing the weight.

[2big4mysize]

Re: atkins and calories

Dr Atkins explains it all so very well in the Q and A of chapter 11 cals burned from all sources ( that is the key) have to be less then cals eatten in order to lose weight.

If you are eating the standard USDA eating plan 60% carbs 30% fats and 10% proteins and consume 1500 cals to lose weight then you will because it takes more energy to convert the atkins plan of 65% fat 30 % protein and 5% carbs from your mouth to energy about 25% since it only take 4% of the food energy in a carb to make it to energy so you can eat 1875 cals and get the same effect without making any other changes. Then you add in the new to us mandatory exercise part of the plan and poof you got a big caloric deficiet going on.

so you are losing weight because you are eating less cals then you burn up but you are also eating more cals then you could on a high carb plan.

[bizzlekitty]

Re: atkins and calories

Personal experience (I let the above "experts" tell you more of the facts!) but I am eating more calories now (1400-1800 daily) than I ever did on any other diet and I am losing weight. I did low calorie for a long time and it never worked very well. On Weight Watchers, I was at 1200 calories but hungry and miserable all the time.

Of course, when I gained alot of weight, I was definitely eating way too many calories, in addition to eating way too many carbs and fried food. But my own experience of low calorie vs. Atkins has shown me that low calorie alone doesn't work for me (even when I ate healthy low calorie or low fat). I would have get to down to 600-800 calories in order to lose weight and that just wasnt' healthy.

There is also a huge difference in hunger and cravings on Atkins, as well as how I feel, as I am maintaining/building muscle tone in addition to losing weight. I never had that on any other diet where I lost (some) weight.

So while I think its true that the calorie restriction also helps with Atkins, it's the ketosis and gaining control of your eating while eating healthy and feeling satisfied and exercising that contributes to the weight loss.