question please

[tanyamadsen1974]

i'm doing extended induction and am curious about the whole not counting calories thing. my carb counts are always where they should be, but sometimes when i enter my food on fitday the calorie count is so high i almost have a stroke! should i start watching calories too? i want to stay on extended induction because i'm comfortable there and enjoy the food. any input guys?

[ValidRouge]

Re: question please

You do NOT have to count calories, but you really really do need to pay attention to your hunger and satiation.

You should stop eating when you are satisfied. NOT FULL, satisfied. If you are not hungry, you should NOT be eating.

When you follow these two rules, normally the calories will naturally fall because ketosis has a natural appetite suppression.

[adreliluc]

Re: question please

There's no need to watch calories when you're first starting out...
There have been LOTS of discussions and debates on this topic, do a search and you can get some good info on both sides of calorie counting!

As for me, I've always been mindful of my calories but have not ever counted them. I think that calories count, not so much at first when you're in induction but as you move up the rungs you might need to keep yourself in check.

The best way to find if you need to count calories is by trial and error. Nobody can tell you what will work for your body in order to lose or maintain... you can always try it and see how you do with it.

Good luck!

[ValidRouge]

Re: question please

One other thing to keep in mind too, is that being in ketosis actually causes your body to burn more calories than it would when using glucose for fuel. That's what Dr. Atkins called the metabolic advantage. Its been found that people who burn fat for fuel (ketosis) vs using carbohydrates/sugars (glucosis) for fuel burn more calories.

[sallyseachange]

Re: question please

Calories are important but I reckon Dr A didn't want people to stress too much about them early on in the diet. This because he wanted us to kick start ketosis and get into that "no cravings/less hunger" situation.

I started keeping an eye on calories late in OWL or maybe it was pre-maintenance. The important thing is not to eat if you are satisfied. That's a hard lesson to learn but an all important one. I still, even after a year on maintenance, have to stop eating sometimes because common sense tells me to, rather than my "full" feeling. But am persevereing with trying to learn when I feel full and slowly I'm getting there. You will too.

Hang in there and don't worry too much about calories yet. Just don't eat beyond your hunger. Dr A has some suggestions to recognise satiety in DANDR 2002... like, stopping eating for say 20 mins and then seeing if you are still hungry.

Good luck to you! Sticking to the way Atkins was meant to be done is sooooooo worth it! If you do, you'll be fine!

[boonie stomper]

Re: question please

The other thing you can look at in Fitday is the %'s of your total calories coming from fat, protein or carbs. During induction, you should try to keep them around 65, 30, and 5 respectively. Thus, if you have 20 net carbs, and the carb % is 5, to get the other 2 %'s right it would be hard to overdo it. And because you are in ketosis, you produce ketones in the process of getting energy from fat, so those ketones in your pee are effectively calories going down the drain unused.
You can eat more calories and lose weight in ketosis than can someone who isn't.

[2big4mysize]

Re: question please

if you enter a food in fitday in the correct amount you at and are shocked at the amount of cals maybe you ater more then you needed to eat to satisfy your hunger.

the metabolic advantage Joy mentioned Dr Atkins says we get has to do with the fact it takes more calories to convert fat from food entering your mouth to energy then it does carbohydrates. the change between the USDA high carb plan and Atkins plan is ablut 30% more of your food cals will be used to netabolize them which iw why Dr Atkins says don't caunt your cals.

he also wanted to change our mindsets since most folk soing his plan have been dieting counting cals before and it didn't work.

instead of saying 20 net grams of carbs be could have said 80 net cals of carbs but knowing how calorie conditioned dieters were he knew if he used calories then we';d be afraid of the high fat foods needed to do Atkins corrctly with the appetite suppression so we can just feed our hunger and eat only a small protein/fat snack with some of our carbs if it has been 6 hrs since our last waking meal.

not overeating your Atkins is the key to being a big loser. feed the hunger and stop

[not2late]

Re: question please

Ketosis should kill your appetite enough that your food intake will decrease. That's why it's important to begin listening to your body and only eat the amount of food that satisfies your hunger, not the amount of food you're used to eating.

So if a hard-boiled egg and a few cucumber chunks are enough to satisfy your hunger for a meal. That's all you eat. Don't eat another egg or a couple ounces of cheese because you're used to eating that amount of food. If you get hungry later, you know you can always have a snack on Atkins.

If you don't know how much is enough, you can do what Dr. Atkins advised: eat half of what's on your plate. Wait a few minutes and see if you still want more. If so eat alittle more. Wait a few minutes and see if you still want to eat more.

The other way to avoid over-eating is to eat slowly. It takes about 30 minutes for your stomach to signal to your brain "That's it! STOP eating!!!!" So if you inhale your food in 5 minutes, you'll still "feel" hungry and will potentially inhale a few more servings. So eat slowly, enjoy your food. I find taking smaller bites of the food helps too. So instead of shoving a mouthful's worth of food into your mouth, take only a 1/4 mouthful.

If you learn to listen to your body, you won't need to religiously count calories because you'll learn to self-regulate your food intake to the point where you will begin to eat only that amount your body needs to function.

[Elizellen]

Re: question please

i want to stay on extended induction because i'm comfortable there and enjoy the food. any input guys?

I noticed in your stats that you are looking to lose about 30 pounds in total.
In that case I would advise you not to stay in induction for your complete weightloss but read up on the second and third phases of Atkins so you can move through OWL and be on premaintenance phase when you have only 5-10 pounds to lose.
Those stages allow you to find out how many carbs you can eat and still lose and also discover if any foods affect you badly, so you can happily eat a wide variety of foods once you reach goal and not put those pesky pounds back on!