You might be interested in this link from Dr. Atkins' website in which he does state that eating too little WILL lower your metabolic rate and he states that people should consume adequate amounts of food (adequate meaning enough to support your basal metabolic rate): http://atkinscenter.com/helpatkins/...mWhatgives.html

Those that are starving are in ketosis. Those that are fasting are in ketosis. Those that are low carbing are in ketosis. As a matter of fact, anyone who has gone more than 14 hours without eating is probably in ketosis. Your body WILL turn to it's fat stores when calories drop below BMR BUT... it will resist doing so and will lower your metabolism to keep from doing that if it continues over a prolonged time. This is a built-in survival system that our bodies have to protect us against periods of starvation (less calories than your BMR). Your body does not wait until your fat stores are depleted to do this because at that point it would be too late and you would likely not survive the famine. Being in ketosis does not prevent your body from going into starvation mode when your caloric intake drops below what you need to support your BMR.

What causes ketosis?????
 

Niki...

I'm sorry if this thread has confused you. The whole thing started from a question regarding where the 10-12X your body weight in calories began and I believe that has been answered. I'm not sure what you're asking, but if I'm right it's along the lines of can you be in ketosis while eating enough carbs to provide your daily energy needs? The answer is no.
However...you CAN be in ketosis if you're not eating enough carbs (or enough of anything else, for that matter) to sustain your basal metabolic needs in calories. This is not something that you want to do because it is called starvation and your body will turn to it's fat stores (after first using up it's glycogen stores) when insufficient food from any source is taken in to support the body's daily needs. When the body begins to burn it's own fat for energy, ketones are produced as a result of that fat metabolism (this is what is referred to as ketosis).
Cutting your calories below what your body needs for daily metabolic processes (not to mention activity) will make you lose weight, but it comes at a price. If you aren't taking in enough protein, muscle will be used as well as fat. Your metabolism will also be reset to a lower level because your body doesn't know that you are trying to get rid of fat; it thinks a famine has begun and you are starving to death and no amount of explaining is going to convince your body otherwise.
For most people, calorie counting is not necessary on Atkins or any other low carb plan. For a few, specifically those that are either eating too little or too much, it does matter and those are usually the ones who are addressed with the 10-12x your body weight in calories guideline.
For what it's worth, my opinion is this: if it ain't broke don't fix it. As long as you are satisfied with what you are eating (not hungry and are eating enough to support your basal metabolic needs), you are getting enough veggies for fiber, vitamins and minerals and are losing weight, don't worry about it.
Does this help?

(sniff, sniff) Starting to smell like troll around here.

I guess that I lowered my calories out of desperation because nothing else was working. I do not go below the 1200 -- generally vary between 1300 to 2000 per day, depending on how hungry I feel that day.

What other suggestions does anyone have for those of us who have done everything 'right' -- watch the carbs, lots of exercise, plenty of protein, but stall and nothing works for us to break that stall. I know that my metabolism is very slow, but I thought that exercise and low carbs was supposed to help.

All I know is that I reached a point where when I ate the 10 times my current body weight per day, I stalled and did not lose. When I began to listen to my body and vary the calories from day to day -- 1200 one day, 1800 the next, 1500 another -- I broke the stall.

Is this a wrong approach? Will I mess up my metabolism more than it already is?

I don't want to argue with anyone, I just really do not know what else to try and I would welcome other suggestions. (Yes, I drink my water, take vitamins, exercise -- both aerobic and weights, had my thyroid tested, watch out for dairy and nuts and do not eat any low carb bars, etc.). My stall lasted for months -- I kept losing and re-gaining the same 7 pounds for months. And no, my measurements did not change either. I have been low carbing for 14 months and lost 37 pounds. I am happy that I lost, I feel great, but I want to continue losing and am tired of stalling for months on end. When I started playing with the calories -- going up and down day to day, the weight started to come off again. But with all of this discussion about messing up metabolism permanently by reducing calories, now I'm concerned that this might be a wrong approach. If anyone else has other suggestions, please tell me.

Peg

I'm by no means an expert, especially not on anyone's body but my own. For me, I also stalled hard for 3-4 months. and as I look back on those months, I was probably in the 1500-1800 calorie range, which is too low for me. When I first tried to up my calories, first to 2000, then to 2500 it was very hard. I had to force myself to eat, and even while I was doing so, I questioned if I was doing the right thing. It took a week or two of eating over 2000 cals for my appetite to adjust, but then it wasn't hard anymore. I'm in a similar adjustment period now, trying to eat 300g protein and 2500-3000 calories a day. It's hard, but I'm willing to try it, and I believe it needs a few weeks for a true test.

A good stall-breaker for me was the CKD (see the forum under exercise), which I plan on going back to after the holidays. As far as eating more calories are concerned, just because my body was 'used to' getting 1500 cals and didn't ask me for more, doesn't mean it didn't need them. My recommendation to anyone who is truly interested in finding out if a higher calorie level might work is to do it for a minimum of 3-4 weeks. You'll swear up and down the first few days that it doesn't feel right, but just remember, induction didn't feel right at first either. ::wink::

Cheers,

Friday

PegM - in case you haven't tried this - take a full week off from all forms of exercise and then go back to only weightlifting for awhile and see what happens. I lost 8-10 lbs in the two weeks I took off.