It's all about ratios. If you want to lose weight, you take your daily maintainance caloric rate ( let's just say 2000 calories ) you create a deficit for weight loss by dropping it by a certain percentage ( let's just say 1800 calories ) and the you break that number up into percentages ( percentage of fat / protein / carbs )

You then divide the resulting number by 9 for fats and 4 for proteins and carbs and you get the number of grams of each nutrient that you can eat in a day ( this will add up to 1800, and thus you will stay below your maintainance level and thus loose weight )

In the above example if you broke it apart evenly and did 33 percent of calories from fat 33 percent from protein and 33 percent from carbs you would end up with

66 grams of fat per day
148 grams of carbs per day
148 grams of protein per day

you should be counting your calories by grams. Those numbers add up to 1800 calories so you will still be below your maintainance level.

The atkins diet ( or lower carb diets ) is simply a ratio where the fat percentage is very high, the carb percentage is very low to non existant and the protein percentage is low to moderate )

You can adjust the ratios to meet your needs. For example I want to lose fat but maintain muscle, I work out and I lift weights, to lose fat efficiently I need to drain my sugar stores in my muscles and liver by reducing carbs so my body uses dietary fat and body fat for fuel .. I want to maintain muscle mass ( but not add to muscle mass, you cannot lose fat and gain muscle at the same time, fat loss requires the absence of insulin, muscle gain requires the presence of it ) i need the right amount of protein so my body does not break down my muscle protein to use as fuel when it has no sugar coming in )

So i modify the ratios to somewhere around 75 percent fat, 20 percent protein and 5 percent carbs.

You can use the 'ratio method' to eat properly no matter what your goal is. If you want to 'gain' muscle you have to take in more calories, so you go OVER your daily maintainance calorie level and then you split that number into ratios .. high protein, moderate carbs ( good carbs ) and low fat percentage .

It's better to look at dieting like that, you count easier by grams than calories. and you can have whatever foods you want to meet these needs. If i'm on a low carb high fat , moderate protein diet and i'm eating at mcdonalds, i'll grab like 6 to 8 double cheeseburgers and take off the bun ( I have lost fat eating 12-16 double cheeseburgers daily from mcdonalds )

if i'm trying to put on muscle ( high protein, moderate carb, low fat ) and i'm still eating at mcdonalds, i'll grab a couple of plain grliled chicken sandwiches. ( carbs in bread, chicken has protein ) little fat in that whole meal.

It's all about the ratios and picking which foods meet those ratios. It's just important to make sure your food choices are good choices .. if you are eating carbs, eat oatmeal, brown rice, yams, whole wheats. These do not cause sharp insulin spikes and they are actually very healthy for you. If you are eating fats, eat good fats, supplement with healthy essential fatty acids, fish oil, borage oil, safflower oil, evening primrose oil, flax seed oil.


if i binge and gain weight liek I did in the 2 weeks ago, and gained 15 pounds, I just switch my ratios to fat burning ones , set below my daily maintainance level and voila, two weeks later i passed my 'original ' mark and have actually lost more fat.

It's all a game people, just play it the right way.