Me too! I could easily take a 3 hr nap after lunch. . .could not keep my eyes open! And after I read it in the Atkins book I was "OHHH!" redawn

Who said they were the same?

"Take a typical person...then take a gerbil...Christa your metabolism is the gerbil." an actual quote from a MD!!!! hahahahahahahahahah

I find most of my problems do stem from blood glucose. I started testing and re testing...wrote down EVERY bit that entered my body. This is my proof that a low carb....meat followed by whole foods only works!(I called it the froggirl hodgepodge of hope to those who doubted my science) HAHAHA

Everyone is diffrent...Yet I have never met a person who cut down on processed carbs that did not loose a few pds...

>Everyone is diffrent...Yet I have never met a person who cut down on processed carbs that did not loose a few pds...

Actually, I would say that processed and refined food should actually be labeled as a drug. Why? Because, a refined or processed food has been refined to remove all traces of nutrition leaving behind basically only one substance to act on the body. For example, sugar or flour. Both of these are refined to remove all traces of the whole foods they came from leaving only the sweet (or starch) which is empty and devoid of any real nutritional value. Sure, it offers a carb, but you can get carbs from any whole real food.

Processed foods are very similar. They are processed to remove almost all real nutritional value leaving behind only those things which can act aggresively and quickly once in the body.

Only drugs offer this similar benefit. Speeding themselves to the parts of the body they affect without much digestion. Except refined sugar and flour and processed foods go directly to the hips, thighs and stomach instead of giving a high (well, they do give an insulin high). Worse, they offer no clear benefit for the body other than tricking it into thinking it's a nutritional food and then realizing it isn't (when you're hungry again in 1 hour).

These types of foods should be labeled as a drug, not a food.

This is deffinatly NOT a calorie reducing diet. Ive tried eating 600 a day, 800, 1000, 1200 calories a day on low fat, healthy diets. I lost nothing ! I eat anywhere from 1200 - 1500 calories a day and the weight is coming off really fast. I do think that you do need to reduce your calories a little, you cant eat as much low carb food as you want, even dr atkins has said that.

It is true atkins does limit calorie intake. Low carb eating levels your blood sugar, preventing one from becoming hypoglycemic, and therefore entering a meal ravenous which of course leads to binge eating.... BUT atkins is not a low cal diet.

Low cal diets are about deprivation. You are hungry on a high carb, low fat calorie restricted diet. Low cal diets are unnatural. Painfully starving yourself is psychologically damaging, and inevitably leads to failure of the diet (98% of all people fail diets). This is why so many who yo-yo dieted for years with low cal low fat high carb find success with atkins.

Another thing to keep in mind, it's not just the limiting of calories which makes atkins work. High levels of insulin make one more prone to store food (fat especially) as fat stores on your body. Atkins lowers and stabilizes insulin production, making you less hungry and primes your body for fat burning rather than fat STORING, which is the real reason it works so well. It has been proven in studies that the atkins control group results in more fat weight loss, even when eating 50% more than the low fat/cal control group. How do you explain that?

Atkins is just a healthy, natural way to eat. Lots of water, leafy greens, natural oils and fats, and protein. This is what our bodies are designed to eat. Atkins works because its how we are meant to get energy; you eat a lot of unprocessed, whole, healthy foods rather than the frozen, prepackaged, type 2 diabetes causing refined high glycemic garbage that is recommended on "healthy low fat/cal" diets.

Lol. I eat 2000 calories on Atkins and lose weight.
Its true that if I eat over 3000 I don't - but then I didn't ever get near to even 2000, pre-Atkins.

This is for a reasonably active 5'6" 30 yr old woman - 2000 calories is on the high side for maintenance, let alone weight loss.

One question, did they measure how much of the weight loss was in the form of water, fat, muscle and other? This is a very important distinction.

Carbs have a ton of water, and low carb dieting in the early stages causes a lot of water loss, which is why in the first few weeks the weight seems to just fly off. Sure some of it is fat, and you probably will lose more fat than hc dieters, but a lot of it is also water. In this particular study, the low carb dieters probably had a higher percentage of water loss, and the high carb dieters who ate very little probably lost more true fat than the low carb dieters who ate over 2000 calories in study #1.

Now, I don't doubt you can eat more calories (in the form of fat) on a low carb plan, and still lose similar amounts of weight as those who eat less calories on a high carb plan. Its no mystery really, its thermogenesis. Running on a fat burning metabolism is like doing exercise all day long. Fat requires more energy to burn than carbohydrate, therefore you must eat more calories if your primary energy intake is from lipids. To maintain the same level of bodily function as a high carb dieter you must eat more calories .
Even though im aware eating fat while eating low carb allows you to eat more, I just dont believe the average person can eat 1000 calories more !

How much more you can eat may very well be a personal thing, just like how many carbs your body can handle, how insulin resistant you are prone to become/are, etc. Personally, i only started losing when i slightly lowered my caloric intake to around 1500 (im not very active). However, i rarely, every feel hungry eating this way, and sometimes i even have to force myself to eat (to avoid low blood sugar).

...but then, that isn't the point!

The point is, I eat less calories and MY CRAVINGS ARE GONE!!!

If I went on any other calorie reduction WOE, I would be ravenously hungry all the time and in the end this feeling of being denied satisfaction would defeat me, on this, my hunger is completely gone!

Also this is the only WOE that kills my cravings for alcohol, pretty good side benefit I'd say!

The water loss that you refer to generally occurs with low fat diets as well but to a lesser degree. On low carb, the initial water loss comes from depleting glycogen stores which carry with them 3 grams of water for every gram of glycogen and this is usually within the first 3-5 days. After that, your body has switched over the fat metabolism and burning ketones instead of glycogen. There is also an increase in urination initially, but when you are following the plan as directed and drinking 2+ liters of water per day, this is also replaced. Water loss without replacement = dehydration.

First off, this isn't a diet. Some people make the mistake of making this a diet instead of a a way of eating. Yet, it can help reduce calorie intake because the appetite is controlled. I used to be ravenous within 2 housr after eating a filling meal. I often had 2 servings of everything at dinner and still feel ravenous shortly after. One thing for sure, I knew something was very wrong. The inability to control my appetite was problematic. Becoming able to eat a healthy breakfast at 8 AM and not again until lunchtime ( which may be 12:30 or 1:00 and dinner at 6:00 PM ) is quite a feat. By eating foods that trigger an over production of insulin, causes an over-production of appetite, a yo yo that I am relieved to be off of. I am happy that I can wander away from food without being afraid that something terrible is going to happen. Research the facts.

Black57


We live in a country that is overflowing with food and very little has been studied about it.

I will take anything that allows me to feel great, get healthy and not be hungry.

I have no idea if I am eating more or less calories because i always eat enough food to fill me up. However, when I was eating a high carbohydrate diet, I had a ravenous appetite. I regularly ate two helpings of everything out of fear that I would become hungry in an hour or so...and,often I would. My hunger, if not quickly satisfied, would make me ill, weak and shaky.

In contrast to my new way of eating, I eat a high protein/fat meal and can go for hours without eating. I have to remind myself, sometimes, to eat after 3 hours. I eat 3 meals a day until i am comfortably full. I can look at a big chunk of chocolate cake without eating it. I can be at the computer without a bowl of Lays Potato Chips and Oreo cookies ( Mmmmm). However, I eat so much food! I still have my appetite. I have a new, kinder,gentler hunger which allows me to eat sensibly, healthily, WISELY. I have lost weight thanks to my "new found" sensibility and I have perfect cholesterol, fats and blood glucose levels.Hmmm, my skin is no longer itchy ( it has been itchy for years ) and my weekly migraines have vanished. I am sure calories had nothing to do with those.

If I continued eating a high carb diet, I would eventually be as fat as my grandmother, God rest her soul, and as diabetic as my mother and as gouty as my brother. What the hell? Why is this diet so difficult to believe? We hear how important water is because the body is made up of 75% water. How much of the body is made up of protein and fat? We think that good nutritions is rocket science and commercialism ( Don't believe da hype!!! )

I absolutly think not!

At least not how calories are currently calculated. The whole point of high fat, low carb diets like Atkins is that you get most of your energy from fats.

The way calorific intake is calculated, you get 9 calories from every gram of fat, 4 from carbs and 4 from protein.

However, on a diet like Atkins these sums start to go wrong. There are tow ways in which the body burns fat. The first way is when it is burned bu brown fat cells to produce body heat. Everyone does this, and yes, the fats give a full 9 calories.

On a diet like Atkins however we go into ketosis. In this case fats are irreversably changed into ketones which can be burned by the muscles and brain. However, we can't store them well and many are washed away in our urine and excreted in our sweat and even our breath. So, each gram of fat gives a much lower amount of calories to the body - maybe 4 or 5.

The other point is protein. Our bodies don't burn all the protein we eat. They use a lot of it for repairs.

I average 2,000 calories a day according to fitday, but as I get 70% of my calories from fat, 25% from protein and only 5% from carbs, the actual amount I burn willbe much less than 2,000. More like 1,300 and this doesn't even allow for the subtraction of the protein I am not burning!

All the above is the 'metabolic advantage' Atkins talks about in his book.

So a calorie is not a calorie if most of your calories come from fat.

I have noticed that my calories are much lower than ever. I am almost shocked at how few calories I am consuming. The key here, is that I am consuming these fewer calories but not ever feeling hungry, never have a hunger pain, never want sugar or never want bread.This is a good thing. So what is your point, exactly?
Shannon in Venus