I am in Atkins induction day 6 and I was just wondering approximately how many calories everyone takes in daily????? I am still trying to get used to eating all of the things that you cant have on low fat

Congratulations on your success so far!

Generally, calories are something that you don't have to worry about when first starting out. Some people never have to worry about them.

The general rule of thumb is to make sure that your getting enough calories and folks usually say it's at least 10- 12 times your weight. As you lose mass, your caloric requirements go down. If you peek through peoples journals here, you'll see that most of them keep their calories from fat in the 65-75% range.

Low-carbing does work very well but it may require a leap of faith. Follow the plan as written and you'll be off to a great start!

Karen

Thankyou Karen... I have been staying around 65% myself, monitoring on fitday, I was just curious.

I typically eat 2000 calories per day, I'm at 215 pounds so this is just under my daily when I dont exercise. My percentage is around 70-80% of the calories from fat.

I stayed on Induction for approx the first 20 weeks and found the first couple of months that with NO exercise I would lose 3-5lbs. a week eating 2500 Cals a day and if I went lower than 1800 Cals say 1500, I would only lose a lb or two or none!!! To do it most efficiently you have to have certain amount of Cals or you body will slow it's metabolizim and think it's in starvation mode. I at light both fat and cals(LC has made me lose appetite) one week with 3 days exercise and lost nothing! Next week was lazy and felt stuffed every day and thought "I gained weight and now am stuck" just to find out I lost 5.5lbs! I figured it up and if I averaged 2500 Cals a day I was burning 5000-5500 Cals to justify the weight loss! The was well after the water weight over a month into the diet. LC is just amazing and inspiring me to not only keep going but learn more about diet and exercise. I'm approaching 6 months now and eat 1800-2000 Cals a day but don't really count the Cals and eat 20-30g carbs a day. Unfortunately my CLWL is 30g a day. I exercise 3-4 times a week for 30-45min and have a lb or two every other week type loss. I am still 40lb heavier than when I was in "athletic shape" but probably can't lose much more than 20lbs because your muscle mass grows when you carry about a lot of extra weight and on this diet you retain that muscle. Basically, don't set you goal to low because the more dense you may be slim and trim before that wieght due to lean muscle mass retention. blah, blah, I'll shut up now. Good luck!

Atkins/Low Carb for life!

The "calorie" question is confusing me too. I'm not sure if I am eating enough of them..according to FitDay I am eating between 900 and 1100 calories a day, and 70% of them are coming from fat. BUT, weighing 173lbs, should I be eating a minimum of say 1700 calories, or does it not matter?? Don't want this starvation mode thing to happen!! HELP! !

i count carb and nothing else, if im hungry i eat, if not i try not to go over six hours without eating something.
it does seem like the more i eat the more i lose though..

way to go ruspt2.... keep up the good work. proud for you.

I am having the same experiences. The more I eat the more I loose, only problem is there are quite a few days that I have no appetite at all and it seems that even though I think I am eating a lot when I check my calories on fitday I am averaging 1100. Anyone have a snack suggestions to get the calories up? It's kind of hard to have a heavy snack when you don't feel hungry in the first place.

.....see, what I want to know, is do we NEED to get the calories up? I have read a couple of times now, that we should be eating 10-12 X our weight in calories, so 173lbs X say 10 = 1730 calories.... but if we don't, will it matter or do us any harm ?

I have the same question re carb count, apart from the obvious fibre benefits of the vege carbs, if our carb count was only 5 - 10 for the day, does it matter? Do we definatly need to eat around the 20 carbs? Can anyone please help here.

The danger in eating too few calories is that your metabolism may slow, which can make it hard to lose weight. That's why so many people on 'traditional' calorie-restriction diets do well for a short while but ultimately stall.

Regarding letting your carbs go too low, there is some inormation that says it will not help your weight loss to go below 15g/day (search Atkins.com). You can follow Induction at <10g/day, but it would limit your food choices somewhat (which might make it harder to stick with the plan), plus it might lead to unnecessary and potentially unhelpful calorie restriction (e.g., cutting salad dressing, not eating cheese, etc.). Induction works for most people at 15-20g per day, so why not try that first?

Also, remember that you don't have to count the carbs from non-digestible fiber.