Hey guys,
I'm really confused on calorie intake. I know Dr. Atkins doesnt really go into it in his book much, and I also know that too few calories will cause you to go into starvation mode, but I really dont have that problem, it seems to be! =( I'm doing great on keeping my carbs at 20 grams but Ive been eating so many calories lately, according to Fitday. Today, for instance, I had boneless chicken fried in butter for breakfast (I know thats pretty weird) a 2/3 lb double carb burger from Hardee's for lunch (I feel like I should have only eaten half, I think I over ate that cause it was really BIG!) and for dinner I'm having fried salmon in butter with 2 cups of spinach with butter and mozzerella cheese. I've also had a cup of the low carb chocolate milk for a snack. Well Fitday says I'm definitly at 2000-2500 calories for today, and for goodness sake, the Hardee burger alone was almost 1000 calories according to their website!!! If this is the case, I'm going to get the single burger next time!! I'm worried that the reason why I'm stalling is because I'm eating too many calories. Has this been the case with any of you guys out there? I think I'm going to have to limit my butter and eat less caloric meat. I'm just eating too many calories! I've very scared and confused you guys! I'm even scared that I'm going to start gaining weight from all these calories. I'm only 129 5'4". Certainly this is too many calories for me!

Too many calories will stall you, period. Don't listen to anyone who tries to tell you that calories don't matter... these people either have very active lifestyles, or for whatever reason no appetities, because the truth is if you eat more or as much energy than you burn you will not lose weight.

Atkins doesn't recommend calorie counting because he tries to get us in contact with our natural hunger (plus it was a good selling point for his approach ). However, many overweight people are so used to eating whatever is around that even the normally lowered appetite that atkins gives us isn't enough. These people need to watch calories.

Try eating smaller portions, but eating more frequently. This helps me a lot... I find I just can't do 3 squares. I eat way too much at each meal because I enter the meal really hungry. Snacking all day is much better for me, I take in less calories this way.

Also try putting a small portion on a small plate, and eating slowly. Listen to your stomach. You don't want to feel uncomfortable, you want to feel satisfied. It is amazing now how uncomfortable being too full feels... another benefit of atkins. On high carb, I could stuff myself and be ready to eat something about 3 hours later. On low carb, I stuff myself and I go to bed with a horrid tummy ache... but the next morning I am STILL full! Plus, "stuffed" on high carb was more like a 1000 calorie meal, whereas on atkins "stuffed" is more like a 500-600 calorie meal.

Anyway, what I am trying to say is 75% of the atkins magic is the fact that it is self limiting. People naturally eat less, and they just aren't able to over eat like they used to. There are also other metabollic advantages, but the biggest one is the fact that it causes us to eat less.
So yes, calories definitely do matter. You will not lose if you are eating when you aren't really hungry. It is important you break this habbit now while still in weight loss stages, because once you get to maintenence and have more choices, eating just for eatings sake will be a lot more dangerous...

Yeah, unfortunately, calories do count! I, like you, am looking to lose about 20 pounds, and I do need to watch my calories. I've upped my carbs to 25-30g per day, though, because it's easier to keep calories low when I can have more spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, etc. Once I am on maintenance, I am confident that I won't need to monitor so closely, as 1800-2000 cals per day feels just right for me. Right now, I am keeping it to 1500-1600, and that's for a very active day.

Well put, it'stheWoo!!!
Finally the straightup bottom line.

I have been on this WOL for about 2 months now and I have lost 59 pounds BUT I have a WHOLE lot more to lose than you do and it is a proven fact that the more you weigh, the faster you lose weight so please do not think you should be losing a pound a day.

However, I have noticed that when I added more vegetables and upped my carbs to 35 a day, I was able to get in less calories with more food and my rate of weight loss increased. Every persons metabolic resistance is different and 35 carbs may or may not be ok for you, my friend cannot have more than 25 carbs a day without going out of ketosis, I have eaten 60+ carbs before in a day and was still strong in ketosis that day and the next. Also, it is important to drink a lot of water because it flushes the fat from your body.

Calories do matter. Increasing your veggies and decreasing the fat used to cook your meat should help.

Thanks you guys. I will try to eat more spinach/broccoli and less hamburger and butter. I think I go a lil overboard on the butter sometimes, I will try to more closely monitor my calories. Thanks everyone for the wonderful info.

P.S.-ItstheWoo, I feel like you read my mind and knew exactly what was going on with me! Your post was very, very helpful! Thank you so much!

i dunno-- i mean, i agree that calories are important but i wouldn't restrict myself that much. I'm 63.5 inches--64 when i stretch, lol, and went through induction/lost the most weight when i was eating aroun 2000-2500 cals a day. This one week, i like u got scared i was eating too many cals so dropped to about 1500 and was stalled the entire wk. When i went back to eating more (esp a lot at breakfast), the pounds started coming off again. I would try to eat huge breakfast (sometimes i eat 1000 cal in the morning alone)--it really gets your metabolism going and u burn more. and i'm not very active--i can barely run a mile, just walk around a lot

While I'm not saying that calories don't matter, you should also remember that LC diets do provide a metabolic advantage of 200-300 calories a day. Since fat and protein are not as efficiently converted into energy as carbohydrates, they don't actually represent quite as many calories to your body as they do when assayed in a lab for calorie counting. Studies have demonstrated that dieters on low-carb diets lose more weight than those on low-fat diets of equivalent calories -- in fact, in this study, LC dieters who ate 1800/day lost 3 lbs MORE than LF dieters eating 1500/day. So no, the number at the top of your Fitday chart doesn't tell the whole story. That's not a license to gorge yourself, but there's no need to drop your calories terribly low, either.

I don't think a couple of days at that level is going to start you gaining weight, especially if you aren't leading a totally sedentary lifestyle. I'm roughly your height and weight, and I usually average 1800-2000 calories if I'm trying to lose weight and 2200-2500 for maintenance. That's an average over the course of the week, though, since I usually naturally have a couple higher-calorie and a couple lower-calorie days. I'm not one of those people with "very active lifestyles", either -- I work out 6x/week, but other than that, I'm usually parked in front of a computer. Nor do I have a naturally fast metabolism, or I wouldn't have gotten to 210 lbs in the first place, or stopped losing on a traditional LF 1200-1400 calorie diet. Mind you, I lose quite slowly at that rate -- we're talking a pound or two a month here -- but I'm also at a low BF% to begin with, so slow is the only way I'm going to lose.

I also find that snacking or eating more smaller meals results in a higher overall calorie intake for me, but this is very much an individual thing. If I eat mini-meals of 200-300 calories all day, I am always somewhere in between halfway hungry and starving, and it's very easy for those mini-meals to get bigger and bigger. I'm just not really satisfied with a meal of less than 500 calories -- I eat less than that for breakfast because I'm not much of a morning food person, but I'm ravenous by lunch. And for me, snacking is absolutely forbidden, because I don't eat less at meals to compensate for the extra calories. However, many people do well with keeping calories low by eating mini-meals. I'd definitely recommend picking one extreme or the other -- three-squares and no snacking, or eating several smaller meals.

Thank you atlee. I'm taking your advice to heart! =)

I also have eating high fat without restriction and the proof is in that I am not losing very quickly. I have eaten things with maltitol too much and think that it has stalled me. As well as eating hamburger, cheese, mayo, things like that without moderation. I am going to try more high protein/low fat options such as grilled chicken, fish, and lean pork and see if that helps me. I have done well for the most part on the diet, but one look at my stats tells you that perhaps too much fat may have really slowed me down.

You might look into protien power insteadof Atkins. Atkins is a high fat diet. Protien can effect blood sugar, just not near the level as carbs. Atkins is a high fat, adiquet protien diet and most find that higher fat (as 70%) helps them lose. Many do stall on sugar alcohols and other sweets or fake foods though.

Hi Britgrl...and everybody else....
I was just skimming through this thread and I wanted to jump in and say that Itsthewoo said it perfectly. I felt like you really hit the nail on the head. Sometimes when I just put a small portion on my plate it helps me figure out how much I need to eat to feel full. Also, I have been doing a lot of research on low carbing and it's 100% true that no matter what diet or lifestyle you practice...calories matter! The good news for us is that when you eat a low carb diet you generally feel fuller faster and eat much less than you would otherwise, but like Itsthewoo I think snacking is super important to being successful! If I wait and try for three meals...I just pig out-- I'm just too hungry and I overeat.

Also, Trustcat has a great point about eating your biggest meal in the morning. I am trying to make that my habit now too, but it is hard to get used to. Believe or not if you check out www.webmd.com and search for low carb diet or nutrition there is a lot of great, helpful info about low carbing.
Jenn

I agree with THE WOO LOL. Calories really DO matter in the scheme of things. I have found that I have to UP my calories sometimes for a while to lose better...in other words...don't UNDEReat, either.

I'd say absolutely, calories matter. That's why Dr. A said to not stuff yourself and to stop eating when you are satisfied. It does mention in DANDR that many people will have to retrain themselves to not overeat.

Still, it's a lot harder to pig out on pork chops than it is on cookies. And just because calories count, that does not mean that all calories are equal. (Thanks for that protein/fat explanation, atlee. I'm going to mention that to a coworker of mine who is a "calorie in = calorie out" freak.)

I am one of those who has to watch that my intake does not get too low. I don't tend to eat a lot at a time, and I HATE the way overeating makes me feel. Sadly, that tendency did not help me stay thin.