It means that your hunger may be blunted on Atkin's plan, causing you to automatically eat less without counting calories or even thinking about calories. People on the Atkins diet who lose weight are not eating more than they burn and losing fat in spite of it.
Whether you count calories and consciously eat fewer than you burn, or you don't count them and unconsciously eat fewer than you burn, either way, the end result is the same. While counting calories in the literal sense is clearly not always necessary, you always have to be aware of calories and portions. No diet or special combination of foods can override the law of calorie balance.
How to Speed Up Weight Loss on Atkins Induction
Anyone who believes that you can eat as much as you want and still lose weight is living in a dream world. A 12 week study conducted by the Harvard School of Public Health and presented in October to the North American Association for the Study of Obesity found that subjects on a low-carb regimen lost just as much weight as those on a standard high-carb, low-fat diet. The shocking part was that the group on the Atkins diet could eat more calories than the group eating the conventional high-carb food pyramid diet. This left researchers scratching their heads saying:. Unfortunately, some of the Atkins troops were quick to interpret the results as meaning, "See, I told you calories don't count.
A calorie is NOT just a calorie. If all calories were created equal then a calorie diet of Krispy Creme doughnuts would have the same effect as a calorie diet of chicken breast and salad vegetables. Do you think these two diets will have the same effects on your health and body composition? Certain foods and certain diets DO give you a metabolic advantage. One advantage is the effect of a diet's composition on your hormones; namely insulin and glucagon.
The First 2 Weeks of Induction: Weighing Results
A second advantage is called the thermic effect of food. The thermic effect of food means that a certain number of calories are used just to digest and absorb the food, leaving a net calorie value substantially less than the total amount of caloric energy that was contained in the food.
This means that for every calories of chicken breast consumed, the NET energy utilized by the body is only calories. Some people call this "negative calories. Stated differently, this means you really CAN lose weight on a higher calorie intake if you eat foods with a high-thermic effect.
Woman's World
What's especially interesting—providing confirmation of the metabolic advantage of a high protein diet—is that the foods provided in this study were low carb, but NOT typical Atkins fare. Instead of lots of red meat and saturated fat, the subjects in this particular study ate mostly fish, chicken, salads, vegetables and unsaturated oils. I think the study's director, Penelope Green, hit the nail on the head when she said, "Maybe they the low-carb, high-protein group burned up more calories digesting their food. Truth is, not one study has ever proven that you can "eat as much as you want" on Atkins or any diet.
Even when a diet provides a metabolic advantage, AFTER that advantage is factored in and you look at NET calorie utilization, you are still left with the calories in versus calories out equation.
Low-Carb Diet for Weight Loss
Most health, medical and nutrition organizations recommend that you lose weight body fat at a rate of no more than 2 pounds per week. In his book, Dr. Atkins says that the average weight loss in the first two weeks on his plan is 8 to 15 pounds. Like many diets, Atkins overstresses total weight loss and quick weight loss , while not stressing enough the difference between body weight, body water, body fat and lean body mass.
Truth is, low-carb diets definitely cause greater weight loss, especially in the initial phases. But this is mostly due to a large drop in water weight and glycogen stored carbohydrate , not necessarily increased fat loss. Weight loss is the wrong goal! Your goal should be permanent fat loss and you should be measuring and tracking your body fat percentage and lean body mass on a regular basis.
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Atkins wrote, and I quote, "Carbohydrates are the very food that makes you fat. The "carbs make you fat" myth is probably the most pervasive and damaging lie about weight control ever told. It's caused tremendous confusion and frustration to already confused and frustrated dieters. First, focusing primarily on any macronutrient protein, carbs or fat or macronutrient ratio should be secondary to energy balance. What makes you fat is eating too many calories. Truth is, you can't blame all "carbohydrates" as a group for why we are getting fatter. What type of carbohydrates are we talking about?
There are good carbs and bad carbs.
The "bad" carbs are the refined ones; white flour and white sugar products like white bread, white pasta, sugar sweetened cereals, candy and soft drinks. To avoid confusion, I would suggest never using the word "carbohydrate" without putting the adjective "refined" or "natural" in front of it. Ironically, Dr. Atkins does make this distinction in his book, yet he still chose to recommend removal of almost ALL carbs during the induction and weight loss phases of his diet—even the good carbs that are proven healthy. This creates rapid weight loss and the appearance of a hugely successful diet right from the first week.
Again, the real questions are: What kind of weight was lost and can you keep the weight off for good? A healthy, maintainable fat burning diet should be centered on natural foods—and for most people, that includes natural carbs in moderation—not the total removal and demonizing of all carbohydrates. Your body is a remarkable machine that is fully capable of adapting to whatever fuel is provided in predominance. You can burn protein, fat, or carbs for energy. However, carbohydrates are your body's preferred—and most efficient—fuel source for vigorous physical activity.
Many low-carbers believe that fat is a more efficient energy source than carbohydrates, but this is not true. Fat is not a more efficient energy source, it is only a more concentrated energy source. Since the fuel for muscular contraction is carbs glycogen a high-fat, low-carb diet is not the best approach to fat loss for athletes, bodybuilders or highly active individuals.
These diets simply don't support high intensity training. Very low-carb diets might be appropriate for the sedentary, severely overweight, or those with orthopedic conditions that prevent any exercise. It seems that ketogenic diets take off weight even with little or no exercise although the weight won't be pure fat and you may not keep it off. Some Atkins dieters even report feeling more energetic after adapting to the low carbs and higher fat. It's likely, however, that most of them were relatively inactive.
Low carbs and high activity don't go well together. Truth is, a more balanced diet of natural foods combined with exercise is a much better way to take off pure fat for good. Of the two methods for creating a calorie deficit—burning more, or eating less—the former is the superior method with far fewer downsides. Any fat loss program that does not make exercise the centerpiece is ultimately destined for failure. The term "low carb" is used very broadly. A ketogenic diet is a VERY low carb diet, usually between grams of carbs per day or less. The induction phase of the Atkins diet is limited to only 20 grams per day.
Because they allow virtually no carbohydrate, Ketogenic diets, by definition, are extremely strict and nutritionally unbalanced. It's an irrevocable law that the more "extreme" a nutrition program is, the greater the side effects will be and the more difficult the diet will be to stay on. Truth is, while some recent studies have suggested low-carb diets do work, not a single study has proven that it's necessary to restrict carbs so severely that you go into ketosis. The benefits of reduced carbs and more protein include a higher thermic effect, appetite regulation and hormonal control.
Dr Atkins made many excellent points about weight control in his book. He spoke out on the evils of processed carbohydrates. He identified carbohydrate sensitivity and hyperinsulinemia as contributing factors in obesity. He spoke of the metabolic advantage of high protein. He pointed out that there may not be a direct one to one correlation between saturated fat, dietary cholesterol and heart disease.
How does the Atkins Diet work?
The fact is, Dr. Atkins—to his credit—had discovered some important facts about weight control, and had the courage to publish and stand by them long before anyone else did. In the end, unfortunately, he drew some questionable conclusions from this information and, like so many other diet gurus, he left out some large and important pieces to the puzzle.
If permanent fat loss were as simple as removing carbohydrates from your diet, then why has obesity surged to an all-new high in and why are there so many Atkins failures? Could it be possible that the conventional high-carb, low-fat food pyramid approach and the Atkins diet approach have BOTH missed the mark, and that the optimum diet for permanent fat loss is somewhere in the middle? Could it be possible that dieting is the absolute worst way to lose body fat and that the proper type of exercise program combined with a more balanced approach to nutrition is the answer?
One of the biggest errors weight loss seekers make today is to accept one philosophy completely or reject it completely, taking a side and "taking up arms" to defend their position without considering the alternatives. Most of the weight loss philosophies being promoted today contain valid points, but as a whole, are a total mish-mash of truth, half-truths and lies. That's why, for over 20 years, I have literally turned myself into a human guinea pig in my search for a sensible and healthy method of permanent fat loss.
I studied and then personally tested the ketogenic diet, the high-carb diet, low fat diet and nearly every other diet in between. I found good points and bad points in all of them, many of which I have already revealed to you in this report. I then compiled all the positive points of each fat loss method into a structured format, while discarding all the negatives. What emerged was nothing short of remarkable: An all-natural system that has allowed me to peak at a body fat level of 3.
It's worked for thousands of other people too. If you would like to learn exactly what I discovered about permanent, natural fat loss from two decades of study and experimentation The Atkins diet is a low-carb diet, usually recommended for weight loss. Proponents of this diet claim that you can lose weight while eating as much protein and fat as you want, as long as you avoid foods high in carbs. Those with average resistance and 20 pounds to lose could expect a 4 to 6 pound drop during Induction. How long should it take to lose 25 pounds?
Losing weight the healthy way — slowly — takes time, so don't plan to drop 25 pounds in as little as two weeks. At one to two pounds per week, losing 25 pounds will take you a little more than 12 weeks, or three months. How long will it take to lose 20 pounds? Simply put, you can lose 20 pounds in several months by eating fewer calories than you do now and exercising vigorously for three to five hours per week using resistance training, interval training, and cardio training. How long should you stay on Phase 1 of Atkins? The length of the Induction phase depends on your weight loss goals.