rosebug
Silver Member
Hi Kieran.
The trouble is, you seem a bit mixed up on what the Atkins diet is. I'm not around much at the moment but have been reading your diary and am a little worried about you. Atkins is very definitely not a calorie restriction diet. Though the appetite restriction factor of ketosis does often mean that we eat slightly less, calorie wise, it is actively important not to restrict your calories too much or your body will feel it needs to reserve supplies and make you fight for every pound. The most successful people you see on this board eat three good meals and a couple of snacks every day, as Atkins recommended. The only time you need to count calories is if your weight loss stalls.
Second, Atkins is a -high fat- diet. The official recommendation is that 65 percent of your daily calories come from fat, 35 percent from protein and 5 percent from carbs. You lose weight fastest the higher the fat percentage in your diet is. I tested that for myself, and again you can see it in evidence on this board.
Some people feel uncomfortable with a high fat diet. Understandably, as it goes against what the diet industry tells us. For them there is the Dukan diet - high protein, low fat, no cheese or butter or oil at all but some fat free dairy for calcium. They eat a much higher ratio of carbs (40 - 60g a day) to compensate for this. On less than 20g carbs, you need the fat.
What you really, really should not be doing is taking two meals off per week. Atkins puts you in a medical state of fat burning called ketosis. In ketosis the fat you eat is not stored, and the fat of your body is burned for fuel. That's why you lose weight, not because of calorie restriction.
The reason we go into ketosis is because we stop eating enough carbs for our body to store. Most people have a tolerance level of about 60 - 80g carbs per day where they can stay in ketosis, though for some people it is as low as 40g.
Taking a meal off and eating, as you suggested, pie and mash, will take you most likely over 100g carbs in one meal. This will take you out of ketosis which will
1) bring your appetite and carb cravings right back. Ketosis is what suppresses your appetite
2) stop you burning fat.
You'll take anywhere from 1 - 3 days to get back into ketosis and in that time your body will be storing food as fat again. Then you might take your second meal off per week and do it to yourself all over again.
It is also by some reports actively dangerous to go in and out of ketosis regularly. What it will certainly do is make your life harder and your weight loss slower.
I'm surprised no one has said this. Your plan isn't clean and green at all, I'm afraid.
Now, there is a lot to be said for reducing both calories and carbs and eating a relatively low carb, low calorie diet. But that's what slimming world red days are for, that's not Atkins. Do you have a copy of the book? Most of this is explained well there.
Also, tomatoes are a restricted, high carb food so the chicken recipe suggested earlier probably wouldn't be Atkins suitable.
Good luck Kieran. Do what works for you, but be wary of creating your own version of a diet like this, which works by very strict rules.
The trouble is, you seem a bit mixed up on what the Atkins diet is. I'm not around much at the moment but have been reading your diary and am a little worried about you. Atkins is very definitely not a calorie restriction diet. Though the appetite restriction factor of ketosis does often mean that we eat slightly less, calorie wise, it is actively important not to restrict your calories too much or your body will feel it needs to reserve supplies and make you fight for every pound. The most successful people you see on this board eat three good meals and a couple of snacks every day, as Atkins recommended. The only time you need to count calories is if your weight loss stalls.
Second, Atkins is a -high fat- diet. The official recommendation is that 65 percent of your daily calories come from fat, 35 percent from protein and 5 percent from carbs. You lose weight fastest the higher the fat percentage in your diet is. I tested that for myself, and again you can see it in evidence on this board.
Some people feel uncomfortable with a high fat diet. Understandably, as it goes against what the diet industry tells us. For them there is the Dukan diet - high protein, low fat, no cheese or butter or oil at all but some fat free dairy for calcium. They eat a much higher ratio of carbs (40 - 60g a day) to compensate for this. On less than 20g carbs, you need the fat.
What you really, really should not be doing is taking two meals off per week. Atkins puts you in a medical state of fat burning called ketosis. In ketosis the fat you eat is not stored, and the fat of your body is burned for fuel. That's why you lose weight, not because of calorie restriction.
The reason we go into ketosis is because we stop eating enough carbs for our body to store. Most people have a tolerance level of about 60 - 80g carbs per day where they can stay in ketosis, though for some people it is as low as 40g.
Taking a meal off and eating, as you suggested, pie and mash, will take you most likely over 100g carbs in one meal. This will take you out of ketosis which will
1) bring your appetite and carb cravings right back. Ketosis is what suppresses your appetite
2) stop you burning fat.
You'll take anywhere from 1 - 3 days to get back into ketosis and in that time your body will be storing food as fat again. Then you might take your second meal off per week and do it to yourself all over again.
It is also by some reports actively dangerous to go in and out of ketosis regularly. What it will certainly do is make your life harder and your weight loss slower.
I'm surprised no one has said this. Your plan isn't clean and green at all, I'm afraid.
Now, there is a lot to be said for reducing both calories and carbs and eating a relatively low carb, low calorie diet. But that's what slimming world red days are for, that's not Atkins. Do you have a copy of the book? Most of this is explained well there.
Also, tomatoes are a restricted, high carb food so the chicken recipe suggested earlier probably wouldn't be Atkins suitable.
Good luck Kieran. Do what works for you, but be wary of creating your own version of a diet like this, which works by very strict rules.
