moonlights
Gold Member
Ugh just typed out a massive response to this and the site ate it. In brief:
Atkins never said you should lower calories while on induction? His advice would have been that you'd stall eating such low calories and the best loss is achieved eating at a good level (I think a minimum of around 1500 from women is mentioned but it varies depending on height). Your experience very much goes along with Atkins theory - that low carbs and reasonable (not excessive) calories are the key.
Lots and lots of people find they stall trying to do low calorie Atkins. I've been too ill to eat and managed to gain despite eating around 500cals per day, with it only coming off once I started eating normally. You need to eat enough so your body is confident of you not being about to starve any time soon and starts allowing you to burn fat stores.
You might have been thinking of the fat fast which is a very extreme diet intended for incredibly insulin resistant people and recommended for no more than 5 days. That cuts calories to 1000 a day but you have to eat nearly 100 percent calories from fat - ideally just macademia nuts and cream cheese.
Re: the LCM stuff - if it works for you and you keep losing, no worries. But if you do stall please make sure you cut the sweets rather than cals or fat. They're absolutely notorious for causing stalls . And there are so many yummy low carb sweets you can make from healthy non frankenfood ingredients!!
Re: salt - its 90 percent myth that we should cut down on salt. I'm chronically hypotensive (BP 80/40 on average so very low) so I've had a chance to speak to a few doctors about this. Salt intake is only an issue in patients who already have high blood pressure. The chances of salt intake being what actually pushes anyone over that threshold are practically nil. It's only because people who already have high bp are told to cut salt that cutting salt = good thing has got into our culture. Salt causes water retention and if you're retaining water it can raise your bp a little. But white processed carbs cause infinitely more water retention than salt can. On a ketogenic diet we actually need more salt than normal people because we don't have glycogen stores. I'm sure if you're eating lots of salty food you'll be fine but if you get headaches or leg cramps try adding some salty broth to your day.
Greece sounds lovely. I haven't been on holiday in what must be getting on for a decade now so very jealous. Are there any worries with the economy and traveling there? An sure they must be eager for tourists.
Atkins never said you should lower calories while on induction? His advice would have been that you'd stall eating such low calories and the best loss is achieved eating at a good level (I think a minimum of around 1500 from women is mentioned but it varies depending on height). Your experience very much goes along with Atkins theory - that low carbs and reasonable (not excessive) calories are the key.
Lots and lots of people find they stall trying to do low calorie Atkins. I've been too ill to eat and managed to gain despite eating around 500cals per day, with it only coming off once I started eating normally. You need to eat enough so your body is confident of you not being about to starve any time soon and starts allowing you to burn fat stores.
You might have been thinking of the fat fast which is a very extreme diet intended for incredibly insulin resistant people and recommended for no more than 5 days. That cuts calories to 1000 a day but you have to eat nearly 100 percent calories from fat - ideally just macademia nuts and cream cheese.
Re: the LCM stuff - if it works for you and you keep losing, no worries. But if you do stall please make sure you cut the sweets rather than cals or fat. They're absolutely notorious for causing stalls . And there are so many yummy low carb sweets you can make from healthy non frankenfood ingredients!!
Re: salt - its 90 percent myth that we should cut down on salt. I'm chronically hypotensive (BP 80/40 on average so very low) so I've had a chance to speak to a few doctors about this. Salt intake is only an issue in patients who already have high blood pressure. The chances of salt intake being what actually pushes anyone over that threshold are practically nil. It's only because people who already have high bp are told to cut salt that cutting salt = good thing has got into our culture. Salt causes water retention and if you're retaining water it can raise your bp a little. But white processed carbs cause infinitely more water retention than salt can. On a ketogenic diet we actually need more salt than normal people because we don't have glycogen stores. I'm sure if you're eating lots of salty food you'll be fine but if you get headaches or leg cramps try adding some salty broth to your day.
Greece sounds lovely. I haven't been on holiday in what must be getting on for a decade now so very jealous. Are there any worries with the economy and traveling there? An sure they must be eager for tourists.
