Is It Possible To Burn The Bulk Of Your Body Weight On The Atkins Diet, Then Go On A Calorie Controlled Diet?
Basically is it possible to use the Atkins diet to burn off the majority of the body fat, then once you reach your goal weight, slowly re-introduce carbs to your diet and follow a low calorie diet to keep the weight off with regular exercise, or will all the weight lost on Atkins come back?
people will tell you that you will gain it back after atkins but if a person does as you said and monitors their calorie intake to just meet their caloric needs,then no way will the weight come back. i occasionally will do a high protein,high fat,low carb. diet for a week or two will lose a few lbs and i don’t gain it back.
when atkins fails it’s for the same reason that most diets fail. people feel deprived of foods they want(but don’t need) and once they get off the diet they overindulge in those foods they craved and eat more calories than they need.
i have never tried low carb, but my mom and dad have a few times in the past, and my mom lost alot of weight, though she gained alot of it back, she went back to drinking alot of dr. pepper (which would be 6 or so cans a day, by ‘alot’ i mean addicted)
and she went back to eating what she normally liked eating.
she didn’t start balancing calories, and truthfully if you eat more calories than your body can burn a day you are gonna gain weight no matter what.
it takes effort+change to lose weight&keep it off.
i think that would be good, and you won’t gain it back, as long as while your counting calories you don’t make all those calories come from carbs, balance everything
don’t listen to the 3rd answer…low-carbing for life isn’t the healthiest plan ever… it can cause heart attacks
try aiming for all the foods on the food pyramid, your not supposed to avoid them (accept for your temporary low-carbing to shed some of those extra pounds.)
ah. good luck. =]
x
You could, but why would you want to?
Done properly, Atkins is perfectly healthy. Why would you want to go on a low-calorie diet when you could contine to eat delicious food?
There is no reason to ever go off a low carb way of eating, you slowly re introduce carbs to your way of eating and as long as you don’t exceed 9grams of carbs an hour (144 carbs a day) you will never trigger insulin (the fat storage hormone) no matter the calories. Most of us do low carb most of the time and occasionally cheat and slip back into low carb the next day. If you gain weight, drop your carbs a few grams til you slide back into loss mode. Who wants to spend their life on semi deprivation? The longer you don’t do carbs, they really kind of lose their appeal. (Tastes like wet dough) I still cheat with sugar occasionally. It’s just not a regular part of my life (as it was preAtkins, nearly 6 years ago, when I felt it controlled me & I had no control)
You can also cheat easier than someone in glycolysis. IF you trigger insulin, all those carbs that would go to fat cells on someone in glycolysis instead fill up the empty glycogen stores & go to muscles for burning instead of fat cells. Which would slow weight loss but if you’re in maintenance, weight loss is not a concern. (neat little bonus package) Some folks with massive amounts of weight to lose, do weight loss, maintenance & back to weight loss mode – gives them a cheat period without blowing anything.
The rungs to reintroduction of carbs in 5 gram units – all available to very active people in as little as 11 weeks:
* Induction acceptable vegetables in larger quantities
* Fresh cheese
* Nuts and seeds
* Berries
* Alcohol
* Legumes
* Other fruits
* Starchy vegetables
* Whole grains
Many people gain weight on high carb, then switch to low carb to lose weight & then are shocked when they return to high carb that they gain weight. Many people can return to moderate carb levels but very few can really eat all they want of sugar and maintain weight or health.
You will lose more body fat eating protein and fat (don’t eat protein alone) than not eating AT ALL. To lose weight fast eat all you want but nothing but meat, eggs, healthy oils, mayo, butter and half an avocado a day (you’ll need added potassium). Keep the calories high and the fat percentage high, at least 65% of calories. Adding in green vegetables & some cheese will continue weight loss but at a slower pace.
Your body won’t release fat stores if you lower calories below what it needs. It will slow your metabolism to compensate and store every spare ounce as fat. If you continue lowering your calories, it will continue lowering that set point, til you can survive off nothing and store fat on anything. The body will only release it’s fat stores if it knows there is plenty of food.
Eating carbs while trying to lose body fat is terribly inefficient. When in glycolysis (burning glucose as fuel) you have to lower your calories (which slows your metabolism) and exercise heavily to deplete your glycogen stores before burning body fat.
The core of the Atkins program is converting your body from glycolysis (burning glucose as fuel) to ketosis (burning fat as fuel). You need to keep your fat levels at >65% of your calories, if you don’t your body will still remain in glycolysis by converting 58% of excess protein into glucose (via gluconeogenesis).
It takes minimum of 3 days to convert your body to ketosis, (but only one bite to convert back to glycolysis) you will probably feel sluggish the first week but most people feel better than ever thereafter.
Simple carbohydrates (sugar, flour, bread, cereal, pasta, potatoes, rice) triggers insulin which can store the calories you eat into fat. The more protein you eat the more the fat burning hormone glucagon is released. The more carbohydrate you eat the more the fat storage hormone insulin is released.
High insulin levels promote inflammation, weight gain, hunger and unbalance other hormones. Controlling your insulin level will balance out other hormones & allow human growth hormone (HGH) to be produced naturally so you will gain lean muscle even without exercise. Any exercise will greatly increase your muscle mass with high HGH levels.
Ground flax seed (2 Tbsp) 1/4 cup of water, cinnamon, artificial sweetener, mix in a raw egg – let sit 10 min to absorb liquid, put some cream cheese in the middle and nuke for 1.5 min. for hot cereal or 2 min. for more of a muffin type thing. Great low carb, high fiber treat. Suggested for daily fiber needs.
The first 2 weeks you can have several cups a day of (mostly) lettuce and celery, cucumbers, radishes, mushrooms, peppers and more variety of vegetables thereafter add 5 grams per day additional (20 grams day first 2 weeks, 25grams 3rd week, 30grams 4th week etc) every week til you gain weight, then you subtract 10 carbs. That would give you your personal carb level (everyone is different and it depends on how active you are.) As long as you remain <9 carbs per hour, you will maintain insulin control, and shouldn’t gain weight.
There is no downside to low carb, only high carb.