re: How much fat do I need to eat?

[Sephro]

Sorry I know the thread is closed but I had a question that I did not see directly asked/answered in that thread... I've looked but can't find the answer anywhere... Could just be poor searching I don't know...

anyway...

So during the induction they say you should eat a good amount of fat.
Our bodies are now using that fat for energy in a way of speaking...

So why is eating more fat(within reason) better than eating less?

If you ate less fat wouldn't that make your body have to go into it's fat stores for the needed energy rather than using the fats you just ate for lunch?
I'm not saying to eliminate fat from your diet completely by any means!

I just want to understand better why we should have 65% of our total daily calories coming from fat? How does this help us?

Again I'm new to this whole thing and have been trying to learn every bit of this diet that I can.
Thanks!

[Sephro]

No one??? Even if this has been covered please let me know.

It's not too easy to search for since the keywords would be Fat and that won't work...

[not2late]

Sorry but I didn't see this thread until this morning.

Dr. Atkins wrote it's the fat to carb ratio that gets our bodies into ketosis/lipolysis.

Glucose (a sugar) is the primary source of energy used by our bodies. If we eat an apple, it's broken down into it's macronutrients. The glucose/sugar enters our blood steam quickly. It's used for energy, and whatever isn't used is stored as glycogen or body fat.

Fat (dietary and body) takes longer to breakdown. So by limiting the "fast" source of energy (sugar), it forces our bodies to use fat for energy.

If you eat less fat and less carbs, you'd have to make up for your calories by eating more protein. Eat too much protein, and our bodies convert the excess protein into sugar, which is used immediately for energy and whatever's leftover is stored as body fat. So you kind of defeat the purpose of Atkins if you treat it like a "high protein" diet, because if you don't use the energy from the protein you eat, it eventually turns into body fat.

As the sticky says, it doesn't take "a lot" of added fat to make the fat percentages needed on Atkins: a tablespoon or two of full fat salad dressing or a tablespoon or two of mayo/olive oil/butter added to a meal is all it takes. Eating more than that amount is unnecessary.

[EmDee]

Have you read the book, Sephro? It explains a lot about how the process works and why the ratio of ingested fat to carbohydrates is important.

[Sephro]

I have not read the book completely... I skimmed over it about 7 years ago and have long since lost the book. I don't feel like going out to buy the book again since I understand how it all works and the lists of foods are readily available..

not2late - Thanks! That's the type of answer I was looking for. So how much protein should I be limiting myself to per day? (I'm sorry if this has been answered before I didn't even try to search for this answer but can if no one feels like answering me here )

[Elizellen]

Originally Posted by Sephro

not2late - Thanks! That's the type of answer I was looking for. So how much protein should I be limiting myself to per day?

Aim for getting about 30% of your food intake from protein.

[angel_glitter_45]

It is not about fat it is about the carbs. it is confusing,but it works it all i know.

[Sephro]

Another update question...

Is there a limit to grams of Protein we should have in a day?

I do try to keep it at about 30% of my caloric intake from protein but a number limit would be easier to work with...

[Elizellen]

The problem is that as Atkins is not a calorie counting way of eating, trying to decide how much protein to eat is not really practical.

Our individual limit of how much food to eat in total is governed by our own appetite, so some days we might feel hungrier than others and so eat more.

Far simpler to make sure you eat a balanced amount of fat/protein/carbs with each meal/snack however often and how much you need to eat.

When I started using fitday.com to track my menus a few months into induction I found that my ratios usually worked out around the 65/30/5 percantage mark by just counting the up to 20 net carbs, most from vegetables no matter how much actual food I ate.

Even if you dont intend to use fitday regularly I suggest opening a free 'account' there and inputting several past daily menus to see roughly how your ratios worked out at and then adjusting in the future to get them better if you need to.

[Sephro]

So by this approch you could have 10,000 calories in one day and as long as only 3000 of those came from protein you would be okay?

I know being VERY extreme here

But there has to be a general limit to how much protein we should have in a day rather than a percentage... See what I mean?

How much protein does your body need before it will start to turn it into sugar?