Question about calories from a "newbie"

[fat2phatt]

What is an accurate way to track how many calories I need per day. I use fitday, and it says something like this:

Calories Burned Today
source cals % total
Total: 3157
Basal: 1913 61%
Lifestyle: 1244 39%
Activities: 0 0


Notice I have NO activities listed. Which number is accurate, if I want to lose weight? Or what calculation do I need to use?

Thanks..

[cypressgirl]

I don't think Fitday, or most calories burned style counters, are very accurate. That is because they don't take into account enough factors to really analyze you in particular - they are generic.

Aside from that, you absolutely do not need to count calories during induction. You most likey will not ever need to count your calories again if you really give this way of eating an honest effort.

Induction is all about staying under 20 net carbs (total carbs - fiber = net carbs), staying with the legal foods list and staying withthe recommended induction amounts (cheeses, veggies, etc.). During Induction, you eat when you are hungry and you eat until you are comfortably full. Period. Use this time to learn your hunger signals and what it takes for you to satisfy them. Your hunger will naturally become suppressed over the next two weeks and you will, in turn, need less.

(If you haven't already purchased and read the book, you should. It will help you make the weight vanish for good rather than send you on a yo-yo ride of weight loss and gain.)

After Induction, you will feel like a million bucks! Your sweet tooth & cravings should be greatly reduced or gone altogether. Your energy will be up and your hunger will be down.

Read up on all this in the book and check out all the stickies in these forums. Hang around here as much as you can and we will cheer you on and answer all the questions you want to throw out! Good luck!

[fat2phatt]

Thanks for the comment. I was just about to say that by using this calculation above, this is what I got....There are 3500 calories in a pound of fat. This means that I would basically have to eat less than 1000 per day, AND combine exercise if I wanted to lose a pound a day, which some people on Atkins do. Apparently the lack of carbs somehow is calculated differently, because I don't see ANYONE here eating that few calories, and most people are NOT exercising to burn those calories....

Dr. Atkins WAS indeed a genius, because there's no true way to calculate HOW the fat comes off by using the standard formulas. BUT the MAIN THING is that the fat DOES come off!!!

I guess my nerdish, scientific mind just needs to rest on this subject. :P

I am STILL having people tell me to track my calories for a MONTH, and if there's no loss, then I need to lower my calories by 10 percent. I really don't want to have to wait that long to see if I get results!!!

Thanks, again for your time...


P.S. Your baby and little boy are real cutie pies!!

[cypressgirl]

Originally Posted by fat2phatt

I am STILL having people tell me to track my calories for a MONTH, and if there's no loss, then I need to lower my calories by 10 percent. I really don't want to have to wait that long to see if I get results!!!

I don't know who in the world around here would tell you to track calories for a month if you are indeed new to Atkins. Even people who use calories as a tool here would only suggestion eating to your hunger while in the initial phase. Sorry somebody gave you the impression your results would take that long to show up! Unless you have some serious metabolic issues, you should see pounds or inches or a combination of both come of in the first two weeks. You certainly should feel better and have more control over your cravings, etc after a clean induction.

I am so glad that you found your way to us! I know that the support here will help you so much. I can not wait to see your results in the next few weeks! PLEASE post so I can look for them!

[cypressgirl]

Also, if you have a second, add you height and any other details to your signature. That way we can give more specific advice. Also, you can always post your menus and people will chime in with all kind of great advice!

[fat2phatt]

Thanks, again! I hope we become great friends! I'll be sure to continue to post on here, as well as put my information on my fitday and my little weight tracker in my siggy line. I'm also going to open a journal on this site. So, if you'd like to come by, you're more than welcome.

It definitely gets to be a bit overwhelming, sometimes, whenever people give you advice on here. I swear, it goes from one extreme to the next. I'm planning on doing the induction until I get to be about 20 lbs from goal. I hear a lot of people seem to be doing that. If at some point, my weightloss stalls, then I guess I can assess my calories and think about lowering them by 10%.

You've been a great help, and an ease to my stressed-out mind! As if ANY of us need EXTRA stress in our lives!!!

Take care and I hope to hear from you, soon.

[cypressgirl]

Originally Posted by fat2phatt

I hope we become great friends!

Hey, we are both Jennifers so I gotta stick by you!

Originally Posted by fat2phatt

It definitely gets to be a bit overwhelming, sometimes, whenever people give you advice on here. I swear, it goes from one extreme to the next.

We mean well! It will get easier as you learn your body and it Atkins' needs!

Originally Posted by fat2phatt

I'm planning on doing the induction until I get to be about 20 lbs from goal.

Sounds very reasonable. It gives you plenty of time to learn the rungs after Induction!

Originally Posted by fat2phatt

If at some point, my weightloss stalls, then I guess I can assess my calories and think about lowering them by 10%.

Now, THAT, is a smart way to put it. If you have followed all the other book recommendations about foods etc that cause stalls, calories are a reasonable thing to look over. I bet you will find that you will do fine eating to hunger and leaving the calories for someone else to worry about but you should never feel you have to discount other options if they work for you!

[cleochatra]

Usually you can figure your basic metabolism by multiplying your weight by 11 (by 13 if you're a male) for a general idea of your caloric needs at your current weight. People assume Atkins = high calories, and it really doesn't. As you go, however, you might find (into OWL) that your weight might slow down. If that happens, it's good to consider the amount of calories you're bringing in and expending, as sometimes things add up and we're bringing in maybe more than we thought. It's easy to overdo the butter or the mayonnaise sometimes. I've found that (far into Atkins) calories absolutely have mattered for me.

But in the beginning, don't worry about it. Get to know yourself in ketosis and get used to eating wonderful and filling foods, and don't worry about calories.

Granted, people who do Weight Watchers start out worrying about calories right away because they continuously adjust intake for further weight loss. As an example, someone would multiply weight times 11 (basal metabolic caloric needs to survive number) and then might subtract 500 calories from that a day to shoot for weight loss. Sometimes people also confuse that with Atkins, where the caloric control tends to occur naturally due to lipolysis/ketosis, whereby with high-carb, low-cal, it's tough for the body to burn the carbs to get to the fat stores to begin with.

There are a lot of people knowledgable here regarding calories should you stall out in the future and need to consider tweaks within the diet to get you moving again.

You're doing wonderfully! I have a sister named Jenny... I don't suppose either of you had an older sister named Jamie who used to throw things at you in the top bunk while you were trying to sleep?

:^D



I don't put much stock in the information on fitday for their caloric values for exercise or basal needs. That's just my personal experience, though.

[fat2phatt]

Thanks for your help. I DID go to school with a Jamie, though, and I have a cousin with that name..


I'll talk to ya'll tomorrow.. Have a great night..

[not2late]

Originally Posted by fat2phatt

I guess my nerdish, scientific mind just needs to rest on this subject. :P

Hi and welcome to ADBB.

No need to apologize for your nerdy mind . Asking questions will only help you out in the long run, imo.

Dr. Atkins depended on the appetite suppression of ketosis/lipolysis to get us to self-regulate our intake of food. However, he really didn't do a good job of helping us if we are over-eaters and have trouble knowing when enough is enough or have trouble stopping once we start eating.

So if you are a person who has trouble with overeating, what worked for me was looking at the recipes in the back of DANDR 2002. From those you will get the idea of what an "Atkins portion" of meat (eggs included) and added fat per meal is like. According to the recipes, about 3-7 ounces of cooked meat per meal is a "meat serving" and about 1 teaspoon to 2 tablespoons of added fat per meal is a "fat serving". You can limit yourself to those amounts during your meals. If after 2 hours you are still hungry, then eat alittle more (maybe 1 to 2 ounces of meat with 1 teaspoon added fat)---it's okay to have small snacks if you need it. Also look at the speed you eat your food. If I slow down my meals, I eat more normal portions and I'm satisfied with that amount. If I eat quickly, I can put away larger amounts of food and still feel like eating more and more and more.

The other thing that helped me was the wacky US laws on carb labelling. The US has little to no regulations regarding carb labels on products. So something labelled "less than 1 gram" can have 0.0 -0.9999999 grams of carbs. Something with less than 0.5 net carbs can be labeled '0' carbs. So what I do is count the listed serving size as 1 gram carb for products like those---it keeps me honest and it lessens the chances of me overeating a product because it's "0" carbs. This is particularly useful for fat products like mayonnaise and salad dressing. Because fat is a calorie dense food, you can make a meal over 50% fat by adding as little as 1/2 to 1 tablespoon of fat.

Exercise, of course, will help you lose weight. And Dr. Atkins made exercise a mandatory part of his diet. So do your exercise. If you are particularly out of shape, start slowly, then as your stamina increases, increase your exercise too. For example if the last time you ran a mile was 20 years ago in high school, don't think you have to run that mile today! Take a walk around the block today. Tomorrow walk around again. Next week, shoot for walking around the block twice or shoot for walking around the block faster. Don't think too, that the only place you can exercise is in a gym. No way! Those jumping jacks, windmills, push-ups, sit-ups and lunges, they made us do in Phys. Ed. as kids are still effective. And you can do it at home while you watch tv or at the office during a coffee break. If you have stairs at home or at work, walk up and down them a few times. The main thing is you do what you are physicially able to do and to do it!

Good luck to you on your weight loss.