New Member With Question

[l4334]

Hi. I'm a new member here so forgive me if this question is asked/answered elsewhere.

I started Atkins on August 3 and have had mega success. I am amazed. I'm down about 40 pounds. I stayed on the induction phase the whole time with only 2 small cheats.

My question is this. I understand Atkins is a resetting of the way your body processes foods. No carbs to burn, so it burns fat. This is why the "bad" fat doesn't affect you negatively. Once you start adding carbs back in, if you still eat mostly proteins and fats, don't the fats just turn into "bad" fats again because there are carbs interacting with them? In other words, if I have some carbs, will the bacon start clogging my arteries??

I really enjoy reading this forum. So many helpful ideas/hints and lots of encouragement.

Thanks.

[LooseShoes]

I think the concept is: You're still eating "good" carbs and not "bad" carbs. You're still staying away from sugar and white flour and the junk food that causes more health problems. You'll still be eating lower carbs than the majority of people. The fats we eat are generally healthy fats, and the percentage of them will decrease as you increase your carbs.

There are long-time goalies that can give you more their experiences, but if you read the book, Dr Atkins talks about the quality of fats and how they process in the body. You might re-read those parts. There's a new challenge starting soon about reading the book, you might join in and discuss it to ask some of your questions.

Congratulations on your great success!! Sounds like you're doing great! I'm glad you found the board, it is awesome!

[sallyseachange]

Good question 14334!

Personally, I don't believe that sat fats like butter, cream, bacon fat etc. are bad for you. It's the trans fats (hydrogenated fats) that are the killers, and those, on Atkins, should be avoided always, even in maintenance.

There's also a huge amount of literature regarding the "cholesterol con/myth". Well worth reading... to get another perspective. There is no real link, apparently, to high cholesterol levels and increased 'cardiac' deaths.

[not2late]

It's what sally wrote: natural fats aren't bad for you. It's the hydrogenated, trans fats variety that are.

Carbs in excess are "bad" for you. What's "in excess" is determined by your body's carbohydrate tolerance level. For very few people that's 20 net carbs daily, for the majority of us, that's about 40-50 net carbs daily and for the very few of us it can be up to 100 net carbs daily.

[Hudson]

I think Atkins said that without the carbs we have nothing to worry about with fat - even saturated fat. Implying that as you add carbs there might be more of a problem with the fat. But I think the problem is entirely with the carbs. Fat (other than transfats) are at least not bad for you and more likely are for the most part beneficial.

So the fat in the bacon is good. The things to be concered about are the carbs and the processing of the bacon. (Atkins suggested fresh bacon - not real common in the store)