New question...calories and carbs???

[In2luvnme]

Are we counting calories and carbs!!????!!!

[Georgiana]

I'm not sure if I understand your question. Let's see... Since Atkins is a low-carb diet, we should definitely count carbs. The number of net carbs you can eat is based on the phase of Atkins you are following and on your CCLL (as long as you want to keep losing weight).

Then the calories... While Dr. Atkins wrote that we should not count calories, calories do count! Most people would gain weight eating 5000 calories a day, no matter how many carbs they are eating. The rule of thumb is to eat only if you are hungry and to not stuff yourself. This is easier in theory than in practice, but knowing to listen to what your body says it's something you'll learn on Atkins.

There is little tricks that can help you avoid overeating. I think Megs (not2late) posted something today... Let's see if I can find it... Yep, found: http://www.atkinsdietbulletinboard.c...ml#post1018296 (Exercise and Appetite?)

[In2luvnme]

Thanks, I ask that question because being the newbie that I am...you know how some foods like hot wings have no carbs but the chicken itself has calories...so I was just trying to get some clarification. I printed a menu from one of the members daily eating plans...one I plan on doing next week and she included calories...I just wanted to make sure.

[judyintn]

If you do do a clean induction, your appetite will automatically decrease and you will not have to count calories. That's what Dr. Atkins meant. He also stated if you felt like you needed to have a binge, to binge on protein, and the next day you won't be as hungry and will get back on track. I've been back on for a month, and have had two "binge nights", and sure enough, the next day I wasn't hungry until after lunch.

Take the time to let your body adjust to the low carb lifestyle, and treat it as a lifestyle change and not a diet. It works!

[Elizellen]

On the whole I take very little notice of the total calories I am eating, but concentrate on getting the right number of carbs and eat when hungry and until no longer hungry of the right sort of foods.

The reason many of us know how many calories we are eating is that we use websites to log our foods in which work them out for us. But this does nnot mean we need to restrict our calories to any specific number, particularly when on induction.

Sometimes I wish we could make fitday.com not display the total calories so people would not start to worry when it tells them they are eating more calories than they are 'supposed' to do.

[TitianWasp]

Many of the old timers on the board, and medium-timers like myself have said that when they are close to goal, or are on the lower end of the weight loss spectrum, the calories do count more. I find I do need to keep my calories below 1500 or so to keep things moving in a downward slope. Eating low carb with lots of veggies for tum-filling fiber keeps my appetite low enough to happily continue eating fewer calories.

"When in doubt, read the book again"