I'm switching from Low Carb to Low Cal

[msanjelpie]

Yesterday was my 5 month anniversary on Atkins. I've lost 33 lbs and I'm content with the speed of loss and the way the diet makes me feel.

BUT

I want a change... Tonight we went out for Mexican dinner. I had my beef taco, lettuce, tomato and ranch dressing, no chips, no taco shell and no rice. I kept looking at that rice and knowing that it was low calorie, I just wanted it! I didn't have any.

So I talked it over with hubby. How I've been at a steady 1500 calories per day for 5 months. And I think if I stay in that territory, I'm assuming that I should lose at the same rate. I could be completely wrong. And that's what I want to find out.

So, I'm doing an experiment for the next month. I'm going to keep my calories at the same 1500 per day, but not count carbs. I'm pretty excited about the new foods I'll be eating, and thinking about some that I won't be able to have as much of anymore. (butter/mayo etc...) I still plan on entering all of my foods into fitday.

I'm worried about hunger because for me that's the greatest benefit of ketosis, is the loss of hunger. I'm worried about blood sugar spikes too. But I'm willing to try this for a month, and I'm wondering how I'll feel a month from now.

Anyone else switch from one to the other or vice versa?

[hopejoy]

Good luck with that, I keep thinking I can do that and I end up getting hungrier and then eating too much of the carbs. Then I just feel gross even if I don't gain, it stalls me for ages.
Congratulations on the 33 lbs.

[liv]

Counting calories is like death for me. I get obsessed with foods and eat everything in site. And I mean everything
I always thought that you kept your calories too low. I think if I was going to change things around a bit that is the thing I would do.
But I wish you luck.

[ErinB]

What you describe is pretty much what I was trying to do for the year before I started Atkins. I lost nothing, even though I toughed it out and was relatively successful at keeping the calories around 1500.

Then I moved to Atkins and I lost slowly for 13 months, around 5.5 lbs per month.

July 7th I hit onederland. I saw a few more pounds come off and then the scale threw all that out and I bounced between 198 and 202 all month.

I recently discussed some of this with Georgiana and, as a result, have increased my net carbs to 30g, started listening to the hunger pangs and upped the protein to 100-110g per day. All this has increased the calorie count, but I have tried not to let that bother me.

Although I am not certain I've found the key yet ... too soon ... the past few days the scale has moved steadily downward to a new low this morning of 196.2.

I think, if I were you, I would want to change the menus around to include new recipes/foods to keep my interest and help me resist the rice. But then I really do not want to go back to feeling hungry and I really don't want to lose the wonderful way I feel on this plan.

If you do this, I hope you'll turn around and run back as soon as you see loss of ground in weight loss, in hunger feelings or start to feel bad. A whole month can do a lot of damage. So many have done this and been unable to turn it around until they gained all their weight back and often more. I wouldn't want to see that happen to you.

[MelTin]

I think that you will regain at least half of the 33 pounds you have lost within the next month by trying the switch to low cal. I hope I am wrong. Good Luck. Whatever happens, please kepp us informed for future reference.

[mizski]

Originally Posted by msanjelpie

So I talked it over with hubby. How I've been at a steady 1500 calories per day for 5 months. And I think if I stay in that territory, I'm assuming that I should lose at the same rate. I could be completely wrong. And that's what I want to find out.

So, I'm doing an experiment for the next month. I'm going to keep my calories at the same 1500 per day, but not count carbs. I'm pretty excited about the new foods I'll be eating, and thinking about some that I won't be able to have as much of anymore. (butter/mayo etc...) I still plan on entering all of my foods into fitday.

I'm worried about hunger because for me that's the greatest benefit of ketosis, is the loss of hunger. I'm worried about blood sugar spikes too. But I'm willing to try this for a month, and I'm wondering how I'll feel a month from now.

Anyone else switch from one to the other or vice versa?

I recently switched from South Beach to Atkins. For those not familiar with the SBD, it is a low fat, lower calorie, lower/good carb plan. Now, the SBD is an excellent plan that promotes a very healthy eating style, however, after the initial first few months, I found that I wasn't really losing much weight.

I believe it was the carbs. Even doing the unofficial Phase 1.5 (one fruit and one starch/day) with the required serving of dairy and beans/legumes daily, the scale wasn't moving much at all. I tried going back to their Phase 1 (their equivalent of the Atkins Induction) with no starches or fruits (but still with the required beans & dairy) and still the scale moved slowly.

Even though it wasn't required on SBD, I used FitDay and kept my calorie range to ~1200-1500. That is approximately the same calorie range I am doing right now with Atkins, however my CARBS are a fraction of what they were with SBD. (My fats are now much higher too but I don't know enough about how that works yet.) The scale is now zipping downward (18#s lost during Induction and still moving down during my first week of OWL rung 1)!

The other thing is like you mentioned, you have to give up a lot of the fats that you have on Atkins. Although my creative, low-fat meals on SBD were tasty, I was always left with a degree of un-satisfaction and sometimes a gnawing hunger. I do believe it was the carbs, even though they were good carbs. After almost 3 weeks on Atkins, I don't have these feelings and man oh man am I loving having full-fat (i.e., full flavor) foods again.

I know there are many who claim that it's all about calories and it doesn't matter what those calories are (that's Weight Watchers Points theory) but I am not one of them. I found that the same 1200-1500 calorie range had very different results depending upon what made up those calories. For me, it is all about the carbs.

Good luck on your experiment and please let us know how it is going.

[marvid486]

I think you should try increasing your fat intake before you go back to carbs. This could be the key for you.....?

[not2late]

Originally Posted by msanjelpie

Yesterday was my 5 month anniversary on Atkins. I've lost 33 lbs and I'm content with the speed of loss and the way the diet makes me feel.

BUT

I want a change... Tonight we went out for Mexican dinner. I had my beef taco, lettuce, tomato and ranch dressing, no chips, no taco shell and no rice. I kept looking at that rice and knowing that it was low calorie, I just wanted it! I didn't have any.

So I talked it over with hubby. How I've been at a steady 1500 calories per day for 5 months. And I think if I stay in that territory, I'm assuming that I should lose at the same rate. I could be completely wrong. And that's what I want to find out.

So, I'm doing an experiment for the next month. I'm going to keep my calories at the same 1500 per day, but not count carbs. I'm pretty excited about the new foods I'll be eating, and thinking about some that I won't be able to have as much of anymore. (butter/mayo etc...) I still plan on entering all of my foods into fitday.

I'm worried about hunger because for me that's the greatest benefit of ketosis, is the loss of hunger. I'm worried about blood sugar spikes too. But I'm willing to try this for a month, and I'm wondering how I'll feel a month from now.

Anyone else switch from one to the other or vice versa?

Good luck to you.

Just keep in mind that rice and other grains are perfectly legal during OWL and Pre-Maintenance Phases. So unless you purposefully stay on Induction, those types of foods can be added to your Atkins menu.

[Empyre]

I'm curious about cravings. I hope we get some feedback on the results.

[SunnySmile501]

I tried low cal, which means lower fat for four weeks a couple of years ago. I did Ann Gittleman's Fat Flush diet by the book: 1,200 calories a day, lots of fruits (all were pretty low carb) and veggies in the measured quantities allowed and I ate only the flax oil that the diet requires. Meat portions were very small. I weighed and measured everything. I ate meals and snacks on schedule.

The first week I jumped up 3 pounds, I stayed the same the next week and then lost 2 pounds. At the end of the month, I was still up a pound for all the hunger I endured. I still wasn't eating bread and starchy veggies, but the cravings came back with a vengeance. I was extremely happy to go back to Atkins.

The one thing you have to remember: Low carb keeps water weight low. Carbs require fluid to be processed and metabolized. Any time you are eating carbs like rice, you will retain more fluid just to process the extra carbs.

It's your choice to make and you can always come back to Atkins if it doesn't work out for you.