Sartene said:
This thread is contradicting. What does keto have to do with calories?
I lose a pound a day doing keto and never count calories. Calories dont mean anything on keto.
Have you tracked what you are losing?
When you do a keto diet, you deplete your glycogen stores. Glycogen also holds extra water, I forget the exact amount.
The intial 'weight' loss on a keto diet is water loss, not fat loss. It is quite easy to drop water weight.
If your calories are insufficient for your basal metabolic rate, then your body thinks it is starving. Starvation mode usually has the body canabalise the most metabolically expensive tissue, which is muscle.
Amino acids from the muscle, the glucogenic ones, can be converted to glucose for the body to use as energy.
I think that the whole 'calories don't count' are from the Atkins diet.
That is highly contested.
There isn't some 'magic' combination of macronutrient or the elimination of one particular nutrient that results in better fat loss.
Some people do quite well on keto diets, others don't, it is down to biochemical individuality.
Here is a review on the Atkins diet by Jamie Hale I found quite interesting:
Atkins’ New Diet Revolution
Robert C. Atkins is the founder of Atkins’ New Diet Revolution. Atkins is also the founder and former director of the Atkins Complimentary Medicine in New York City.
The diet is a low carb high fat diet with no restrictions on fat intake. The diet begins with an induction phase (ranging from 2-36 weeks) limiting carb intake to only 20 g/d. The consumption of fruit, bread, pasta, grains, starchy vegetables, and dairy other than cheese, cream or butter are prohibited in this phase of the diet.
There are two phases following the induction phase where daily carb intake is increased in weekly increments of 5gms & 10gms. Then comes the maintenance phase.
Proponents of high-fat, low-CHO diets dismiss the notion that caloric intake is important to either weight gain or weight loss (this is a ridiculous statement).
They claim that “most overweight individuals do not overeat” (if you believe this you need a brain transplant), even as they suggest that high-CHO meals leave individuals less satisfied than meals that contain adequate fat, resulting in increased hunger and increased food intake.
With respect to weight loss, Atkins claims that on a low CHO diet there are “metabolic advantages that will allow overweight individuals to eat as many calories as they were eating before starting the diet yet still lose pounds and inches”.
Furthermore, proponents contend overproduction of insulin, driven by high CHO intake, is the cause of the metabolic imbalance that underlies obesity (the over exaggeration of insulin’s role in obesity is commonly promoted by many of today’s most popular nutrition gurus, needless to say this issue has been blown out of proportion and is only one factor in weight gain).
My thoughts: Atkins’ New Diet Revolution
Studies cited by Atkins to support his contentions were of limited duration, conducted on a small number of people, lacked adequate controls, and used ill-defined diets.
Some of these, as well as other studies actually refute the contention that low-CHO diets, in the absence of energy restriction, provide a metabolic advantage. Early studies on a limited number of obese men and women indicate individuals consuming low-CHO diets reduce overall caloric intake and lose weight.
High protein in combination with low calcium intake could be detrimental to bone health. Another important consideration is the water loss that occurs with the Atkins plan.
In the early stages of the diet you can expect a substantial loss in water (due to glycogen depletion, for every gram of glycogen you store you also store 2.8 – 3.5 gms of water). Believing there are some magical metabolic advantages to this diet is a fallacy and not supported by Primary Scientific data. Numerous studies have indicated a big reduction of calories (below maintenance requirements) when following low carb diets.
The newest version of the diet promotes the intake of high-fiber foods; which is a good thing. The diet also made many people realize dietary fat is not the sole reason people are fat.
In conclusion, if you can stick to the food recommendations and function well while following a ketogenic diet the Atkins diet may be for you. Athletes using the Atkins’ diet should be highly cautious as performance may suffer (primarily this occurs in glycolytic athletes, yet not always).
Any diet that results in weight loss generally enhances health markers. If you are following the Atkins plan and are not dropping weight pay close attention to lipid levels. Numerous studies have shown that in absence of weight loss ketogenic diets may be detrimental to blood lipids levels, while ketogenic diets that result in weight loss are good for blood lipid levels.
If you are gaining weight (yes it is possible) reduce calories further or try something different.
Jamie Hale is sports conditioning coach, author, gym owner, and fitness and nutrition consultant. He has contributed to numerous exercise and sports publications (nationally and internationally) and has authored five books.
Jamie is a member of the World Marital Arts Hall of Fame in recognition of his conditioning work with martial artists and is considered by most in the industry as a specialist in agility and sledgehammer training. He is also known for his ability to get bodybuilders lean and dry as bone for competition. To learn more about Jamie, visit his website at
www.maxcondition.com.
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