Cheat Day

Are you going to eat low carb for the rest of your life? If the answer is yes, then good luck to you but I know I could never do that. If the answer is no, then why eat like that to lose weight. The second you go off Atkins you will have big problems. You never taught yourself how to eat properly on the way down so you are just using the diet as a means to an end. The hardest thing for most people is maintaining after they've lost weight. Why not just set up some good balanced macronutrient goals with a calorie deficit and go from there? It's the calorie deficit that causes fat loss, not restricting a single macronutrient.

I'm doing Atkins now, it's been 1 1/2 months. Haven't had a cheat day yet but I constantly research forums online. It's not going to hurt you. It may take you a few days to get back into fat burning mode. And maybe you'll have a few headaches from sugar withdrawl. Don't worry too much about it...

AJ_G wrote: »

ASNK27 wrote: »

I'm doing Atkins now, it's been 1 1/2 months. Haven't had a cheat day yet but I constantly research forums online. It's not going to hurt you. It may take you a few days to get back into fat burning mode. And maybe you'll have a few headaches from sugar withdrawl. Don't worry too much about it...

Fat burning mode lol. Your body burns fat when you're in an energy deficit, regardless of your macronutrient break down.

This and this.

Cheat day is sometimes critical to shock your body. If you get your body used to feeding it all this healthy stuff, it's not a bad idea to throw in a cheat day every two months or so. Any lifter you will ask, will tell you they have a cheat day. Google Dwayne Johnson's cheat meal! You will be surprised. Also - do stick to your workout plan throughout that enjoyable cheat day

hamburgerbetty wrote: »

I am currently 205-207lbs. I would like to get below 200lbs before the end of the year. Is this realistic and obtainable?

Even on a traditional reduced calorie diet - it's obtainable!

wilsoncl6 wrote: »

AJ_G wrote: »

wilsoncl6 wrote: »

I think what he meant to say was that it takes some time for the body to shift back to focusing on depleting fat stores instead of looking for easier access energy sources (like glucose) to burn. So goes the theory.

Right, but your body will burn the exact same amount of fat regardless as long as the calorie intake is the same.

Yes over time it doesn't matter, but where those calories come from do matter as it takes more time to break down protein than it does carbs. Therefore, the body after eating carbs has glucose to burn before it is forced to look for fat. In the long run it doesn't matter but the Atkins diet isn't concerned with the long term. It is for quick weight loss over a short period of time. That is why you slowly add carbs back in after a while. Not sure if the theory is supported by scientific fact but it does work. It tells you to eat lean protein and a lot of green vegetables which take longer to break down for energy.

Speed of digestion is insignificant. Thermic effect of food does come into play but we'll ignore that for now. The reason that people lose weight quickly on a low carb diet is because of glycogen depletion. Glycogen is stored carbs in your muscles and liver. Each gram of glycogen binds with 3 grams of water so when you deplete your stored glycogen, you see fast weight loss, but your actual speed of fat loss which is what is really important is unchanged. By definition, if you're eating less carbs, but the same calorie intake, then you're eating more fat or more protein or both. The only difference is that your body is technically burning more fat, but you're eating more fat as well so this balances out. The actual rate of fat loss on a low carb diet vs a balanced diet with the same calorie intake is identical, in the short term and the long term. Honestly Atkins type diets are for people who can't see the big picture and just want to see a quick drop in weight loss, but like to pretend it's not water.

wilsoncl6 wrote: »

You are probably right but again you are ignoring the thermogenic effect.

Ok, let's discuss the thermic* effect of food. Most people should be eating high protein anyway (0.8-1g per lb of body weight). When eating a balanced diet, after protein is set, dietary fat is usually set at 0.3-0.4g per lb of body weight. The rest of calorie intake is usually left for carbs.

Now let's talk about a low carb diet. Usually what's done in a low carb diet is the carbs are swapped out for more dietary fat leaving protein intake constant.

So different macronutrients have different thermic effects. Protein requires 20%-35% of it's calories just to be digested. Carbohydrates require 5%-15% to digest, and fat has the lowest thermic effect requiring 0%-5% of it's calories to digest. If protein remains constant as it usually does and you swap out carbohydrates for more fat, your thermic effect is actually being lowered, so there is actually a disadvantage in a low carb diet in the thermic effect of the food you are eating.