Your glycogen stores arenot going to empty as fast as they would if you were eating fewercarbs.A week or two is not long enough to know if Atkins 40 is rightfor you.
Where Atkins 20 Induction can get you into the state of ketosis in less than 3 days, Atkins 40 is going to take a bit longer.
Youhave to use up the glucose made from those 40 carbs before the liverwill start using its stored glycogen to keep your blood glucose levelfrom dropping too low.
It is going to take longer toget into the state of ketosis.
Thismiddle-of-the-road lower carb plan is designed to side-step many ofthe obstacles found on traditional low-calorie diets since carbs arelower and fat is used as your primary source of fuel, but that isn'tgoing to happen in a single week.
At40 carbs, the initial weight loss will be slightly slower than it would be on a 20-net carb Induction, especiallysince this newer plan doesn't have you build up to those 40 carbsgradually.
Theidea behind Atkins 40 isn't fast weight loss. The focus is onlearning how to make healthier food choices overall.
Atkins40 isn't a free-for-all with carbs.
The first 25-net carbs you eat line up with the Atkins 20 plan, resembling the 2002 version of theAtkins Diet that most people are familiar with. The main difference that comesinto play are the extra 15 carbs that you get to eat per day.
However, there are very specific rules that the ANA expects you tofollow on Atkins 40.
If you're aren't losing weight, take a close look at ourprior post on the Atkins 40 dietand make sure that you are evenly spacing out your carbohydrates for the day in the exact way they recommend.
The program is designed to prevent blood glucose and insulin surges, but if you are not following the program as outlined, your hormonal levels could be out of whack.
The program is designed to prevent blood glucose and insulin surges, but if you are not following the program as outlined, your hormonal levels could be out of whack.
3) Are You Retaining Water in Your Fat Cells?
Ioften talk about water retention because it is one of the weight-losstendencies I experienced all the time.
The body loves to stuff your fat cells with water instead of shrinking them down as fat is used up, and since alow-carb diet is dehydrating anyway, I used to see a lot of waterfluctuations that masked fat loss, especially in the beginning of my weight-loss journey.
Cheatmeals are notorious for doing this, but:
- hormonal fluctuations
- saltintake
- systemic inflammation
- amount of exercise
- and other factors
can affectthe amount of water the body retains on any given day.
Thiscan be problematic for those with just a few pounds to lose becauseif you are only processing 1/2 pound of body fat per week and you areretaining a 1/2 pound of water on the day you happen to weighyourself, the scale won't reflect any fat loss.
It will then look like thediet isn't working, even though it is.
In the above scenario, the woman was down almost afull poundby the end of the week, but she didn't want to accept that amount of weight loss, even though she'd only been doing Atkins 40 for 7 days, because the initial water loss she saw had become her ideal.
The scale is never a good indicator of how successful a diet is because scales don't just measure fat loss. They measure muscle, organ weight, blood, hair, bone, and water gains and losses as well.
If your clothes are fitting better, you are possibly losing inches instead of pounds, but keep in mind that water retention can also make it seem like you are not losing inches either.
I learned this lesson when doing the HCG Diet.
I had to learn how to be patient because neither the scale nor the tape measure was being honest with me. Plus, when I did that HCG Diet Round, I was losing fat from my back, which I couldn't see.
Thegood news is that if this is what's happening to you, it is only atemporary situation, but it can be extremely frustrating waiting for the Whoosh Fairy to show up, especially if you have set expectationsabout how quickly you think you ought to be losing the weight.
Makingthe speed at which the pounds come off vitally important, however,can result in a tremendous amount of inner conflict and needlesssuffering.
Forme, I found that the best approach was to just step aside and let thebody do the work.It is going to do that anyway, whether you stressover your current situation or not. Worrying never changes anything.
Slow progress is still progress, and if you quit because the body fatisn't coming off quick enough, where will you be a year from now?
4) BecomeAware of Your Food Triggers
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| Salty mixed nuts are a trigger food for me. What's yours? |
Most of the people following Atkins 20 talk about cravings in terms of sweets, starches, and refined carbohydrates as a whole.For them, cravings equal falling off the wagon completely, but any food that increases your appetite or desire to eatmoreis a trigger that you can examine carefully.
For me, that's salty mixed nuts.
I can't control myself when they are in the house.
I will eat and eat and eat until the entire can is empty. If they are not in the house, I'm fine. They might cross my mind now and then, especially since hubby eats cashews almost daily, but I don't have serious cravings for nuts until I've taken the first bite.
I cannot eat just one handful of nuts.
You might have problems with controlling your cheese intake. Someone else may eat foods like low-carb bars and find themselves going face down into the cake of cream cheese in the refrigerator. It might be dark chocolate, pork rinds, or even something more benign like olive oil.
Believeit or not, I have serious eating problems whenever I have olive oilor other fatty foods. Fat makes me ravenous.
Why?
Because my bodywants to refill it's empty fat cells.
That's what happens when you'vebeen seriously overweight for any amount of time and try to lose it. The body believesyour prior weight is a normal weight for you, that you're currently starving, but it can also think that if you start out weighing less.
Thesebinge-trigger foods are not specific to Atkins 40.
They happen at allcarbohydrate levels because the body is primed for survival.
Sometimes, these are foods that tend to raise your blood glucoselevel, but that isn't always true.Whatyou're looking for is anything that sparks your hunger, even if thathunger is for standard low-carb foods.
Weight loss occurs when youeat fewer calories than what it takes to maintain your currentweight, so look at everything that might be interfering with that.
Ifyou are not losing weight on Atkins 40, you might be already eating atyour maintenance level of calories. If so, then you'll have to eat less.
5) BeAware of Foods that Cause Inflammation
Somefoods are well-known to cause body inflammation.
Normally, foods thattrigger inflammation fall high on the glycemic index like fruitjuices and refined starches, but some standard low-carb foods canalso trigger inflammation:
- polyunsaturatedfats and oils
- dairyproducts
- fattycuts of red meat
- eggyolks
- nightshades like tomatoes and peppers
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| A low carb count is not the only thing you need to watch for. Tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, and other nightshades cause serious inflammation in some people. |
Ifyou are doing Atkins 40, but not losing weight, you might also take acloser look at your diet and make sure that you're getting enoughomega-3 fatty acids to off-set the abundance of omega-6 that is oftenfound in a typical low-carb diet.
That doesn't mean you have to goout and spend outrageous amounts of cash on grass-fed butter. Youjust need to figure out a way that works for you.
Also, pay attention to how individual foods make you feel. Foodsensitivities are not always easy to pin down, but anything thatcauses body inflammation can interfere with weight loss.
Ifyou have:
- IBS
- gluten intolerance
- or another intestinal disorder
youalso might consider paying close attention to the ingredients in thelow-carb foods you're eating.Many low-carb products contain highamounts of wheat, modified corn starch, and barley extract forflavoring.
- Flaxmeal
- psyllium husks
- coconut flour
- raw bell peppers
- and sugar alcohols
can also be very difficult to digest.Theidea is to fine-tune your food choices to match your individual foodsensitivities, health issues, and metabolic defects.
Often, it's thevery thing you love the most that's blocking your way.
6) Is 40Carbs Too Much For You?
Ifyou have honestly:
- Given the diet adequate time to start working;
- Made sure the foods you're eating aren't hangingyou up;
- Verified that you are not eating too many calories;
and you are still not losing weight on Atkins 40, it is time totake a deeper look at your metabolism.
TheAtkins Nutritional Approach selected 40 carbs per day because theirresearch showed that the average person with less than 40 pounds tolose can lose weight on that carbohydrate level, but keep in mindthat this low-glycemic plan works best for those who:
- arenot insulin resistant, or only mildly so
- alreadyhave an active lifestyle
- wantto learn how to make healthier food choices
Ifyou are pre-diabetic, diabetic, or have some degree of metabolic syndrome, Atkins 40 might not work very well because you'll be eating more carbs than yourindividual metabolism can deal with.
This is especially true if you have elevated insulin levels that are contributing to high blood pressure, or if youhave cholesterol issues that need to be dealt with in a timelymanner.
Atkins40 starts you off at 40 net carbs, but not everyone with less than 40pounds to lose will see success eating at that level of carbs.
Unfortunately,most people who are insulin resistant do not know that they are.
Physicians rarely test insulin levels. Insulin tests are complex andhighly expensive, so doctors are more likely to check your hbA1c forpotential signs of diabetes instead.
AnhbA1c test measures the damage done to your red blood cells when glucose molecules bind to them. While a count of at least 6% is asignal that you might have pre-diabetes or diabetes, you can still beinsulin resistant at much lower numbers.
I'venever had a hbA1c test come back at 6%, or higher, even when I wasdiagnosed with pre-diabetes or my glucose level after meals was over 200 mmol/L.
Insuch cases, the body is able to keep up with the extra insulindemand, so damage to your red blood cells is prevented, but the high levels of insulin can interfere with the way the liver metabolizes body fat.
Bringing down insulin quickly requires a dramaticallyreduced carbohydrate intake, so you might want to consider thepossibility that you need to take a stronger corrective action – atleast, initially.
This doesn't mean that you have to go on Atkins Induction.Another possibilitymight be to lower your current carbohydrate intake by 5 or 10 gramsper day, and see how you do.
In comparison, the Protein Power LifePlan created by Dr. Eades starts you off at 30-net carbs per day, instead of 40.It is more generous than Atkins Induction, but less generous than Atkins 40, sothe slightly lower intake might give you better results.
InDr. Eades' experience, 30-net carbs per day works well for those whoare metabolically resistant to weight loss.
However,be careful that you don't use that idea as an excuse to let falseexpectations color how you perceive what's going on.If the diettruly isn't working, Dr. Atkins believed that the key to being ableto eat at higher carb levels was to first start out very low, andthen add carbohydrate back into your diet very slowly.
Ifall else fails, the best option might be to do Atkins 2002 by thebook.
7) TruthAbout Higher Carb Levels and Dietary Fat
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| Low carb diets advertise that you can eat tons of fat, but is that true? |
Ifyou are going to eat at a higher carb level, you might have problemslosing weight if you insist on eating 80% fat, as well.
The morecarbs you add to your diet, the less fat you can eat because the bodywill use any carbs coming into the body first, and then, it will turnto its stored fats, as needed.
Inthe presence of insulin, all dietary fats that are not immediately used by your body's cells for energy are stored. The liver onlydips into those fat stores once glycogen stores run low.
At 40-netcarbs per day, the process is the same.
Fat flows into the body cellsafter eating and the liver pulls it back out of your fat cells, dependingon the body's needs.Fatcells are not a storage depot.
OnAtkins 40, it will take the liver a little bit longer to get aroundto using the triglycerides in the fat cells, but we're not talkingabout much. An extra 20 carbs a day only accounts for 80 calories,but those 80 calories on the back end can be 80 calories less fatthat gets burned.
Eighty calories of fat is about 2 teaspoons.
Lookedat in terms of weight loss, 2 extra teaspoons of oil per day wouldaccount for 400 calories a week. That's enough extra calories to stopweight loss completely in someone with only a few pounds to lose.
Tocompensate for the extra carbs, you can either deduct 2 to 3teaspoons of fat from your daily diet or you can pick up youractivity to make sure you continue to use the same amount of fattyacids to fuel your body as you would at 20 net carbs.
Thechoice is up to you, which is what makes Atkins 40 different.
Other Articles Related to Atkins 40 that You Might Want to Read:
How to Do Atkins 40 Correctly
31 Reasons You're Not Losing Weight on Atkins
The Truth About LCHF Weight Loss
How to Lose Weight Faster on Low Carb
Portion Control: Do Calories Really Matter?
