How much good fat can I eat on a low-carb diet and still lose weight?

10 responses so far ↓

• 1 jeffach // Mar 10, 2010

  You still need to lower your calories on a low carb diet. You have to burn more calories than you eat in a day to lose weight, thats unavoidable low carb or not.

  If you pig out on a low carb diet you will still gain weight. Watch your calories. Try to stick with mainly lean meats and green veggies while low carb dieting. Cheese has lots of cals so limit the amount you eat. Eat none ideally

• 2 freebeer // Mar 10, 2010

  If your taking more then you burn you cant lose weight.The role of low carb diet is to teach your body to burn fat as energy and once you have a calorie deficit,the body burns the fat on you for energy.

• 3 Lyss // Mar 10, 2010

  Hate to tell you but all meat has saturated fat. Which is bad fat. If I were you I would try to avoid meats in general.

• 4 ExeneC // Mar 10, 2010

  Nutritionists believe that 30% of your daily caloric intake should be in mostly good fats (from vegetable and fish oils). Found this on WikiAnswers:

  •The American Heart Association recommends limiting dietary fat to 30% of total calories, however, if you are overweight, need to lower blood cholesterol or have another medical concern, you may need less than the recommended 30%. Ask your health care professional what percentage of fat is right for you.
  •The average person should have about 85- 100 grams of fat per day. If your on a diet you should have about 60 grams of fat per day.
  •The United States Health Department states the following on their site:

  A 1,600 calorie per day diet: 18 grams of saturated fat or less, 53 grams of fat or less
  A 2,000 calorie per day diet: 20 grams of saturated fat or less, 65 grams of fat or less
  A 2,200 calorie per day diet: 24 grams of saturated fat or less, 73 grams of fat or less
  A 2,500 calorie per day diet: 25 grams of saturated fat or less, 80 grams of fat or less
  A 2,800 calorie per day diet: 31 grams of saturated fat or less, 93 grams of fat or less

• 5 Nelly // Mar 10, 2010

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• 6 Charli // Mar 10, 2010

  How many grams of fat you can eat depends on your calorie intake required for fat loss.

  To get a rough estimate of how many calories you burn:

  Calculate your BMR (the number of calories you burn just by existing)
  [9.99 x weight (kg)] + [6.25 x height (cm)] - [4.92 x age (years)] + 5

  Multiply this by an activity factor:
  1.2 = Sedentary (Little or no exercise and desk job)
  1.3-1.4 = Lightly Active (Light exercise or sports 1-3 days a week)
  1.5-1.6 = Moderately Active (Moderate exercise or sports 3-5 days a week)
  1.7-1.8 = Very Active (Hard exercise or sports 6-7 days a week)
  1.9-2.0 = Extremely Active (Hard daily exercise or sports and physical job)

  Then subtract 10-20% from that figure for fat loss.

  To calculate how many fat grams you can have:

  First of all, make sure you’re getting around 1g protein/lb bodyweight. Protein is 4 calories per gram, so multiply the number of grams by 4 to find out how many of your calories need to be reserved for protein.

  Carbs are also 4 calories per gram. Take the max number of carbs your diet permits and multiply by 4 for the total number of calories you need for carbs.

  Once you’ve subtracted these two figures away from your total daily calorie intake, you’re left with the number of calories you can allocate to fat. Fat is 9 calories per gram, so you need to divide this number by 9 to find out the maximum number of fat grams you can have.

• 7 CindySue54 // Mar 10, 2010

  It’s not how much as much as it’s a percent of total calories and total calories must be within your acceptable range!

  If you are a large frame, exercise a lot, etc you are going to expend more calories and so you can eat more. But if you are a smaller frame person, rather sedentary, etc your calorie intake must be lower.

  Dr Atkins does NOT say you can eat all the cheese, etc you want. He knew that total calories was the main thing about loosing weight, but with a low carb diet you can usually eat more food and not be hungry between meals.

  I’d like to know what you are eating on a daily basis! This, along with your size and activity level, is the only real way to help you.

  Here are some guidelines, however.

  First, if you haven’t yet, read the book!! Don’t go by what you hear or what you think you know about the diet, read the book! There is a new version out (yesterday it was released) that is supposed to be easier to read and follow. It’s on amazon for less than $10 and your local library will probably be able to get it for you within the next couple of weeks….especially if you request it.

  Second. At every meal have protein and fat along with some low carbohydrate vegetables. Breakfast can be a couple of eggs, bacon or sausage and a few slices of tomato. Lunch and dinner should be 4-6 ounces of meat/fish/fowl along with 1-2 cups of raw vegetables (or 1/2 - 1 cup cooked). You can add butter or dressing to your vegetables or protein, but avoid low fat dressings, margarine and sauces that contain sugar.

  3. Between meals drink lots of water, coffee or tea. If you must drink soda or non-carbonated drinks, be sure they are sugar free and limit them. If you drink coffee or tea use cream or nothing….and no sugar! (most sugar substitutes contain some carbs, so be sure to count each one!)

  4. Limit dairy, especially cheese. Atkins allows something like 4 ounces per day, but for most people that is too much! Try an ounce or two and try to not eat it every day! Dairy should always be full fat and milk should be avoided.

  5. Watch your condiments! A little catsup can provide an amazing amount of carbohydrate! Look for sugar free varieties or leave them off. You can have them again when you hit maintenance!

  6. Nuts and seeds are great, but must be limited (and not allowed in first phase!) It is very easy to over-eat nuts and seeds, so be sure to carefully measure 1 ounce (1/4 cup)! Don’t sit with the package of nuts and eat them or you will likely over do it!

  7. You still need to exercise! Dr A has a whole chapter about exercise and calls it "non-negotiable"! Resistance exercise is the best, but moving is required.

  8. If you follow the guidelines in the book and still find you are not loosing, try checking the amounts of foods you are eating and cut back a bit. If you feel you are not eating too much, check for hidden carbs. Many products have added sugars and starches, so you might not even be aware of them. Sticking with whole natural foods is the best, especially since you know what you are eating!

  Again, read the book!!! If you find it too complicated or boring, try "The 30-Day Low-Carb Diet Solution" by Mary Dan Eades MD and Michael Eades MD. it’s a such simpler version.

  Good luck and feel free to email me if I can be of any more help!

• 8 Patience // Mar 10, 2010

  I’ve been able to lose over 10 lbs in less than 2 weeks using the advice I found on http://iethoco.notlong.com. The lady in the article lost over 25 lbs in one month.

• 9 Ileana // Mar 10, 2010

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• 10 cyn_texas // Mar 10, 2010

  As long as you have <9grams carbs per hour, you will maintain insulin control & shouldn’t gain weight, no matter the calories because insulin, the fat storage hormone is not activated.

  Excess protein & carbs greater than 9grams per hour are the only way to trigger insulin on a low carb way of eating. Without insulin, it is impossible to gain fat stores. You may gain water weight or lean tissues (which will accelerate fat burning) but not fat stores if you do low carb properly.

  Some people have a problem losing with dairy & the Atkins bars & shakes (or any other brand) & other processed foods (low carb or otherwise) will stop weight loss. Not enough dietary fat or calories will also stop weight loss.

  Dietary fat is required to stimulate ketosis. The greater the fat ratio the faster the weight loss.

  You can lose more body fat eating protein & fat (don’t eat protein alone) than not eating AT ALL. To lose weight fast, eat all you want, but nothing but meat, eggs, healthy oils, mayo, butter & half an avocado a day (for added potassium). Keep the calories high & the fat percentage high, at least 65% of calories. Green vegetables & some cheese will continue weight loss but at a slower pace.

  The first 2 weeks eat several cups a day of (mostly) lettuce & celery, cucumbers, radishes, mushrooms, peppers & more variety of vegetables thereafter - add 5 grams per day additional every week (20 grams day first 2 weeks, 25grams 3rd week, 30grams 4th week etc) til you gain weight, then subtract 10grams. That will be your personal carb level (everyone is different & depends on how active you are.)

  Start with meat, fats & salads for 2 weeks and then slowly add in more green veg, wk4 fresh cheeses, wk5 nuts & seeds, wk6 berries, wk7 legumes, wk8 other fruits, wk9 starchy veg, wk10 whole grains. You will learn how your body reacts to different foods.

  The first week is just water weight but fat is lost thereafter if you keep your calories high enough. Otherwise the body will strip it’s own lean tissue for nutrition. Although that may look great on a scale it will make it MUCH easier to accumulate fat in the future (since all that pesky lean tissue burning up calories will be gone). The body won’t release fat stores if you lower calories below what it needs. It will slow metabolism to compensate & store every spare ounce as fat. If you continue lowering calories, it will continue lowering the set point, til it can survive off nothing & store fat on anything. The body will only release it’s fat stores if it knows there is plenty of nutritious food.

  Eating carbs while trying to lose body fat is terribly inefficient. When in glycolysis (burning glucose as fuel) you have to lower your calories (which slows your metabolism) & exercise heavily to deplete your glycogen stores before burning body fat.

  The core of Atkins program is converting the body from glycolysis (burning glucose as fuel) to ketosis (burning fat as fuel). Dietary fat levels need to be at >65% of total calories, if not, the body will still remain in glycolysis by converting 58% of excess protein into glucose (via gluconeogenesis).

  It takes minimum of 3 days to convert a body to ketosis, (but only one bite to convert back to glycolysis). People feel sluggish the first week but most feel better than ever thereafter.

  Simple carbohydrates (sugar, flour, bread, cereal, pasta, potatoes, rice) trigger the fat storage hormone insulin. The more protein the more the fat burning hormone glucagon is released.

  Simple carbs are addictive & can be disastrous to health. The best way to break the addiction is NO carbs for 3 days. Make a huge batch of deviled eggs, eat one every time you want "something" - have huge omelets with bacon, sausage, peppers, mushrooms & cheese. Pork chops smothered with peppers, mushrooms & cheese - pork rinds & dip or tuna/chicken/turkey/egg salad - steaks - a huge sugar free cheese cake. Eat so much you won’t feel deprived of anything. By the 4th day, the addiction will be gone & you can start making healthy choices.

  High insulin levels promote inflammation, weight gain, hunger & unbalance other hormones. Controlling insulin levels will balance out other hormones & allow human growth hormone (HGH) to be produced naturally so lean muscle will be gained even without exercise.

  Ground flax seed (2 Tbsp) 1/4 cup water, artificial sweetener, mix in a raw egg - let sit 10 min. to absorb liquid, put some cream cheese in the middle & nuke 2 min for daily fiber needs.

  As long as you have <9grams carbs per hour, you will maintain insulin control & shouldn’t gain weight, no matter the calories because insulin, the fat storage hormone is not activated. Many people gain weight on high carb, do low carb to lose weight & then are shocked when they return to high carb & gain weight. Many people can return to moderate carb levels but very few can really eat all they want of sugar & maintain weight or health.

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