Atkins 40: the New Flexible Atkins Diet Plan

This is an Atkins 40 Friendly Meal:
Sausage and Cabbage Stew

Atkins Nutritionals came up with a brand new Atkins Diet a couple of years ago.

Unlike the traditional program, this new flexible low-carb plan allows you to pick and choose from all food groups. Breads and starchy carbohydrates are no longer off limits.

The idea behind Atkins 40 is to curtail cravings and kick your feelings of deprivation to the curb while still keeping your daily carbohydrate level low enough to shed those unwanted pounds.

Along with your typical:

• protein sources
• vegetables
• essential fatty acids
• and sugar-free condiments

you can also enjoy bread, pasta, tortillas, and even potatoes during the weight-loss phase.

You no longer have to wait until pre-maintenance to begin enjoying the carbohydrate foods you're missing, or fear you might miss, when you use the Atkins 40 Diet. Instead, you begin learning how to make healthy food choices from day one.

The change in concept, however, has a lot of ketogenic dieters worried. However, Atkins 40 isn't a free-for-all. It's not a well-balanced low-fat diet. And it isn't for everyone.

This is still the Atkins Diet.

But the ANA has now decided to recognize those who either can't eat at very low-carb levels or don't need to.

The new plan recognizes that everyone responds to weight-loss diets differently and seeks to offer an alternative for those who are younger and not insulin resistant, or only mildly so. It's also best for those who are closer to their weight-loss goal than those doing Atkins 20.

According to the Atkins Nutritionals website, Atkins 40 is also recommended for those who are pregnant or breastfeeding. If you're bored with Atkins 20, and want a wider selection of foods, such as beans and whole grains, you can also switch to Atkins 40 if you prefer.

How is Atkins 40 Different?

Like Atkins 20, the new Atkins 40 is a low-glycemic weight-loss plan. The focus continues to be on food choices that won't raise your blood sugar response to unhealthy levels.

But that is where the confusion about Atkins 40 begins.

For decades, low-carb dieters have been told by low-carb experts that the carbohydrate in the food they eat causes everyone's blood glucose level to surge, along with insulin spikes and hormonal imbalances that prevent the body from burning its fat stores.

These myths and misconceptions have become so ingrained in consciousness, that many people have assumed that a very low-carb diet is beneficial and a preferred dietary style for all family members, including children.

That belief is a distortion of scientific fact.

If you have insulin resistance, you might create a larger and longer second-phase insulin response to the foods you eat, but the truth is that everyone doesn't have the same glucose response to a meal that those with insulin resistance have.

First-stage insulin release is how the glucose in the blood gets ushered into body cells faster. Insulin levels going up right after you eat has nothing to do with first-stage insulin and is perfectly normal.

What's abnormal is when the body doesn't respond to the first and second secretions of insulin, or when you don't produce enough insulin to get the glucose out of the bloodstream fast enough before damage begins.

The same holds true for blood glucose levels.

We all have different responses to the foods we eat. Some people can eat a ton of carbs, including white sugar, and never see their blood glucose rise above 100 ml/dl. For most of his life, hubby was one of those. His body's glucose response was normal even though he is about 40 pounds overweight.

In fact, up until recently, his blood glucose never went above 100 mg/dl, even after eating pure sugar.

Atkins 40 is just as highly structured as Atkins 20, but it eliminates Induction and adds a few more carbs throughout the day for those whose blood glucose response can handle the extra carbs and food choices.

At its basic core level, Atkins 40 is similar to the Protein Power Life Plan that also has no Induction and starts you off right in the middle of the weight-loss portion of the program.

The main difference between Protein Power and Atkins 40 is that Atkins allows you 5 extra carbs per day and has stricter rules for how you can spend those 40 carbs.

What is Atkins 40?

Atkins 40 starts you off with 40-net carbs per day.

Net carbs are calculated by subtracting fiber grams and grams of sugar alcohols from the total carbohydrate count. Net carbs are the carbohydrates that are actually digested by the body, so net carbs are the carbs that affect your blood sugar level. That is why net carbs are the only carbs you count.

(Some people do digest sugar alcohols. If you think you might be one of those, check out the article I linked to in the above paragraph for further information.)

Like Atkins 20, the Atkins 40 plan requires you to eat three servings of protein per day, 4 to 6 ounces each, and 2 to 4 servings of added fats.

Each serving of fat is about a tablespoon.

You are still required to eat a large portion of your carbohydrates in vegetables, about 15-net grams, so the first 25-net carbs that you eat mimics Atkins 20 Phase 2 exactly. Nothing is different.

The difference comes with what you choose to eat above 25-net carbs.

Since Atkins 40 is a low-glycemic plan, the way you use starchy carbs and fruit is extremely controlled. This was what a lot of folks at Low Carb Friends who were upset by this new program didn't understand. You don't eat starchy carbs and fruit in the same way you used to.

While Atkins 40 is more flexible,
it still requires strict portion control  for fruit and starches.

Atkins 40 requires you to evenly space your carbohydrates out throughout the day, and that includes your vegetables. While your food choices are more flexible, you can only eat 10 to 15 net carbs per meal and 0 to 5 net carbs per snack.

That allows the body the space to handle any rise in blood glucose you might have as a result of eating these higher carb foods.

As you can see from the Atkins 40 list of acceptable carbs, the serving size for 5 carbs is very small. You get:

• 3 tablespoons of cooked beans
• 1/3 of an apple
• 2 tablespoons of cooked brown rice
• 1/4 of a small baked potato
• 1 Mission low-carb tortilla

However, since you are allowed up to 10-net carbs per meal, you can have a double portion if you skip the veggies for that meal.

Since you only have a total of 25-net carbs on top of your 15-net carbs of veggies to work with, which includes your sugar substitutes, eggs, cheese, nuts, cream, and condiments, we aren't talking about a lot of starchy food or fruit per day.

The amount of brown rice allowed on Atkins 40
is about what you'd find in a standard stuffed pepper. 

For your 10 carbs, we're talking about:

• 1/2 grapefruit with your bacon and eggs
• tossing a few cold beans on top of your chef salad
• adding a couple of chunks fresh pineapple to kabobs
• using chopped apple or cherries in your chicken salad
• adding cooked brown rice to your stuffed pepper filling
• fry a corn tortilla cut in wedges for taco salad
• 1/2 of a small ear of corn at a barbecue
• 1/2 of a baked potato for Sunday dinner
• 2 cups popcorn with butter
• adding a few carrot slices to your sausage and cabbage
• 1 cup whole milk yogurt with 1 tablespoon sugar-free jam

Dr. Atkins was into multiples of 5. I'm guessing he found them easier to remember and work with. Atkins 40 simply continues with that tradition by having you eat your extra carbs in multiples of 5 or 10.

What About Blood Glucose Levels?

When I used to keep track of my blood glucose levels, back before I learned that I had Graves Disease, I found through trial-and-error that I could eat 20-net carbs per meal consistently without my blood glucose level going too high.

Those 20-net carbs kept my one-hour glucose readings at 120 mg/dl, or less. I could also eat 30-net carbs at a single meal without my glucose level going over 140 mg/dl at a one-hour reading. That was pretty consistent.

As long as I kept my meal totals at 30-net carbs or less, my blood glucose level was always back to normal within the 2-hour framework for damage control.

However, 20-net carbs per meal was best.

Today, my glucose numbers have temporarily deteriorated, and I'm eating only 20-net carbs per day, rather than per meal. Atkins 40 isn't doable for me at the moment. But this is why Atkins offers more than one weight-loss plan. It lets you create a customized plan from their extensive food lists.

Atkins 40 only allows you 10 to 15-net carbs per meal, including vegetables, and up to 5-net carbs for snacks. The 15 is recommended to only be used occasionally, such as for special occasions. Most people can easily handle that much carbohydrate without it affecting your blood glucose level.

In fact, the average low-carb dieter eats between 35 and 45-net carbs per day already, so all Atkins 40 does is open up the food choices a little bit wider than they were before, and eliminates Atkins Induction.

Who Can Benefit From Using Atkins 40?

Those on Atkins 40 do not have to wait until the
whole grains level of the Atkins Ladder before
adding low-carb tortillas to the menu.

Atkins Nutritionals has several suggestions for who would benefit from their Atkins 40 plan the most:

1. If you have less than 40 pounds to lose.
2. If you're bored with your current food choices.
3. If you're pregnant.*
4. If you're breastfeeding.

*This is a radical change from Dr. Atkins' recommendation of moving into Lifetime Maintenance, if pregnant, so make sure that you have your doctor's permission to follow Atkins 40 if you are pregnant and want to try the new Atkins Diet. 

I don't know how safe it is to be in dietary ketosis while pregnant, since low-carb diets use the starvation pathway. Please talk it over with your doctor first.

For my own experience with Lifetime Maintenance during Pregnancy, check out Can You Do the Atkins Diet While Pregnant? This post is the second in a multi-series on how I lost over 100 pounds tweaking the Atkins Diet and shares the details on how I lost 20 pounds of body fat during my first pregnancy.  

Who Else Can Benefit?

In addition to the Atkins Nutritionals recommendations above, this would also be a safer way to go if you have thyroid issues.

A very low-carb diet interferes with the way the body converts T4 to T3, especially if you have been at 20-net carbs per day for an extended period of time.

Insulin is necessary to make that conversion.

Generally, recommendations for those with hypothyroidism are to not go below 35-net carbs per day because it will stress out the adrenals and interfere with thyroid medications. I have found the same thing to be true for hyperthyroidism. I do much better at 40 to 60 carbs a day.

Although putting a damper on the body's ability to convert T4 to T3 might look like a good idea for those with elevated Free T3 levels, going too low in carbohydrate seems to send the body into a starvation-mode panic.

For me, gluconeogenesis never shut off until I returned carbs to the diet. Today, I'm not having that problem, though. I just let my carbohydrate intake get away from me after we moved, so I'm having to start again at square one.

There is a lot of talk within the low-carb community about going into starvation mode from dropping your calories too low, but the same thing can happen if your carbohydrate level is too low for your metabolism, as well.

Another person who might benefit from higher carbohydrate levels are those whose body begins to stress when carbs are kept too low.

Stress always causes elevated cortisol and other stress hormones to be released. Those stress hormones cause glycogen to be immediately dumped into the blood stream and insulin levels to rise. This can happen if you can't produce enough enzymes to digest the amount of fat you're eating or if you are not insulin resistant.

Anything that causes elevated insulin is bad news if you're trying to follow a low-carb diet. Low carb works best at controlling your appetite when insulin levels are low. 

However, this stress response isn't the same for everyone.

Some people feel absolutely marvelous on extreme low-carb levels while others feel horrible. It just depends on how your body reacts to the carbohydrate deprivation.

Take Advantage of Atkins 40's Flexibility

You don't HAVE to eat fruit and starchy carbs on Atkins 40.
You can go for higher carb vegetables like brussels sprouts.

The way that Atkins 40 is constructed, you don't have to eat starchy carbs and whole grains if you don't want to.

The diet is super flexible.

For example, carbohydrates in addition to proteins, fats, and foundation vegetables can include any of the following:

• nuts and seeds
• cheese and dairy products like yogurt*
• legumes
• fruit
• starchy vegetables
• whole grains
• low-carb products
• alcohol

* Please note that cheese and dairy products are placed under the "other carbs" category for Atkins 40 and NOT under protein. Protein in cheese and dairy is not counted in your 4 to 6 ounces of protein per meal.

As you can see from the above list, you could easily construct a 40-net carb diet from traditional low-carb foods you are used to eating and either avoid fruit and starches or save the wider variety for:

• times when you're feeling deprived
• special holidays
• family gatherings and reunions
• a picnic or potluck
• a special occasion
• your best friend's barbecue
• special dessert on your birthday

The key to making Atkins 40 work for you is flexibility.

Just because you choose to use an Atkins 40 structure, that doesn't mean you have to eat beans, rice, and potatoes. What you spend those extra carbohydrates on each day is entirely up to you.

Many Atkins 40 dieters continue to eat mostly vegetables and low-glycemic fruits, but the new structure also gives extra space for chia pudding, fruit in your breakfast shake, or a few extra vegetables in your omelet or quiche.

There is plenty of leeway within this new Atkins Diet to fine-tune the particulars to fit your own tastes and carbohydrate sensitivity.

However, if you find that Atkins 40 isn't taking the pounds off like you had hoped, check out our post on why Atkins 40 isn't working for you. Atkins 40 is still the Atkins Diet, so your carbohydrate tolerance, activity level, and fat intake still matters.