Are You Falling for One of These 3 Low-Carb Lies?

Weight Loss Isn't a Smooth Path

A low-carb diet offers you many potential health benefits, but it doesn't always live up to its reputation as a quick weight-loss diet. I know that can be frustrating when the pounds don't come off as quickly as you had hoped.

Although the diet regime is sound advice and has lots of scientific evidence to back it up, many people eventually find themselves sitting on a plateau. For others, the diet stops working completely.

Weight loss is never a smooth ride.

The body always strives to maintain balance. Restricting carbohydrates upsets the body's normal metabolic rhythm. It doesn't like change, and it doesn't like having to do things the hard way.

In addition, many low-carb gurus present miraculous claims to their readers, but those claims often fall short of the truth. If you think that:

• protein is always turned into glucose
• a high-fat diet is necessary for ketosis
• the calorie theory is nuts

Then you need to stop and consider that maybe what the gurus are telling you is a pack of lies.

In their excitement to share their own experiences or coax you into giving Atkins Induction or Nutritional Ketosis a fair chance, low-carb supporters often repeat things they've heard so many times that now they believe those myths are true.

It's not that those in the low-carb spotlight are deliberately trying to mislead you. Most of them believe what they're saying. However, when you're staring down at a bathroom scale that won't budge, all of a sudden, those low-carb lies begin to matter.

If you've reached a point in your low-carb journey where you appear to be stuck, take a moment and give your low-carb beliefs a thorough evaluation. 

Are you falling for one of these 3 low-carb lies?

Low-Carb Lie #1: Excess Protein is Turned Into Glucose

The idea that dietary protein is easily turned into glucose, and therefore, interferes with the state of ketosis, popped up in the low-carb community a few years ago with the advent of the Nutritional Ketosis movement. 

Low-carb doctors like the Eades have always believed that the brain's glucose needs can be met by a higher-than-average protein intake. They have never said that protein will throw you out of ketosis.

Scientific evidence shows
protein doesn't raise blood glucose levels

For years, low carbers were advised to eat between 0.8 grams and 1.5 grams of protein per pound of lean body mass, depending on your daily activity level. That amount would help to maintain muscle mass during the weight-loss phase and furnish the body with the amino acids it needed for hormones and repairs.

Sedentary individuals, especially females, ate at the low end of the scale and body builders ate at the other. Fairly active low carbers, especially males, found 1.0 grams of protein per pound of lean body mass to be more optimal.

However, the greater majority of people following a low-carb diet eventually stalled. Perhaps you were one of them.

This massive tendency paved the way for a new low-carb diet called Nutritional Ketosis to arrive on the scene with many bloggers telling their readers that protein was the macronutrient to blame for their diet's lack of success, even though the original Atkins diet book never stated that. 

The justification for this new belief came from the ability to measure the ketone level in the blood, rather than the urine, which birthed a ton of misconceptions regarding Nutritional Ketosis and protein.

Nutritional Ketosis set an optimal level of blood ketones at 1.5 to 3.0 mmol/L, with 2.0 mmol/L and higher reserved for endurance athletes, and dieters were advised to reset their protein levels so they could hit that optimal level.

As a result, many individuals drastically lowered their protein intake, hoping to get the scales moving again. 

For some, it worked well, so they began sharing their experience with others and telling them that if they weren't losing weight that excess protein was to blame because it was turning into too much glucose.

The idea that protein always turns into glucose is a fabrication. 

The idea is simply a guess for why lowering protein intake works for some individuals, but so many low-carb dieters believed the explanation that they started spreading the news like crazy.

The outcome of lowering protein intake was mixed.

Some people like me gained weight on this Nutritional Ketosis program, and some people lost weight. Others found they were not able to maintain their muscle mass at such low dietary protein levels. I was one of those, too. 

Some people began to worry and obsess over their numbers, blaming the lack of ketones in their blood for their continuing stall.

Eventually, the popularity of the diet waned, and people moved back to a more optimal protein intake, but the idea that protein is always turned into glucose and that low-carb diets need to be low in protein to be successful continues to be a popular idea today.

The Truth: Excess Protein Increases Protein Oxidation

Biologically, protein “can” be turned into glucose, if necessary, but that doesn't mean it will.

In fact, a scientific study published in the journal, Diabetes, back in May 2013, showed that this is rarely the case. Gluconeogenesis is demand-driven, which means the body only converts certain amino acids into glucose if absolutely necessary, and when it does, it doesn't raise the blood glucose level at all.

Any glucose made during gluconeogenesis is used to restore your glycogen levels, and liver glycogen is only used to keep the blood glucose from falling too low.

An older study published in the Journal of Endocrinology and Metabolism in 2001 found similar results in Type 2 diabetics. Even after eating 50 grams of protein in the form of lean beef, only 2 grams of glucose managed to make it into the bloodstream.

However, eating 50 grams of protein at one time did increase circulating insulin. That's one of the reasons why the Atkins Diet now recommends you limit your protein intake to 6 ounces per meal, or less. Protein stimulates insulin release more than Dr. Atkins originally realized.

Dietary protein is an essential nutrient. It's used to help maintain muscle mass, as well as create hormones, enzymes, and make protein-structure repairs. 

When eaten in excess, some of the protein will be turned into glucose and used to refill your glycogen stores. However, according to the two above studies, most of the excess protein you eat will be oxidized and burned for energy.

Oxidation doesn't affect ketosis. Ketosis is a direct result of what's happening with your liver glycogen stores.

The reason why protein might interfere with ketosis is that filled glycogen stores reduce the need for dietary fats. The body will use the stored glycogen first to supply the glucose needed by the brain and keep your blood glucose levels steady, rather than pulling triglycerides out of your fat cells.

Since ketones are a by-product of fat oxidation, the body won't make very many ketones if your glycogen levels are kept topped off. The liver already has all the energy it needs to keep the body properly functioning.

Low-Carb Lie #2: A High-Fat Diet is Necessary for Ketosis

State of Ketosis only occurs
when liver glycogen is low

The state of ketosis occurs when your liver glycogen becomes about half depleted. Liver glycogen is used to keep the glucose level in the blood steady, and since low blood glucose is a threat to life, the liver will pull triglycerides out of your fat cells to make ketones.

The process has nothing to do with dietary fats. 

If it did, then a low-fat low-carb diet, such as the HCG Diet or Lyle McDonald's Rapid Fat Loss plan, wouldn't work. Dietary fat is not necessary to go into the state of ketosis. Nor is it necessary to sustain that state because ketosis is about keeping your blood glucose level regulated.

Ketosis simply means your body is making ketones.

Later on in the process, the body will use fatty acids to fuel most of its activities, rather than ketones, but it can get those fats from either your diet or your fat cells. 

If you eat more fat than your body can use in a day, it will never be pulled back out of storage and will accumulate. 

The body won't burn more fat just because you're in ketosis.

The Truth: Few Individuals Can Eat a High-Fat Diet and Lose Weight

The idea behind a low-carb diet, as designed by Dr. Atkins, is to eat protein and fat in the same proportions as found in nature.

Dr. Atkins clarified that point as being a 40-to-60 split, protein-to-fat, what you'd find in a relatively lean piece of beef in 1972. This was for a diet that consisted of 10 grams of carbohydrate, or less.

As you slowly returned carbohydrate to your diet in the form of cottage cheese, vegetables, nuts, and berries, to keep losing weight effectively, you had to either lower the protein or the fat to make room for the calories in the extra carbs.

At 40 percent, there is room to lower the protein, which is what most low-carb dieters do, but depending on your individual carbohydrate tolerance, that isn't always enough.

The truth is that very few individuals can actually eat a very high-fat diet and successfully lose the weight. You'd need to be quite active to be able to burn 80-percent of your calories as fat.

Your body won't have a need to go into your fat cells for triglycerides to fuel its activities if you're supplying all of its fatty acid needs in your diet. While a low-carb diet enables you to eat more fat than you can on a standard low-calorie diet, the amount of fat you can eat and still lose weight is limited. 

The Atkins Diet is not a fat-fest free-for-all.

If you want to eat high-fat, as in 80 percent of your calories, then you really need to pay close attention to your calorie deficit. 

The Keto Diet tends to be higher in fat than other low-carb diets because most people using that particular low-carb plan are eating only 20-net carbs a day for the entire weight-loss phase. 

However, when following Keto, it is recommended that you strictly track what you eat in an online calculator like Fitday or My Fitness Pal to make sure that you don't go over your desired deficit in calories. 

This technique would work well with the Atkins Diet or any low-carb diet plan.

Low-Carb Lie #3: The Calorie Theory is a Hoax

Low-Carb Raspberry Cheesecake
is high in calories

The calorie theory is considered a fact, rather than a hypothesis, by the greater majority of humanity, including modern-day research scientists. The idea presented is that if you eat fewer calories than the body needs in a normal day, you'll automatically lose weight depending on the degree of the deficit. 

On paper, that looks pretty good. 

It's said that 3500 calories provide enough energy to coincide with a pound of stored body fat, so if you eat 500 calories a day less than it takes to maintain your weight, you'll lose a pound of fat per week.

When Dr. Atkins introduced his famous low-carb diet in 1972, he called the calorie theory a hoax.

However, the context of his remarks had nothing to do with the energy equation that so many low-carb supporters criticize and make fun of. The energy equation is true. Even Dr. Atkins admitted that.

Energy coming into the body must correlate to the amount of energy used in order to maintain balance. If you eat a 1,000 calorie low-carb diet, you'll lose weight faster than you will eating 1,500 calories, he said.

The problem with calories isn't that the energy equation is a hoax.

The problem is that the energy out part of the equation can be extremely variable depending on your:

• basic metabolic rate
• activity level
• mental state of being
• diet preferences
• hormonal state
• body's chosen method for adapting to excess energy

The amount of energy used per day will vary from individual to individual depending on what's going on at any particular moment. None of us fit into the textbook idea of normal, which is what the doctor actually said in his very first diet book.

The Truth: Eating at Maintenance Calories Causes Stalls

Dr. Atkins thought it was a cruel hoax to make the public believe that they had no other alternative to the calorie theory.

His attitude was that a balanced, low-calorie diet wasn't necessarily the best diet for everyone because cutting calories was an inefficient way to shed excess pounds. The level of carbohydrate in a typical low-calorie diet is too high to enable you to efficiently use your fat stores for energy.

That was Dr. Atkins' belief and no where did he ever say that calories don't count.

What he spoke about again and again was the massive hunger that a standard low-calorie, high-carb diet creates, due to its high-carb content. He also demonstrated the difficulties that a typical low-calorie diet produced for those who are insulin resistant by sharing the stories of a few of his patients in his books. 

When carbohydrates were restricted, his patients began to lose weight, but those examples were of people who had never been on a low-carb diet before.

When you use the alternative metabolic pathway for the very first time, you can eat a tremendous amount of calories and still lose body fat because the body has no idea how many ketones to make and no way to store ketones not used. 

The only alternative it has to making too many ketones is to dump any excess ketones it makes.

Once you no longer need to make an excessive amount of ketones to fuel the whole body and only need to make enough ketones to fuel the brain and the body tissues that don't have mitochondria, you'll stop throwing ketones away. 

At that point, calories and the amount of food you eat becomes more important.

The idea that you can eat all you want on a low-carb diet and still lose weight is often shouted from the pulpit in low-carb forums.

Nothing could be further from the truth. 

If you're eating when you're not hungry, those excess calories will eventually catch up to you. The amount of food you can eat at 250 pounds won't be the same amount of food you can eat at 150.

As your weight comes down, the amount of food needed to sustain your activities and body repairs will be considerably less. If you don't cut down on what you're eating or dramatically increase your activities, your weight will eventually reach equilibrium and your weight loss will stall.

If you aren't mindful of your calorie intake during that period, you could also begin to gain weight.

Since protein needs stay constant and your carbohydrate sensitivity is what it is, fat intake is how you control your calories up and down on a low-carb diet. As your weight comes down, your calorie deficit needs to be recalculated and adjusted to fit your new current weight.

Do You Have to Count Calories?

One of the attractive aspects of the Atkins Diet is Dr. Atkins' insistence that you can lose all of the weight you need to lose without counting calories. 

Many low-carb dieters cling tightly to that dream. 

While that may be true for some people, the closer you get to a healthy weight, the more closely you have to watch your food portion sizes.

For example, most people following the Keto diet begin at the Lazy Keto stage, which is similar to Atkins Induction. 

On Lazy Keto, you don't have to track what you're eating. You only have to make sure that you don't go over 20 net carbs per day. Eventually, that type of unconscious eating style will result in a lengthy stall because most people tend to over estimate how much they're eating.

A lengthy stall is a sign that you've eating at maintenance. Whatever you're eating is maintaining your current weight. If you're satisfied with where you are and don't want to eat any different, then consider what you're doing your new maintenance plan.

If you're not satisfied with where you are, then you'll have to do something different.

If you don't want to count calories, you will need a clever way of measuring where you're at, and then, a way to cut down on your daily intake. Some of the things I've seen people do:

• cut out all snacks
• switch from fatty cuts of meat to leaner varieties
• drop from three meals a day to two
• drink a low-calorie protein shake for breakfast or lunch
• cut down on the number of side dishes you make
• give up all desserts and/or low-carb baked goods
• eliminate high-calorie foods completely
• switch from heavy cream to half-and-half
• give up all low-carb products
• water fast for one day a week

What you choose to do will depend on what you're already doing.

However, the need to eat less once the body adapts is one of the main reasons why it's not a good idea to start low carbing at drastically low calorie levels. 

As you can see, once the body adapts to your current calorie intake, if you're already eating at drastically reduced calories, you won't have anywhere to go.