some reasons why adkins diet is dumb

[CCS]

fat does not rebuild glycogen. Without glycogen, you don't have much energy.

Fruit is the main source of fructose. Your liver glycogen is made from fructose. It does not rebuild without fruit.

Your muscle glycogen is made from glucose. You get that from starches, like oats.

You burn approximately 8*80 = 640 calories while you sleep. That is almost 1/4 to 1/3 of your total calories for the day, for some people. You live on glycogen and then fat at night, and don't need much energy. So this is why it is OK to have up to 30% of your calories coming from fat.

There probably are other reasons. Just as you have blood sugar levels, you also have blood fat levels. Both need to be kept at an ideal amount. Too much fat in your food can spike the blood fat levels.

But you need a minimum amount of fat, about 10%, for building blocks, and to absorb fat soluble vitamins. So I get 20% from fat.
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Protein: to reduce atrophy, and have amino acids in the blood ready for muscle cells, you need a minimum of 50g of protein per day. If dieting, your liver converts it to sugar, and you then need 70-80g per day to avoid atrophy.

If packing on muscle, you need more. But if you eat more than your muscles can put on, or are doing fat burn, you liver makes some protein into sugar, and your kidneys have to filter the amonia.

FDA recommends 10-15% of calories come from protein to avoid atrophy, but I get 20% to error on the side of building and keeping more muscle. Many body builders do more than that. But adkins dieters who get 40+% of their calories from protein are just over working their kidneys.

 

[bustabucket]

Yet Fat and Protein are the only two essential macronutrients. One does not NEED Carbohydrates.

It's true though, Atkins diet is unhealthy. One should at least do a carb-load on weekends to get the glycogen stores back up.

 

[docj077]

You don't need carbohydrates to produce glucose in the body, which means that you don't need carbohydrates to make glycogen.

Fructose is either converted to glucose via a conversion from fructose 6 phosphate to glucose 6 phosphate and the subsequent dephosphorylation by glucose 6 phosphatase or phosphorylated so it can enter the glycolytic pathway.

The very structure of glycogen implies glucose molecules linked by alpha 1-4 and alpha 1-6 bonds.

 

[CCS]

Yet Fat and Protein are the only two essential macronutrients. One does not NEED Carbohydrates.

It's true though, Atkins diet is unhealthy. One should at least do a carb-load on weekends to get the glycogen stores back up.

your glycogen depletes over night. what makes you think it will last a week?

 

[CCS]

You don't need carbohydrates to produce glucose in the body, which means that you don't need carbohydrates to make glycogen.

Fructose is either converted to glucose via a conversion from fructose 6 phosphate to glucose 6 phosphate and the subsequent dephosphorylation by glucose 6 phosphatase or phosphorylated so it can enter the glycolytic pathway.

The very structure of glycogen implies glucose molecules linked by alpha 1-4 and alpha 1-6 bonds.

I realize the liver can turn some protein and fat into glucose, which the musles could then turn to glycogen, but most of that fat will go straight to the fat cells. the liver can only process so much at a time. You'd get the most sugar right after a meal. During fasting, the liver would only make what the body needs, and not enough to fill up glycogen stores.

I'm sure you are right that fructose can be made into glucose. But right after a workout, if you want a blood sugar spike to make insulin put protein into the cells while you still have that testosterone spike, glucose or maltodextrose are much better than fructose. The fructose can go into fat cells, liver glycogen, or gradually be turned into glucose. So starting with glucose will keep you leaner, and give you more energy.

 

[powersam]

honestly the only diet that i've read into that makes sense to me is the paleolithic diet. simply because 50,000 years of evolution must have steered things in the right direction. unless you're a republican that is

 

[Harie]

The Adkins diet is a great way to lose weight quickly though. 2 weeks on Adkins and you'll have shed quite a few pounds...Which will motivate you to keep on dieting. I'd never recommend anyone stays on the Adkins diet for longer than a few weeks though.

Carb cycling is a pretty good middle ground. Load carbs after you workout, then eat as little carbs as possible the rest of the day.

 

[CCS]

The Adkins diet is a great way to lose weight quickly though. 2 weeks on Adkins and you'll have shed quite a few pounds...

That just goes against my intuition. Does adkins somehow increase your metabolism? Is it >80% fat that is lost? Are you talking the same calorie deficit, adkins verses carbs?

 

[docj077]

The Adkins diet is a great way to lose weight quickly though. 2 weeks on Adkins and you'll have shed quite a few pounds...

That just goes against my intuition. Does adkins somehow increase your metabolism? Is it >80% fat that is lost? Are you talking the same calorie deficit, adkins verses carbs?

No, the lack of carbohydrate in your diet forces your body to use other energy sources. Obviously, muscle protein should be high on the list, but the body also started breaking down fat, as well. In the end, you just end up urinating out ketones, and thus, body weight as a result.

In reality, you make yourself into a diabetic while on the Atkin's diet. Your body can't use sugar, so it uses whatever else it can...so, essentially, you turn your body into the body of a diabetic minus the insulin resistance or lack of insulin production.

 

[CCS]

when fat is oxidized, is it turned into keytones? Are they not fully oxidized to water and carbondioxide?

 

[docj077]

when fat is oxidized, is it turned into keytones? Are they not fully oxidized to water and carbondioxide?

Not once you start releasing them at high rates. Too much acetyl-CoA ends up getting produced and not enough ends up entering the TCA cycle. The end result is that ketogenesis has to occur and acetoacetate, acetone, and beta-hydroxybutyrate get produced in large amounts. Once they are produced, they are simply removed from the body in the urine. Not many tissues can use ketones as a energy source, but I know that the brain can use them if necessary.

You won't get CO2 and H20 unless the acetyl-CoA is allowed to enter the TCA cycle so oxidative phosphorylation can occur to produce the CO2 and electron transport and occur to produce the H2O.

The end product of fatty acid oxidation is one mole of NADH, one mole of FADH2, and one mole of acetyl-CoA.

 

[bubka]

your glycogen depletes over night. what makes you think it will last a week?

no it does not, you have on average at least 2,000 calories of glycogen, that is not including what you would have already in the blood stream

That just goes against my intuition. Does adkins somehow increase your metabolism? Is it >80% fat that is lost? Are you talking the same calorie deficit, adkins verses carbs?

not only does atkins force the body to burn fat, it is also low calorie as well, which also helps of course

unless the body is severely dehydrated, the body had no problems breaking down fatty acids for energy, fats are the most efficient source of energy, burn them away and away