Hi,

I do a quite high fat version of Atkins, with 75-80% of my calories per day coming from fat. It seems that most people on standard Atkins do around 60-65% of their calories from fat. That's what my ratio were before I actively sought to raise my fat intake. My protein is also lower than "average", I think, at 60-70g per day.

Anybody else? I know there are others who are running a higher fat/lower protein versions of their plan of choice...I see you on other forums! It would be nice if we could at least get together and know who we are! I know that sometimes I could use a pointer here and there from someone else who actually supplements fat intake in order to raise it above what you'd get just eating fatty meat, butter on veggies and salad dressings on salads. I'm also interested in what led you to a higher fat version, how it runs for you in the real world (it IS hard to get my fat in some days), stuff like that.

(Raises hand!) And boy, is this WOE fun and easy with this ratio! Plus, I'm losing-- and losing with my favorite bleu cheese dressing ALL over my salads!

My fat is between 75-80 percent, with protein between 54-66 grams most days. Carbs vary from 3-5%. Daily, my calories range from 900- 1800 calories, depending on hunger, but usually end up in the 1500- range. If my fat is lower than 75%...I eat another salad with full- fat dressing, vegetables in oil, or (gulp) add butter.

I'm 5'3, African American, 28 yo, active, with a family history of every bad disease you can imagine. I'm convinced that lc and exercise is the way to beat them all...and personally, I enjoy high fat eating best. I don't find it difficult at all-- if anything, it's easier. DH and I live in NYC and eat out a lot on the weekends. I eyeball 4-5 ounces of protein, have a big salad, and sip diet soda. There are always leftovers!

I decided to try this out after stalling on impossibly low calories, fat and carbs. I was already at a healthy weight, but still hope to go lower.

My first week I lost 4.5 pounds. Not too shabby for someone already within a normal range.

Many people add coconut oil to their coffee, in addition to using all the fat sources you listed. Some of the people who do this will be along shortly, I'm sure. They will be able to give you the details.

I'm on-board!

I am excited about upping my fat % even more and lowering my protein. I can't wait to see the results. I enjoy this WOE and it is fun for me to see what works best. I enjoy a good challenge, I know that sounds funny.... but, oh well.

I lead a very active lifestyle as well and I am going to try putting more calories in me these next few days and see what happens. I know I don't eat enough food, then I get really hungry all of a sudden once or twice a week and end up binging on ice-cream.

I challenge myself to see how long I can go without ice-cream. There, now I have it in writing!

Have a great Saturday!

I've upped my fat content and found that naturally my protein portions are going down. I haven't used fitday during induction and i'm not going to, i plan on moving to OWL a week on Monday, very stressful week ahead (including visit by evil outlaw) so i'd rather just keep things as they are until its all over. I do think though that the higher fat keeps me full longer and i'm enjoying my food more.

daisy

I don't track my food religiously but when I do put it into Fitday it usually comes out to 70% fat. I know that's not quite as high as your ratio. But I do lubs me some fat. I have been going out of my way to eat more of the fat I would normally slice off of steaks and pork chops, etc. I don't particularly like the texture of eating meat-fat alone, but mixed with the lean protein it's pretty good. Been keeping my carbs really low too...15-20.

I also just started taking coconut oil, mainly as a desparate attempt to try and alleve my severely dry skin. It's driving me crazy this winter. I made some candies with coconut oil, cocoa power and toasted pecans. Broke it into pieces and having a few each day. Probably getting a couple of tablespoons of coco oil this way. Doesn't hurt that it is the smoothest most melt-in-your-mouth chocolate I've ever had. I've been puting it on my skin as well--it feels wonderful. Plus I smell delicious!

I just reread this and it sounds like I'm putting the chocolate candies on my skin. I meant just the coconut oil.

Hey, great!

Great to see all of you in one place! I know some others are missing, however, hope they'll check in soon!

I'm really enjoying my 75-80% fat, too! I just want to know I'm not alone!

Me too! Me too! The hardest part of doing Atkins was learning to eat fat. Even though I was raised on a farm, my mom never liked fat and greasy, so I was raised disliking fat on meat and anything greasy. We ate a lot of veggies, but there was never any butter or fat on them. I never tasted mayonnaise until I was in my late teens and even though I did start to eat mayo on a few sandwiches, I put so little on that you could barely see it. For years I would fry eggs in butter flavor Pam and then take a paper towel to blot off any excess "grease". I would almost take a surgical knife to meat to make sure that I didn't get any fat in my mouth. I still don't like the taste or feel of fat in my mouth, but can eat a little fat if it is brown and crispy. I now eat the skin on chicken and turkey, where I used to only eat boneless skinless poultry.

Since starting Atkins in September of 2005, I have learned to fry/scramble eggs in butter or bacon grease and even sometimes melt a little more butter on top. I now slather on mayo and even eat cream cheese. If my meal is a little short on fat, I slice some cucumbers and slather on the cream cheese and I am in heaven! Even I can't believe that I can eat straight coconut oil without gagging! On my salads, I not only use full-fat dressings, I pour on a little more EV olive oil and flax oil to get a little more healthy oil into my diet.

All I know is that when I slip back into my lower fat ways, my weight loss slows down or stops. I keep a food journal and all I have to do is look at the meals in the weeks where I don't do well and I notice too much baked fish and grilled white meat chicken.

My sister and one brother can't watch me eat now, because they are as bad about fat as I used to be. They are skinny, though, and don't and never have had a weight problem. Oh well, life is not fair.

Sunny!

Carol - I just looked at your before picture and you do not even look like the same person. You look amazing in your most recent picture. Jill

Thanks, Jill! I'm still not happy that I am still so top heavy, but I still have a long ways to go.

Sunny (Carole)

Hi everyone! It's been awhile since I posted in the main forum area (life is a bit insane for me at the moment as anyone who reads my journal knows). But today I had a few minutes to spare and thought I'd pop over and check in. Well how cool was it to find this thread! Of course I've chatted with Elle about this topic already, but I'm so happy to check in with SunnyCarol and Kisal and everyone else who's all about the fat.

For me, I started in with LCing (again, after doing Atkins and the Zone years back) by doing EFGT. I went from doing low cal and low fat (and WAY too much sugar, even though I was careful) to enjoying roasted chicken and butter with my eggs. And cheese! (I just LOVE cheese!) It was wonderful! Then I found PP and started to up my protein. That and a lot of exercise has gotten me to over 50% of my goal so far. It's been a slower process than some, but I'm totally reshaping my body.

Ok, I digress...back to the fat. The thing is, I love the stuff and find it so enjoyable. I thought I might be consuming too much, but talking with Elle I'm thinking I just need to be careful not to overdo the protein while consuming the fat.

This morning after making bacon, I saved the grease to cook with later and thought about how this WOE has changed my thinking completely. And don't you agree that cooking a piece of chicken or a pork chop in some bacon fat is SO much more tasty?? Mmmm.

As for Coconut Oil, I was using that regularly for awhile and then wasn't sure if I was reacting well to it. I think now, with this discussion and my revitalized focus on fat, I might try it again (specifically in the absence - or limited amount - of carbs as well as reasonable protein). I'm also excited to give some more cream cheese treats a try.

So...one of my first posts in awhile and I just rambled, didn't I? I guess to sum up, I'm totally with all of you on the fat intake, but I just realize that I MUST watch my protein intake as well as my carb intake for it to work right for me. Hopefully that is a good concept for us all to keep in mind.

i've definetely upped my fat intake, and elle i'm going to blame it all on you . i was never "afraid" of fat, considering that my mom always used things like good olive oil, real butter, and just-skimmed-off-the-milk REAL heavy cream in everything. it's just nice to see i can embrace it all again and feel better.

i'm also in the 70-75% range on my fat intake for calories. the only reason i'm not trying to go higher is that i'm also trying to keep calories in mind, if not completely under control. i figure one of these days SOMETHING will break this damned stall of mine.

I'm eating 70% fat and loving it. In 12 days I'll have been maintaining for a year! On another thread, Carol just reminded me of the lower convertability of fat to glucose versus protein to glucose, as specified in DANDR. That sounds like a good reason to increase my fat further, as I tend to eat ~20g extra protein a day and could easily replace that with fat. Most fats are cheaper than protein. And chicken & turkey thighs are much tastier than white meat!

On past LC diets, I got down to 150 and then followed the "conventional wisdom" of cutting back on fat and calories as I neared goal or tried to maintain. That brought frustration, stress, hunger and going "off" the diet. This time, starting in August 2005, I decided to try the only thing I had never tried on any diet in my 35 years of dieting - eating MORE calories and MORE fat throughout the entire losing and maintaining phases. Eating plenty of fat, along with avoiding gluten, soy and casein, has made this journey effortless.

My latest favourite fat is ghee (clarified butter - to make it casein-free). When googling how to make it, I came across several references to ghee being the first food fed to babies in India.

I'm in a similar situation where I've been trying to monitor calories and just be cautious (after all, I had a helluva stall too). I'm thankful to be stalling UNDER 180 finally, but I haven't moved much lately so I need to try something.

Deidra, your approach is always on my mind when adding fat. This thread is really re-inspiring me to through caution to the wind and make fat work for me!

Thanks. It was some renegade on this or the PP BB ~5 years ago who said eat more fat and I thought they were crazy - or just lucky; I never thought I had the type of body that could handle more of calories or fat based on 35 years of having to starve to lose weight. I ignored that advice until 19 months ago when I realized it was the only approach I had never dared to try. In fact, I had decided that I'd try it and if it didn't work, I'd just stay fat since 35 years of restricting calories was obviously not the key to permanent weight loss, for me, at least.

I threw in my own little twist of aiming to eat the number of calories that a "normal" person at my goal weight would eat (~1800/day, a LOT more than I had ever eaten on a diet) even though I never thought I would fall into the "normal" category. Not only is this the only approach that has worked for me, but I now have a "normal" desire for food. It is interesting to see that more people are trying high fat than a couple of years ago, and all of you seem to be successful too! That is why I keep shouting it to the rooftops.