Anytime, anyplace, anywhere, would I swap places with someone needing to loose or gain 20 pounds to get to their goal weight.

Shasta - I'd bet your Metabolism is fairly high compared to most people here. My guess is if you are doing LC and not losing weight, you are not consuming enough calories. My guess is you are not getting enough fat (good fat, omega 3's) intake. Have to tested to see if you are in ketosis?

Cyprinodon - you say your BMR is 1680? Did you make any adjustment for activity level? Your calorie requirement could almost double depending on how much you exercise per day, and how active you are, and how high your metabolism is.

The Calculators are just a starting point for people who have no clue what their body needs. The better you know your own body the less you need to rely on a model to tell you what works and what does not.

Regards,
Lux

Luxsit - I thought the same thing, but if I get anywhere close to 2000 calories (less than 1/2 of what I used to eat), I gain weight quickly. I don't know what changed in such a short period of time.

As for fats, I cook and dip all my meat in butter, keep the skin on my chicken and I use mayo in my tuna and on my burgers. I use full fat salad dressings. I don't like the taste of oils. I also don't care for avacados. I take Evening Primrose capsules and Omega 3-6-9 capsules.

It's hard to up my fats without upping my calories. I am so hungry all the time and the only thing that fills me up is protein. Do things like cream cheese and cream have the good fats? I have been thinking about trying some cream cheese or cream with Davinci syrup (Splenda) to up my fat%, but I have heard that dairy and any artificial sweeteners affect weight loss.

I have been in and out of ketosis. It seems really hard for me to get there (takes 4-5 days to see a trace on the sticks or to get a slight taste in my mouth) and even harder to stay there. I am not eating any artificial foods, so I don't know what the problem is.

I just used Lux's methid to recalculate my calories. I came up with about 500 less than the CKD parameters site. I am going to try it this way for a week or so and see how it goes

Many years ago I read a book from Rodale Press that made a lot of sense. You figure out what you want to weigh, and how many calories a day you need to consume to support that body weight, and that is how many calories a day you eat. So theoretically, you eventually end up weighing your ideal weight, and you never have to adjust the way you eat again because you have been eating the ideal number of calories to support that ideal weight all along.

So, if you use the BMR calculator, try plugging in your ideal weight instead of your current weight. For example, for my current weight and activity level, my total (not basal) calorie need is 2485, but based on my ideal weight that would be 2053 (basal 1553 versus 1283).

Thanks Lux! Wow, super info!

Gotta admit, that calculator puts me at 8% BF. ROFLMAO!!! (Oh, how I wish I could LMAO!)

There's just NO WAY!

can anyone help me out? would you say 1500 cals a day sounds about right for a 5 foot 5 woman? im 126 pounds and want to gain muscle and lose body fat. on atkins.

10-12x your body weight, but you want to gain muscle and burn fat. I would say 1500 sounds good.

Do keep in mind, it will be very hard to gain muscle on Atkins.

You should have a MINIMUM of 1.5g of fat per 1g of protein to rapidly establish ketosis, not 1:1.

According to Lyle McDonald:

"To rapidly establish ketosis, a minimum ratio of 1.5 grams of fat for each
gram of protein and/or carbohydrate is recommended. This would provide a
ketogenic ratio of 1.5:1."

"Fat intake must be at least 1.5 grams of fat for each gram of
protein/carbs. If you want a rationale, use Dejanews and track down
my discussion of the ketogenic ratios. If you want to try to
get into ketosis on less fat, it's your funeral. It will happen
but it will take much longer and not work as well. Please, please,
please trust me on this one. I've gotten far too much mail from
people who can't get into ketosis until day 4 or 5 of the week
because they are not eating enough fat on the diet. And, one day
in ketosis won't cut it for fat loss. With the proper combination of
ketogenic ratio, training (see last week's FAQ) and use of glucose
disposal agents (see last week's FAQ), you should hit ketosis
by late Tuesday evening or Wednesday morning at the latest.
That gives you almost 3 full days in ketosis."

Links:

http://low-carb.org/lylemcd/cyclic1.htm

http://low-carb.org/lylemcd/faq.htm

Bump the fat!!

Hmmmm ... odd ... since in the article it does say: