OK - I get it. Count carbs, count calories and exercise as much as I can while drinking tons of water. I am so used to counting carbs that I forgot the average calories in foods so I am looking them up as I go. What does everyone eat to reach 20 carbs but not go over 1,500 calories a day?

I'm still trying to figure that out myself. I always go over, the first few days my cals were so high I gained a few pounds. I try to get the low fat beef when I cook, stick to chicken, go easy on the butter and creams. It is such a pain!

That's interesting because I am the opposite. I find it a real chore to get up to 1500 calories a day while staying under 20 grams of carbs.

I eat mostly meat and salads with dressing (1 carb). Sometimes I'll have veggies with a bit of butter also. I mostly eat macadamia nuts to try and up the calories. I don't eat any low-carb products because I lose weight very slowly and I don't want to take the chance of the sugar alcohols stalling me. However, now and then I'll nip a lc bar to add some calories.

I eat a lot of eggs, white chicken mostly, turkey sausage/chicken sausage, bacon, peameal bacon, salad, dressings with 1 carb/tablespoon, mixed veggies.

I used to have the cream with strawberries but found out that it made my stomach sick because I'm lactose intolerant. I've had to stop using cheese also because of this. I used to be able to tolerate the cheese but I guess the diet is so pure now the cheese goes right through me.

I don't eat a lot of oils or butter which I guess is where I save a lot of calories. I don't have a phobia with fat but eating to much fat makes my stomach sick and gives me the runs. It's hard because doing Atkins you're supposed to eat fat.

Don't know if this helps any

I too need to keep fat under control because I have no gall bladder. I got out my calculator. for the last stretch:

fat is 9cals per gram, carbs are 3.74 cals per gram and protein is 4 cals per gram.

the Dr Eades recommend at least 70g of protein for someone with my lbm (100lb) so that is only 280 cals for the protein aspects. (you then have to add the cals that come from the attached fat like egg yolks and invisible fat in meat). I try to eat about 100 - 120 g protein to keep up the calories. so that is 400 - 480 calories from the pure protein in protein foods.

well, that leaves me with having eaten 160 cals for the carbs and, say 440 cals for the protein, = 600 cals.

that would mean eating 100g fat each day (which is about 3.5oz) and it is tough to eat that much fat, even though some of it will be found in the protein foods. It would mean getting 60% of mycalories from fat.

I eat more carbs than you, keeping to under 50g, but my loss is very very slow now, I am trying to lose the last 10lb, having lost 30 already. Maybe I should try going back to 20g.

I try to make sure that all my protein is fatty, as that fools the eye, but I try to avoid the bad fats: eg, I concentrate on omega 3 eggs, lots of oily fish, visible fat on grass fed organic meats, organic cheeses etc. That provides about 50g of fat, leaving the rest to be found from pouring on olive oil, including avocados and nuts in salads.

eating that much protein really decreases the appetite, making it difficult to eat 1500 calories. I'm not happy about such an unbalanced diet in the long run, but am hoping it will be OK in the short term.

I don't even really pay attention to the calories. My caloric intake is always somewhere around 2000 to 2200 and the carbs are below 20 grams. According to Fitday.com, I am eating more fat then anything else..... I load on the butter and cream. I have lost 16 lbs since March 8th so, like I said, I don't pay attention to the calories... too much. I did read that you want to keep your caloric intake right around the same as it was before you started your LC diet. If you were eating 2500 calories before then you should still be eating 2500. Similarly, if you were only eating 1500 then of course don't increase your calories. The reason for this is because if you reduce your calories, your body thinks your starving it and your metabolism slows down. If you keep your calories the same then your metabolism continues to burn at the same rate. Difference now is that it is burning the fat and that's why you lose the weight.