I know why refeeds "theoretically" work
I know now why refeeds "in theory" work. I've been doing a lot of research on the science behind atkins. Compiling my own data I've come up with a hypothesis that I've tested. Let me first explain the science behind Atkins:
*there are 4 forms of fuel
1. sugar - which gets converted to glucose, is used first as energy and excess is converted to fat (adipose)
2. carbohydrates - which also get converted to glucose and are used second for energy and excess is also converted to fat (adipose)
3. protein - which I don't totally understand because it's used slightly differently than the other forms of energy because it has a lot of nutrients that the body needs and is used for that and excess is used for energy and what's left over turns to fat.
4. fat - this is the last to be used for energy and although it has many benefits because of society's diet today rarely are the benefits seen as it is usually just stored as fat.
Calories are actually just energy...kilojewels (sp) I believe is what they are called. It takes 4gs of carbs to convert 1 calorie to energy, same with protein. Fat however uses 9gs to convert that same calorie to 1 kilojewel of energy. In other words it takes more than twice as much fat to burn the same calorie as carbs or protein. So lets go back to the Atkins theory. The idea is to decrease your carbs and almost rid your body completely of sugar leaving only protein and fat as your main forms of fuel. As for the protein, it has a lot of nutrients that your body needs, your muscles, brain function and a number of other things that as a science master I'd know and understand and the rest is used for fuel. As for fat it is what we call a very inefficient form of fuel....the word ineficient I know generally carries negative connotations but in this case they are positive. If fat is inefficient then it must take a great deal more to give you the same amount of energy as a carbohydrate. As a matter of fact as I stated earlier it takes more than twice as much fat to burn the same calorie, 9gs to carbs 4gs to be exact. So, lets apply this in a loose theory. Lets just say to keep things simple that it takes 1000gs of carbs to maintaine your body......if it takes twice as much fat to do that same thing then it must take in excess of 2000gs of fats to also maintaine that same body. Now......here's the clincher. Our whole pyramid and diet plan is based on a carbohydrate diet. Therefore when they tell us it takes 2000 calories to maintain your body, they are referring to a diet made up of the much more efficient carbohydrate not fat. If that same pyramid was based on the fat gram, it would read 4000 calories to maintain your wieght right, because it takes more than twice as many grams of fat than carbs. Going back to our 1000g theory, lets now say that your body would go into starvation mode if you ate less than 800 calories (remember these are carb calories) then it that must meant that if your were existing mostly on fat it would take 1600 fat calories to go into starvation mode. Now lets flip that around. To lose weight we need a calorie deficit of at least 500 calories per day totalling 3500 for a week to lose 1 lb of weight. My personal metabolic rate (roughly) is 2700. To lose 1 lb of weight I need my calories per day to be 2200 right (minus 500). But if I've removed the majority of the carbs and all of the sugar from my diet and fat is what I'm primarily living off of I could actually consume 4400 calories a day and still lose 1lb of weight a week. Obviously those of us that have been doing atkins for a while know how hard it is to even reach 2500 calories a day without the assistance of our old time favorites like donuts, cake and candy. But lets say we do reach 2500 calories per day. A few things happen:
1. we are not even close to starvation mode
2. we are eating the amount of calories our body needs to fuel itself
3. that 2500 calories mostly from fat is only equivalent to 1250 calories in carbs.........here's the answer now so listen closely. Our body is getting the right amount of calories but those calories make our body work harder (hmmm, sounds a lot like the theory of exercise doesn't it) those calories are used up twice as fast to energize our bodies......so it's like we only ate 1250 calories of carbohydrates without ever depriving our bodies of the daily calorie intake it really needs. In my opinion that leads me to believe that we actually need even more fat to maitain our weight in the form of more fat calories which is why:
*we tend to be real tired on atkins, especially those of us that decrease our calore intake (not enough fuel for our bodies in addition to put in our bodies into starvation mode which make them stretch each calorie to the furthest) because it takes more than twice us much fat calories to give our bodies the same amount of fuel as those carbohydrate calories.
So, I tested this out......for the last week, starting Monday I've upped my calories to between 1800 and 2300 calories a day (very hard I admit and I tend to be full quite often). Thursday up .5 pounds, Friday up another .5 pounds (I really believe this was my body readjusting itelsf to the new eating and form of fuel) now Saturday down 3 lbs. To make this work, you have to eat lots of fat......like "wife" you need to cook your foods as often as possible in oils and fats and you also need to make sure that 99% of your carbs are coming solely from veggies. You cannot skip meals (run out of fuel too fast and talk about the fatigue and weakness) and need to have many snaks in the form of fat/veggie carb combos (one of my favorites mashed cauliflower with lots of butter and salt n pepprer). One last thing, this in no way takes into account those that have dieted so often that they have totally ranked their systems, lost thier gallbladders, ect. I have not had that problem and so I do not know how this would work with those, although personally I believe that it would work for them too..........with a weight gain at first as their systems fixed and righted themselves and then a steady weightloss. But like I said I only know for sure that if you haven't yo-yo dieted too much this will probably work for you. Do some research.........it all points to what I'm saying, which is exactly where I formed this theory from.
So......originally my thread spoke of why a refeed works and some of you have probably already figured out why. For those that haven't.....you've been on the atkins for a few weeks only consuming about 1400 calories a day in starvation mode (only 700 in fat energy) and suddenly you refeed on your favorite foods which consequently not only have a high carbohydrate content but also have a high fat content. These two things and the increase in calories throw your body out of starvation mode and allows your body to let go of some of that stored fat it was holding onto so dilligently. The reason why I say this works in theory is two things:
1. the carbs mixed with the fat cause cravings and a refeed often turns into an all out binge if not complete departure from the atkins diet
2. too much of the carbs (get burned first remember and it only takes 4 of them for the same amount of energy) and the fat gets stored once again.
So, there it is. I know many people won't agree with me and that's cool. But make sure you do your research and really know what you're talking about. I'm starting to realize that weightloss isn't magic or a hunch, it's science and you gotta know and understand the science to really make it work for you.
One last thing......our theory of a calorie is a calorie is a calorie is now thrown out the window because science tells us it takes 2+ calories of fat to perform the same amount of work as 1 calorie of carbohydrate.
Last edited by poisinivy : Sat, May-08-04 at 11:24.
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