Dr. Atkins Stop Counting Calories Hook
Dr. Atkins was correct, yet he became demonized by the food industry before he died. He had it correct, and his principles still apply even though the current Atkins is not run by him and is in name only. They continue to promote his low carb, stop counting calories diet and have expanded their plans to make it easier to get into lower carb dieting.
Put Back What The Modern World Left Out
Liver King
My point is that he not only promoted low carb but to stop counting calories! Certainly, this is wrong and why they demonized him at the time. He had to be a quack to tell his disciples not to bother counting their caloric intake! Burn him at the stake! How could he promote this blasphemous diet plan? Everyone must count calories don’t you know? Every cave man and woman must have since they were lean and fit right?
Finding the Sweet Spot
I was one of the early adopters of the stop counting calories Atkins diet during the 80s after researching what it was about. The part about not counting calories frankly caught my eye and it appeared quite well thought out. Eating low carb also made sense for fat loss, autoimmune issues and blood sugar. I jumped in with both feet and remained on Atkins for many years even while bodybuilding heavily.
I found that every few months, I needed to “carb up” for a few days to restore my glucose liver level but otherwise, I was doing great! Stop calorie counting, and my weight was as ideal as it had ever been! I was skinny as a kid and got a little belly fat after hitting 30 when I decided to go on the Atkins diet.
The Secret – Nutrient Dense Food
So, here’s the secret and it may not be for everyone, especially vegetarians and vegans. It’s about eating a diet rich in nutrient dense food. You say, ok, what’s that? Whole grains, fruit, dairy, beans, rice? No! Meat, fish, organ meats (offal), poultry, pork and any other animal meat products. It’s ok to eat some veggies and a good idea but you can skip everything else! The fun part is to eat as much as you want by stop counting calories! I don’t mean to be a gluttonous pig but eat until full!
The Difference From Atkins Diet
I will eat up to two pounds of meat at one sitting and usually around 3 lbs per day! You eat until you are full and trust me, when you eat nutritionally dense food, you get full and have no desire to eat for sometimes the rest of the day! Why is this? You might think like I did at one time that eating tons leads to eating tons more all day!
That’s largely because of simple carbs and sugars! It becomes a never-ending food fest of pigging out all day and night because you are eating nutritionally deficient food! Your body is seeking to be satiated through the nutrition it demands so it will allow you to eat enormous amounts of garbage in hopes of getting the proper nutrition! It’s so obvious yet goes unspoken!
Why Can’t I Stop Eating?
The junk food producers do not want you to know this and why they make their garbage so difficult to stop eating! You should include a variety of animal meats ad fish but the key difference from Akins is to include organ meats like beef and chicken livers! The nutrient density is incredible and by just adding a couple ounces several times per week, you will lose that craving to eat more than you need! Did I mention to stop counting calories?:)
Fuggit About It! Stop Counting Calories!
What’s the worst part of dieting to lose weight? Counting calories and watching how much you consume! It’s all about willpower that never wins out and life is miserable following most diet plans! How would you like to eat as much as your stomach wants and gravitate to your perfect weight in the process and stop counting calories?
What does the alpha, king of the pack lion or other wild animal do after a kill? He gets to eat first and what does he invariably choose? The organs of the kill! They are the most nutritionally dense parts and animals innately know this! These are the most powerful superfoods on earth! Not twinkies, cookies, rice crackers, pasta, etc etc! The pack gets to eat after the alpha gets a full stomach and he might leave some of the organs but muscle meat is mainly what is left over. This is not to say that the muscle meat is not nutritious but not as much as organs.
Getting Organ Meat into Your Diet
I have learned how to prepare beef liver in several ways that make it palatable and chicken livers for those beef liver haters is much milder and quite good if sauteed in butter and onions. I also dehydrate my own liver and grind it into powder and take in pill form. Additionally, I make my own liver jerky that really is good after marinating the liver for a day or two before dehydrating it!
Of course, you cannot eat liver everyday even if you wanted to because it is literally too robust in several vitamins and there is a chance of overdosing on vitamin A if too much is consumed. I tend to doubt this but supplementing with capsules and eating jerky might be too much. I suggest sticking with around three oz or so a day.
Easy to Follow
Since you do not want to pig out on a lb or more of liver at a sitting like muscle meat or fish, organ meat is designed to optimize your nutrients and does this quite well. You may even find that eating up to half a lb of liver in one sitting will fill you up for hours. I generally get most of my diet from muscle meats because of taste and nutritional value. Include fish, pork, poultry and other animals meats have high level nutrition and combined with some organ meats,
I eat until full and simply do not eat again until hungry which might be on average, four to eight hours later. Sometimes, one large meal is all I need for the day! It’s magical and virtually no diet plan will go down this road because it’s too simple not counting calories!
Filling in the Gaps
I suggest supplementing with trace minerals, electrolytes, boron, vitamin C and if not eating much fish, fish oil. I do not recommend dairy but kefir and natural sugar free yogurt are ok. Cheese is ok but would limit it. Eat some green veggies or juice them for fiber and drink pure water, preferably distilled. Steer clear of fruit or fruit juices except on rare occasions. An apple a day is ok. Spirulina and Chlorella are incredible superfoods from algae and by just adding these two each day will fulfill all your needs!
Frankly, once you get on this way of eating, you will not be hungry and not want to snack much if at all. If you are currently a big carb eater, begin to transition and don’t worry too much for the first week or two. Once you transition to what is pretty close to keto, your body will no longer crave carbs and sweets.
It’s true, I have lived it and you will probably get to the point at some time when you will need to remind yourself to eat! I have gone all day and realized at six or seven that I never ate all day! Do you see what I mean by stop counting calories?
Diet Flexibility?
There is discussion and current interest in what is called metabolic flexibility. It’s not quite that simple but basically states that we should be able to eat seasonal foods, various macros, carbs, fats, proteins, and not suffer from the variety.
By suffer, I am referring to those maybe eating carbs for days being able to switch to zero carb on a dime. This is simply not feasible for most! Sure, it would be nice to essentially eat anything and then not crave junk food every day! I am not one of those people and you may not be either! You give me cereal in the morning, hot dogs at lunch with chips or fries and pasta for dinner with a sugary dessert and i want that everyday afterward plus junk food!
Plan A First and Try a More Diverse Diet Down the Road
It does not work for the majority of people in my opinion! It’s pie in the sky theory and not practical because we have a polluted environment with dozens of poisons, heavy metals and pesticides in our food and water that makes us crave estrogenic, high carb food!
Why keep putting it back into our diet when it has been proven by science that we do not require carbs to live! The body converts to burning fat automatically and actually prefers fat to glucose in nearly all bodily functions. We can produce glucose in the liver on our own to use in reserve, amazing!
I did report on metabolic flexibility in another post and while I am not programmed as well as I would like, I have come a long way. I am able to eat “seasonal” food like fruit and not knock me out of whack. In prior years, consuming carbs for more than a couple of days would signal the end of my low carb dieting.
I had to suffer to stay on Atkins but I believe that by eating high nutritionally dense foods, I am now better equipped to be more flexible in my diet. I prefer eating carnivore but when I feel a need to carb reload, it’s easier to resume the low carb diet without agony.
Stop Counting Calories Takeaway
Low carb cuts hunger and high nutrient dense food that is low or no carb is the magic! I have put the no counting calories protocol to the test. I have gone back at the end of the day and calculated calories I consumed and found that I average around 2000 per day. Some days a little more and some days less. If I want to cut a little body fat, I may switch to chicken and add more liver.
Runing the numbers on occasion will reinforce why no counting calories works! Carnivore is the closest diet that I am describing but they aren’t much on green veggies. If you don’t like veggies, juice them or buy the green foods powders to fill this need. Better yet if you hate veggies, buy the Spirulina and Chlorella combo powder or pills and you are completely covered!
The Proof is in the Results!
I have tried virtually all diets over the last 40 years. There is something very liberating when eating as much as you want until full! I am nearly 70, 16 percent body fat, and still bodybuilding and around 200 lbs. I eat as much as I want, and my body fat remains in a very tight range. i have robust health and many people think that I am twenty years younger than my age. Do not be afraid of red meat and especially organ meats and you can also enjoy great health, vitality, balanced hormones and a trim waistline! And, oh yeah, stop counting calories!
