Hi I’m new to Keto and did a bunch of research before embarking but im not the best at weighing my carbs etc (an app). So i basically ended up not eating any which is not keto but Atkins. Any way has anyone got any good, easy advice to help with my diet or do i have to measure my carbs precisely for this to work?
Thanks in advance!
Welcome to the Ketogenic Forums!
The Atkins diet is indeed a version of a ketogenic diet. Any diet in which you eat so little carbohydrate that your blood sugar and insulin drop enough to allow your liver to start producing ketone bodies is a ketogenic diet.
Practically speaking, many people distinguished “low-carb” from “keto,” the latter involving less carbohydrate than the former. We recommend an upper limit of 20 g of carbohydrate a day, which is virtually guaranteed to get you into ketosis. Your body may well be able to tolerate more carbohydrate than that and still keep your insulin low, but you should start there, get through the adaptation phase, and then adjust your carb intake (if you still want to) after that.
The biology underlying a ketogenic diet is that too much glucose in the blood stream is dangerous to the body, so the pancreas secretes insulin to get it out of the blood. Insulin signals to the muscles to metabolise some of the excess glucose, and to the fat cells to store the rest of it as fat. As long as insulin remains high (which it does on a high-carb diet) fat is trapped in the fat cells and cannot leave, which is why carbohydrates are fattening. We have been trained to fear fat, because some erroneous research claimed it was the cause of cardiovascular disease. But actually, fat and protein are what we evolved to eat, and carbohydrate intake, historically, was very low. So a ketogenic diet helps to restore our metabolic health, whereas the standard government-recommend diet actually damages it.
Carbs serve no useful purpose and you have zero need to eat any. If you don’t want to weigh and measure food, eating zero carbs is a viable option. Many folks do so. You can check out the various carnivore topics to see what other folks do. You don’t necessarily have to eat carnivore to avoid carbs. Many of us eat very little or no carbs on a standard keto regimen. Many folks just decide how much protein they need, then eat fatty foods to satiety. So there are multiple options. But as Paul said the most important thing is to keep any carb intake low enough not to raise insulin enough to interfere with fat metabolism.
If you eat very low-carb, you don’t need to track even your carbs. That’s one thing I like in carnivore, it’s quite hard to eat too much carbs on it (I think I still didn’t go over 20g under normal circumstances) and I think you know if you drink a liter milk after your pound of liver… 
It’s probably not even considered carnivore for many people, I almost never use milk myself (but I do carnivore-ish so I eat non-animals too just little, I get way more carbs from carnivore food on a good day).
Even not doing carnivore you can ignore tracking if you know you surely eat safely below your personal ketosis carb limit.
I have very vague ideas about Atkins, I just remember reading about it and seeing it’s totally impossible for me (I was a vegetarian at that time, it was fine for keto though later I realized it’s not ideal for me).
There are many styles of keto, Atkins is way more rigid. And then it gets too flexible…?
Atkins is basically carb counting, and then potentially increasing carbs over time, until you get to a limit where you start to regain.
I started on Atkins, and still just keep a low amount of carbs. No counting anything, though.
One reason: All of these are for 16 ounces of top round. Note the differences:
In the original books the Atkins induction phase (i.e. the first 2 weeks) was essentially the same as keto. 20 net grams of carbs per day. They may have revised the books after the good doctor died, I have no idea. Anyway, if you just stay on induction indefinitely, you are keto.
The New Atkins for the New You, the second edition, was written by Dr. Eric Westman, Dr. Stephen Phinney, and Prof. Jeff Volek. Dr. Westman was a colleague of Dr. Atkins’ and helped publish some of the early research on the Atkins diet. Dr. Phinney got into studying the ketogenic diet in order to prove Atkins wrong—and found he couldn’t. He and Prof. Volek are the ones who coined the term “nutritional ketosis.”
The nice thing about Atkins is that one does not have to be concerned with “macros” or “protein” or “fat”. It was just carbs. That’s it. (I think he allowed fiber to be subtracted, if I’m not mistaken.) Which I personally find freeing. (None of this, “OMG! I’m eating too much protein!”)
We have the new Atkins book at home, though I haven’t looked at it in a while.
Or “OMG! I’m not eating enough protein!” which we also hear, though to a lesser extent.
Atkins is Keto, Keto isn’t Atkins. Many of us started with Atkins. Atkins isn’t 0 carb, You don’t need to be hyper precise, but you need to have a half descent idea of what you’re eating carb wise. If you’re in the 20-30 range you’re fine, 40 probably, 50 maybe. All depends on your metabolism and activity.
I did Atkins in the 70’s but never increased carbs past the induction stage.
For me, Atkins was not sustainable because I was still brain-washed by the low fat dogma so limited my fats somewhat. Without the fats and no carbs the food was so boring I got sick of it, was hungry in between meals and eventually stalled. And quit.
I never counted my protein on keto - just ate until I was full and trusted my body. Counted carbs in the beginning just to check and then added in fat to make my meals delicious and hold me over to my next meal.
I am never hungry until noon, which I don’t remember being able to do that on Atkins.
I lost 40 lbs only tracking carbs so you can do keto without macros.
Old original 1972 Atkins was my savior 
but like Janie I could not move past Induction phase.
Real fast I gave up the 1 cup of salad and dumped the pickle option and ate only the animal foods/meat cheese seafood fish and fowl.
I tried to climb the carb ladder and failed over and over again so I just did Atkins original induction for a long time…then I found ‘Zero Carb’ and realized I was doing it already – then I found ‘Carnivore Plan’ and found I was doing that already HAHA
I have alot of appreciation for Dr A and that first original book, which I still have but is falling apart at the seems literally
I don’t know what foods you enjoy eating, however, for me, it wasn’t too difficult to keep my carbs low because I didn’t love a lot of fruit and veggies pre-keto. Yes, there were things like salad, some fruits, etc., but again, it wasn’t hard to give up most of it in lieu of rich, fatty food, which was/is my preference. If you like beef, pork, sausage, some cheese (gouda, havarti, etc.), heavy cream, bacon, eggs, etc., I’d suggest you confine consuming any vegetables to one meal a day. In the beginning, for me, that was dinner. I’d make a protein and then steam some brussels sprouts with butter or bacon grease, and/or have that with a little cole slaw made with mayo and vinegar. (I also didn’t need a ton of variety in my eating, thankfully, and was content to eat many of the same things over and over without boredom or sacrifice.) (Also, I later gave up mayo after learning it is made with PUFA oils, even the olive oil kind, which I didn’t know.) Doing this, I found it easy to keep my carbs way under 20 without having to track or think about it. Maybe identify the kinds of veggies you still want to consume and just eat them at dinner. For me, it was easier not to eat carbs at breakfast or lunch. Not for everyone, but maybe it would work for you, too.
PS, if you enjoy salad, a good no carb dressing is heavy cream whipped with spices and blue cheese crumbles. No bad oils and you know what goes into it.
Good luck!
