Atkins Diet And Weight Loss – Both keto and Atkins share an important idea: You can improve your health by limiting your carbohydrate intake—cutting out carbohydrates from whole grains, processed carbohydrate foods, starchy vegetables like potatoes, and high-carb foods like sweets.
If you’re new to low-carb diets, these two diets may seem very similar. But while there are some similarities between them, there are also some major differences that separate them from each other.
Atkins Diet And Weight Loss
The goal of keto is to get your body into ketosis, a metabolic state where it burns fat for fuel instead of sugar or carbohydrates.
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When you’re in ketosis, your body runs on ketones, small bundles of energy that come from fat you eat or stored fat.
Ketosis comes with a variety of health benefits, including weight loss, stable blood sugar, and better brain function.
To enter ketosis, most people need to eat less than 50 grams of net carbs (total carbs minus fiber) per day. The general macronutrient breakdown for keto is:
Atkins divides weight loss into four stages. You set a target weight, then go through four stages based on how much weight you lose:
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Keto and Atkins are similar in many ways, but there are also key differences that make a significant difference in how they affect your health and weight loss goals.
Keto and Atkins overlap in many different ways. For once, they are both low-carbohydrate diets that emphasize high fat and moderate protein consumption.
In fact, the induction phase and phase 2 of the Atkins eating plan are very similar to keto. In those two phases, you limit your net carbohydrate intake to less than 50 grams per day (~5% of your daily calories), which puts you in a state of ketosis.
Both diets focus on eating moderate protein and high fat, and both center around avoiding carbohydrates, especially refined carbohydrates and sugar.
The Atkins Diet Plan
There is also strong research showing that keto and Atkins are good for weight loss. Both outperformed high-carbohydrate diets in studies of sustained, long-term weight loss [* ][*].
The main difference between keto and Atkins is that the ketogenic diet keeps you in ketosis all the time.
On Atkins, you are in ketosis for the first two phases (you may see these phases called Atkins 20 and Atkins 40). That means you’re primarily burning fat for fuel, not sugar and carbs.
But in phase three and the maintenance phase of Atkins, you will come out of ketosis and eat a simple carbohydrate diet.
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Keto, on the other hand, is always very low carb, which means your body is in a state of ketosis.
Ketosis offers some additional benefits that you won’t get in the later stages of Atkins. However, some people find that they do better with a slightly higher carb intake and that a non-keto low-carb diet like Atkins works better for their body.
If you feel better in ketosis, you may want to consider following a keto diet. Ketosis comes with some benefits that you won’t get in the next phase of Atkins. Benefits of ketosis include:
When you are in ketosis, you burn fat as your main fuel source instead of sugar. Your body turns fat into ketones, tiny bundles of energy that power your cells.
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Ketones are a great source of energy, but they also help with diet. They turn off ghrelin, your body’s main hunger hormone that suppresses appetite [*].
This is one of the reasons why there are so many keto success stories for weight loss (here, here, and here, for example). In the keto diet, you can stay in a mild calorie deficit and lose weight slowly, sustainably, without the constant feeling of hunger in other diets.
People in ketosis burn an average of 300 extra calories per day compared to people on a low-carb diet with macros similar to Atkins Stage 3/4.
When you eat a ketogenic diet, you burn more calories and feel full from less food. That’s a great recipe for weight loss—but it doesn’t happen with a high-carb diet like Atkins or a low-fat diet.
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Keto’s extra calorie burning benefits can protect against weight gain when you stop consciously trying to lose weight.
In general, if you experience blood sugar crashes or sugar cravings, or if you have type 2 diabetes, limiting carbohydrates is a good option. Limiting carbs and sugar keeps your blood sugar more stable, and both keto and Atkins are great for blood sugar control[* ][* ].
On keto, you eat fewer carbs and your blood sugar remains consistently low and stable—most people with type 2 diabetes can get off their medication entirely[* ][* ].
Atkins also controls blood sugar and can help people reduce type 2 diabetes medications, but in studies, it doesn’t help people get off their medications completely, like keto can[* ].
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Because ketones easily cross the blood-brain barrier, your brain can use them efficiently for energy, leading to sustained mental performance. Early research even suggests that a ketogenic diet may protect your brain from diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and overall neurodegeneration [*].
Your cardiologist may be happy if you switch to keto. Ketones have an antioxidant effect on the lining of your blood vessels, improve circulation, and increase the efficiency of your heart.
Studies have shown that the mechanical efficiency of the heart has increased by 30% and blood flow by 75% when running on ketones.
Being in a state of ketosis also reduces heart disease risk factors, including lowering your triglyceride levels and increasing your “good” HDL cholesterol levels [* ].
Easy & Healthy Low Carb Recipes
Some people like the extra flexibility that Atkins offers. Eating a higher carb diet than a keto diet can help in some situations.
Although research is mixed, high-level athletes can benefit from a slightly higher carbohydrate intake than you would on a keto diet.
A recent study of ultra-endurance athletes found that people in ketosis and people eating carbohydrates performed similarly during a three-hour run[* ].
Anecdotal reports on humans are also mixed. While some do well on keto, others experience a decrease in performance.
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If you’re a high-level athlete and your performance is lacking on keto, Atkins is a great way to add more carbs to your diet.
You can also try a variation of keto that is specifically aimed at athletes, such as a cyclical keto diet or a targeted keto diet.
A ketogenic diet can reduce thyroid hormone production in some people[* ] – but again, the research is mixed.
Most people follow a keto diet without thyroid problems, and some people with autoimmune thyroid problems report an improvement in their symptoms when they switch to keto.
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Thyroid hormones regulate carbohydrate metabolism, and some keto experts claim that decreased thyroid function is due to a lower need for carbohydrate metabolism in keto.
However, for now, this is just a theory, and some people who try keto, especially women [* ], may see a decrease in thyroid hormone production, which can lead to fatigue and other health problems.
If you have a history of thyroid problems, talk to your doctor about starting a keto diet. If you need more carbs, Atkins may be a better option for you.
In the ketogenic diet, you are always in ketosis, which comes with additional benefits for your overall health that you won’t necessarily see in the next phase of Atkins. Ketosis is especially beneficial for weight loss, heart health, brain function and blood sugar management.
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However, constant ketosis is not for everyone. High-level athletes and people with thyroid disorders may do better on a high-carbohydrate diet like Atkins. Or you’re better off eating more carbs.
The most important thing is to find a diet that is sustainable for you in the long term, and the best way to identify your ideal diet is to work with a nutritionist or dietitian and try a few different ones to see what works. According to scientists at Aberdeen’s Rowett Research Institute, a low-carbohydrate diet with an optimal amount of protein is the most effective diet, at least in the short term, for promoting weight loss and reducing hunger. 1
Researchers fed healthy but obese men one of two “high protein” diets. Protein is kept up to 30% of total calories in both diets, but the amount of carbohydrates and fats varies. In the first diet – which they call “low carbohydrate” – the carbohydrate content is kept to a very low 4%, and the rest of the calories come from fat. In the second diet – which they call “medium carb” – the carbohydrate content is kept to 35%, and the rest comes from fat.
Each subject spent four weeks on the two diets and was weighed daily. Subjects were allowed to eat as much as they wanted, as long as the ratio of carbohydrate, fat, and protein was kept constant according to the experimental design. Subjects were asked about hunger and appetite on a daily basis.
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As expected, people who ate the low-carb version of the diet went into ketosis. They also report least hunger. No surprise given