(from the atkins.com website)
The Fat Fast
Counterintuitive as it may sound, if you can’t budge the scale on Induction,
a few days on this regimen may well allow you to break through metabolic
resistance.
Certain individuals are so metabolically resistant that only more intense
dietary restrictions prove successful. Once medications, thyroid problems
and candida are brought under control, almost all overweight people who
diligently adhere to the Atkins Nutritional ApproachT will lose and keep off
weight. But for the small group of people for whom it does not work, more
extreme measures are necessary.
To help these metabolically resistant people, Dr. Atkins has modified what
he calls “the most effective weight-loss eating pattern ever described.”
British researchers Alan Kekwick and Gaston Pawan developed it, and
Frederick Benoit and his team confirmed its superiority in burning off fat,
compared to an absolute total fast. This extreme diet consists of 1,000
calories daily, comprised of 90 percent fat. No other weight-loss regimen
has matched its ability to burn off stored fat. Dr. Atkins modified the
Kekwick diet to make it as enjoyable as possible and dubbed it the “Fat
Fast.” He tried it on scores of patients and found it often worked for those
who were unable to lose weight in any other safe, drug-free way.
The Kekwick diet forces the body into lipolysis so it burns its stores of
fat. Lipolysis cannot take place if there is a significant source of
glucose. Since all carbohydrates and some protein convert to energy by way
of glucose, eliminating almost everything but fat from the diet forces even
the most resistant body into lipolysis. That explains the 90 percent
dietary-fat component. Lowering the caloric intake accelerates the need to
burn up body fat-thus the 1,000-calorie limit.
The Fat Fast is one controlled carb program where you do have to count
calories. You’ll eat 1,000 calories a day, with 75 percent to 90 percent
comprised of fat. Frequent feedings prevent hunger better than three meals a
day, so you consume five feedings, perhaps one every four hours, comprising
200 calories each. Because of the high fat content and frequent feedings,
very few people experience much hunger. The stumbling block for some people
is the absence of conventional meals. But most are willing to stick with it
for a few days, even if the food selections are unfulfilling.
Caution: The Fat Fast is actually dangerous for anyone who is not
metabolically resistant. For people who lose weight fairly easily, the rate
of weight loss is too rapid to be safe. But it carries very little risk for
people who can barely lose on any other regimen.
Step One: Eat Mostly Fat
Begin with five 200-calorie feedings per day and follow for four or five
days. Each item equals approximately 200 calories:
one ounce of macadamia nuts or macadamia nut butter
two ounces of cream cheese or Brie
one ounce of tuna or chicken salad with two teaspoons of mayonnaise served
in one-quarter of an avocado
two deviled eggs made with two teaspoons of mayonnaise
two ounces of sour cream and two tablespoons black or red caviar
two and a half ounces whipped heavy cream topped with sucralose zero-calorie
syrup
two ounces of pâté (check label for fat content)
two egg yolks (hard-boiled) with one tablespoon of mayonnaise
Step Two: Modify the Fat Fast
If increasing the fat-to-carbohydrate ratio and cutting calories work, any
dietary change in that direction might get the job done. Next, you can try
four meals a day of roughly 300 calories for a total of 1,200 calories. That
should work, too, and what it allows is definitely more appealing to the
taste buds:
two ounces of beef chuck (do not drain fat) cooked in two tablespoons of
olive oil
two scrambled eggs with two strips of nitrate-free bacon
two tablespoons of full-fat sour cream with a tablespoon of sugar-free syrup
one-quarter cup chicken or tuna salad made with two tablespoons of
mayonnaise
three ounces of pâté (check label for fat content)
one-and-a-half ounces of macadamia nuts
Step Three: Return to Induction
Try the 1,200-calorie regimen for a week, then go back to Induction. Or
simply follow the concept of increasing the ratio of fat to protein. No one
should have to feel that losing weight is hopeless. Sometimes the key to
achieving your goal weight permanently is quite difficult to adhere to, but
rarely is it simply impossible.
I’m 33 years old, going on 34 this summer! I have 4 kids, ages 7,