HI fellow Atkins followers! I'm so glad to have found this forum.
It has given me lots of help. I now have a question that I'm sure all of you can answer, but I'm still a newbie.
Well, I've been on induction for about 1 week now, and I feel great! I've lost about 5 pounds, but wish to lose more.
My question is:

I don't know how much fat I should be eating, or if it is safe to be eating so much fat. Some days I easily go over 100 grams of fat. I eat fatty sausage, fatty beef, dozens of eggs, tons of butter and olive oil, etc...
Is this good to eat lots of fats or should I not eat so much?
For example, when I cook my meats, and all the oils seep out, do I want to pour it out or should I be pouring some of it on my plate? Also, when I eat steak, I dip each bite in melted butter.

Some say eating lots of fat will make me lose more weight faster, some say eat only reasonable amounts. If reasonable amounts, what is reasonable?

So which is it?

Thanks in advance for your posts.

In my opinion and experience and from what I read I believe there is no need to worry about fat. Its not something you should worry about getting to much off, yet not something you should go out of the way to make sure you have enough like a vitamin. If you are eating atkins, you are eating fat, no way to avoid it.

Now some believe you should limit your Fat intake and do atkins (lean meats, trimming off excess and such) Its that old burnt in brain washing that won't go away. Fat = bad so limit it. LIke anything, too much of one thing is a bad thing, The body has uses for fat, but it can't live on it alone.

By the way, Foods highest in fat are actually usually high carb foods, its just not as noticable to the eye as a sausage.

Remember..

The good things fats do for you..

Reduce your hunger so you eat less (huge biggie and most important)
Help your joints and skin stay healthy
Add flavor to food

Old wives tales about fat

High fat diets increases your chance for heart disease (not without thier carb counterpart they don't, it has to be Fat + High Carb to achieve that. Otherwise Fat is beign.)

I don't worry about fat personally, but I let excess drain away for taste when cooking. I do not buy the leaner pieces of meat, actually I want some, for if I eat a fatty piece of meat I fill up quicker, stay full longer and eat allot less. Which is ideal for loosing weight.

As far as I know this is still true in every LC book I have read, The funny thing is, that it may appear to be eating a mountain load of fat because its so visable to the naked eye, unlike hidden fat. I bet you were eating a ton more when you were eating carbs, because Carb foods have high fat content too, and instead of making you want to eat less, you instead are inspired to eat more of them getting higher amounts due to quanity..

Fat can be a tool if used correctly, and not the dagger society has made it. As long as you are LC'ing you have taken the nasty point away.

I agree.......and well said, Just Dave!!!

Thank you very much JustDave.
I'm glad to know that I'm doing the right thing.

In my opinion you need to keep you fat % high, but also keep your calories in a range that creates an energy deficit.

i know how you feel. I sometimes feel guilty about my fat intake so i try to get gid of the excess fat/oil. It isn't necessary but to make u feel better, you might want to

I love eating the fat on steaks and pouring the meat juices on my plate. I cook my green beans and greens in some form of fat. I make sure that my gall bladder gets the exericise that it needs.
I also cook my food in olive oil. If I have no meat to cook my greens in, I will sautee them in butter then add a little water.
I don't do this because I need to add fats to my diet. I do this because I can.

Black57

Yeah, but what percentage of fat?

I am at a stall...haven't lost in a month!

Although I feel that Doctor Atkins has done a world of good for the low-carb community, I do wish he would've been more specific about how much fat a person should eat.

On the low-end, I would aim for at least 70% fat calories. As long as it's from "safe" saturated and unsaturated fats (animal fat, butter, olive oil, coconut oil, avocado, grapeseed oil, etc.) and not from "unsafe" fats like hydrogenated oils/lards, cottonseed, soybean, or corn oil, which are high in the pro-inflammatory omega-6 fats.

If you want your Atkins plan to be high-fat, a lot of us on the forum who go that route keep the fat calories between 70% to 90%. I believe Jimmy Moore has to go all the way up to 90% to stay in an optimal range of nutritional ketosis.

Read the entire article of part I. I would also read part II, but if you're going to read only one article, then part I definitely applies to you:
http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/...-low-carb-pt-i/
http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/...low-carb-pt-ii/

Jimmy Moore's Nutritional Ketosis
http://livinlavidalowcarb.com/blog/...-day-1-30/14409
http://livinlavidalowcarb.com/blog/...day-31-60/14669
http://livinlavidalowcarb.com/blog/...day-61-90/15125

All about ketogenic diets
http://josepharcita.blogspot.com/20...to-ketosis.html

About how fat can be converted to glucose via the liver
http://blog.cholesterol-and-health....from-fatty.html

I was in a stall for about six months, which is why I got on here -- to figure out what I was doing wrong. I'm still working on that, but I have started losing again the last couple months. One of the things I think I was doing wrong was lowering my fat intake.

I wasn't doing it on purpose, honest!

Doing LC led to reduced appetite and eating too little in general and too little fat in particular. All the food stores as oh so helpful in trimming all the fat from the meats they sell.

I've basically been intentionally making an effort to use more oils in cooking .. I have found that the 'better/costly' olive oils make an awesome salad dressing just by themselves, for one thing. Heated up some chicken breast with a nice glob of coconut oil, etc.

And I STILL never really get beyond 70% of my calories being from fat. But, anyway. My take is that I try to eat more fats, but I don't obsess about trying to hit 90% .. can't even get past 80% so far and don't need to since I'm losing again.

Bandit, 75% is about where I get without intentionally gulping down coconut oil or whatever. I completely understand and think I would have a hard time going up to 90% as well. I read Jimmy Moore's latest update with nutritional ketosis, and he said he's doing 85% fat and 12% protein right now. He said that he's doing so great on it that he'll extend his experiment from 90 days to 180.

But yeah, trying to get above 75% can be a challenge especially if you're a beginning low-carber.

I eat as little fat as I can to make my meals work. I lose like crazy.

Do you think high-fat is going to cause heart disease?

I recognize that some can lose on a low-fat/high-protein diet, and some can lose on a high-fat/moderate protein diet. I'm just curious to know where you stand on this issue.

Cardiologists put people on this diet to drop weight fast so they can be a healthier weight for surgery. So there's gotta be something to it.