When I realized that the body could satisfy its hunger by burning its own fat as fuel, I thought I saw an escape hatch. After the first forty-eight hours, the body suppresses hunger and appetite diminishes. Another benefit of lipolysis-and the resulting state of ketosis if your carbohydrate level is low enough-is that it has certain metabolic similarities to fasting.
But there is a significant difference from fasting. A prolonged fast can be dangerous and has one severe metabolic disadvantage: The body burns not only fat for energy, it also burns protein. This means that it burns off some of the body ' s lean muscle tissue, which is clearly not desirable. Investigation has shown that on an eating plan where you are in lipolysis, and the carbohydrate intake is low enough to result in ketosis, virtually no lean tissue is lost, only fatty tissue. And that ' s why, for extremely overweight individuals, it is possible to be in lipolysis, and at the carbohydrate level that creates ketosis, for six months to a year, and confidently know that they will suffer no ill effects of any kind. These enlightened( and soon to be lightened) people are able to consume their own fat for energy and feel good while they ' re doing it.
The Message of Smooth and Happy Weight Loss
The beauty of lipolysis is that it bypasses the agony of low-calorie dieting. People who ' ve been burdened with excess pounds for a long time or who ' ve tried weight loss programs often find it very nearly impossible to drop many pounds unless they ' re in lipolysis. I ' ve treated people who, even on 700 or 800 balanced calories a day, couldn ' t lose weight. That ' s less than half the normal caloric intake of an average woman. And yet these pounds finally peeled off when these folks began to do Atkins, even though their meal plans comprised of foods totaling even more calories.
When I make this claim, that you can lose more weight on a higher number of calories, I seem to be breaking the law-one of the hallowed laws: A calorie is a calorie is a calorie, and anyone who claims otherwise is a heretic. If you ' ve counted calories for so long that you could do it in your sleep, you ' ll be overjoyed to know that lipolysis allows you to take in more calories and still lose more weight as compared with low-fat, calorie-restricted diets." You ' ll see exactly what I mean in the next chapter.
KEY POINTS!
• Lipolysis is the biochemical process of dissolving fat.
• When you dissolve fat, it breaks down into glycerol and other fatty acids, which in turn break down into byproducts called ketones. When this happens you are enjoying a state called ketosis.
• Atkins initiates ketosis by restricting carbohydrate intake to 20 grams per day, a level that is then gradually increased as you move on through the phases of Atkins.
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