Atkins diet/kidneys

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john said:

I am sure I read in the updated version of Dr. Atkins Diet Revolution that
he stated it was safe to go on the diet with a Creatinine level up to 3.5.
I believe he also said that if your creatinine level was above 3.5 a special
high fat version of his diet could be used. Any thoughts on this? Thanks,
John

I read about creatinine and kidney function just the other day.
Elevated creatinine can be caused by dehydration, strenuous exercise,
high protein consumption or kidney damage.

It's not necessarily a marker of a problem.

Drink your water. Eat a higher % of fat if you're concerned.

Susan

john said:

I am sure I read in the updated version of Dr. Atkins Diet Revolution that
he stated it was safe to go on the diet with a Creatinine level up to 3.5.
I believe he also said that if your creatinine level was above 3.5 a special
high fat version of his diet could be used. Any thoughts on this?

On the one hand the original advice from Dr A was don't start if you
already have signs of kidney damage, so you're on your own. On
the other hand several people have posted on ASDLC that they
have seen improved kidney function or even repaired damage after
going on Atkins, so you're not as on your own as Dr A originally
wrote.

On a high fat version - If you read carefully enough with an open
mind and then work the numbers yourself, Atkins is high fat. The
chapter on Induction even warns against limiting fat consumption
as doing that will "derail your loss".

Let's try running my own numbers to see how it tends to work out:

My CCLL is 50 total (I fall out of ketosis at 55-60) and my CCLM
is 100 total (I see water retention gain and appetite increase near
110). My ideal weight is about 170-180 so my daily calorie target
is about 1800. Since extra protein grams are just extra calories
that get converted to carbs at around 50% efficiency 100 should be
enough for me.

1800 - ( 50 carb grams * 4 cal/carb-gram ) = 1600 calories after
carbs.

1600 - ( 100 protein grams * 4 cal/protein-gram ) = 1200 calories
after
carbs and protein = 1200 fat calories

1200 fat cal / 9 cal/fat-gram = 133.333...

It takes extra effort to keep my protein grams down to 100, but
100 grams of protein, 50 grams of carb and 133 grams of fat is
definitely high fat. And it is well within not just a "high fat
version
of Atkins" but well within just plain regular old Atkins.

In other words go high fat, there's no need to call it a high fat
version. It's what happens when anyone runs through their own
numbers and sees how they come out. Higher CCLL, more protein
grams, it'll still come out high fat.