How Does The Keto Diet Differ From The Atkins Diet?

The Keto Diet and the Atkins Diet are similar, but they are not the same and should not be confused with each other. Not only do they take a different approach to ketosis and the consumption of carbohydrates, but they approach protein intake differently as well.

People looking for a different way of approaching diets may have heard of various different novel methods, but it might be easy to confuse different diets that are similar in many ways without being the same. The Keto diet and Atkins diet are among the most similar.

Both set out with a focus on eating very low amounts of carbohydrates, while raising fat intake.

How Do the Keto And Atkins Diets Differ?

In a Keto diet, this is central to the aim of altering the body’s metabolism so that instead of focusing on burning carbs for energy, it burns fat instead, as under this diet carbs will be in short supply but fat abundant. This is the state known as ketosis.

However, this is where the two start to diverge:

• In a Keto diet, the aim will be to maintain a state of ketosis for an extended period of time as you burn off fat and lose weight
• By contrast, the Atkins diet progresses through four phases, with only the first (induction) having a very low carb level
• In later stages of the Atkins Diet, the carb intake is increased, with each step being linked to the attainment of a particular weight goal. This means the dieter will not stay in a state of ketosis.
•  However, even in Stage 4, the Atkins diet does still contain fewer carbs than average.
• The Atkins Diet also includes a higher protein intake, which means foods with both high protein and high carbs may be eaten occasionally.

What Is The Truth About Protein And The Keto Diet?

This may raise some important questions about how you might approach the issue of protein consumption, in particular, the role that high-protein snacks can play.

In a Keto diet, your total food intake should consist of 20-25 per cent protein. Everyone needs protein in their diet because it contains important amino acids and because low levels would lead to fatigue and damage to hair, nails and bones.

In addition, protein can aid weight loss as your body burns more calories in digesting it than it does for fat or carbs, while it helps you to feel full.

All of this means that consuming snacks that are high in protein is no bad thing.

Indeed, although moderate protein is important to remain healthy, if you do eat a lot of protein, this is not a bad thing that would undermine ketosis.

As Perfect Keto notes, there are a few myths in this area:

• The idea that extra protein could derail ketosis, when in fact only carbs can do that
• The idea that protein can trigger gluconeogenesis, raising blood sugar. In fact, this is a beneficial metabolic process of synthesising glucose from non-carb sources that can only happen in ketosis and is a necessary function, not something to fear.
• The idea that you can survive without protein, when in fact you can survive without a high-protein diet, but you do need some protein.

How Should Protein Consumption Differ Between The Keto And Atkins Diets?

What this means is that high-protein snacks are absolutely fine to consume. A particular benefit of having protein snacks that lack carbs is that this enables you to manage that key distinction between the Keto Diet and the later phases of the Atkins Diet.

In the latter case, foods containing a lot of carbs as well as protein would be permissible, such as quinoa, lentils, beans or chickpeas, would be permissible in moderation. However, these are not good for Keto because of their high carb content.

Protein snacks can complement foods that are high in carbs but low in protein, such as:

• Eggs
• Meats such as beef and turkey
• Fish such as cod, tuna and salmon

People will often debate what constitutes the best diet for you when conventional dieting methods consistently fail to provide the weight loss you hoped for.

In many cases, people might consider the Atkins diet because it starts off aiming at Ketosis without requiring that this be maintained in the long run. However, others may find that staying in ketosis for longer via the Keto diet is the only thing that will work.

Maintaining the Keto diet is not easy, but with high-protein snacks to help you to feel full and maintain your discipline as you keep your carb levels low, you will find it much easier to sustain the discipline this approach requires.