This post may contain affiliate links. See affiliate disclosure here.
As low carb diets become more and more popular, people often wonder what the differences are with keto vs Atkins diet. The two diets seem similar because they both recommend cutting out the carbs and increasing the intake of high-quality fats.
Although they follow similar schools of thought with respect to what you are eating, the two diets have some major differences as well.
What Is the Keto Diet?
The keto diet is a diet that is low in carbs and high in quality fats. The purpose behind these food choices is to get your body into a state of ketosis.
When your body is in ketosis, it will get its energy by burning ketones from stored fats rather than using the glucose from high carb foods.
Because the goal is to get into ketosis, around 75 percent of your calories will come from fat, including meats, cheeses, high fat fruits such as avocado, and dairy products.
Approximately 15 percent of your calories will come from protein, and the carbs are limited to five or ten percent, and always under 30 grams.
This means that you will cut breads, starchy vegetables, pasta, rice, and many sweets out of your diet. The typical keto lunch consists of a small amount of protein, lots of fats, and minimal to no carbs- veggies as the best choice.
However, there are many foods that you can eat, including grass-fed meats, cheese, eggs, cream, avocado, some nuts and seeds, and much more. As long as it is low in carbs, it should work with the keto diet, according to Healthline.
What Is the Atkins Diet?
The Atkins diet was introduced back in 1972 by a cardiologist named Dr. Roger Atkins. This was a four-phase diet, where dieters would move from one phase to the next as they met their weight loss goals. The purpose of this diet is weight loss.
In the first or introductory phase, you reduce the carb intake to between 20 and 25 grams. This is even stricter than the keto diet. The carbs come from nuts, seeds, cheese, and vegetables.
This phase by its nature helps the body get into ketosis, but you only stay in this phase until you are 15 pounds from your target weight.
In phase two, the carb intake increases to between 25 and 50 grams per day, and certain foods, including yogurt, cottage cheese, and blueberries. This phase lasts until you are within 10 pounds of your target weight.
Phase three further increases the carb intake up to between 50 and 80 grams per day. The goal is to determine individually how many carbs you can take in before you gain weight.
During this phase, you will experiment with various foods to learn what works for your specific body. The goal is to figure it out and maintain your weight for a month.
Finally, lifetime maintenance is phase four, where you continue to learn what you can eat without gaining the weight back again.
The carb intake increases to 100 grams per day, but each person will have specific carbohydrate foods that they can and cannot eat. It depends on what you learned during phase three.
The goal of the Atkins diet is to determine what works for your body so that you can maintain your ideal weight. For more information on the Atkins diet, visit Atkins.com
Diet Similarities
Both the keto diet and the Atkins diet are low-carb, which makes them alike in certain ways. The introductory phase of the Atkins diet and the keto diet both restrict the carbohydrate intake to 25 or 30 grams per day.
This will cause most people to enter ketosis and burn stored fats for energy rather than glucose.
In addition, they both can lead to weight loss. Carbs can be a source of weight gain, especially carbs from processed foods, sugary sweets, starches, and soda.
When you go on either of these diets and eliminate those food sources, there is a good chance that you will lose weight.
Finally, they are similar because both diets focus on cutting high-calorie foods that are packed with carbs out of your diet, which will make it that much easier to reduce your caloric intake and lose weight.
DIET Differences
Although they appear to start out on the same path, these two diet plans have differences as well.
First of all, they have different goals. The keto diet is a lifestyle change designed to transition your body from getting its energy from glucose to getting it from stored fats. Although weight loss may be a by-product of this diet, the goal is ketosis.
The Atkins diet reduces carbs to lose weight.
They start out the same, but when you are on the keto diet, you never increase your carbohydrate intake. It is more of a permanent lifestyle change.
On the Atkins diet, you go through the four phases and slowly add carbs back into your diet, with the goal being to find out which foods you can consume and still maintain your target weight.
As you add the carbs back in, reaching up to 100 grams per day in phase four, your body will no longer be in ketosis.
In the beginning, you need to cut out many foods for both diets. However, with keto, you need to focus on finding good substitutions for foods such as potatoes, breads, pasta, and rice. When you do the Atkins diet, you can eventually phase some of those foods back into your diet.
In the later phases, you will be able to have more variety and eat some fruits, grains, and vegetables that are off limits on keto.
Finally, because the goal of each diet is different, you need to monitor your ketone levels with the keto diet. You are trying to achieve a state of ketosis, and you may add in supplements or use tools such as intermittent fasting to remain in ketosis.
With the Atkins diet, you don’t need to monitor ketosis because ketosis isn’t the goal.
Your body will go into ketosis in phase one because when you reduce your carb intake to 25 grams per day, the body has no choice, but your primary goal is losing the weight you want to lose and keeping it off.