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Atkins & Digestable Carbs

The term “digestible carbs” may seem a little confusing. After all, any type of carbohydrate you eat is digested. But on the Atkins diet, digestible refers to the types of carbohydrates, like starches and sugars, that provide calories. By doing a simple calculation, you can figure out the exact amount of digestible carbohydrates, also known as “net carbs,” that your food has to offer.

  1. Understanding the Difference

    • Fiber is a type of carbohydrate that would be considered “non-digestible.” While it does indeed go through your digestive tract, it doesn’t offer calories the way other carbohydrates do. Some types of fiber break down a bit, while other types stay in the same form they’re in when you swallow them. But as these fiber compounds travel through your gut, they never convert into glucose, which is the end result of sugars and starches and is the main source of energy in your body. Fiber is just needed for moving food and waste through your gut, not for providing energy from calories.

    Doing the Math

    • When you’re looking at a nutrition facts label, you’ll see the total grams of carbohydrates listed for you. This is the amount of all carbohydrates -- sugar, starch and fiber -- in each serving of the food. If you look below the bolded total carbohydrates number, you’ll see grams of sugar and then the grams of fiber. To calculate digestible or net carbs, simply subtract the grams of fiber from the total carbohydrates. As an example, if the label on a package of wheat bread states that one slice has 14 grams of total carbohydrates and 2 grams of fiber, you’ll get 12 grams of digestible carbohydrates per slice.

    Amount You Can Have

    • During the initial phase of Atkins, you can’t have more than 20 grams of digestible carbohydrates each day for at least a couple weeks. But you should get a minimum of 12 grams during this phase. As you move on to the second phase, you can start to gradually increase your digestible carb intake by about 5 grams a week, as long as you are steadily losing weight. In the third phase, you can continue to up your digestible carb intake by 5 grams weekly, although if you hit a plateau, cut back 10 grams daily, until you start dropping pounds again. The final phase of Atkins doesn’t have an established digestible carbohydrate recommendation. You can continue adding carbohydrate-containing foods to your diet, as long as you are comfortable with your weight-loss progress.

    Comparing to a Regular Diet

    • Normally if you’re not on a low-carbohydrate diet, as much as 45 to 65 percent of your carbohydrate intake should come from digestible carbohydrates -- starches and sugars. Fiber has its own recommendation of a straight 14 grams for every 1,000 calories, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2010 points out. So if you stick to a 1,600-calorie daily diet, you can have 720 to 1,040 calories from carbs, or 180 to 260 grams, in addition to 22.5 grams of fiber. When you’re following the Atkins diet though, you’re typically getting around 10 percent of your calories from digestible carbs, or even less in some cases. Plus, Atkins doesn’t have a set fiber requirement, so you may not be getting all the fiber you need.

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