Atkins is a low-carbohydrate diet for weight loss that restricts or eliminates many nutritious foods. The USDA Food Guide Pyramid, or Mypyramid.gov, recommends eating a certain number of servings from different food groups based on your calorie intake. Atkins is easy to compare to the Food Guide Pyramid recommendations for an 1,800-calorie diet, since Atkins states that women should get at least 1,500 to 1,800 calories, and men should have at least 1,800 to 2,200 calories per day.
Protein
On Atkins, you eat 3 to 5 meals per day, and each includes 4 to 6 oz. of a low-carbohydrate or carbohydrate free, high-protein food, such as beef, pork, chicken, fish, shellfish or eggs. This means that your daily total for protein foods is between 12 and 30 oz. of protein foods, while the recommendation from the USDA Food Guide Pyramid for an 1,800-calorie diet is 5 oz. per day.
Fat
For fat, the Food Guide Pyramid breaks down recommendations into oils and solid fats. On a 1,800-calorie diet, the pyramid recommends about 24 g oils, or about 5 tsp., and no more than 161 calories, which is about 17 g, since fat provides 9 calories per gram, or 4 tsp., from solid fats, such as butter. On Atkins, you should include some fat at each meal, such as 1 tbsp., or 3 tsp., of butter or canola, soybean, walnut or olive oil. This makes at least 9 to 15 tsp. of fat each day. If you have the least possible amount of fat on Atkins and get no more than 4 tsp. of butter or fat from meat or chicken skin, you can meet USDA recommendations.
Fruit and Vegetables
The first phase of Atkins forbids fruit, so it does not follow the Food Guide Pyramid recommendations to get 1 1/2 cups per day of fruit on a 1,800-calorie diet. Later on in Atkins, you can have fruit that has a range of about 15 net carbs, or 1 1/2 cups of strawberries, to about 42 net carbs, or 1 1/2 cups of grapes. Atkins can meet recommendations to get 1 1/2 cups per day of green vegetables, since it recommends at least 12 to 15 g net carbs from high-fiber vegetables. The first phase of the Atkins diet does not meet recommendations for getting 5 cups of starchy vegetables and 1 cup of legumes each week, which averages out about to a cup per day of either of these. The first phase prohibits these foods. Later phases allow these foods, which have about 20 to 36 g net carbs per cup. Your highest amount of daily net carbs on Atkins is during maintenance, after you reach your goal weight, and the average daily net carb limit is 45 to 100 g. Your Atkins plan in the later phases may be able to meet recommendations for fruits or vegetables.
Other Recommendations
The Atkins diet follows the Food Guide Pyramid recommendations to limit added sugars because Atkins prohibits them. The Food Guide Pyramid suggests getting 6 oz. of grains, with 3 oz. from whole grains and 3 oz. from enriched, refined grains. Atkins does not meet these recommendations because it forbids refined grains. The first two phases of Atkins restrict whole grains. The Atkins diet does not meet recommendations to get three servings of low-fat or fat-free dairy products because it encourages high-fat dairy products. You can, however, have three or more servings of high-fat dairy on Atkins.
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