The Atkins Diet
The short name for the ‘Atkins Nutritional Approach’ is the ‘Atkins Diet’, which was the brainchild of Doctor Robert Atkins. Dr. Atkins had put on a lot of surplus weight while he was studying in medical school and after coming across a new diet in the medical journal, he decided to refine it and publish it as his own.
Atkins, in his Atkins Diet, stated that he believed that the prevalent theories about weight gain were all wrong. First, he dismissed the idea that saturated fats were bad; instead he said it was it was carbohydrates that led to the weight problems Americans have. Atkins declared that our obsession with fat actually worsened the problem. He pointed to all the low-fat foods that were high in carbohydrates, which meant that people on a diet often ate foods that were worse for them than what they normally ate.
The Atkins diet shifts the focus. Atkins said that by cutting out carbohydrates, people would burn stored body fats. And, of course, if you lose the fat, you lose the weight. He said it was not just a question of eating less. Atkins postulated that your diet could actually help you burn calories and The Atkins Diet supposedly burned more calories than were consumed everyday. But the claims were disputed.
Dr. Atkins also promulgated the positive influence that his diet should have on people with Type 2 diabetes. Type 1 diabetes is a disease you usually get early in life, but Type 2 is more often closely associated with diet and excess body weight. Therefore, it should follow that any diet that helps decrease weight, will help people with Type 2 diabetes. The Atkins diet is low in carbohydrates, which ought to be avoided by those with Type 2 diabetes regardless of the caloric intake, which the Atkins diet does, so Atkins claimed that those who suffer Type 2 diabetes would no longer need medication such as insulin. Doctors do not agree with Atkins on this point, although they do agree, that a lower carbohydrate intake helps control Type 2 diabetes, but there is no proof that carbohydrates cause diabetes.
What are the procedures one has to follow to do the Atkins diet? It goes in four phases – Induction; On-Going Weight loss; Pre-maintenance; and Lifetime Maintenance. Here follows a brief precis of the most important phase – The Induction Phase.
The Induction phase is the most difficult phase of the Atkins diet. Atkins is flexible about the time period ” but recommends it lasts for two weeks. During this phase carbohydrates are severely limited ” you can only consume up to 20 grams per day. The goal is to enter a fat burning metabolic phase called ketosis when the body, starved of glucose, will begin converting stored fat into fatty acids needed to power the body. Weight loss during this phase can be extreme ” some Atkins followers reported losses of 5-10 pounds a week or more.
The goals of the three final phases in the Atkins diet are the learning of the ideal carbohydrate levels for the next two phases: continued weight loss and weight maintenance. Millions of people are still losing the weight they want to on this diet ” but beware the dangers of taking in too much cholesterol.
Do you want to lose those excess pounds quickly? Well, take a free look at The Atkins Diet, by visiting our website called The Atkins Diet Plan
Related posts:
- What is the Atkins Grapefruit Diet? The Atkins Grapefruit diet is a diet plan, not endorsed...
- Atkins Diet: Low Carb Diet Menu With the coming of the New Age, the days are...
- Atkins Diet: Low Carb Diet Menu With the coming of the New Age, gone are the...
- Free Atkins Diet Plan. What is the Atkins diet and what will you have...
- Wanting to Eat Less on the Atkins Diet A very common, but nevertheless astonishing results of 'doing' the...

Leave a Reply