The Atkins Diet: What It Is

With so many diets on the market today, sometimes it is difficult to know which one to choose. But, truly, diet is the key word that should convince you that the Atkins Diet is a plan that will result in weight loss and maintenance for life.

The problem with many diets and the reason why so many of them fail is that they fail to address the problem of what to do once the ideal weight has been achieved. This is not so with Atkins.

In this plan, the dieter is not only given the keys and advice that they need to lose weight, they’re also given the tools they need to keep that weight off. The Atkins Diet not only looks at this as a journey to a desired weight, it sees the need for the dieter to entirely change the way that they look at food and eating.

The Atkins Diet incorporates an education about foods and their effects on the body. In learning these effects, the choices for food consumption will be drastically different when the plan reaches the stage of ideal weight than it was at the beginning. In this way, the dieter has a much better chance of keeping the weight off.

In the beginning, there is a time period of dramatic limitations on food choices. That’s not to say that there are none, but the choices are limited. For some of that time period, you may be hungry some of the time, and the diet will not allow you to satisfy that hunger. That alone will tend to turn people from the diet.

But, the weeks following this are filled with gradually putting back some of the foods that were cut in the beginning. These foods will be put back gradually and in smaller amounts, but they won’t be denied forever.

Another part of this diet that may be considered a problem is that it requires a large amount of self-control.

Unlike programs like Weight Watchers, there are no meetings, there is no community of people that you can turn to for support. You are ultimately in control of how closely you follow this diet, which can be trying at times. When you are hungry, but are only allowed to eat certain foods, it may be difficult to resist temptation.

Self-control for some may also be a positive. If there are no groups and no meetings, there are no weigh-ins that can be embarrassing for some. Also, with the Atkins Diet, you are ultimately in control of what you eat. There are no meals created for you. You are not restricted to frozen pre-packaged foods that come along with the diet. You are free to eat whatever you like as long as it follows the correct carbohydrate count.

The biggest benefit to it is that it will provide the dieter with a new outlook on food. The successful dieter with this plan will achieve their ideal weight and be educated as to how to keep the new healthy lifestyle they’ve attained.

Back in the 1970’s Dr. Robert Atkins introduced a new diet plan, “the Low Card Diet”. It has been a very popular diet because it is a good diet to loose weight quickly. When you first get on the diet you get great result right away. It is important to understand that for you to be successful that you need to follow the diet exactly as it states because it takes some time to get used to the way you eat. When Dr. Atkins first came out with the diet it was revolutionary to think that you could have a diet that was so high in fat and promoted high consumptions of meat and cheese.

Learn how to find the: Best Diet Plan

In the first two weeks of the diet you are allowed to only intake a maximum of 20 grams of carbs. When you have maintained this low card intake for the two week period then you can increase your cards by 5 grams a week. The goal carb intake is between 40 to 90 grams but his amount will depend on factors such as your age, size, sex and so on. You will get to the point were you will find that target goal and you should stay at that goal for long term weight loss.

Find Great Advice About: Loosing Weight

To have success with weight loss on the Atkins Diet plan you need to stick to your card count that you have set as a goal because this will be your main reason for success. Today more than ever the obesity rates have gone up and it is crucial that we get on a diet plan that will make us healthier and feel better. Medically when you loose just 10-20% of your weight your chance of a heart related problem drop dramatically. Just remember that the longer you stay on the plan the easier it gets because like with all diet plans there is a period of time that your body need to get adjusted to the diet you are on.

The Atkins Diet has been in existence for over 30 years and has enjoyed a surge in popularity over the last few years.

Pioneered by Dr. Robert Atkins, the theory behind the Atkins Diet is simple. Your body prefers to utilize carbohydrates (such as in grains, cereals, breads, etc.) for energy and will burn them first prior to body fat. By cutting down dramatically on carbohydrates in your diet, you force your body to burn fat for energy.

Reducing the carbohydrates in your diet puts your body into a state called “ketosis.” This word is derived from the “ketones” that are used by your body for energy when sugars/carbs aren’t available. When you are in this state of ketosis, your body is producing ketones from your fat that is being burned for energy. Ketones are essentially the leftovers from this process and are used in place of sugar in the body.

One of the major misconceptions about the Atkins Diet that has been widely reported is that you can or should eat extremely unhealthy, fatty foods all the time. This is not actually true. Dr. Atkins recommends that you limit your intake of these types of foods (e.g. butter, sausage, bacon, etc.) and instead focus on healthy fats such as olive oil, fish oil, nuts, etc.

The Atkins Diet has many positives and negatives that have been associated with it. Some of the positives include:

- Rapid Weight Loss - though the first couple of days the majority of weight lost is water, your body does become more efficient at fat burning and you do lose fat.

- Reduced Mood or Energy Swings - eating carbohydrates (especially sugary ones) can lead to mood and energy swings. This is often seen as the post-lunchtime or afternoon energy crash. When you eliminate the carbs, you eliminate the source of this problem.

- Reduced Consumption of Refined Foods - highly refined foods are the source of many health problems. The more processed a food is, the less nutrients are generally in it. The Atkins Diet encourages a focus on the consumption of more natural state foods such as vegetables, lean meats, fish, eggs and healthy oils.

Some of the negatives that have been associated with the Atkins Diet include:

- Rapid Regaining of Lost Weight - this can happen when a person comes off the Atkins Diet. They regain all the weight they lost. One of the major reasons for this is that when you eliminate the carbs from your diet for a long period of time, your body becomes more sensitive to them. When you go back to your regular eating habits (which may not have been great to begin with), your body reacts more strongly to the sugar and carbs in foods, leading to weight gain. This weight gain can be reduced by easing off the Atkins Diet gradually rather than by feasting on carbohydrates.

- Lack of Food Choices - it can be difficult to find things to eat that are low carb. Most grocery stores are primarily stocked with carbohydrate-laden foods and it can get boring eating the same things over and over again. Luckily, with the popularity of the Atkins diet and other low carb diets, there are many delicious recipes available to help alleviate this boredom.

The Atkins Diet may not be for you but by incorporating some of the principles in it, such as lowering your carbohydrate intake and eating more natural-state foods, you may find that you can achieve great results without ever having to restrict yourself. It may take a little longer but the results will be more permanent as it is more of a lifestyle change than a diet.

Dr. Robert Atkins originally created the Atkins diet in the 1970’s. The popularity of this low-carb diet reached its zenith about ten years ago, but it is believed that today as many as twenty-five million Americans may be on low-carb diets at any given time.

How Does a Low-Carb Diet Work?

The Atkins diet is based on Dr. Atkins’ theory that the over-consumption of carbohydrates is the root of most people’s problems with weight gain. The body is fueled by sugar, whether it is the natural sugar found in foods or the processed sugar added to many foods. When your body runs out of sugar to use as fuel, it uses carbohydrates instead. Carbohydrates are long chains of sugars, which the body breaks down into sugar. Atkins believes that when people limit the carbohydrates available, they force the body to use its fat reserves as fuel.

Atkins believes that our body adjusts to having too many carbohydrates in an unhealthy way by affecting our insulin responses, essentially a precursor of diabetes. On the low-carb-high-protein diet the body’s insulin response regulates itself, and the result is a smaller appetite and easier weight loss. An active lifestyle is also a key component of the Atkins diet, since no calories of any kind can be burned without exercise.

The Atkins Diet in Stages

The Atkins diet progresses in stages. The basic stages are induction, ongoing weight loss, pre-maintenance, and maintenance.

The induction lasts for 14 days and involves rapid weight loss by limiting carb intake to only 20 grams a day, as compared to the 300 grams of carbs in the average daily diet. During this period, a person only consumes carbs through green vegetables and salad leaves. Fruit, other vegetables, yogurts, potatoes, rice, bread, alcohol and pasta are all forbidden.

During the ongoing weight loss stage, the carb intake is increased to 25 grams a day. After, the weight loss will eventually stabilize and the carb intake will need to be adjusted again. However, the Atkins diet does not eliminate meal variety. You can still indulge in lean meats, poultry, nut butters, salad greens and other such foods.

In the pre-maintenance stage, the weight loss is less obvious and certain foods are tested back into the diet to see if they can be safely added without causing weight gain. If you gain weight, however, you must go back a phase or two until you are stable again. This is because every person’s body reacts differently to different foods. Some people may do fine on Atkins with diet drinks, for example, while others bloat with the artificial sweeteners. Keeping a journal to record what you ate the week you lost the most weight can help monitor the foods that react well with your body.

The basics of the last stage of the Atkins diet, the maintenance stage, are simple. The goal weight is reached and one food is re-introduced into the diet at a time so that you can safely judge what foods will cause weight gain and need to be removed again. The Atkins diet primarily allows the consumption of plenty of meat, poultry, fish, and eggs, and gradually allows the consumption of additional vegetables and fruit as well.

The Safety of the Atkins Diet

Some researchers believe that there are health risks that can result from following the Atkins diet. For example, certain experts say that the high protein diet leads to high cholesterol. Others advise that 150 grams of carbs daily are necessary for proper body and brain function. Weight loss experts feel that the Atkins diet is not for people with a risk of heart disease, and that the restriction of fruits and vegetables is counter-productive to good nutrition. They stress that all reduction of calories, coupled with exercise, results in the burning of fat.

There is very little doubt in the minds of most that adhering to the Atkins diet will help you to successfully lose weight. There are so many motivational stories today about people who have reached their weight loss goals by following the high-protein-low-carb diet that Dr. Atkins created and recommends. Those who have lost weight fast on the Atkins diet are pleased with the results and support the diet program. Your doctor can help you determine whether this diet program is indeed the best choice for your weight loss goals.

Only in recent years, has low-carbohydrate, high-protein diet grown in popularity as every day more people becomes aware of the dangers of obesity.

As numerous individuals have a trouble persisting with a low fat, low energy diet, they began to search for other ways to lose fat and they managed to find a great one in a Dr.Atkins diet.

Recently a great number of individuals have began to use diet invented by Dr.Atkins, and the final results that most of them achieved have as a result a large publicity.

Atkins diet essentials

The diet of Dr.Atkins is build on a hypothesis of why we grow extra fat. In theory by Dr. Atkins, ingesting large amount of simple sugars and carbohydrates can cause gaining weight. The way in which our body system treat the simple carbohydrates that are included in our average diet is much more significant then the calories consumed.

In an Atkins diet book, there are many references to occurrence called the insulin resistance. The theory is that a lot of people with weight problem have a trouble with their cells and that these cells refuse to work as satisfactorily as they should.

When we consume too much carbohydrates, our body observes that amounts of sugar are very high. Insulin is produced by the pancreas gland as a system to accumulate sugar in a nature of glycogen. That same sugar is then being stored in our liver and muscles for spare energy afterward in cases when we need it.

The difficulty is that there is a limit to the amount of glycogen our bodies can store at once. The same moment that we reach this threshold our bodies begin to store it as fat, for later use.

Nevertheless insulin resistant group of people have a even tougher time storing carbohydrates. As our body is exposed to large amounts of insulin, it gradually becomes immune to it. Our body cells are actually shielding them selves from high amounts of insulin doing this. That is the reason why, they produce more fat and smaller amount of glycogen.

As a result insulin resistant people start gain extra fat. This happens because the carbohydrates are transformed in fat instead of energy. Usual side effects are low blood sugar, high blood sugar, bloating, depression, lack of focus, fatigue, bad memory and sleepiness.

In fact insulin resistance can cause you a great deal more health predicament then simply being over weight.

The best treatment for insulin resistant people is a low carbohydrate diet. And that is the key aspect of Atkins diet, limited carbohydrates intake. Some of the foods that are restricted are: any foods with high percentage of sugar and some carbohydrates that are usually the mainstay of food pyramid like grains, rice and bread.

Occasionally even healthy carbohydrates such as whole grain bread and rice can be completely left out.

What Dr.Atkins diet do is that it limits your daily carb consumption to no more then 40 grams per day. The end product that this has on your body is that it places it in a ketosis state.

What is ketosis? Essentially it is a condition in which your body uses fat for fuel. An additional substantial ketosis end result is that it has a strong influence on an production of insulin, which stops extra stockpiling of fat.

Together this will drive your body to commence with burning fat as a very useful fuel supply and this will result in a weight loss.

Because of ketosis, you will furthermore undergo a good deal less sweets cravings. This can happen to anyone of us, you begin eating candy bar and there is no way to stop. As you eat more and more carbohydrates the more you will need them.

Many individuals who have tried Dr.Atkins diet have conveyed to a great extent lower want for carbohydrate consumption then previous to the diet. However you must know that the primary phase of Atkins diet is pretty restricted, and highly problematical for many people to stick with. For that reason many of them quit or do not achieve satisfactory results. You have to look at it from the correct perspective, Atkins program is going to explain to you how to return the balance in your diet for years to come.

If you see it in this way you will surely succeed and will experience a large drop of body fat. Ultimately as you advance you will again start to reintroduce carbohydrates to your everyday diet, the difference is you are now going to have the knowledge not to use them too much.

The founding principles that are the basis of Atkins diet have ever since been used on a lot of new low carbohydrate diets, however the Dr.Atkins diet was pioneer and it remains to be one of the most popular diets.

If you are experiencing a stall or plateau in your Atkins weight loss efforts, you are not alone. This occurs from time to time. However, you first must make sure that you have actually reached a plateau point.

A plateau means that you have gone an extended period of time without losing weight or inches. It’s important to take your measurements before you start your weight loss plan, in addition to your weight. On some weeks it may not seem like you are losing any at all on the scale. But a quick look at your measurements will prove otherwise.

On the Atkins diet you are replacing fat with muscle, which is denser and heavier. You might actually gain a little weight because you are building muscle to replace your fat. The result will be an increase on the scale, but a decrease in your inches. Your body will be smaller and leaner, but you may weigh the same.

Before you start your program, measure your chest, waist, hips, upper arms, thighs and calves. You never know where you may be losing inches, so it’s important to have these comprehensive measurements to refer to. It is normal to go through periods where you body is readjusting. Remember that you are reforming the composition of your body and this process will take some time. Check your measurements once a week, just like your weight, and you can track your overall progress.

There may be periods of 3 to 4 weeks where you have a stall in weight loss, but a loss in inches. Or vice versa. Using both methods to track your fat loss is the best assurance for an accurate measure of your progress. These stall periods are not a reason to quit or to give up. They are natural parts of the weight loss process.

Stalls may occur more frequently if you are 5 to 10 pounds away from being at your goal weight. By following a low-carb, high-protein way of eating you have created a lot more muscle in your body. Your muscle-to-fat ratio is higher than ever before, so your body might be resisting losing anymore fat. It may be time to rethink your goal weight. Perhaps your body is trying to tell you something and its time to start maintaining your weight loss rather than trying to lose more.

There are some other possible causes of stalls and plateaus on the road to weight loss. If you’ve gone four weeks with no change in weight or measurements and you are nowhere near your goal weight, you can try a few different methods to get yourself out of the rut. First, make sure your carbohydrate level is in check. If you are eating too many carbohydrate grams per day, your weight loss will stall. Look for hidden carbohydrates in packaged foods, dressings and sauces to make sure they aren’t the culprits in your plateau.

Check your daily water intake. When you are dehydrated, your body will retain water and that can mimic a plateau. Water will also help flush ketones from your system and make more room for new fat burning ketones.

Undereating can also be a cause for weight loss plateaus. Make sure not to let yourself go hungry and eat smaller, more frequent meals. Remember, you are on a carbohydrate-restricted diet, not a calorie-restricted diet. Make sure to have some protein with every meal and snack. Never go more than 5 hours without eating something (except overnight of course). Also, eat freely from the acceptable foods. Don’t try to count calories or restrict your calorie intake. When your body gets too few calories, it goes into starvation mode and will hold onto fat cells.

Increasing your exercise level can help get you through a plateau as well. As your muscles get used to working out at a certain level, you’ll have to increase the duration or the intensity in order to keep challenging your body. Add a new exercise into the mix, or try increasing weight in resistance training.

Trying one of these methods will most likely get your weight loss back on track. Remember that occasional stalls are normal, but they do not have to last.

The Atkins diet is probably one of the most famous diets in the Western world. I bet that you must have heard about it before. According to a survey in the United Kingdom, more than three million people in the country have been trying the dieting plan in 2003!

First of all, let’s understand the basic concept behind this dieting plan. The essence of the diet is that people can lose weight by cutting down the consumption of carbohydrate and at the same time consume high fat food. This may also explain why this dieting plan is so popular. The plan allows people to have eggs and steaks. Most people will certainly go for that when they hear that they can lose weight while having steaks and eggs is allowed.

It is assumed that the fat stored in your body will be burnt or used while you cut your carbohydrates. You will not eat things such as bread or pasta. Junk food and soft drinks are not allowed either. Yet, you can eat meat, fish and chicken when you are on Atkins diets. You have to take this food for two weeks as the first phase of the dieting plan.

In the second phase, you can increase the consumption of carbohydrates by five grams each day. You will start from an intake of 20 grams per day. You have to increase the intake of carbohydrates till you cannot lose 3 pounds a week. And this is the amount of carbohydrates you will take and you should not increase the intake.

Then it comes the third stage. In this stage, the idea is to slow down the process of weight reduction. As a result, you will try to increase the consumption of carbs again by 10 grams per day. And the goal is that you will eventually consume something like 90 grams of carbohydrates per day. You will need to keep this for the rest of your life! Yet the fact is that an average person will take 200 to 250 grams of carbs a day. Taking only 90 to 100 grams a day for the rest of the life should not be an easy task.

You may wonder if there are any side effects of this dieting plan. As a matter of fact some people can lose weight with this plan. However, since carbohydrates are cut in the first stage. People who are on this diet may feel dizzy and weak. Since fruits and vegetables are generally not allowed in the first stage, you may have problems of constipation when you are on this diet.

While there are many diet plans going around these days that will help you lose weight and cut calories, one in particular has good benefits for those who suffer from diabetes, or are borderline diabetics. This diet plan is called the Atkins Diet and it is one of the most popular low carb diets around, and people who have used it have been very successful in meeting their weight loss goals. For diabetics, limiting carbohydrates is one of the most important aspects. The Atkins Diet helps do just that.

Dieting isn’t easy for anyone, and sometimes traditional dieting approaches, such as counting calories just isn’t enough. Of course, every diet should be accompanied by plenty of exercise to make the weight come off faster and stay off. The Atkins Diet teaches dieters how to eat more protein and fat, and limit starches, carbohydrates, and sugars. The Atkins Diet is also a great way to get off that glucose roller coaster, and keep blood sugar levels more constant without the crazy fluctuations.

The Atkins Diet works by strictly limiting carbohydrate intake and increasing protein and fats in the diet. By taking this approach, the body does not have the carbohydrates to burn first, so it burns fat instead. It may seem crazy to some to eat butter and other fats on a diet, but it is really the carbohydrates that keep people from reaching their weight loss goals. The Atkins Diet isn’t just a fad diet scam. It has been around since the early 1970s and even though it is controversial, Atkins Diet books have been and remain to be phenomenal best sellers. In addition to the multitude of weight loss success stories, the Atkins Diet is great for disease prevention, weight loss maintenance, and good health.

Dieters have a number of food options available to them and the amount of food eaten is not restricted, only the types of foods. No refined sugars are allowed, or white potatoes, white rice, or white flour. Meats, cheeses, fats, and proteins are all acceptable food options on the Atkins Diet.

The first two weeks on the Atkins Diet are the most restricted, in which only twenty grams of carbohydrates are allowed (carbs less grams of fiber). Fruits are not allowed and only a few leafy green vegetables. During this period, the change in biochemical activity is supposed to jump start the weight loss mechanism. Many people see significant results during this time frame, which gives them the added encouragement dieters need to continue with the diet and meet their weight loss goals.

Even though many people have had great results with the Atkins Diet, it isn’t for everyone. If you have diabetes, make sure you consult your doctor before the Atkins Diet. Discuss any issues with them and get your questions answered. The Atkins Diet may be what you’re looking for to help you lose the weight and cut the carbohydrates.

What is the Atkins Diet? Basically, it’s a low-carb, high-protein diet. What is so different about this diet compared to others is that your food intake is restricted to those food groups, and only those food groups, which the Atkins Diet allows.

While you can enjoy as much protein as possible, including: meat, chicken, eggs, cheese, butter, and all of the side dishes which are loaded with fat content, but you cannot have any carbohydrates such as bread, fruit, rice, sugar, milk, pasta, or potatoes.

There are four phases in the Atkins Diet plan. The first is called the Induction phase, which is a two-week intense diet allowing you less than 20 grams of carbs a day which boils down to vegetables only. The second phase, known as On-Going Weight Loss, allows you 25 grams of carbs a day. The third phase known as premaintenance is the point at which you begin to level off. The final phase is called Lifetime Maintenance, and this is the point at which you have met your weigh- loss goal.

Each phase of the Atkins Diet specifically tells you what you can eat and how much.

For example, the induction phase includes information such as acceptable foods, what the two-week induction meal plan is, the rules of induction, what induction can do for you, between-meal nibbling, the Atkins low-glycemic approach, and Atkins products for induction.

The Atkins Diet has been the subject of intense scrutiny over the years as it relates to its advantages and disadvantages. No matter what side you happen to agree with, the advantages to this diet are many, including: a large amount of weight loss, the ability to eat when you want, keeps the sugar level within a specified range, burns fat, and health is greatly improved.

Before beginning any diet, whether it is the Atkins Diet or diets in which food modifications may be limited to a specific type, it is appropriate to talk to your doctor to determine if this particular diet is right for you.

Here is another item which you may find interesting. According to the latest issue of Reader’s Digest, A recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association claimed that people who went on the Atkins diet lost more weight after 12 months than those on three other popular diets. However, the researchers analysis showed there was no statistically significant difference in weight loss on the Atkins after a year. This is not surprising since most people didn’t follow any of the diets very well.

This is a very revealing statement which signifies that no matter what diet plan you choose, unless you follow it to the letter, there will be no significant results.

Are low carb diets safe? How safe is Atkins diet? Are low carb and Atkins diets dangerous to your health? These are burning questions for dieters all over the world.

I have personally tried low carb diets and Atkins diet and these diets made me lose weight very quickly. However not only did I lose body fat weight, I also lost muscle weight. I had very obvious muscle and fat loss because I can visually see my reduced muscle mass in the mirror.

This certainly isn’t healthy. Furthermore, the more muscle mass that you lose, the less toned your body shape is. The end result is that you will end up thin and yet looked flabby with lose skin.

The frustrating part will be that after you are off the low carb or Atkins diet, you will very probably gain back all the weight that you have loss and even more. This is because your muscles are active and they continuously burn calories. Since you have less fewer muscle mass now, your body’s metabolism or capacity to burn calories slows down tremendously.

In other words, when you put on weight again, you are putting on body fat instead of muscles if you do not exercise. You will be fatter and less healthy than before you went on the low carb or Atkins diet. To compound matters, because of lesser muscle tissues resulting in lower metabolism and thus lesser calories being burnt, you are going to get fatter.

Since then I have stayed off both low carb and Atkins diet. Both types of diets are almost similar as they require you to cut down drastically on your consumption of carbohydrates. Atkins diet went a step further by advocating almost no carbohydrate consumption for 2 weeks before adding some carbs to your meals gradually thereafter.

Besides losing muscles, how safe are low carb diets? This is what Dr Lyn Steffen and Dr Jennifer Nettleton from the University of Minnesota’s School of Public Health commentated in a Lancet report, “Low carbohydrate diets for weight management are far from healthy, given their association with ketosis, constipation or diarrhea, halitosis, headache and general fatigue to name a few.”

The doctors warned that the diet increases protein load on the kidneys and alters the balance of acid in the body. This also results in loss of minerals from the bone stores and affect bone strength. The doctors went on to say that, “Our most important criterion should be indisputable safety and low carbohydrate diets currently fall short of this benchmark.”

Dr Atkins, the creator of the Atkins diet died in 2003 after he was alleged to have slipped on an icy road and hurt his head fatally. However his medical report stated that he had a history of heart attack, hypertension and congestive heart failure.

Were Dr Atkins medical conditions related to his low carbohydrates diet is anybody’s guess. Do you want to take the risk by going on a low carb diet? I don’t think I will. If I ever want to lose weight again, I will rather go on the proven method of healthy eating and regular exercises instead of jumping on any fad diets.