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| Following The Atkins Diet |
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| Written by Owen Jones |
| Monday, 15 August 2011 07:46 |
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The short name for the 'Atkins Nutritional Approach' is the 'Atkins Diet', which was the brainchild of Doctor Robert Atkins. Dr. Atkins had gained a lot of excess weight while he was studying in medical school and after reading about a certain diet in the medical journal, he decided to improve it and publish it under his own name.
The short name for the 'Atkins Nutritional Approach' is the 'Atkins Diet', which was the brainchild of Doctor Robert Atkins. Dr. Atkins had gained a lot of excess weight while he was studying in medical school and after reading about a certain diet in the medical journal, he decided to improve it and publish it under his own name. 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 moved the focus. Atkins said that by cutting out carbohydrates, people would burn stored body fats. And if you lose the fat, you lose the weight. He said it was not just a matter of eating less. Dr. Atkins held that your diet could actually help you burn calories. The Atkins diet supposedly burned more calories than were consumed everyday. But the claims were contested. Dr. Atkins also promulgated the positive influence that his diet could have on people with type 2 diabetes. Type 1 diabetes is a disease you get early in life, but type 2 is often closely associated with diet and surplus body weight. So, 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 with type 2 diabetes regardless of the caloric intake, so because of this aspect of the diet, Atkins claimed that those who suffer type 2 diabetes would no longer need medication such as insulin. In general, doctors disagree with Atkins on this point, although they do agree, however, 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 probably the most difficult of the phases in the Atkins diet. Atkins is rather flexible about how long it should last " but recommends two weeks. During this time, carbohydrate consumption should be severely curtailed " up to 20 grammes per day. The idea is to enter a fat burning metabolic process called 'ketosis' which is when the body, being starved of glucose, begins to convert previously stored fat into the fatty acids needed to power the body. Weight loss during this period is often large " some Atkins dieters report losses of 5-10 lbs. a week or more. Learning the ideal carbohydrate levels for weight loss and for day to day intake after the weight loss ends, are the aims of the three final phases in the Atkins diet. Millions of people are still losing the weight they want to on this diet " but beware the dangers of taking in too much fat. Do you want to lose those excess pounds rapidly? Well, take a free look at The Atkins Diet, by going to our resource called The Atkins Diet Plan |