A Good Look at the Atkins Diet

The Atkins diet has often been a well received diet for people who want to lose significant amounts of weight. This diet is especially attractive to people who want to start losing weight in a short period of time. The diet seems to have lost some steam over the past couple of years with there always being new diets popping up that turn into the latest fad for weight loss.

Even though the Atkins diet goes through periods of being more popular than others, there are always people trying to lose many pounds through the Atkins diet or other diets low in carbohydrates. There are many factors to take into consideration if you are considering the Atkins Diet.

It might help you to know that The Atkins diet is not anything new. In fact, Dr Atkins first introduced this diet around 1972. This diet continues to have a significant following more than 30 years later. It seemed to be in the limelight more heavily again in the early part of this decade. People can lose a lot more weight on this diet than many others.

One of the problems with the Atkins diet is that it encourages you to eat foods that are high in fat. The theory is that your body will quickly covert the fat to energy rather than storing it. However, foods high in fat are often high in cholesterol and present risks to your cardiovascular health.

Some people find it easier to stick with this diet rather than other diets that do not allow people to eat many meats or other foods that are high in fat. Technically, when you are on the Atkins Diet you not need to lower their consumption of calories each day. Instead, you need to change what you eat and the way you eat. The Atkins diet is far from being a starvation diet which is one of the reasons it attracts so many. You will not need to go through the day feeling hungry because you will have plenty to eat.

So what can you eat on the Atkins diet? In theory, you can eat just about as many eggs and as much meat and cheese as you want. You will not be able to eat much (and in some phases of the diet no) foods with sugar, fruits or even pasta. There has been controversy over this diet since it does allow you to eat a lot of foods that are considered unhealthy while limiting healthy foods like fruits. It is important for you to know that while on the Atkins diet, you might need to take vitamins and other dietary supplements while on this diet in order to avoid deficiencies.

By limiting the number of carbohydrates you eat , your body will have no choice other than to begin to burn fat. You can see a great deal of weight loss in a short period of time as a result. Keep in mind that a good deal of the initial weight loss will be water weight. You could quickly put weight back on if you alter your diet back to it’s original state before starting the Atkins diet. Your body uses carbohydrates for energy. If you are not eating many foods with carbohydrates, your body will start to burn the fat you eat, not to mention fat stored on your body. As a result, you can lose fat and excess pounds.

There are four steps to this diet if you want to properly follow the diet plan. The first two weeks, refereed to as the induction program, might be the most difficult. You cannot eat more than 15-20 grams of carbohydrates each day. You will be eating very few foods with carbs, but can eat large amounts of foods high in fat and protein. People often lose up to ten pounds in the first couple weeks.

You are then allowed to enter stage two in order to lose even more weight. You can eat a few more grams of carbohydrates at this time. Even so, you are still not be allowed to consume more than 50 grams of carbs daily. When you have lost almost all of the weight you want to lose, you will move on to step 3. This phase allows you to lose the last few stubborn pounds. You can start eating between one and three more foods with carbohydrates for each week you are in this phase. That means you can start to eat some fruit or even add some bread back into your diet.

The last phase of the Atkins diet, is a stage you are to stay in for life. It is not likely that most people stick with this step. This is why some people lose a great deal of weight on the Atkins diet, but within a year gain all or most of their weight back. You are never to eat more than 60 grams of carbohydrates in a single day. This is hard for some people especially those who love sweet foods and snacks or pasta.

Do not start the Atkins diet (or any diet for that matter), without consulting with your doctor. There can be risks to any diet depending upon your current health and any health conditions you have or are at risk of developing.

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