Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Atkins Diet Things You need To Know

By Ron C

The short name for the Atkins nutritional approach is the Atkins diet. Dr. Robert Atkins invented this low-carb diet. He had gained a great deal of weight while he attended medical school. Atkins read about a low-carb diet in one of his medical journals. He perfected it and released it to the public.

Dr. Atkins had rather radical theories about the nature of weight gain as expressed in the Atkins diet. He disagreed that saturated fats were the problem. Carbohydrates, found in potatoes, and breads, were the real problem. Atkins held that our obsession with fat actually worsened the problem. Carbohydrates are used to make up for the lack of fat in low fat foods. Dieters were being tricked into eating foods that would cause them to gain more weight.

The Atkins diet shifts the focus. Once Carbohydrates were removed from a diet, people would burn more stored body fat. Once the fat was burned, the pounds will follow. It's not just a matter of eating less. Now it was all about what your diet can help you burn. In fact Atkins cited a study that claimed the body would burn an extra 950 calories on his diet. But the claims were not true.

Dr. Atkins also touted the positive influence this Atkins diet could have on people with type 2 diabetes. Being overweight is generally considered the major cause for type 2 diabetes. Weight loss associated with the Atkins diet, as with any diet, would therefore help people manage type 2 diabetes.

But the Atkins diet is also low in carbohydrates, which must be avoided with type 2 diabetes regardless of caloric intake, so by means of this aspect of the diet Atkins claimed those who suffer type 2 diabetes would no longer need medication such as insulin. The jury is still out in the medical world as to the causes of type 2 diabetes. So while science agrees with Atkins that lowering intake of Carbohydrates will help with the disease, it would disagree that the step alone would remove the necessity for medicine.

What steps does one take to follow the Atkins diet? Induction, ongoing weight loss, pre-maintenance and lifetime maintenance are the four necessary phases of the diet. Here is an overview of the most important phase - Induction.

The first phase of the Atkins diet, Induction, is like the boot camp for the diet. Atkins is flexible as to the time period but recommends two weeks. During this phase carbohydrates are severely limited only up to 20 grams per day. The result of this phase should be ketosis, a metabolic reaction by which the body converts stored fat into fatty acids, generally prompted by a lack of glucose. Weight loss during this phase can be extreme some Atkins followers reported losses of 5-10 pounds a week.

The next three phases of the Atkins diet help establish the levels of carbs people can consume in order to lose weight and to maintain a desired weight. The diet lost popularity after Dr. Atkins died, but it's still popular. - 16463

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