Sep 4 2009

How To Lose Weight Rapidly And Successfully Using The Atkins Diet

The Atkins diet is really called the Atkins nutritional approach. It was the brainchild of the doctor named Robert Atkins. He put on a lot of pounds while he attended medical school. He read about this diet in the medical journal. He perfected it and released it to the public. Check out our fat loss plans here.

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. Instead it was carbohydrates that led to the weight problems Americans have. In Atkins theory eating too little fat make things even worse. He pointed to all the low-fat foods that were high in carbohydrates. Eating a low-fat version of foods was actually less healthy. Find out about carbs fat loss.

The Atkins diet changes this. Once Carbohydrates were removed from a diet, people would burn more stored body fat. Lose the fat lose the weight. It’s not just a matter of eating less. The diet would work because it burned calories. The Atkins diet supposedly burned an extra 950 calories everyday. But later reviews of his studies found that his claims were false.

The Atkins diet also could help people with type 2 diabetes.. Being overweight is generally considered the major cause for type 2 diabetes. So in general any diet that helps decrease weight will help address type 2 diabetes. In addition the Atkins diet also addresses the measure of taking in fewer carbohydrates which is part of managing type 2 diabetes, so that Dr. Atkins suggested people on his diet would no longer need to monitor their blood sugar or take insulin. The medical world, in general, disagrees with Atkins on this point. They agree lower carbohydrates help with type 2 diabetes, but there is no proof that carbohydrates cause the disease.

What are the specific rules of the Atkins diet? It follows four phases – induction, ongoing weight loss, pre-maintenance and lifetime maintenance. Here is an overview of the most important phase – Induction.

As the first phase, Induction is the most crucial and most restrictive portion of the Atkins diet. This phase should be followed for a period of two weeks. During induction the dieter can consume only about 20 grams of carbohydrates on a day to day basis. The lack of carbohydrates will prompt the body to convert fat into fatty acids for fuel – a process known as ketosis. Weight loss during this phase can be extreme – some Atkins followers reported losses of 5-10 pounds a week.

Learning the ideal carbohydrate levels for weight losing and for day to day intake after the weight loss ends are the purposes of the final three phases in the Atkins diet. Millions of people are still losing weight on this diet – but beware the dangers of taking in too much fat. Click here for lose weight fat.