Atkins Diet Basics
The common 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 surplus weight while he was studying in medical school and after coming across a new diet in the medical journal, he decided to refine it and publish it as his own.
Atkins, in his Atkins Diet, stated that he believed that the prevailing 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 held 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 shifted 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 this Atkins diet could have on people with type 2 diabetes. As opposed to type 1 diabetes, 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 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 medical world, in general, disagrees with Atkins on this point. They do agree, however, that a lower carbohydrate intake helps with type 2 diabetes, but there is no proof that carbohydrates cause the disease.
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 goal is to enter a fat burning metabolic process called 'ketosis' which is when the body, being starved of glucose, starts to convert previously stored fat into the fatty acids needed to run the body. Weight loss during this period can be large " some Atkins dieters report losses of 5-10 lbs. a week or more.
The aims of the three final phases in the Atkins diet are the learning of the ideal carbohydrate levels for the next two phases: continued weight loss and weight maintenance. Millions of people are still losing the weight they want to on this diet " but beware the dangers of taking in too much cholesterol.
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