Atkins Diet

The Atkins diet is really called the Atkins nutritional approach. It's a low-carb diet created by Robert Atkins. 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 decided to improve it and release it under his name.

Dr. Atkins came up with new ideas, his Atkins diet, about the nature of weight gain. He held that saturated fats weren't as bad as people claim. Carbohydrates, found in potatoes, and breads, were the real problem. In Atkins theory eating too little fat make things even worse. He pointed to all the low-fat foods that were high in carbohydrates. That meant people on a diet often ate foods that were worse than they normally ate.

The Atkins diet shifts the focus. He shifts dieters' metabolism to burn body fats by cutting out carbohydrates from their diets. That's the goal of weight loss. It's not just a matter of eating less. Dr. Atkins held that your diet could actually help you burn calories. In fact Atkins cited a study that claimed the body would burn an extra 950 calories on his diet. That sounded good but it wasn't 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. But that's counter to the prevailing medical theories regarding type 2 diabetes which, although recommending that lowered intake of carbohydrates and weight loss help manage diabetes, ascribe no causal relationship between carbohydrates and type 2 diabetes.

What steps does one take to follow the Atkins diet? It consists of four steps or phases which are induction, ongoing weight loss, pre-maintenance and lifetime maintenance. The details of the induction phase is as follows.

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 other Atkins diet phases are generally used for determining the levels of carbohydrates ideal for losing weight and for maintaining a standard weight – not gaining weight. The diet lost popularity after Dr. Atkins died, but it's still popular.