How Does the Atkins Diet Work?

Many people have heard of the Atkins diet, the short name for 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 had rather radical theories about the nature of weight gain as expressed in the Atkins diet. First, he dismissed the idea that saturated fats were bad. The carbohydrates are the culprits. 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.

The Atkins diet changes this. He shifts dieters' metabolism to burn body fats by cutting out carbohydrates from their diets. That's the goal of weight loss. Atkins flipped the equation from lowering caloric intake. Now it was all about what your diet can help you burn. The Atkins diet supposedly burned an extra 950 calories everyday. But the claims were not true.

The Atkins diet also could help people with type 2 diabetes.. Type 2 diabetes is most often associated with obesity. So in general any diet that helps decrease weight will help address 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 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 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. Here are more details of Induction which is the most crucial of the phases.

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. Carbohydrates are nearly removed entirely from the diet, only 15-20 grams can be consumed each day. The lack of carbohydrates will prompt the body to convert fat into fatty acids for fuel – a process known as ketosis. During this phase weight loss can reach as much as 10 pounds per 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. Dr. Atkins himself died of complications of increased fat intake in his diet, which is something to keep in mind when choosing this diet.