The short name for the ‘Atkins Nutritional Approach’ is the ‘Atkins Diet’, which was the brainchild of Doctor Robert Atkins. Dr. Atkins had put on a lot of excess weight while he was studying in medical school and after reading about a certain diet in the medical journal, he made up his mind to improve it and publish it under his own name.
Atkins, in his Atkins Diet, stated that he believed that the prevalent 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 moved the focus. Atkins said that by cutting out carbohydrates, people would consume their stored body fats. And, of course, if you lose the fat, you lose the weight. He said it was not only a matter of eating less. Atkins postulated that a diet could actually help you burn calories and that The Atkins Diet supposedly burned more calories than were being consumed everyday. But the claims were contested.
Dr. Atkins also touted the positive influence that his diet could have on people with type 2 diabetes. Type 1 diabetes is a disease you get early in life, but type 2 is often closely associated with diet and excess body weight. So, it should follow that any diet that helps reduce 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 the caloric intake, so because of this aspect of the diet, Atkins claimed that those who suffer type 2 diabetes would no longer need medication such as insulin. In general, doctors disagree with Atkins on this point, although they do agree, however, that a lower carbohydrate intake helps control Type 2 diabetes, but there is no proof that carbohydrates cause diabetes.
What does one have to do to follow the Atkins diet? Well, it goes in four phases – Induction; On-Going Weight loss; Pre-maintenance; and Lifetime Maintenance. This is a brief synopsis of the first phase – The Induction Phase.
The Induction phase is the most difficult phase of the Atkins diet. Atkins is flexible about the time period ” but recommends it lasts for two weeks. During this phase carbohydrates are severely curtailed ” you can only consume up to 20 grams per day. The goal is to enter a fat burning metabolic phase called ketosis when the body, starved of glucose, will begin converting stored fat into fatty acids needed to power the body. Weight loss during this phase can be large ” some Atkins followers reported losses of 5-10 pounds a week or more.
Learning the ideal carbohydrate levels for weight loss and for day to day intake after the weight loss ends, are the aims of the three final phases in the Atkins diet. Millions of people are still losing the weight they want to on this diet ” but beware the dangers of taking in too much fat.
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