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. Atkins held that our obsession with fat actually worsened the problem. Carbohydrates are used to make up for the lack of fat in low fat foods. That meant people on a diet often ate foods that were worse than they normally ate.
This all changes in the Atkins diet. By cutting out carbohydrates people would burn stored body fats. Lose the fat lose the weight, that’s dieting for idiots. The goal wasn’t necessarily to take in fewer calories. Now it was all about what your diet can help you burn. 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.
The Atkins diet also could help people with type 2 diabetes.. Type 2 diabetes is most often associated with obesity. Therefore, by means of losing weight a person on the Atkins diet would be addressing their 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.
So just how does this Atkins diet work? It follows four phases – induction, ongoing weight loss, pre-maintenance and lifetime maintenance. Here is an overview of the most important phase – Induction.
The Induction phase is the most difficult phase of the Atkins diet. It lasts for about two weeks. Carbohydrates are nearly removed entirely from the diet, only 15-20 grams can be consumed each 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 next three phases of the Atkins diet help establish the levels of carbs people can consume in order to lose weight and to maintain a desired 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.
