By Bryan D Holekamp
American physician and cardiologist Robert Atkins only wanted to improve his own overweight condition. Yet, his diet proved so successful that it quickly became a national fad.
By controlling hormonal balance through restricted carbohydrate consumption, the Atkins diet helps people lose fat without counting calories. The diet also improves blood biomarkers, like glucose level, blood pressure, and HDL cholesterol level. Despite the critics, the Atkins Diet continues to help thousands of people lose weight each year.
The current version of the Atkins Nutritional Approach involves four phases. The first phase, induction, is the most restrictive. For two weeks, non-fiber carbohydrate intake is limited to 20 grams. The majority of these carbs should come from vegetables such as broccoli, lettuce, spinach, cauliflower, tomatoes, and asparagus (to name just a few). Protein and fats, on the other hand, are allowed in more liberal quantities and can come from beef, pork, poultry, fish, eggs, or other non-dairy animal products. Herbs, spices, butter, and vegetable oils are also allowed. Only water is allowed for a beverage with a daily requirement of eight glasses. The induction phase comes with the most weight loss, with reports of 5-10 pounds per week being common among obese dieters.
The second phase of the Atkins Diet consists of a steady increase in daily carbohydrate intake each week by 5 grams. The goal of this ongoing weight loss phase is to steadily add food with higher and higher glycemic indices back into the diet. At first, only more low-starch vegetables are added, but as the phase progresses, nuts, seeds, berries, fruits, alcohols, potatoes, and whole grains are incorporated into the diet. The phase lasts until weight drops to within 10 pounds of the target weight.
The third phase is referred to as the pre-maintenance phase of the diet. Daily carbohydrate intake continues to be increased by 10 grams each week until the body begins to gain weight. At that point, the maintenance level of carbohydrates is established. If the dieter has not yet achieved his/her target weight, then the carbohydrate level is dropped below the calculated maintenance level for the remaining duration of the diet.
Once the target weight is achieved, the fourth phase - lifetime maintenance - begins. At this point, the dieter is familiar with making healthy food habits and knowing how many carbohydrates the body can tolerate before weight gain. The slow transition back to a normal diet helps avoid the common end-of-diet mindset that returns many people back to their previous food habits. Should weight gain occur, the dieter is recommended to redo an earlier phase and get back to the healthy weight range.
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