An Overview of Atkins Diet

Dieting is restriction of certain foods. But would you believe, if I told you that you can have rich foods when dieting. Well1 I am not joking. I know that including rich foods in your diet is something that a dieter can’t think of, but it is included in Atkins diet.

Carbohydrates causes overweight:

According to Dr. Atkins, the root cause of overweight is too much of carbohydrates in your diet. Our body burns carbohydrates and fat as energy. According to Atkins, when you consume too much of carbohydrates, the body burns only carbohydrates. When you consume less carbohydrate, the body will turn to its own fat stored for fuel, thus helping you to reduce weight.

Dr. Atkins also says that obese people are prone to diabetes or increase in the glucose level in the body. This is because overweight people become insulin resistant. The sugar is stored in your body as glycogen and the excess sugar is stored as fat. If sugar in your body does not respond to insulin, it will lead to diabetes.

Now what is the remedy? Stay away from processed and pre-packed food, reduce carbohydrates and sugar intake, and include high protein in your diet.

Ketosis state:

Atkins then explains about ketosis state. This is the state when the body burns stored fat as fuel, because of less carbohydrates. This happens when your body gets less than 40 grams of carbohydrates per day. After some days, he says, your body will stop craving for carbohydrates and you won’t miss the food that you are not eating now. The ketosis state increases the efficiency of insulin and prevents the storage of fats. In the ketosis state, you become less hungry, so you happen to eat less. Your body changes to fat burning state, from carbohydrates burning state.

Phases in Atkins diet:

There are four phases in Atkins diet. The first phase is the induction phase where you are allowed to eat only 20 grams of carbohydrate per day. This is the rapid weight loss phase. You food consists of salad and low-carb, non-starchy vegetables like tomatoes, broccoli and lettuce. In the second phase carbohydrate in increased to 25 grams with foods rich in fiber. In this phase each week carbohydrate is increased by 5 grams. This goes on until your body stops losing weight.

The third phase changes from weight loss to weight maintenance. You will increase carbohydrates by 10 grams every week, as long as you don’t gain weight. In the fourth phase you can select from a variety of foods, keeping your weight down. The foods you can eat in Atkins diet are low-carbs vegetables, egg, fish, poultry and red meats. Once you have achieved you goal, you will be asked to eat healthy carbs, like whole wheat bread.

People nowadays have realized that obesity increases the risk of various diseases like diabetes, cholesterol, blood pressure, cancer, and heart diseases, and they turn to Atkins diet, because it causes rapid weight loss and also helps you to maintain your weight. Atkins diet has proved to be successful and so many people all over the world have lost weight and defeated heart disease through this diet.

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