Atkins Diet
The Atkins diet is a high protein, high fat, low-carbohydrate, weight reduction diet devised by an American doctor, Robert C. Atkins. It is an unusual diet that relies on saturated fats as the main energy source. According to Atkins, this diet lets you lose weight without counting calories, makes you feel and look better, naturally re-energizes you and keeps lost pounds off forever (Atkins, 1992). In 1972, he published the first edition of the New Diet Revolution, the Cadillac of low-carb diet plans (Bowden, 2004). Atkins was the first popular diet book to focus on insulin as a determinant in weight gain. This book firmly took the position that carbohydrates, and not fat were the problem in obesity.
According to the core principle of the Atkins diet, by limiting carbohydrates in a four-phase process, your body is forced to burn its stored fat, rather than carbohydrates, for fuel. Each stage becomes progressively less restrictive and gradually increases the carbohydrates allowed. The first stage is induction. During induction, you eat all the fat and protein you want, but limit carbohydrates to 20 grams per day, which is an extremely low level of carbohydrate consumption. The purpose of this is to ensure that your body goes into ketosis/lipolysis, begins releasing fat mobilizing hormones that suppress your appetite, and after the first two or three days, begin to consume your own fat (Atkins, 1992; Bowden, 2004). After a month in the induction stage, you progress to stage two, which is called ongoing weight loss, or OWL. During this stage, you add back carbohydrates at a rate of 5 grams per week, which would put your carb intake at 25 grams per day in that week. You continue slowly increasing your carb intake until your body stops losing weight. When this occurs, you subtract 5 grams of carbs from your daily intake. This level will allow you to maintain your weight (Atkins, 1992; Bowden, 2004). When you are within 5-10 pounds of your goal weight, you move to...
View Full Essay