The Atkins Diet
Can you say hype? If you’re living in any Western
world country then you’ve probably heard of the famous
Atkins diet. Whether this is the most successful diet ever
or not it’s still up for debate, but it certainly
is the more advertised one. The Atkins diet has been for
a while the most hyped eating plan around and millions of
people have tried it at some point or another. This is no
exaggeration. It was estimated that more than 3 million
people in the United Kingdom alone have tried the Atkins
diet at the peak of the hype in 2003.
The basic idea behind this diet is that cutting
down on the carbohydrates, while allowing people
to eat high-fat food is going to work. One of the best things
in favor of the Atkins diet was the fact that it allowed
people to eat eggs and cheese and steaks.
It sounds like a dream diet actually. Who’d pass up
the chance of losing weight while still enjoying a good
eggs and ham breakfast? Well, the downside is that you get
no bread or salad with that steak. None whatsoever. Which
becomes a real problem after a week or so. How much meat
can you eat without touching any vegetables at all?
Anyway, the theory is that cutting out the carbohydrates
will force your body to use the stored fat in order to obtain
the energy needed through the day. This means that you get
to eat no bread and pastries, potatoes, pasta, milk, rice,
fruit, vegetables (well, there are a couple you can still
eat) and, obviously, no junk food or soft drinks. On the
other hand, you are allowed to eat red meat, fish, chicken,
cheese, mayonnaise, cream, butter and eggs. This is going
to be your only food for the first two weeks, which are
called the Induction Phase.
The second phase of the diet is called Ongoing Weight Loss
and it lets you increase the intake of carbohydrates by
5 grams per day, starting from the basic 20 grams per day
stipulated by the Induction Phase. The user must find how
far the amount of carbohydrates can be increased before
the body is unable to lose between 1 and 3 pounds per week.
This is called the Critical Carbohydrate Level for Losing
Weight and this is where the amount of carbs stops growing.
This phase is supposed to last until you almost reach the
desired weight.
With 5 to 10 pounds left to shed it’s time to enter
the third stage of the diet. This one is called Pre-Maintenance
and it’s supposed to increase the carbs intake by
10 grams a day in order to slow down the weight loss process.
Welcome to the world of 30 grams of pasta per day. The final
phase is called Lifetime Maintenance and a lifetime of eating
around 90 grams of carbs per day for the rest of your life.
Moving from 250 grams or more to less than 100 grams and
for the rest of your life could be quite a challenge for
many people.
The side effects of the Atkins diet depend on the user.
Some people did fine on this diet, some got infections of
the kidneys from the high-protein content or heart problems
from all the fat food they ate. Dizziness and general weakness
are also to be expected as the body goes into starvation
mode when denied carbohydrates. With high-fiber fruit and
vegetables out of the way you can also expect constipation
to become a problem. Also, the lack of many dairy products
leads to a significant drop in the amount of calcium absorbed
by the body and may cause osteoporosis or other bone conditions
later on.
