Atkins Diet
What according to you is the biggest threat to mankind? Terrorism, Poverty, Pollution, Nuclear weapons, AIDS…well one can have many answers. But there is one answer which perhaps only a few of one would say. However, that answer is a very valid answer. And the answer is Obesity. Yes, we, especially, the Americans are getting more and more obese. And obesity is the root of a number of disease; both physical and mental disease. Well, we have realized this from quiet some time and our search for a low fat, low carbohydrate diet has become more and more aggressive.
The Background
Dr. Robert Atkins was one of the first to realize that people need a low carbohydrate diet. He did some reading in various medical journals and came out with his own diet based solution which he then called Atkins Nutritional Approach. The approach then became popular as Atkins Diet. Atkins went on to author a book for the common people. This bestseller was called Atkins Diet Revolution. Atkins produced more versions of the book but his basic formula largely remains unchanged. Far more then his imagination, Atkins Diet gained rapid popularity among the masses, especially the Americans. There was once a highly successful company which used to produce diets based on Atkins approach. However, the company went bankrupt couple of years back.
What is Atkins Diet?
Atkins theory on reasons of obesity largely revolved around the presence of carbohydrates in the food that we consume. He said that if we have more carbohydrates in our diet, the level of insulin in our blood will rise. This rise in insulin level will make us eat more food. Hence, he argued that a control on insulin and sugar level in blood can ultimately help us avoid more consumption of carbohydrates due to over eating and hence the obesity. Our body will be then forced to burn the extra fat that we have and thereby keep us in shape. Before Atkins came to the scene of obesity control, popular belief was that all type of fats was bad for an obese people. Atkins argued that only Trans fats were the culprit and hence only consumption of that should be zero or limited. Hence, Atkins largely recommended taking low carbohydrate food.
4 phases of Atkins Diet
If you are desperate to reduce your weight by the Atkins Diet, then you should know how the diet works in various phases.
Phase # 1:- The first phase of is called Induction phase. You should drastically reduce intake of carbohydrates. Carbohydrates consumption should not be more then 20 grams per day. You can have meat, cheese and other dairy products, but in very limited quantities. Atkins however, doesn’t recommend alcohol and caffeinated coffee. People have witnessed maximum weight loss in this phase.
Phase # 2:- After significant weigh reduction, the diet tends to bring food habits somewhere near to normal in this Ongoing Weight Loss phase. Carbohydrate intake can be increase by 5 grams per week with increased intake of vegetables, dairy food, fruits, nuts, alcohol, etc. Atkins has a fixed timetable showing what to take in a particular week in this phase. However, the biggest condition for this phase to be successful is that the weight loss should continue.
Phase # 3:- The diet stabilization process continues in this Pre-maintenance phase and now carbohydrate intake can be increased by 10 grams every week. Now, your diet should not result in weight gain. The whole exercise is to find that threshold limit of carbohydrate intake where the weight remains nearly constant.
Phase # 4:- Lifetime maintenance, the last phase, encourages people to eat everything but prevent any weight gain. If you think that your weight has gained, then depending on the increase you should switch back to one of the previous phase.
Atkins approach was also involved in many controversies. Many studies suggested that the diet was not as effective as perceived by the general public. Some researchers also claimed that the diet had significant side effects. There were also many government studies citing the danger of the diet. Atkins approach also suffered from the misconceptions its users had.
After a stupendous success where at one time one in every eleven American was on Atkins Diet, the popularity decreased gradually. The reason for Dr. Atkins death in 2003 was also controversial. The pros and cons of Dr. Atkins diet will be debated by many generations to come. However all will agree that the diet gave hopes to all obese people to shed that extra flab and get leaner and fitter