The Atkins Diet has long been regarded as an effective way to lose weight. The diet, which restricts the user's intake of carbohydrates while encouraging the liberal consumption of fats and proteins, often leads to significant weight loss.
How Does the Aktins Diet Work?
The Atkins Diet is a low-carbohydrate diet hat is designed to help its followers lose weight and keep it off if they continue to follow the principles that the diet preaches.
While on Atkins, the consumption of most carbohydrates are either excluded or limited extensively. Atkins encourages the consumption of meats, fish, cheeses, leafy green veggies, eggs and full-fat salad dressings and condiments.
By keeping carbohydrate counts extremely low, the body enters a metabolic process known as ketosis. Ketosis is the state in which the body begins to burn body fat for energy instead of its usual carbohydrate fuel-source.Ketosis should not be confused with ketoacidosis, a dangerous and life-threatening condition that can occur in diabetics. Along with other factors, it is this mechanism of ketosis that results in weight loss in those who follow the diet carefully.
What Kinds of Foods Can I Eat on Atkins?
The Atkins Diet encourages the consumption of many foods that are considered to be forbidden on many other diets. Meats such as chicken, turkey, beef, pork, lamb, duck and game are the backbone of the Atkins Diet. While lean cuts are perfectly acceptable, Atkins encourages all cuts of meat, including those that may be higher in fat, such as bacon, skin-on chicken and well-marbled cuts of steak.
Aside from meat, items like eggs, cheeses (no light or low-fat varieties), salad greens, vegetables other than carrots or potatoes (that are high in starchy carbohydrates) and condiments such as butter, olive and canola oils, mayonnaise, mustard and ranch dressing are acceptable.
Before consuming any prepackaged items on the Atkins Diet, be sure to read the label for carbohydrate content.
In the latter phases of the diet, followers can incorporate small amounts of specific carbohydrates into their diets. Foods like nuts, berries, yams, seeds and certain grains like quinoa and millet can be reintroduced, so long as weight loss or maintenance is still achieved.
Throughout the diet, water, diet soft drinks, tea and coffee can be assumed. Atkins recommends that these be caffeine-free and sweetened with artificial sweeteners like sucralose, if they must be sweetened.
What Foods are Prohibited
In the first phase of the diet, all forms of carbohydrate are prohibited. Any type of bread, bakery items, sugar, candy, pasta, fruits, "regular" soft drinks, sweetened condiments such as ketchup and relish and starchy veggies such as potatoes and carrots are high in carbohydrates and are not to be eaten on Atkins.
It is important to remember that it is the carbohydrate content, not fat or calorie content, that counts on Atkins. Any food containing high-fructose corn syrup also is strictly prohibited.
In the latter phases of the diet, there are specialty products that can be introduced so long as they do not halt weight loss or cause weight gain. Atkins makes a variety of products, from special pastas to baking mixes to granola bars, that are altered to be low-carb friendly. Most of these products are not suitable for the first phase of the diet induction.
Phases
There are four phases of the Aktins Diet. The first is called induction, which is the most strict of all the phases. It allows for just 20 grams of carbohydrates a day.
The second is called Ongoing Weight Loss, or OWL. This phase gradually increases the types of foods the follower can eat, adding seeds, nuts and some berries back into the diet. During OWL, Atkins followers can increase carb intake in small increments.
Phase three, Pre-Maintenance, is entered when the follower gets close to his or her goal weight. During this phase, the follower learns the exact foods that he or she can and cannot eat to keep the weight off. This phase involves the adding back of even more carbohydrates, but determines the carbohydrate threshold that the follower can eat without gaining weight back.
The fourth and final phase, Maintenance, is achieved when a follower has reached goal weight and is prepared to keep the extra pounds off.
What Else Should I Know?
Atkins recommends and encourages the consumption of plentiful vegetables, and in the latter phases of the diet, fruits. Be sure to include these items for optimum health benefits and weight loss.
When calculating the carbohydrate count of foods on Atkins, the fiber content of the food can be subtracted from the total carb count. If a food contains 5 grams of carbohydrate and 3 grams of fiber, it contains 2 net, or countable, carbs. You may always subtract the fiber content to obtain the "net carbs" of a product.
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