The popular name for the ‘Atkins Nutritional Approach’ is the ‘Atkins Diet’, which was the invention of Doctor Robert Atkins. Dr. Atkins had gained a lot of excess weight while he was studying in medical school and after reading about a certain diet in the medical journal, he made up his mind to improve it and release it under his own name.

Atkins, in his Atkins diet book, wrote that he was sure that the prevalent theories about weight gain were terribly wrong. First, he dismissed the idea that saturated fats were bad for weight loss; instead he said it was it was the carbohydrates that caused the weight problems Americans have these days. Atkins held that on the contrary, our obsession with avoiding fat actually aggravated the problem. He pointed out that the low-fat diet foods on the market were high in carbohydrates but were not helping the nation, which probably meant that people on a ‘normal’ diet often ate foods that were worse for them than what they had been eating before.

The Atkins diet shifts the focus. Atkins said that by cutting out carbohydrates, people would burn stored body fats. And if you lose the fat, you lose the weight. He said it was not just a matter of eating less. Dr. Atkins held that your diet could actually help you burn calories. The Atkins diet supposedly burned more calories than were consumed everyday. But the claims were contested.

Dr. Atkins also promulgated the positive influence that his diet should have on people with Type 2 diabetes. Type 1 diabetes is a disease you usually get early in life, but Type 2 is more often closely associated with diet and surplus body weight. Therefore, it should follow that any diet that helps decrease weight, will help people with Type 2 diabetes. The Atkins diet is low in carbohydrates, which must be avoided by those with Type 2 diabetes regardless of the caloric intake, which the Atkins diet does, so Atkins claimed that those who suffer Type 2 diabetes would no longer need medication such as insulin. Doctors do not agree with Atkins on this point, although they do agree, that a lower carbohydrate intake helps control Type 2 diabetes, but there is no proof that carbohydrates cause diabetes.

What does one have to do to follow the Atkins diet? Well, it goes in four phases - Induction; On-Going Weight loss; Pre-maintenance; and Lifetime Maintenance. This is a brief synopsis of the first phase - The Induction Phase.

The Induction phase is probably the most difficult of the phases in the Atkins diet. Atkins is rather flexible about how long it should last ” but recommends two weeks. During this time, carbohydrate consumption should be severely limited ” up to 20 grammes per day. The goal is to enter a fat burning metabolic process called ‘ketosis’ which is when the body, being starved of glucose, starts to convert previously stored fat into the fatty acids needed to run the body. Weight loss during this period can be extreme ” some Atkins dieters report losses of 5-10 lbs. a week or more.

The aims of the final three phases in the Atkins diet are to learn the ideal carbohydrate levels for the next two phases, which are continued weight loss and weight maintenance. Many millions of people are still losing the weight they want to on the Atkins Diet ” but be aware of the risks of taking in too much cholesterol and fat.

Do you want to lose those excess pounds rapidly? Well, take a free look at The Atkins Diet, by going to our resource called The Atkins Diet Plan

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