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The Atkins diet is really called the Atkins nutritional approach.  Dr. Robert Atkins invented this low carb diet. He had gained a lot of weight in medical school.  He read about this diet in the medical journal. He decided to improve it and release it under his name.

Dr. Atkins came up with new ideas, his Atkins diet, about the nature of weight gain.  First, he dismissed the idea that saturated fats were bad.  Instead it was carbohydrates that led to the weight problems Americans have. In fact Atkins thought that the focus on fats had made a problem much worse.  Carbohydrates are used to make up for the lack of fat in low fat foods. Eating a low fat version of foods was actually less healthy.

The Atkins diet changes this. He shifts dieters’ metabolism to burn body fats by cutting out carbohydrates from their diets. Lose the fat lose the weight.  Atkins flipped the equation from lowering caloric intake. The diet would work because it burned calories.  Dr. Atkins claimed that his diet would result in the body burning an extra 950 calories each day. But the claims were not true.

In addition to claims of weight loss, Dr. Atkins said his Atkins diet could help people with type 2 diabetes. Being overweight is generally considered the major cause for type 2 diabetes. Therefore, by means of losing weight a person on the Atkins diet would be addressing their type 2 diabetes. In addition the Atkins diet also addresses the measure of taking in fewer carbohydrates which is part of managing type 2 diabetes, so that Dr. Atkins suggested people on his diet would no longer need to monitor their blood sugar or take insulin. But that’s counter to the prevailing medical theories regarding type 2 diabetes which, although recommending that lowered intake of carbohydrates and weight loss help manage diabetes, ascribe no causal relationship between carbohydrates and type 2 diabetes.

What steps does one take to follow the Atkins diet? It consists of four steps or phases which are induction, ongoing weight loss, pre maintenance and lifetime maintenance. Here is an overview of the most important phase (Induction).

The Induction phase is the most difficult phase of the Atkins diet. It lasts for about two weeks. During induction the dieter can consume only about 20 grams of carbohydrates on a day to day basis. The lack of carbohydrates will prompt the body to convert fat into fatty acids for fuel (a process known as ketosis). During this phase weight loss can reach as much as 10 pounds per week.

The other Atkins diet phases are generally used for determining the levels of carbohydrates ideal for losing weight and for maintaining a standard weight not gaining weight. Millions of people are still losing weight on this diet but beware the dangers of taking in too much fat.

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