Atkins Diet
This seems like a crazy diet, but the Atkins Diet does allow you to lose weight fast. I personally have concerns about how healthy the atkins diet is for you long term. I mean eating all protein goes against everything I have ever learned about healthy eating. But for a short term jump start of weight loss, the Atkins diet simply works.
The Atkins Diet is aimed at offering "metabolic advantage" that allows "overweight individuals to eat as many or more calories as they were eating before starting the diet yet still lose pounds and inches." Low-carbohydrate diets are also supposed to correct serious medical complications, such as heart disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes.
Before you read on, it's important to point out that a low-carbohydrate diet doesn't necessarily mean a high-fat diet. Low-carbohydrate diets can be either low in fat and high in protein, or high in fat and low in protein.
Induction Phase
Contrary to popular belief, the Atkins Diet actually consists
of four diets, rather than just one. It starts with The Induction
Phase, which lasts for two weeks. The goal of this phase is to
"correct an unbalanced metabolism" by restricting the
daily intake of carbohydrate to 20 grams or less. This isn't easy,
especially when you consider that just one slice of bread contains
around 15 grams of carbohydrate.
Ongoing Weight Loss (OWL) Phase
Despite the limit on carbohydrate intake during the first part
of the Atkins Diet, you're free to eat as much fat and protein
as you want. After the first two weeks, you move on to phase two
— Ongoing Weight Loss. During this second phase, you're
able to eat more carbohydrate. The idea is to increase your daily
carbohydrate intake in small increments until weight loss slows
down. Some people might be able to get away with more carbohydrate
(50-75 grams daily), while others will need slightly less. Dr
Atkins recommends that you stick with this plan until you reach
your target weight.
Pre-Maintenance Phase
Once you've lost almost all of the weight you plan to lose, you
enter the Pre-Maintenance part of the Atkins Diet. In this phase
of the atkins diet you introduce more varied carbs slowly into
you diet. You monitor how much carb you can eat without putting
on much weight. This involves gradually increasing your carbohydrate
intake until you're losing less than one pound per week.
Maintenance Phase
When you move on to the Maintenance phase of the diet, you're
allowed to consume as much carbohydrate as you want, just as long
as you don't gain weight. Dr Atkins still recommends that you
avoid sugar on the maintenance diet, and suggests that you eat
just enough carbohydrate to keep your energy levels stable and
you should also exercise
to help you with this process.
Other similar low carb diets are the South Beach Diet and the Zone Diet.
Good luck and I hope you lose lost of weight on the Atkins Diet.
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