Discover The Atkins Diet

What is the Atkins Diet? Basically, it's a low-carb, high-protein diet. What is so different about this diet compared to others is that your food intake is restricted to those food groups, and only those food groups, which the Atkins Diet allows.

While you can enjoy as much protein as possible, including: meat, chicken, eggs, cheese, butter, and all of the side dishes which are loaded with fat content, but you cannot have any carbohydrates such as bread, fruit, rice, sugar, milk, pasta, or potatoes.

There are four phases in the Atkins Diet plan. The first is called the Induction phase, which is a two-week intense diet allowing you less than 20 grams of carbs a day which boils down to vegetables only. The second phase, known as On-Going Weight Loss, allows you 25 grams of carbs a day. The third phase known as premaintenance is the point at which you begin to level off. The final phase is called Lifetime Maintenance, and this is the point at which you have met your weigh- loss goal.

Each phase of the Atkins Diet specifically tells you what you can eat and how much.
For example, the induction phase includes information such as acceptable foods, what the two-week induction meal plan is, the rules of induction, what induction can do for you, between-meal nibbling, the Atkins low-glycemic approach, and Atkins products for induction.

The Atkins Diet has been the subject of intense scrutiny over the years as it relates to its advantages and disadvantages. No matter what side you happen to agree with, the advantages to this diet are many, including: a large amount of weight loss, the ability to eat when you want, keeps the sugar level within a specified range, burns fat, and health is greatly improved.

Before beginning any diet, whether it is the Atkins Diet or diets in which food modifications may be limited to a specific type, it is appropriate to talk to your doctor to determine if this particular diet is right for you.

Here is another item which you may find interesting. According to the latest issue of Reader's Digest, A recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association claimed that people who went on the Atkins diet lost more weight after 12 months than those on three other popular diets. However, the researchers analysis showed there was no statistically significant difference in weight loss on the Atkins after a year. This is not surprising since most people didn't follow any of the diets very well.

This is a very revealing statement which signifies that no matter what diet plan you choose, unless you follow it to the letter, there will be no significant results.