Atkins Diet Plan and Atkins Nutritional Approach Information

Atkins Diet Plan

The Atkins diet plan - you know it's controversial, but you also know it works. You're tempted to try this diet plan because it promises to heal what ails you, trim your extra pounds, and do it all simply and easily.

Reduced to it's basic concept, the Atkins diet plan calls for no refined sugars or flour, very low carbohydrates, and as much meat and fat as you want.

 

The Atkins Diet Plan is made up of 4 phases.

The induction phase, on going weight loss, pre-maintenance and lifetime maintenance.

Foods allowed during first two-week induction phase include:

• Fish, including: tuna, salmon, sole, trout
• Fowl, including: chicken, turkey, duck, goose
• Shellfish, including: lobster, squid.
• Meats, including: pork, beef, lamb, bacon, ham
• Also: eggs, up to 90grams of most cheeses a day and 230-340 grams of salads.

For full details buy the Dr. Atkins New Diet Revolution book at Amazon.com.

On Going Weight Loss

The difference between Induction and the on going weight loss (OWL) phases of atkins is that you are allowed to consume more carbohydrates. You increase your carb intake up to 25 grams a day and continue to increase by 5 grams a week until you are no longer losing weight.

PreMaintenance

In this phase of the atkins diet you introduce more varied carbs slowly into your diet. You monitor how many carbs you can eat without putting on weight.

Lifetime Maintenance

Following the pre maintenance phase you should know what you can eat to stick to you target weight.

Dr Atkins diet plan is probably one of the most well-known and recognized low-carbohydrate, high protein diet plans. The atkins diet plan was created in the 70s by of course Dr Atkins.

His book 'Dr Atkins New Diet Revolution' is basically an updated version of his original dieting book. The dr Atkins diet has a lot of support worldwide as well as a lot of critics.

With the atkins diet, you may generally eat all the protein and fat that you want while achieving terrific weight loss results. When on the atkins diet plan you just need to cut out the carbohydrates you would normally eat, or at least drastically reduce them, to become thin.

The atkins diet plan is basically the same as another popular dieting plan in which you focus on reducing the amount of carbohydrates and increasing protein intake. In short diets like the atkins diet plan states that food such as pastas, potatoes and processed flours and sugars are out.

Diets like the atkins diet plan agree that food such as fish, red meat, chicken etc. can be eaten in almost any quantity you like.

Atkins Diet Plan - Simple Introduction

When you first begin the Atkins Diet, you go on an Induction Phase – this is to put you into ketosis. You cut out almost all carbohydrates except for a few greens, but you can eat sour cream and steak and eggs. Many doctors say that ketosis is bad because it puts a strain on your kidneys and may be fatal.

After the first 2 weeks on the Atkins Diet, you are permitted to reintroduce a few carbohydrates into your diet - but very few. The diet states you add until you stop losing weight - that way you will know your limit in order to lose weight effectively.

Atkins Diet Plan – Important Points to ponder regarding Atkins Diet Plan

• Initial weight loss may be quite fast, but is not always sustainable.
• A ketosis-inducing diet may strain the kidneys.
• As many foods high in animal protein may also be high in saturated fat, your saturated fat intake may be too high for comfort.
• Giving up or severely restricting potatoes, corn, bread, fruits and vegetables and much more for as long as it takes to lose the weight, is not a user-friendly diet plan.

The Atkins Nutritional Approach rebalances your nutrition so that you improve your energy level and your appearance and gain a sense of well-being. Following this approach lays the groundwork for a lifetime of better health while using the atkins diet.

The four-phase individualized eating plan of the atkins diet allows you to knowledgeably select which foods to eat based on your need to achieve weight loss and weight maintenance, enjoy good health and prevent disease. Food selections will differ to varying degrees depending upon the phase you are in and your individual metabolism.

The phases in the Atkins roadmap to sustained success are:

Phase 1: Induction

Restrict carbohydrate consumption to 20 grams each day, obtaining carbohydrate primarily from salad and other non-starchy vegetables.

Phase 2: Ongoing Weight Loss (OWL)

Add carbohydrate, in the form of nutrient-dense and fiber-rich foods, by increasing to 25 grams daily the first week, 30 grams daily the next week and so on until weight loss stops. Then subtract 5 grams of carbohydrate from your daily intake so that you continue sustained, moderate weight loss.

Phase 3: Pre-Maintenance

Make the transition from weight loss to weight maintenance by increasing the daily carbohydrate intake in 10-gram increments each week so long as very gradual weight loss is maintained.

Phase 4: Lifetime Maintenance

Select from a wide variety of foods while controlling carbohydrate intake to ensure weight maintenance and a sense of well-being. This lifestyle is the foundation for a lifetime of better health.

Unlike a diet, the Atkins Nutritional Approach is a lifetime nutritional philosophy, focusing on the consumption of nutrient-dense, unprocessed foods and vita nutrient supplementation. Moreover, Atkins restricts processed/refined carbohydrates (which make up more than 50 percent of many people's diets), such as high-sugar foods, breads, pasta, cereal and starchy vegetables. Core vita nutrient supplementation includes a full-spectrum multivitamin and an essential oils/fatty acid formula. This nutritional philosophy has been embraced by an estimated 20 million people worldwide since the release of Dr. Atkins’ Diet Revolution in the 1970s, and is the cornerstone of the treatment protocols for patients of The Atkins Center for Complementary Medicine in New York City.

The Atkins Nutritional Principles

Four principles form the core of the Atkins Nutritional Approach and are supported by a solid foundation of medical and nutritional scientific research.

1. You will lose weight. It’s hard not to. Both men and women who follow the Atkins approach to weight loss readily take off pounds and inches. For the small numbers who have a truly hard-core metabolic resistance to weight loss, there are ways to overcome the barriers that prevent a successful outcome. Optimizing body weight is a valuable element of any health-oriented program because, by and large, being significantly overweight is an indicator of health problems, either now or in the future. When you've pared pounds, you'll see benefits flow in to take their place—and they'll be more than merely cosmetic.

2. You will maintain your weight loss. This is where the Atkins Nutritional Approach leaves most other weight-control programs in the dust. Almost every experienced dieter has embarked on a weight-loss program, worked hard at it, lost a lot of pounds and gained them all back in a few months or perhaps a year. This is usually due to the expected consequence of low-fat, low-calorie diets: hunger. Although many people can tolerate hunger for a while, very few can tolerate it for a lifetime. Deprivation is no fun. Once the biological gap between hunger and fulfillment grows too large, the rebound can be rapid, as well as heartbreaking and humiliating. But that’s the problem with diets that restrict quantities. The Atkins program refuses to accept hunger as a way of life. People who do Atkins gradually find their effective individual level of carbohydrate intake, the tool that allows them to maintain a healthy weight for a lifetime.

3. With Atkins, you meet your nutritional needs by eating healthy, wholesome foods and omitting junk food. As a result, fatigue drops from your shoulders like a heavy winter coat you mistakenly wore in summer. This occurs not merely because the pounds drop off, but because the physical consequences of a truly dysfunctional blood-sugar and insulin metabolism are reversed. People who do Atkins start feeling good long before they reach their goal weight. Once they abandon the catastrophic American diet of refined carbohydrates for whole, unrefined food, they start to live again.

4. You will lay the permanent groundwork for disease prevention. You will change your life, which—believe it or not—is even more important than looking good on the beach next summer. By following an individualized controlled carbohydrate nutritional approach that results in lower insulin production, people at high risk for chronic illnesses such as cardiovascular disease, hypertension and diabetes will see a marked improvement in their clinical parameters.