You lose more weight per week during the first two weeks of the Atkins Diet than during the rest of the diet, according to "Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution." The amount you lose "can vary dramatically" and depends on numerous factors, including how much you exercise, your age and your metabolism. The amount you lose during the diet's first two weeks is significant, because the diet has four phases, and the first phase, the induction phase, lasts two weeks.
Induction Phase
The induction phase requires you to change lifelong habits that will affect how you get energy. You can eat only 20 g of carbohydrates daily for the induction phase's two weeks, because your body has to be trained to get energy via burning fatty foods rather than via burning carbs, the late Dr. Robert Atkins wrote. Atkins claimed that your cravings for fat-causing carbohydrates end after your body gets energy via fat.
Reasoning
The U.S. government and many health-related groups have recommended for 30 to 40 years that you eat fewer fatty foods and more low-fat carbohydrates to lose weight. Atkins recommended the opposite. He wrote that body fat is caused by an excess of sugar in the blood, and claimed that carbohydrates without fiber or "bad carbs" cause blood sugar to increase rapidly, while high-fat and high-protein foods don't.
Statistics
You will "start losing considerable weight" during the 2-week induction phase unless you have "extremely" slow metabolism, according to "Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution." The average overweight man loses 10 lbs. during the induction phase, while the average overweight woman loses 6 lbs. The average man loses more weight because he has more muscle mass, and it's easier for people with more muscle mass to burn calories.
Rules
The Atkins Diet's induction phase has 12 rules. Rule 1 is based on the theory that only carbohydrates cause fat. It instructs you to eat "three regular-size meals" or four or five smaller meals daily. You will lose weight without limiting food consumption if you follow the other rules, which include eating "absolutely no fruit, bread, pasta, grains, starchy vegetables or dairy products other than cheese, cream or butter" and checking food labels to make sure everything you buy is low in carbs.
Time Frame
Abstaining from carbohydrates "suppresses your appetite" after only a few days, according to "Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution." You no longer crave carbs and are "no longer obsessing about food." By the third or fourth day, you have more energy. At this point, most of the weight you have lost is "water weight." By the fifth day, most of the lost weight is fat, but you should "slow down the weight loss" and drink more water if you are feeling weak.
References
- "Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution"; Dr. Robert Atkins; 2002
- "Atkins Diabetes Revolution"; Dr. Robert Atkins, Mary Vernon and Jacqueline Eberstein; 2004
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