Dr. Robert Atkins created the Atkins Nutritional Approach, which is a low-carbohydrate weight loss diet. Proponents of the diet claim that following it can help you lose weight and control your blood sugar over the long term. Skeptics point out that the diet restricts certain food groups and may lead to chronic diseases or nutritional deficiencies. To lose weight on the Atkins diet, you reduce your carbohydrate intake so that your body uses stored fat for energy.
Net Carbs
The foundation of the Atkins diet is the idea of net carbs. To calculate the net carbs in a food, take the total number of grams of carbohydrates and subtract the grams of fiber. Since your body does not digest dietary fiber, fiber does not interfere with the fat-burning process that is critical to the Atkins plan. The Atkins diet restricts net carbs to encourage your body to burn stored fat rather than dietary carbohydrates.
Weight Loss
The complete Atkins diet program includes four phases. As you progress through them, you incorporate more daily net carbs and your rate of weight loss slows until it eventually stops. The first and most restrictive phase is induction. In this phase, you can eat about 12 to 15 net carbs per day. Foods that you can have include meat and fish, fats, cheese and low-carbohydrate vegetables. This phase has the quickest weight loss and lasts for at least two weeks. In the next two phases, ongoing weight loss and pre-maintenance, you gradually slow your weight loss by increasing the number of net carbs. When you reach your goal weight, you transition to the maintenance stage.
Maintenance
The fourth phase of the Atkins diet is lifetime maintenance. In this phase, you are in your Atkins Carbohydrate Equilibrium, which means that if you eat more carbs you will gain weight, and if you eat fewer net carbs you will lose weight. According to the Atkins diet, most people in this stage eat between 45 and 100 g net carbs per day. If you exercise at least an hour each day, you may be able to eat more net carbs without gaining weight.
Analysis
People who carefully follow the Atkins diet lose weight while they are on the diet. Initial rapid weight loss results from losing water weight. According to MayoClinic.com, eating a low-carbohydrate diet has a diuretic effect. You might also lose weight on the Atkins diet because you may end up eating fewer calories. You might be less hungry because your body digests protein and fat slowly and you stay full longer after eating them than after eating carbohydrates. Also, you might eat less on the Atkins diet because the range of foods is narrow.
Risks
The Atkins diet is a low-carbohydrate and high-fat and protein diet. A potential risk of the diet is a high intake of saturated fat from foods like fatty meats, cheese and butter. Furthermore, a diet high in animal protein may increase the chance of certain cancers. Because the diet is low in carbohydrates, you risk not getting enough dietary fiber. This can lead to colon cancer or diverticulosis. Also, you may risk dietary insufficiencies by limiting the variety of foods that you eat.
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