How Much Weight Can I Lose In A Month On Atkins?

Many people have had weight loss success on the Atkins diet. Anecdotal evidence suggests spectacular rates of weight loss on the diet, while studies tell a slightly different story. The differences come from following Atkins dieters vs. people on a more traditional low-calorie dieting model for short-term and long-term periods and measuring the difference in weight loss between the two groups. Still, there are many anecdotal reports of people who lose weight and keep it off by following the Atkins diet.

What Is the Atkins Diet?

The Atkins diet is a low-carbohydrate diet. The diet has three phases: induction, ongoing weight loss and maintenance. Throughout the diet, dieters limit intake of high-carbohydrate foods and rely on animal proteins, fats and non-starchy carbohydrates as their primary sources of nutrition. The diet is often referred to as a "way of eating" instead of as a diet, because Dr. Atkins believed that the only way to maintain the weight you lose on the diet is to live a sugar-free, low carbohydrate lifestyle.

Atkins Diet and Weight Loss

The Atkins diet works because limiting carbohydrates brings about something called "ketosis," which is a chemical condition your body achieves in the absence of dietary carbohydrates. According to Dr. Atkins, when you limit dietary carbohydrates, your body is forced to rely on stored fat as its primary source of fuel. Gary Taubes, author of "Good Calories, Bad Calories," agrees that there is some solid science to support this assertion. According to Taubes, restricting dietary carbohydrates limits the amount of insulin that is released into your bloodstream. Insulin is a storage hormone that is the primary mechanism by which food energy is stored in the fat cells. In the absence of insulin, your body is free to burn its own fat as fuel. The result is weight loss.

Induction Phase

Weight loss is often rapid in early stages of the Atkins diet. There are anecdotal reports of losing as many as 15 pounds during induction; however, most of that weight loss is very likely water weight. Carbohydrates are stored in the body with three parts of water to every one part of carbohydrates. Eating a low carbohydrate diet uses up the stored carbohydrates rapidly, releasing a lot of water very quickly, says Bethesda Medical Center. Even Dr. Atkins admits that the 15-pound weight loss in the first two weeks is atypical, and that four to five pounds in two weeks is more likely.

Ongoing Weight Loss

After the initial two-week phase, dieters enter the ongoing weight loss phase. During this phase, you gradually increase your carbohydrate intake until you reach your personal carbohydrate threshold where you can't lose weight any longer. During the ongoing weight loss phase, weight loss averages about four to seven pounds per month, depending on how strictly you adhere to carbohydrate limitation.

Study Results

Studies have compared weight loss rates with the Atkins diet to more traditional diets. One study reported in the "Annals of Internal Medicine" concluded that low carbohydrate dieters had more favorable weight loss outcomes than those on low-calorie diets; however, a "New England Journal of Medicine" study found that while low-carbohydrate dieters lost about 4 percent more than low-calorie dieters during the first six months, after a year there were no significant differences in loss between the two groups.