If you are embarking on your personal weight loss journey, it can be challenging to take the first step. Getting off to a good start is essential for staying focused and reaching your weight loss goals. The Atkins diet promotes an induction phase to jump start the diet and start burning fat, but other diets also require you to follow a meal plan or implement exercise to get your body into calorie burning mode.
Significance
A weight loss induction helps gear your body up for long-term weight loss. The induction phase of a diet helps your body learn its new way of eating and helps you adjust to new eating habits and exercise. Induction can last anywhere from a few days to a couple of weeks, depending on how hard it is for you to adjust to eating new foods. Induction can also be a short period of time in which you may fast or eat certain foods in order to prepare the body for diet or exercise.
Types
You may find it beneficial to cleanse your body as part of your weight loss induction. You could do this by completely eliminating from your diet such foods as meat, dairy or processed foods. A liquid diet may help start weight loss induction. Eliminating solid foods and drinking lots of fluids will help flush toxins out of your system. A raw food diet may consist of only raw food shakes for the first day of the diet to also help cleanse the bowels and kidneys. A low carbohydrate diet restricts carbohydrate intake to under 20 net carbohydrates for the first two weeks; this helps the body switch from burning consumable calories to using stored fat for energy, explains the Atkins website.
Benefits
You may find yourself losing weight during induction. Induction can provide you with the motivation to make the lifestyle change you need to be healthy and lose weight. Induction is also a good time to break the habits of food or caffeine addiction. Junk food, soda, caffeine and fast food are examples of foods that are rarely nutritious. Exercising every day during the induction phase can also help you build up your muscles and prepare them for your long-term fitness goals. The American College of Sports Medicine notes the average adult should engage in moderately intense aerobic activity 30 minutes a day, up to five days a week.
Outcome
A period of induction should help your body adjust to its new diet or workout regimen. It may also help with cravings and urges to eat foods that you are not supposed to consume on your diet. Not jumping right into a specific diet or exercise program will help boost your metabolism. If your metabolism remains regulated when you start your program, you are more likely to reach success, explains MayoClinic.com.
Precautions
Because an induction phase generally focuses on eliminating certain foods for a specific period of time, there can be health risks involved. It is important to consult with your physician before starting a diet or exercise routine. He will also be able to advise you on what program may work best for your specific health condition or lifestyle.
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