The Atkins diet can allow you to lose weight quickly and effectively while maintaining lean muscle mass. Using a variety of foods, you can enjoy meals such as steak and eggs while cutting calories and dropping body fat. By decreasing carbohydrates, you keep your blood sugar levels steady which reduces hunger cravings and cuts down on the likelihood of binge eating while dieting. Consult your physician before beginning any diet or exercise program.
Ketogenic Diets
The Atkins diet is what is a called a ketogenic, or low carbohydrate diet. The purpose of the diet is to allow your body to burn ketones, a type of fatty acid, for fuel instead of glycogen, or sugar. This requires you to severely limit your carbohydrate intake and eat as little carbohydrates as possible. You can eat fiber, which is technically a carbohydrate, but your body does not process it like a sugar or a starch, so it does not work against you in your quest to burn ketones and drop body fat.
Weight Loss
The most tangible benefit of the Atkins diet is the quick weight loss. As you deplete your stored sugars, you lose water as well. Each gram of stored glycogen retains approximately four grams of carbohydrates. When you deplete glycogen, the water goes with it. This loss will stay off as long as you do not binge on carbohydrates. Long-term, the Atkins diet is effective in managing body weight and fat loss, and has shown to be just as effective as a low-fat diet approach.
Hormone Production and Regulation
Your body requires fat to produce hormones. Fats contain compounds called sterols, which your body converts to steroidal hormones, such as testosterone. If your testosterone levels drop, regardless of gender, your ability to maintain lean muscle tissue drops as well, which will cause your metabolism to slow down. This is why a diet low in fat can cause a decrease in testosterone levels over a period of time. You also need essential fatty acids, such as omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids for much the same reason, and these fatty acids can be found in oily fish such as salmon, swordfish, and herring, as well as nuts, seeds and flax.
Stability of Blood Sugar Levels
Another benefit of the Atkins diet is that the lack of carbohydrates allows you to maintain stable blood sugar and insulin levels. As you are not going to have a sudden surge in sugar, you are not going to get a large response from your pancreas and a corresponding surge in the hormone insulin, which not only affects your energy levels, but your ability to store fat. As you are getting the majority of your calories from protein and fat, your energy levels stay consistent as you continue to lose body fat.
References
- "Journal of the American Medical Association"; Efficacy and Safety of Low-Carbohydrate Diets; Bravata et al., April 2003
- PubMed.gov: Decrease of Serum Total and Free Testosterone During a Low-Fat High-Fiber Diet
- PubMed: Dietary Omega-3 Fatty Acid Supplementation Increases the Rate of Muscle Protein Synthesis in Older Adults: a Randomized Controlled Trial
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