Atkins, or the Atkins Nutritional Approach, is a popular low-carbohydrate diet for weight loss and maintenance. The diet starts with a two-week induction phase that includes a drastic reduction in your carbohydrate intake so that you can lose weight quickly. You can develop your own meal plan for induction or use the ones from Atkins. Before you start a diet for weight loss, get your doctor's approval and advice.
Basic Patterns
Your daily meal plan for Atkins induction should include a maximum of 20 g net carbs, which you can calculate by subtracting the grams of dietary fiber from grams of total carbohydrates in your food. The net carbs are the carbohydrates that have an effect on your blood sugar levels. Have three to five meals per day during induction, and plan to eat at least as often as once every six hours that you are awake. Drink at least 8 8-oz. glasses of water, tea, coffee or other carbohydrate-free beverages, and have a daily multivitamin and mineral supplement to reduce the risk of nutrient deficiencies from a limited diet. Calcium is particularly important, according to the Adkins website.
Allowed Foods
You can have eggs, fish, chicken, turkey, shellfish, beef, lamb and pork, as well as butter, olive oil, vegetable oils and mayonnaise. You can have limited amounts of nonstarchy vegetables, such as lettuce, endive, sprouts, broccoli, herbs, some kinds of full-fat cheese and sour cream. Avoid fruit, beans, grains, yogurt, milk and sweets. Atkins Advantage bars and shakes are suitable for induction, but Atkins Cuisine penne pasta and baking mix, Atkins Day Break bars and Atkins Endulge snacks are not yet allowed.
Help from Atkins.com
To save you time or to help you vary your choices, Atkins.com provides a free tool to generate a 2-week meal plan for the induction phase. Each day, you can select from among three choices for breakfast, lunch, dinner and two snacks. The plan includes Atkins bars and shakes, as well as recipes for meals that you cook for yourself. You may need to add additional acceptable vegetables to some meals on this plan to meet your goal of 12 to 15 g daily net carbs from vegetables.
Sample Days
A sample day using the meal planner from Atkins might include a bacon and cheddar omelet for breakfast, an Atkins Advantage shake for your first snack, a turkey Cobb salad for lunch, an Atkins Advantage bar for your second snack and beef with asparagus for dinner. You could make alternative selections to have a day on Atkins without Atkins products and choose, for example, cheddar scrambled eggs, meat and cheese rolls, hot and sour soup, salmon wraps and meatballs with cauliflower puree.
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