The Atkins Diet is a strict low-carbohydrate, high-protein diet where dieters restrict the total number of "net" carbohydrates they eat per day. Net carbs are calculated by subtracting grams of fiber from total carb grams. In doing so, the body stops burning carbohydrates for fuel, produces less of the fat-storing hormone insulin, and starts burning stored body fat, which leads to rapid weight loss.
History
The Atkins Diet is the brainchild of Dr. Robert C. Atkins, a cardiologist based in New York City. Atkins devised the diet in 1963 after reading a series of studies published in the "Journal of The American Medical Association," which suggested that low carbohydrate intake leads to rapid weight loss. He published his first book on the diet, "Dr. Atkins' Diet Revolution," in 1972 and then published a revision, "Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution," in 2001.
How it Works
Your body converts the carbohydrates you eat into the sugar glucose, which, when detected in your bloodstream, triggers the release of the hormone insulin. Though your body can store lots of fat, it can only store half a day's glucose supply, so the body tends to use carbs for fuel soon after you eat them. As a result, the body stops burning fat when it detects glucose in the bloodstream; it uses the glucose it can; and then it stores the rest as fat. As long as you're eating carbohydrates, you are increasing or maintaining your body's stores of fat, rather than burning them.
However, when you eat foods composed primarily of protein, fat and fiber--as the Atkins Diet recommends--your body produces much less insulin. This causes your blood sugar level to stay constant and prompts your body to start burning stored fat for fuel, which leads to weight loss.
Diet Components
The Atkins diet is comprised of four phases: Induction, Ongoing Weight Loss (OWL), Pre-Maintenance and Maintenance.
Induction lasts two weeks and involves eating no more than 20g of net carbohydrates per day. During this period, your body switches from a carb-burning machine to a fat-burning machine.
The second phase, Ongoing Weight Loss (OWL), follows the "Power of Five" rule, in that each week you add an additional 5g of net carbs to your diet as you monitor your weight loss. When you stop losing weight, you have found your Carbohydrate Level for Losing, or CLL. Continue eating the maximum number of healthy carbs per week that make you lose weight. This phase ends when you are within 10 lbs. of your target weight.
Pre-Maintenance is the third phase of the Atkins Diet; during it, you add 10g of net carbs to your diet each week according to the "Power of 10" rule. When you stop losing weight, move on to Maintenance.
Maintenance is just as it sounds: you have reached your target weight. Eat the maximum number of healthy carbs you can to maintain your weight.
Atkins Diet Foods
Proteins like fish, shellfish, poultry, eggs, beef and pork are the main components of the Atkins Diet. Dieters should get net carbs mostly from low-carb vegetables, like lettuce, mushrooms, cucumbers, broccoli and cauliflower. You can eat a limited number of nuts, seeds, legumes and fruits during the later stages of the diet. Beverages, such as alcohol, regular soft drinks, fruit juices and milk, are forbidden; the best drinks to consume are water, club soda, diet soft drinks, coffee and tea (with cream, but not sugar) and broth.
Considerations
Although the Atkins Diet is not your typical diet, it is still important for dieters to eat sensible portions, rather than excessively large ones. The good news is that dieters find that they eat less on the Atkins Diet because their blood sugar levels are more stable. Fluctuations in blood sugar are responsible for some of the hunger caused by carb-rich diets.
Concerns
Many studies that have shown the Atkins Diet to cause short-term weight loss have not not assessed the diet's long-term efficacy, leading to concerns that the diet may only work as a "quick fix" rather than a long-term dietary intervention. However, a study published in 2008 in the "New England Journal of Medicine" by Iris Shai and colleagues found that a low-carbohydrate diet similar to Atkins helped people not only lose weight, but keep it off over a period of two years.
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