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Atkins Diet Plan

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The Atkins diet plan stresses low carbohydrate intake, and popularly claims that a person can lose weight by eating fat and protein, but reducing carbohydrates. While the short term aspect of the diet works, the long-term success of the diet depends heavily on how closely people follow the long-term diet plans.

The Atkins diet plan began in the 1960s with Dr. Robert Atkins, who claimed to have found it in the American Medical Association's journal. The diet is popular because of the popular notion that the dieter can eat meats and fats, and ignore carbohydrates, which seems to be the popular trend in America. This is true in the early stages of the Atkins diet plan, but the long-term maintenance phase of the plan is different.

Initially, followers of the Atkins diet plan restrict carbohydrate consumption in order to get the body burning protein and fat instead. This process begins when the body can no longer burn carbohydrates.

Rapid initial weight loss with the Atkins diet plan is possible because the body begins depleting the glycogen stores of the liver. This also translates into lost water weight, since every pound of glycogen the body carries is accompanied by four pounds of water.

The Atkins diet consists of four phases. Induction, the first, is used to cause the body to enter the state of ketosis, where it begins burning protein and fat instead of carbohydrates. Followers of the Atkins diet plan can only produce this effect by eating, at most, 20 grams of calories per day. Most of that must come in the form of green vegetables. The induction phase is where people see the most weight loss.

The ongoing weight loss phase of the Atkins diet plan consists of increasing the carbohydrate intake by five grams per week until no weight loss is detected. At that point, the carbohydrate intake is reduced to the previous point until the dieter reaches the target weight. This is also part of the pre-maintenance phase, which focuses on finding the proper carbohydrate level a target can reach. Finally, the lifetime maintenance phase is intended to carry on the habits learned in the previous phases of the plan.

Long-term use of the Atkins diet plan may produce harmful levels of ketones in the body. Also, as with any diet based on altering the human metabolism, the process is very complicated.

Always check with your doctor or physician before starting any nutrition or diet plan.