Atkins Diet: What's behind the claims? Results. Weight loss. The Atkins Diet says that you can lose 1. The Atkins Diet also acknowledges that you may initially lose water weight. It says that you'll continue to lose weight in phases 2 and 3 as long as you don't eat more carbs than your body can tolerate. Most people can lose weight on almost any diet plan that restricts calories — at least in the short term. Over the long term, though, studies show that low- carb diets like Atkins are no more effective for weight loss than are standard weight- loss diets and that most people regain the weight they lost regardless of diet plan. However, studies have shown that people who continued to follow diet plans, such as Atkins, for two years did lose an average of nearly 9 pounds (4. Some studies suggest that it's not cutting carbs that leads to weight loss with Atkins. Instead, you may shed pounds because your food choices are limited, and you eat less since the extra protein and fat keep you feeling full longer. Health benefits. The Atkins Diet says that its eating plan can prevent or improve serious health conditions, such as metabolic syndrome, diabetes, high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease. In fact, almost any diet that helps you shed excess weight can reduce or even reverse risks factors for cardiovascular disease and diabetes. And most weight- loss diets — not just low- carb diets — may improve blood cholesterol or blood sugar levels, at least temporarily. One study showed that people who followed Atkins had improved triglycerides, suggesting better heart health. But there have been no major studies to show whether such benefits hold up for the long term or increase how long you live. Some health experts believe that eating a large amount of fat and protein from animal sources, as allowed on the Atkins Diet, can increase your risk of heart disease or some cancers. Low Carb High Fat Diet, LCHF Diet, Atkins Diet—regardless of what you call it, does this eating plan actually help you lose weight? Texas woman becomes weight loss sensation after ditching diets, losing 160 pounds with healthy food choices 8/20/2015 6:34:55 PM - Forget fad diets. The 'How Much Weight Loss' Calculator can help determine how much weight you can lose on popular diets and specific calorie plans. For example, how much weight could. The weight loss industry is full of 'weird tricks' and empty promises. Weight Loss Resources gets back to basics: If you’re going to lose weight. However, it's not known what risks, if any, the Atkins Diet may pose over the long term because most of the studies about it have lasted for two years or less. Risks. The Atkins Diet acknowledges that drastically cutting carbs in the early phase of the program can result in some side effects, including: Headache. Dizziness. Weakness. Fatigue. Constipation. In addition, some very low carb diets restrict carbohydrates so much that they result in nutritional deficiencies or insufficient fiber, which can cause such health problems as constipation, diarrhea and nausea. Eating carbs that are high fiber, whole grain and nutrient dense can improve the health profile of programs like the Atkins Diet, though. In addition, the Atkins Diet has changed over time to help prevent health problems, and it now recommends taking a small amount of extra salt, along with vitamins or supplements. It's also possible that restricting carbohydrates to less than 2. Ketosis occurs when you don't have enough sugar (glucose) for energy, so your body breaks down stored fat, causing ketones to build up in your body. Side effects from ketosis can include nausea, headache, mental fatigue and bad breath. In addition, the Atkins Diet isn't appropriate for everyone. For example, the Atkins Diet recommends that you consult your doctor before starting the diet if you take diuretics, insulin or oral diabetes medications. In addition, people with severe kidney disease should not follow the diet, and the weight- loss phases of the diet aren't suitable for women who are pregnant or breast- feeding. May 3. 0, 2. 01. 4Walker C, et al. Diets for cardiovascular disease prevention: What is the evidence? American Family Physician. Sacks F, et al. Comparison of weight- loss diets with different compositions of fat, protein, and carbohydrates. New England Journal of Medicine. Last AR, et al. Low- carbohydrate diets. American Family Physician. Baron M. Fighting obesity: Part 1. Review of popular low- carb diets. Health Care Food & Nutrition Focus. The Best Weight Loss Program When losing is the only way to win. Westman EC, et al. The New Atkins for a New You. The Ultimate Diet for Shedding Weight and Feeling Great. New York, N. Y.: Fireside; 2. Hensrud DD (expert opinion). Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. April 1. 0, 2. 01. Atkins RC. Atkins' New Diet Revolution. New York, N. Y.: Avon Books; 2. Astrup A, et al. Atkins and other low- carbohydrate diets: Hoax or an effective tool for weight loss? Atkins RC. Atkins for Life. New York, N. Y.: St. The DASH Diet for Weight Loss Popularized by the books: The DASH Diet Weight Loss Solution and The DASH Diet Action Plan. The DASH diet supports healthy weight loss. The main dietary focus of the Atkins Diet is eating the right balance of carbohydrates, protein and fats for optimal weight loss and health. According to the Atkins. People that are looking to lose weight. Shakes will help you cut your calorie intake. Calorie overtake, which happens all the time, is the #1 guilty for obesity. Have an Atkins (or other Low Carb) Diet Success Story? Have you lost weight with Atkins or any other low carb weight loss program, such as Protein Power, The Zone. Martin's Press; 2. Malik VS, et al. Popular weight- loss diets: From evidence to practice. Nature Clinical Practice Cardiovascular Medicine. Dietary Reference Intakes for energy, carbohydrate, fiber, fat, fatty acids, cholesterol, protein, and amino acids (macronutrients). Institute of Medicine. Accessed March 2. Phase one low carb meal plan. Accessed March 2. Carb counter. Accessed March 2. Kones R. Low- fat versus low- carbohydrate diets, weight loss, vascular health and prevention of coronary artery disease: The evidence, the reality, the challenge, and the hope. Nutrition in Clinical Practice. Lui S, et al. Dietary carbohydrates. Accessed March 2. Bray GA. Dietary approaches for obesity. Accessed March 2. Program overview. Accessed March 2. See more In- depth. Atkins Diet Review - Weight Loss Resources. By Dietitian, Juliette Kellow BSc RDUnless you’ve been living on Mars, chances are you’ve heard of the Atkins diet – and probably know someone who’s tried it, if you haven’t done so yourself. After all, it’s a diet that sounds too good to be true. To shift those pounds quickly you simply need to start the day with bacon and eggs, snack on chunks of cheese, top coffee with cream and feast on steaks fried in butter. Not exactly the typical foods you’d find on the shopping lists of most slimmers who’ve grown up with the idea that a low- fat diet is the best way to lose weight. But like all things that sound too good to be true, there’s a catch. And in the case of the Atkin’s diet, it means that filling up on high- fat foods needs to be balanced by giving up most carbs including bread, potatoes, pasta, rice, chocolate, crisps, biscuits, cake – even fruit, milk and some veg in the early stages. Nevertheless, the Atkin’s diet has captured the hearts – and tastebuds – of everyone from A- list celebs such as Jennifer Aniston and Renee Zellweger to business men, teachers and housewives. In fact, at its peak in late 2. Brits were estimated to have tried the diet in an effort to shape up and slim down. In spite of this, the Atkins Diet has caused the biggest weight loss debate in years, generating almost as many column inches as advocates of the diet have claimed to lose from their waistline. And even today, nutrition experts have still not been won over. Here’s the lowdown. Dr Atkins' theory is really quite simple: when you cut out carbs, your body is forced into burning its fat stores to provide it with energy; as you burn more calories when your body burns fat compared with carbohydrate, you'll lose weight more quickly; by cutting out carbs, blood sugar levels remain more stable throughout the day, and so prevent overeating. How does the Atkins Diet work? There are four phases to the Atkins diet. The first phase is called Induction, which must be followed for at least two weeks, although this phase can be continued for much longer if you can bear it! During Induction, you must severely limit your intake of carbohydrate to a tiny 2. As well as avoiding carb- rich treats such as biscuits, cakes, chocolate, crisps, fizzy drinks, croissants and pastry, this also means ditching bread, potatoes, pasta, rice, milk, fruit and most veg from the menu. In contrast, you can eat unlimited amounts of red meat, chicken, fish, cheese, eggs, mayo, cream and butter. It’s during the Induction phase that your body switches from burning carbs to burning fat and blood sugar levels stabilise. The second phase, known as Ongoing Weight Loss, allows you to slightly increase your carb intake – by 5g daily for a week at a time – until you find your Critical Carbohydrate Level for Losing Weight. This is the maximum amount of carbohydrate you can eat each day to lose between 1 and 3lb a week. For some people, this may only be 2. Nevertheless, it’s still considerably lower than most of us are used to and really only allows for the introduction of a few more veggies, fruits, nuts and seeds. Bread, potatoes, rice, pasta and breakfast cereals are still off limits! It’s time to enter phase three, called Pre- maintenance, once you have just 5- 1. During this phase, you increase you carb intake by 1. The idea is to slow down your weight loss to no more than 1lb a week in an effort to prepare your body for the final phase, weight maintenance. By now you can start to include tiny amounts of traditional starchy foods such as porridge, bread and pasta – and we are talking tiny amounts! For example, just 4. The fourth and final phase, Lifetime Maintenance, aims to help you maintain your weight. While you can have a slightly more varied carbohydrate intake, most people need to limit carbs to less than 9. The result: you’ll be following a low- carb diet for life. So how much weight can I expect to lose? Dr Atkins claims you can expect to lose 6- 1. Induction, which should slow to 1- 3lb a week once you enter the Ongoing Weight Loss Phase. During Pre- maintenance, you can expect to lose 1lb a week at most. I keep hearing about . What are these? Not all carbohydrates can be digested by the body. Fibre, for example, passes through the body without affecting blood sugar levels. The Atkins diet focuses on those carbohydrates that can be digested and therefore affect blood sugar levels. The . In the UK, this is equivalent to the carbohydrate content given in the nutrition information chart on food packaging. I’ve noticed there are loads of low- carb products available. Should I try them? The availability of low- carb products has grown tremendously in the past few years and you can now buy everything from low- carb pasta, soups and bread to tomato ketchup, shakes and chocolate. If you decide to follow a low- carb diet such as the Atkins plan, these can add variety to your diet. However, it’s worth bearing in mind that these products can be expensive and many add few other nutrients to your diet. They are also often higher in fat and/or calories than the standard product, making them a less suitable option if you’re trying to lose weight by a more balanced method such as counting calories. Does the Atkins diet have any side effects? Unpleasant side effects can occur with the Atkins diet. To start with, burning fat results in the production of substances called ketones as your body enters a state called ketosis. This can result in bad breath, tiredness, weakness, dizziness, insomnia and nausea. Constipation may also occur as a consequence of avoiding typically high- fibre foods such as fruit, veg, beans, wholewheat pasta, brown rice, wholegrain breakfast cereals and jacket potatoes. When it comes to long- term side effects, many health professionals are concerned that the Atkins diet may have serious dangers. While the high intake of fat, particularly saturates, may increase the risk of heart disease, there are also concerns that the unbalanced nature of the Atkins diet may lead to nutritional deficiencies, which cause health problems in later life. For example, poor intakes of bone- building calcium (found in dairy products) may increase the risk of osteoporosis, while poor intakes of antioxidant nutrients (found in fruit and veg) have been linked with a host of health problems ranging from heart disease and cancer to premature ageing and cataracts. Some experts are also worried that high intakes of protein may cause kidney problems or weaken bones. Are there any other bad points? Because so many foods are off limits, the diet can get very boring with the result that many people give up after a short while. It’s also almost impossible to follow the Atkin’s plan if you’re a vegetarian as nuts, seeds, beans and many vegetables are banned in the early stages. Most experts also believe the Atkins plan fails to teach people about the basic principles of a balanced, healthy diet, which science irrefutably proves can help keep us healthy and free from disease. Any pros? The main positive is that people can lose considerable amounts of weight, really quite quickly and this can be very motivating. The diet also encourages people to cut out most processed carbs and alcohol. Thanks to it allowing plenty of red meat and high- fat butter, cream, cheese and mayo, it’s also the one diet that’s got men talking about the need to lose weight. In many cases, this talk has turned into action, with many men following the Atkins diet in an effort to lose their beer bellies! What do the experts say? The scientific jury’s still out on whether low- carb diets really do burn fat and most experts agree more research is needed to identify the long- term health risks and benefits. The Atkins Diet certainly flies in the face of healthy eating guidelines, which recommend less fat and more fruit, veg and high- fibre carbs. Nutrition experts are particularly worried that the diet may increase the risk of heart disease as it’s potentially very high in fat, especially saturates. Not even revised guidelines for fat intakes from Atkins Nutritionals – the company set up by the late Dr Robert Atkins to sell his products and promote the diet – have helped qualm most health professional’s fears. While the company recommended that no more than 2. Most experts also worry about the dangers of encouraging people to eat less fruit and veg – there’s overwhelming evidence that these foods can protect us from a host of diseases including cancer. Is the diet still as popular as it once was? It seems more of us are starting to serve spaghetti with our Bolognese, roast potatoes with our Sunday lunch and rice with our curries. According to new research, the popularity of the Atkins diet has taken a massive dive in America. The latest figures revealed that in January 2. US were following the diet, but by November 2. Meanwhile, if book sales are anything to go by, it looks like the same is happening in Britain. In December 2. 00. Dr Atkins infamous diet book were just one tenth of those a year ago, when hopeful slimmers bought more than 1. Numerous health scares reported in the press have appeared to turn many people against the Atkins regime and at last we’re beginning to take notice of the concerns of nutrition experts. Revelations that Dr Atkins was obese and suffering from heart problems at the time of his death have done little to help the low- carb cause, even though it was later claimed that these problems were the result of medical treatment. Even at the height of its popularity, a Weight Loss Resources poll in October 2. Department of Health about any potential problems linked to the Atkins Diet. Now it seems, the diet will lose many of its fans before official guidelines can be developed! Juliette’s verdict. From a practical point of view, while fried eggs and bacon for breakfast every day may initially sound tempting, most people will be left craving a piece of toast and a banana within a few days.
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