Atkins Diet Secrets

There have been a lot of different diet fads over the years. Some are highly effective while others are nothing more than smoke and mirrors. Trying to figure out the good diets from the bad can be a Herculean task. What I want to talk about now is one of the most popular diets of the day: The Atkins diet.

The Atkins diet was created by Dr. Atkins. It is based around one simple idea - cut carbs and increase protein consumption. You see our bodies can use both carbohydrates and protein to create energy. The difference between the two is that carbohydrates metabolize extremely fast. Basically our bodies use them up really fast leaving us in need of more energy. If our diets are heavy in carbs the end result is increased hunger because of how fast our bodies process carbohydrate rich foods. More hunger equals more food which equals more calories. You can probably see where this is going. The more calories you take in the harder it will be for you to lose weight and if you take in too many calories you will actually gain weight.

By cutting out the carbohydrates and upping our consumption of protein we force our bodies to rely heavily on protein for its energy. Protein metabolizes relatively slowly which will encourage the body to burn some stored fat for bursts of energy. Also because protein gets used up slowly we stay full longer after eating protein rich foods. That is why it is said that protein increases our satisfaction with our meals.

The nice thing about the Atkins diet is that we can still eat foods that would be denied to us under other diet plans. Egg's (with the yolk), steaks, cheeses and other foods that are considered big no-no's with a lot of diets are all acceptable under this plan.

For long term success you are not supposed to eat protein based foods alone. You restrict yourself to protein only for just the first couple of weeks. The goal of the first two weeks is to change your body from a carb burning machine into a fat burning machine. After these two weeks are up you should gradually begin to introduce carbohydrates back into your diet, but they should only be a small part of your diet. There are some foods that are absolutely forbidden. Anything made out of refined sugar is off limits. You have to kiss your white breads good bye. Also white rice, potatoes, and anything made out of white flour is gone for good.

I should note that many people have questioned whether or not this diet is healthy in the long run. On that point I cannot comment, but I will say that so many people have had success with the Atkins diet no one can question whether or not you will lose weight with it.

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