Five Misconceptions About Low-Carb Diets (I): the Atkins Diet
When the Atkins diet was published, it gave rise to many controversies about whether low-carb diets really work or not. Soon, a battle started between high and low-carb diets. In fact, studies showed that the Atkins diet is as efficient as any diet when it comes to losing weight.
Misconception #1: Low-carb diets don`t work.
If you’re looking for fast weight loss, then the Atkins diet is what you need. However, if you’re looking for long-lasting weight loss, then the Atkins diet offers the same results as most other diets. Studies showed that dieters who followed the Atkins diet gained weight after ending the diet, just like dieters who quit following other diets.
Misconception #2: Research has definitively proved that the Atkins diet works.
Research has actually proved that the Atkins diet works as well as other diets or even better for short-term weight loss. The Atkins diet, like many other diets, is not completely efficient, because it cannot guarantee permanent weight loss.
Misconception #3: Studies showed that the Atkins diet doesn`t increase the level of cholesterol.
Whether the Atkins diet increases the level of cholesterol or not is still being questioned. However, a recent study showed that people who followed the Akins diet had higher levels of HDL cholesterol, also known as the “good” cholesterol. Researchers still don’t have enough data to decide whether diets high in saturated fats are good or not.
Misconception #4: With the Atkins diet, you`ll lose weight forever.
The faster a diet makes you lose weight, the more difficult is to keep that weight off. Weight control can be achieved only with a balanced diet.
Misconception #5: With the Atkins diet, you can eat as much as you want.
This sounds good for those with hypoglycemia, cravings, and those who get hungry again soon after eating. However, it has not been proven that those who successfully follow the Atkins diet do in fact eat as much as they want. Moreover, no diet or food combination can disregard the law of calorie balance, according to which you need to burn more calories than you eat in order to lose weight.
(c) Project Weight Loss 2009. All rights reserved.
How does the atkins diet work?
How does the atkins diet work?
Home > Topics > How Does The Atkins Diet Work? How does the atkins diet work?
Read more on ThirdAge
Advantages of the Atkins Diet
Dr.Robert Atkins addressed his own weight condition from a diet he read in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Realizing the benefits of the diet he followed Atkins later popularized the idea as The Atkins Diet in a series of books, starting with Dr. Atkins’ Diet Revolution in 1972. The Atkins Diet or just ‘Atkins’ is a well known low carbohydrate diet.
How Atkins Diet Works
The Atkins Diet states we can change our metabolism and lose weight easily simply by eating foods high in protein and fat and limiting foods high in carbohydrate. Consuming a high level of carbohydrates causes overproduction of insulin, leading to increased hunger and weight gain. The diet encourages the consumption of foods rich in protein.
The Four Stages of the Atkins Diet
Induction
The Induction phase is the first, and most restrictive, phase of the Atkins Nutritional Approach. It is intended to cause the body to quickly enter a state of ketosis. Carbohydrate intake is limited to 20 net grams per day.
Ongoing Weight Loss
The Ongoing Weight Loss (OWL) phase of Atkins consists of an increase in carbohydrate intake, but remaining at levels where weight loss occurs. The target daily carbohydrate intake increases each week by 5 net grams.
Pre-Maintenance
Carbohydrate intake is increased again this time by 10 net carbs a week from the ladder groupings, and the key goal in this phase is to find the “Critical Carbohydrate Level for Maintenance”, this is the maximum number of carbohydrates you can eat each day without gaining weight.
Lifetime Maintenance
This phase is intended to carry on the habits acquired in the previous phases, and avoid the common end-of-diet mindset that can return people to their previous habits and previous weight. Whole, unprocessed food choices are emphasized, with the option to drop back to an earlier phase if you begin to gain weight.
Each stage becomes progressively less restrictive and gradually increases carbohydrates allowed.
What Food is Allowed in Atkins Diet
The allowed foods include a liberal amount of all meats, fish, shellfish, fowl, and eggs; up to 4 ounces (113 g) of soft or semi-soft cheese; salad vegetables; other low carbohydrate vegetables; and butter and vegetable oils.
Sample Menu Plan from the Atkins Diet
Breakfast:
Italian sausage frittata
Cup of Herbal Tea
Lunch
Tuna salad with mixed leafy greens topped with bacon bits
Dinner:
Bacon cheeseburger with broccoli and cauliflower
Fresh fruit kebobs
Snacks:
High-protein, low-sugar snack bar
What Food is Not Allowed in Atkins Diet
No bread, alcohol, or carbonated beverages, not even diet soda. Beverages are limited to water, and consumption of caffeine is not allowed. It May be difficult to eliminate breads and cereals, especially in families with children who love these types of foods.
Misconceptions about the Atkins Diet
Many people incorrectly believe that the Atkins Diet promotes eating unlimited amounts of fatty meats and cheeses. This is a key point of clarification that Dr. Atkins addressed in the more recent revisions of his book. Although the Atkins Diet does not impose limits on certain foods, or caloric restriction in general, Dr. Atkins points out in his book that this plan is “not a license to gorge.
Another common misconception arises from confusion between the Induction Phase and rest of the diet. The first two weeks of the Atkins Diet are strict, with only 20g of carbohydrates permitted per day. Atkins states that a dieter can safely stay at the Induction Phase for several months if the person has a lot of weight to lose. Once the weight-loss goal is reached, carbohydrate levels are raised gradually, though still significantly below USDA norms, and still within or slightly above the definition of ketosis.
Known Health Benefits of the Atkins Diet
There are over 50 studies that highlight the positive weight loss results and other health benefits associated with following the Atkins Diet. These benefits include weight loss, improvement in risk factors for heart disease, hypertension and diabetes, inflammation, benefits in treating epilepsy and decreasing obesity in children and adolescents.
Study out of University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center and Washington University School of Medicine randomly assigned participants to a low-carbohydrate, high-protein, high-fat diet or a low-calorie, high-carbohydrate, low-fat diet. The low-carbohydrate diet produced a greater weight loss and was associated with a greater improvement in some risk factors for coronary heart disease.
Study out of Stanford University Medical School compared four weight-loss diets representing a spectrum of low to high carbohydrate intake for effects on weight loss and related metabolic variables. Participants assigned to follow the Atkins diet, which had the lowest carbohydrate intake, lost more than twice the weight and experienced favorable overall metabolic effects at 12 months than those assigned to follow the Zone, Ornish, or LEARN diets.
Additional Suggested Health Benefits of the Atkins Diet
Many people like being able to eat as much protein and fat as they wish, because these foods are often restricted in more traditional diet plans.
For people who have tried a low-fat, high-carbohydrate weight loss plan without success, increasing protein in their diet often results in decreased food cravings and more rapid weight loss.
The diet is relatively easy to follow; there are no complicated meal plans.
Potential Risks of the Atkins Diet
Eating unlimited amounts of fat, especially saturated fat found in meat products, can lead to increased risk of heart disease. Extensive research on healthy populations tells us to eat more fruits,vegetables and whole grains. Restricting these foods in the name of weight loss may lead to long-term health problems.
Additionally any diet that limits carbohydrate causes the body to rely on fat or muscle for energy. When our body breaks down stored fat to supply energy, a byproduct called ketones is formed. Ketones suppress appetite, but they also cause fatigue, nausea, and a potentially dangerous fluid loss. Anyone with diabetes, heart, or kidney problems should check with their physician before following a low-carb diet.
Unpleasant side effects include constipation (caused by the low-fiber diet) and bad breath.
Impact of the Atkins Diet on Diet Culture
Since the Atkins Diet made headlines n the late ’90s, there has been an explosion of low carbohydrate versions of traditionally high carbohydrate products, such as bread, pasta and even candy. Thiewed as the “grand daddy” and cause of the explosion of low carrb diets popularity in the nineties to early 2000.
What the Experts are Saying about the Atkins Diet
Atkins Diet supporters claim it offers faster weight loss and a relatively user-friendly eating plan. Sceptics, including dietitians and nutritionists, maintain that Atkins Diet weight loss is both short-term and possibly a health risk, even though the weight loss itself may have the beneficial effect of lowering cholesterol.
Dr. Foster, one of the researchers involved in studying the Atkins Diet, acknowledged the possible health dangers of the Atkins diet and stated a longer five-year study was planned:
“This larger study of 360 participants will help us more fully assess the benefits and risks of low-carbohydrate diets on bone mass, kidney function, arterial function and exercise tolerance,” he said. “I’m very, very concerned that people will get the message from these studies that the Atkins diet is safe and effective, but I don’t believe we know that yet.”
Brigid McKevith, a nutrition scientist at the British Nutrition Foundation (BNF), said:
“We welcome the fact that the Atkins diet is being studied scientifically and that randomised controlled studies have been carried out, because it’s very popular with the public. [however] There are several potential problems with the Atkins diet. These include long term bone health, as with a very high protein intake the excretions of calcium increase, so there could be implications for the health of bones,” she explained.
“There could be difficulties for people who have an underlying problem with their kidneys or liver, because it would be putting more strain on those organs, and problems in terms of heart disease too, as it’s a diet very low in fruits and vegetables. Also, it’s very low in fiber, so in terms of digestive health, it’s not in keeping with our fibre and complex carbohydrate recommendations.”
Belinda Linden, head of medical information at the British Heart Foundation, holds similar views.
“The new studies do not indicate a dramatic weight loss for excessively obese people,” she said. “Previous studies have shown that weight loss from the Atkins Diet may involve muscle loss rather than body fat. Another potential problem is that it is so far unclear from studies whether weight loss is sustained over a longer period than six months. One of the studies shows no significant difference at 12 months.” She added that: “With minimal fruit and vegetables included in the diet, it holds serious implications for coronary heart disease and cancer. Diets need to be varied to protect against these conditions – and this one isn’t. This diet requires further long term and larger studies before its effectiveness can be confirmed.”
Volumetrics author Barbara Rolls, PhD, who holds the Guthrie Chair in Nutrition at Penn State University, offers a very simple explanation as to why people lose weight on Atkins diet:
“They’re cutting calories, even if they don’t realize it. No one has shown, in any studies, that anything magical is going on with Atkins other than calorie restriction. The diet is very prescriptive, very restrictive, and limits half of the foods we normally eat. In the end it’s not fat, it’s not protein, it’s not carbs – it’s calories. You can lose weight on anything that helps you to eat less, but that doesn’t mean it’s good for you.”
Neal Barnard, MD, president of the Physicians Commission for Responsible Medicine, a non-profit research group based in Washington, says:
“Low-carb diets have been linked to increased frequency of colon cancer, formation of kidney stones, kidney disease, and even osteoporosis… The reason for the health worries is in large part due to red meat. People who eat meat every day have three times greater risk of developing colon cancer. And then there is the problem of the kidneys. They aren’t designed to work on an oil slick of fat.”
Susan Barr, registered dietitian in New York City, says:
“There have been reports in the medical literature that say that this low-carb diet may not be as bad as we thought. That makes people interested again in this diet, but until there is more research on what stresses the diet places on the body, there is no way to know what it might be doing besides providing short-term weight loss.”
The Bottom Line
The Atkins Diet is an optimally balanced lifetime eating plan with the flexibility to meet each individual’s unique physical condition addressing factors such as age, gender, level of physical activity, and metabolic rate.
This diet may seem like the tastiest way to lose weight, but don’t be misled by claims of effortless weight loss and unlimited amounts of food. Nothing is that simple!
Categories: Diets Tags: Advantages, Atkins, diet
‘A new you’: Digesting the facts of ‘New Atkins’ low-carb diet
‘A new you’: Digesting the facts of ‘New Atkins’ low-carb diet
The Atkins diet has changed little since 1972, slashing carbohydrates such as pasta and potatoes and allowing beef, butter and cheese. Now others carry the torch for the late Robert C. Atkins with “The New Atkins for a New You.”
Read more on The Alexandria Town Talk
My Atkins Diet Story
aka how one Iowa guy lost over 200 pounds and gained his life back. I can not say enough about how positively the Atkins Diet and low carb in general has been for me. I went from a 429 pound guy who could barely make it up a flight steps to a guy running half marathons and rejoining the National Guard. My health is fantastic, and my blood work (cholesterol, triglycerides, blood pressure, heart) could not be better.
