What is Dr. Atkins diet?
The Atkins diet is a carbohydrate intake restricted diet, or a ketogenic diet, but it is not a non-carbohydrate diet. The diet focuses on limited consumption of carbohydrates less than 20g a day for the first 2 weeks of the diet, referred to as Induction, after which you are encouraged to gradually increase the daily intake of carbohydrate grams until reaching a level that allows you to still lose weight. Once at goal weight you increase your carbohydrate grams until finding the level which you can maintain your desired weight. One of goals of the Induction phase is to begin dietary ketosis– read more about this in 3a. Ketosis, a condition in which the body without available dietary carbohydrates will turn to stored fat for fuel. The diet was formed by Robert C. Atkins, M.D., was popular in the 1970’s, and has become popular again with an updated book which is used now. Official website: http://www.atkinscenter.com/ Order the book: Dr. Atkins’ New Diet Revolution by Robert C. Atkins,
The Atkins diet is something of a precursor to the Carbohydrate Addict’s Diet in that it advocates unrestricted amounts of protein and fat, but restricted carbohydrate intake. The diet was developed by Robert C. Atkins, M.D.; he published a book about the diet in the 1970’s, and has recently released a new book titled The New Diet Revolution. According to Dr. Atkins, many people react unfavorably to carbohydrates by overproducing insulin, which causes the body to retain excess fat. Therefore, carbohydrates are held to an absolute minimum (in contrast to CAD, which allows the consumption of reasonable amounts of carbohydrates, but only during one meal per day). The goal on the Atkins’ diet is to get your body into a state of ketosis, a condition in which the body burns stored fat, rather than carbohydrates, for fuel. The presence or absence of ketosis can be determined by testing your urine with Ketostix, which are readily available at drugstores. Dr. Atkins has a Web site at http://www
