Atkins Diet

What is Atkins Diet ??

The Atkins diet promises that not only will you lose weight -- and not be hungry -- with a low-carbohydrate diet, but you'll also be on the road to better heart health and memory function, as well as other wellness benefits. The diet is based on the theory that overweight people eat too many carbohydrates. Our bodies burn both fat and carbohydrates for energy, but carbs are used first. By drastically reducing carbs and eating more protein and fat, our bodies naturally lose weight by burning stored body fat more efficiently.


How it works???


By restricting carbohydrates drastically to a mere fraction of that found in the typical American diet, the body goes into a state of ketosis, which means it burns its own fat for fuel. A person in ketosis is getting energy from ketones, little carbon fragments that are the fuel created by the breakdown of fat stores. When the body is in ketosis, you tend to feel less hungry, and thus you're likely to eat less than you might otherwise. However, ketosis can also cause a variety of unpleasant effects (such as unusual breath odor and constipation) in a small number of people.
As a result, your body changes from a carbohydrate-burning engine into a fat-burning engine. So instead of relying on the carbohydrate-rich items you might typically consume for energy, and leaving your fat stores just where they were before (alas, the hips, belly, and thunder thighs are popular fat-gathering spots), your fat stores become a primary energy source. The purported result: weight loss.


Have 4 Phases: 


Phase 1
Called induction; it's where you'll kick start your weight loss, 
losing up to 15 pounds in the first 2 weeks.

Phase 2

Eat More Foods; Lose More Weight

Ongoing weight Loss, or OWL for short, lets you start adding

more types of food and more carbs back into your diet-but amazingly,

you keep losing weight, just a bit more slowly.

Phase 3

Called Pre - Maintenance. By now, you've lost so much weight, you're only 

10 pounds from your goal. Is it complicated? Not at all, basically
you keep adding carbs, keep losing weight and keep gaining control.


Phase 4
Lifetime Maintenance. You're at your goal weight, you know exactly how much
and what kinds of foods you can eat to maintain your weight and you'll never
have to go on another diet, ever.

 

For more information about this diet u can read at the below links:

http://www.atkins.com

http://www.webmd.com/diet/atkins-diet-what-it-is

http://www.chefdepot.net/graphics/atkins_food_pyramid.gif