Sounds perfectly: a diet that allows you to eat almost unlimited amount of meat, cheese and sour cream and yet it is supposed to help you lose weight steadily! In spite of the active popularization of the diet by Hollywood stars, it is more difficult to keep to low-carbohydrate diets like the Atkins diet than you can imagine.
What is the Atkins diet?
The following theory lies at the bottom of the diet: reduction of the consumption of high-carbohydrate foods, as for example sugar, bakery and pasta, porridge and other low-fat products helps reduce the amount of insulin produced in the body. High proportion of insulin results in that any food you eat turns into fat and forms fatty deposits. That’s why reduction in insulin level should supposedly result in inevitable weight loss. Basically, one can observe positive changes during the first two weeks.
According to the Atkins’ theory, adherence to his diet and exclusion of net carbohydrates from your ration will allow :
- Burn fatty deposits instead of carbohydrates and due to this lose weight quickly.
- Forget about hunger between eating, because protein diets better assuage appetite than carbohydrate diets. As it takes more time for the body to assimilate protein, protein diets also contribute to the process of the stabilization of the amount of sugar in blood, that can prevent tiredness, depression, headaches, pain in muscles and joints.
Scientific point of view
From the scientific point of view weight loss with the Atkins diet can be explained very simply. If one consumes only restricted amount of carbohydrates (which are the main source of energy) the body enters the so-called « ketogenic » state when fat becomes the main source of energy. As a result the body burns fat and you start losing weight promptly. This process also stimulates production of ketones , that arouses a feeling of euphoria in the beginning. Most people on protein diets do not experience discomfort during the first days as they eat high fat products.
Disadvantages
The main disadvantage of the Atkins diet and other protein diets is that this ketogenic state may have a negative effect on your health for several reasons. First of all your brain needs “fuel”. Glucose obtained from carbohydrates plays this role. When your body burns fat and releases energy (if you keep to a low-carbohydrate diet), it produces less glucose and ketones cannot fully replace it to become an energy source for your brain.
Secondly, the body uses kidneys and liver to excrete ketones and thus they get more stressed. Besides, after several days with high ketone level in the body one may feel weakness, sickness, dizziness, insomnia, irritability. A process of dehydration takes place and in the most serious cases one may even have kidney problems. Such ketogenic state can be extremely dangerous for those suffering from heart diseases, hypertension and diabetes.
Keeping to the Atkins diet
Keeping to the Atkins diet during several weeks may not be healthy for the following reasons :
- protein rich foods as, for example, meat, eggs, cheese also contain much saturated fat that can cause rise of cholesterol in the body and thus increase the possibility of heart diseases.
- protein diets decrease the level of calcium in the body what may cause osteoporosis.
- people on protein diets who suffer from different illnesses as, for example, kidney or liver diseases are subjected to risk of progress of the diseases. This is caused by the increased pressure on kidneys and other organs the body uses to excrete ketones and other compounds like urea (by-product of protein decay).
Tried and tested
Many people who have tried the Atkins diet affirm that it had really helped them to lose weight faster than low fat diets. Nevertheless, others are sure that this fast weight loss can be explained by the fact that the diet excludes many basic products like fruit, vegetables, bread and porridges. Besides, the restricted list of the products allowed makes it difficult to keep to such a diet for a long time. As after any diet people get back to their normal eating habits and gain the weight they had lost.
Conclusion
Want to lose weight and dream of having a slim figure? The best way is to do regular exercises and cut down calories in your meals. Never exclude products of a particular group. A diet should be well balanced. Finally, these are excess calories but not carbohydrates that turn into fatty deposits.
A well balanced diet rich in fruit and vegetables, amyloid carbohydrates and proteins – this is the guarantee of effective weight loss and keeping it on the same level.