Weight Loss

Dr. Robert C. Atkins has come up with a diet plan popularly known as the Atkins Diet Plan. This is a high protein, low carbohydrate and high fat diet plan.

Well, a number of diet plans that help you to loose weight, have been introduced recently.  The reason is the ongoing research in the field of weight loss. Looking good is becoming increasingly important for people and losing weight has become almost an obsession.

This is one side of the argument. Apart from cosmetic reasons, being obese or overweight is not good, as it can cause many health risks.

Atkins diet plan first puts you on a fourteen-day induction diet plan. During this period, you can eat meat, fish, poultry, eggs and most cheeses, cream, butter, vegetable oils, mayonnaise, small quantities of various salads and vegetables that would account to 20grams of carbohydrates a day. During this period, you are required to avoid all fruits, bread, pasta, grains, starchy vegetables, milk and yoghurt.

After this fourteen-day period, this plan allows you to increase your intake of  carbohydrates. The level and extent of carbohydrate would depend on your metabolic rate.

A normal day's Atkins diet plan would include ham, fried egg, decaffeinated coffee and water for breakfast. Lunch consists of water, one small tomato, half of a medium avocado and chicken with olive oil dressing. For dinner, Atkins diet recommends steak, six slices of cucumber, mayonnaise dressing, prawn cocktail with a little iceberg lettuce, a small onion salad with sour cream and soda water.

According to the Atkins Diet Plan, nearly all fruits available in the market are high in carbohydrates and therefore should be  avoided. According to this plan, you would eat 1400 to 1500 calories in a day and would lose 4 to 12 lbs in the first fourteen days.

Atkins says that a high protein, low carbohydrate and high fat diet plan ensures that fat is burned. He also says that you avoid becoming overweight as the body produces less insulin. This happens because the intake of carbohydrate is limited in Atkins diet plan.

Dr Atkins also claims that with the help of this diet plan the process of ketosis takes place in the body. Ketosis reduces appetite by producing a feeling of fullness. The process of  ketosis produces ketones, which replaces glucose as the source of energy. This happens when the intake of carbohydrate is limited. This ketosis becomes the new source of energy. Thus, the plan also increases your metabolic rate.

Other diets that fall in the same category are Protein Power and the Carbohydrate Addicts Diet. Both these diet plans are also given the same score as the Atkins diet plan.

The success of all  diet plans, including the Atkins diet plan, differs from one individual to another.