Posts Tagged ‘Atkins’

What Is The The Atkins Diet?

Monday, December 19th, 2011

The short name for the ‘Atkins Nutritional Approach’ is the ‘Atkins Diet’, which was the brainchild of Doctor Robert Atkins. He had gained a lot of weight while in medical school and after reading about a certain diet in the medical journal, he decided to improve it and release it under his own name.

Atkins, in his Atkins Diet book, wrote that he believed that the prevailing theories about putting on weight were completely wrong. First, he dismissed the idea that saturated fats were bad; instead he said it was it was carbohydrates that caused the weight problems Americans have these days. Atkins held that our obsession with avoiding fat actually aggravated the problem. He pointed out that the low-fat foods that were high in carbohydrates were not helping the nation, which probably meant that people on a diet often ate foods that were worse for them than what they had normally eaten.

The Atkins diet moved the focus. Atkins said that by avoiding carbohydrates, people would burn stored body fats. And, of course, if you lose the fat, you lose the weight. He said it was not just a question of eating less. Atkins held that your diet could actually help you burn calories and The Atkins Diet supposedly burned more calories than were consumed everyday. But the claims were disputed.

Dr. Atkins also touted the positive influence that his diet should have on people with Type 2 diabetes. Type 1 diabetes is a disease you usually get early in life, but Type 2 is more often closely associated with diet and excess body weight. Therefore, it should follow that any diet that helps decrease weight, will help people with Type 2 diabetes. The Atkins diet is low in carbohydrates, which must be avoided by those with Type 2 diabetes regardless of the caloric intake, which the Atkins diet does, so Atkins claimed that those who suffer Type 2 diabetes would no longer need medication such as insulin. Doctors do not agree with Atkins on this point, although they do agree, that a lower carbohydrate intake helps control Type 2 diabetes, but there is no proof that carbohydrates cause diabetes.

What does one have to do to follow the Atkins diet? Well, it goes in four phases - Induction; On-Going Weight loss; Pre-maintenance; and Lifetime Maintenance. This is a brief synopsis of the first phase - The Induction Phase.

The Induction phase is probably the most difficult of the phases in the Atkins diet. Atkins is rather flexible about how long it should last ” but recommends two weeks. During this time, carbohydrate consumption should be severely limited ” up to 20 grammes per day. The idea is to enter a fat burning metabolic process called ‘ketosis’ which is when the body, being starved of glucose, starts to convert previously stored fat into the fatty acids needed to power the body. Weight loss during this period is often extreme ” some Atkins dieters report losses of 5-10 lbs. a week or more.

The purposes of the final three phases in the Atkins diet are to learn the ideal carbohydrate levels for the next two phases, which are continued weight loss and weight maintenance. Many millions of people are still losing the weight they want to on the Atkins Diet ” but beware the risks of consuming in too much cholesterol and fat.

Do you need to lose those excess pounds real fast? Well, take a free look at The Atkins Diet, by visiting our resource called The Atkins Diet Plan

Dr. Atkin’s Carbohydrate Count

Saturday, November 19th, 2011

Most people who are on diets count the amount of calories that are present in their meal. The low carb diet is very different from these diets because instead of counting calories you must count your carbohydrate intake. There are now many methods by which you can make a carbohydrate count.

In all of these procedures the main thing to know is that there is a calorific difference between raw and cooked food. With raw food, you just need to take the full weight of the food and you can read off what the actual carbohydrate count is. However, the cooked food can have various seasoning and other ingredients added, which can change the carbohydrate count of these foods quite drastically.

In order that you don’t get your foods mixed up you may find it a good idea to see about obtaining one of those carb counters that are being advertised on the many low carb diet pages on the Internet. Armed with something like this you can easily find the carbohydrate count of whatever types of foods that you want to eat.

There are even carb counters that can discover and work out the hidden carbs in your favourite foods and whatever the carb content of these foods is, will be revealed. You will then be able to see whether they fit in with the low carb diet you are on. You can also see about obtaining a list of foods where the carbohydrate count for those foods is clearly stated.

In this way, when you plan your meals, you will just need to check your list to find out which low carb foods are acceptable. Sometimes, the Internet low carb recipe websites will have the information about the carbohydrate count that is in their recipe’s ingredients. Of course, if this information is not available you will need to resort to counting carbohydrates yourself to get this vital information.

You should not worry too much about finding what the carbohydrate count is of everything in the recipe. Sometimes, you can be a little too enthusiastic and end up leaving important foods out of your meals because your carbohydrate count for that meal or the day has been exceeded.

Basically, with a carbohydrate count you can decide whether or not to use certain foods in your recipes. However, there is a positive side to this carbohydrate counting and there is a negative side. Perhaps the main thing that you need to do is to figure out what foods you consider as being part of a healthy diet and use the carbohydrate count just to find the nutritional value of your meals.

Do you want to lose those excess pounds real fast? Well, take a free look at Carbohydrate Counters, by going to our website called The Atkins Diet Plan

The Atkins Diet and the Desire for Food

Saturday, May 7th, 2011

A very common, but nevertheless surprising results of following the Atkins diet is appetite suppression. A lot of the advocates of the plan report that the between meal hunger pangs they used to experience just fade away and quite rapidly too. This factor makes it easier to stay on the diet and keep to lose weight. While other diets leave their followers starving between meals, the Atkins diet offers relief from continuous hunger. The Atkins diet, with its specific recommendation of foods and ingredients, has powerful appetite suppressing effects.

The first key component is the amount of protein in the Atkins diet. Protein, a lot so than carbohydrates, has the power to satiate hunger pangs. If you have ever eaten a carbohydrate dense meal and then felt hungry again a few hours later, you know that carbohydrates don’t have much staying power as a hunger satisfier. Protein, on the other hand, when it is combined with a small amount of healthy fats, can keep you feeling full for much longer periods of time.

One of the most powerful appetite suppressing foods on the Atkins diet is the egg. Eggs are a great sort of quick and easy protein. A recent study showed that eating eggs for breakfast would actually stave off hunger pangs throughout the rest of the day. The research concerned two groups of women. One group ate eggs for breakfast and the other had a breakfast of bread and cream cheese.

The calorie count for both breakfasts was exactly the same. The subjects noted down what they ate for the rest of the day and answered questions about their hunger levels and satisfaction levels throughout the day. The results of the study showed that the women who ate the eggs for breakfast felt more satisfied throughout the entire day and they ate less at each meal than those women who were in the bagels group.

Eggs contain about 6 grammes of protein each, which helps to regulate blood sugar and produces a feeling of satisfaction. Both of these factors help to control cravings. Egg yolks also contain lutein and xenazanthin. These nutrients have been proven to have incredible effects on eye health. So it’s important to eat the whole egg, and not just the white. Eggs contain choline which is important for maintaining brain function and memory. These nutrients are just an additional benefit to the appetite suppressant qualities.

Broccoli and cauliflower, two of the most recommended vegetables on the Atkins diet, also have appetite-suppressant effects. These vegetables are very bulky and they help make your stomach feel full. When your stomach is full, it will actually create a chemical response in your body. Your body will reduce its appetite because it believes that your stomach is full of high calorie foods. This happens regardless of what is actually in your stomach. You can get the same results with water and psyllium husk fiber. Both broccoli and cauliflower provide bulk in your diet and are essential vegetables on the Atkins diet.

The Atkins diet focuses on eating small, protein balanced meals a few times per day. This will help maintain your blood sugar level in a stabilized state and avoid carbohydrate-induced cravings. With high carbohydrate diets, you are riding a roller-coaster of carbohydrate highs. After you have eaten, you feel great and full. Then after a few hours, you come crashing down and are hungrier than you were before eating the carbohydrates. This cycle continues ad infinitum and, over time, you will eat more and more and eventually put on weight.

The protein, fat and vegetable recipes provided by the Atkins plan put your blood sugar back in balance. They provide just enough of each sort of food, with a proper amount of carbohydrates (from the vegetables). The vegetables provide quick carbohydrate energy, and the protein gives the meal its sustainability. This combination suppresses your appetite effectively throughout the day.

The Atkins diet is actually a craving control plan that suppresses your appetite. If you’ve had a problem with carbohydrate cravings before, this new way of eating will help control those cravings. The more you eat on the plan, the better your cravings will be controlled and the easier it will be to follow the diet - the more you practice the diet the easier it gets.

If you want to read our personal experience of the Atkins diet, please visit Appetite Suppression of if you want to read a lot more about the The Atkins Diet click the blue link.

Complex Carbohydrates

Sunday, August 8th, 2010

When most of us make up our minds to follow a diet, we are filled with joy because we are finally going to shed that unwanted weight. All we require is the correct diet info. However, usually, a few months down the line and not only have we not shed any weight, but we are also disappointed with our diet.

Why does something like this happen you might ask in exasperation? Well, the answer would be that we are not eating the right combination of foodstuffs to burn the surplus fat off. Following a diet that has complex carbohydrates foods which are good for you could be the answer to all whole diet dilemmas.

When you first start any of these diets, the first thing that will be explained to you, is what food you can eat and what types of food are not good for you. According to most low carb diet info, among the many bad foods will be various complex carbohydrates foods which you really must have for your body to function well. The best approach to take with those diets is to understand the low carb diet info behind them and use the diet food lists that they give wisely.

This way you will definitely lose weight, because the foods that you will be eating on your diet are the kinds of food that can make you lose your hunger pangs. By not wanting to consume lots of food, you will not be snacking on junk food and piling on the weight. According to most low carb diet information, complex carbohydrates foods for long lasting energy will release the quantity of energy that you need, slowly, throughout the day.

According to most low carb diet info, these foods also have the necessary dietary requirements that we need for our bodies to develop healthily. You should, however, remember the low carb diet info that the best way to develop a fantastic looking figure is to maintain a healthy balance between all of the complex carbohydrates foods in the other groups and to include regular exercise into your lifestyle.

When you go shopping for your dietary foods, wait a moment and see if the foods that you have planned for your meals, according to the low carb diet info you have, will help you in the long run or if you will be feeling worse than you do now. The reason is that many of the foods in these various diets don’t take your body’s health needs into account.

If you don’t eat the right foods, you can end up with various illnesses and other complications that you had no trouble with when you used complex carbohydrates foods like fruit and vegetables that were part of your every day eating habits.

Remember that, according to most low carb diet info, you have to take into account the health requirements of your body as well. Including fantastic tasting complex carbohydrates foods that you usually love to eat anyway, make dieting fun, especially since you are not really dieting. What you are doing is making a permanent change for a healthier future.

Do you need to lose that excess weight real fast? Well, take a free look at Complex Carbohydrates, by going to our resource called The Atkins Diet Plan

The New Diet Revolution

Wednesday, May 19th, 2010

We inhabit a society where being slim is the goal. We are driven to think that this is what we all ought to look like too. We see the evidence of this in the slim models in fashion magazines, in beauty contests on TV, in adverts and in many other places. There are books that are devoted to helping us get this new look. One book that attempts to help you obtain this modern look is Dr Atkins New Diet Revolution.

In Dr Atkins New Diet Revolution, we are advised about a new way of living - a low carb lifestyle. In this new method, we are told what kinds of low carb foods we can eat. Naturally, we will have to follow strict rules for Dr Atkins diet to start working and helping us to lose those ugly pounds.

There are 4 stages in Dr Atkins New Diet Revolution diet that must be followed by anyone who wants to lose weight the Atkins diet way. These stages are the Induction which is stage 1; Ongoing weight loss which is stage 2; Pre-maintenance is stage 3 and Maintenance, which is stage 4. In addition to the dietary rules of these stages Dr Atkins New Diet Revolution book recommends regular exercise and taking nutritional supplements as part of his low carb diet.

During the induction stage of the diet it is possible to lose about 15 pounds in weight. This is done by limiting your carb intake to 20 grammes a day. You can, however, eat lots of low carb vegetables in your diet like lettuce, broccoli and tomatoes. Consuming yoghurt, fruits, rice, bread and starchy vegetables like potatoes is out while you are on the Atkins diet. Furthermore, caffeine and alcohol drinks are not recommended.

Dr Atkins’ New Diet Revolution states that it is during the induction stage, that you will stabilize your blood sugar level, thus curbing several health issues that arise from unstable blood sugar, like fatigue and diabetes. It is also in this stage of the diet that you break your food addictions and your cravings for different foods such as sugar and alcohol.

When you enter the 3rd and 4th phases of Dr Atkins New Diet Revolution, the book tells you that you have reached your ideal weight. From these stages on, you get to increase your daily carb intake to up to 60 grams per day. From here on. if you want to stay at your ideal weight then you must stick to the Atkins diet for the rest of your life.

Honestly, there does not seem to be a more scientific way to lose weight and keep it off permanently. The Atkins diet really does work, and by reading Dr Atkins New Diet Revolution you will be taking a giant step in the right direction.

Do you need to lose those excess kilos quickly? Well, take a free look at The Atkins Diet, by visiting our resource called The Atkins Diet Plan

My Experience With The Atkins Diet (Part 2).

Sunday, May 9th, 2010

Some people try make your life miserable, if you let them. Everyone could see that I looked better and felt happier, but some people just have to try to spoil it. I was told: many people have died of kidney or liver failure after being on Atkins I read it in the paper; you will have a heart attack, it’s not natural; your cholesterol will shoot up and you will need your legs amputated or you will have a stroke; it will affect your eyesight. All sorts of drivel. So, I went to my doctor, who admitted that he knew nothing about the Atkins diet, but also added that he had heard nothing bad about it either. He sent me for a series of tests, but the results all proved satisfactory. He was very happy that I’d lost 18 lbs and so was I. Six weeks later, I went for another cholesterol check, because of the high fat levels in the diet and, although my cholesterol level was up very slightly, the doctor said there was absolutely no cause for concern.

The Atkins diet warns that you might develop halitosis (bad breath). I don’t know whether I did or not - no-one said anything, but I started brushing my teeth four-five times a day just in case. I suppose that that’s another benefit of ‘doing Atkins’ - increased oral hygiene. It also warns of constipation. I didn’t get that either, although I didn’t give up black coffee, which has always been a laxative for me. But surely you can’t suffer from constipation if you eat about a 1lb of greens a day? I hadn’t been eating that amount of roughage before starting the Atkins diet! So my two main concerns did not exist.

After a couple of weeks I was getting bored. Not with the diet, but because I’m single and am used to going to the pub (and drinking beer). So, I decided to treat this scientifically. One day, after work, I had three pints of Guinness and felt great. Before the diet, I would have drunk five or six to feel the same. To my delight, the next morning the ketone sticks told me that I was still ‘on the diet’. Over the following weeks, I thoroughly enjoyed checking out what would ‘work’ and what would not. I found that cider is a complete no-no. Some beers and some lagers are OK. Red and white wine are OK. Consuming alcohol does not knock you off the diet, but it slows your rate of progress. But even slow progress is progress, I say. Better than giving up the diet.

Be very wary of people encouraging you to ‘just try a little bit’. They don’t understand or don’t want to understand the trouble they’re causing you. Your body can hold two days worth of carbohydrates. One chocolate, one slice of bread, a bowl of cornflakes or one sugar in your coffee will cost you TWO days to put right. Don’t let them do it to you. This is not a diet for the weekends, in fact I think that it probably could be dangerous to keep ‘falling off the wagon’, because of the high fat content of the diet, which is not dangerous if you stick to it, because you body devours fat and cholesterol in the absence of carbohydrates.

The story ends so far, with me having got down to under 16 stone and keeping it there, until very recently when I moved to the Far East to live. Once I get used to the food and my own house and own kitchen, I will go down to 15 stone, I know I will ” with very little effort.

Well, there you have it … My grateful thanks to you, Mr. Blackwell, wherever you are these days, you changed my life and my understanding of food and drink with that book and thank you, Mr. Atkins too.

Are you interested in the Atkins Diet? Visit our site on Atkins dieting at: Atkins Dieting

Cooking Low Carb Atkins

Thursday, April 22nd, 2010

Cooking is called an art form but cooking can get even more creative in thought and planning when you or someone in your family starts on a diet. The challenge comes when you have to match the needs of your whole family with that of a low carb dieter. However, even for this seldom awkward problem, low carb recipes are Heaven sent, especially if inspiration is low.

Due to the many low carb recipes and products on the market it is now entirely possible to make cooking low carb food an enjoyable part of your life. There are so many handy things you can use when you are cooking low carb recipes. Also the Internet has many websites that feature low carb lifestyle changes.

Some of these variations are simple to implement like using two different recipes to make one healthy meal that becomes a low carb recipe. There are even counters that can help you discover if your choice of food items is keeping you within the boundaries of your low carb recipe.

A list of food that you want to buy is also good for cooking low carb recipes. To complete the transformation to cooking low carb recipes, you should have your kitchen reflect this dietary change. If you do this, you will have all of the kitchen implements and staples for cooking low carb recipes already at hand in your kitchen.

This need not necessarily be anything high-brow, you know. Really, as long as you avoid foods which are high in carbs and just keep cooking low carb meals you will be all right.

This does not mean that you have to avoid carbs completely, only that you should limit the quantities when cooking low carb recipes to the absolute minimum. As I mentioned earlier, this can severely limit your manner of cooking. Low carb recipes aren’t easy to adapt if you really love your pastas and bread.

Furthermore, by adopting only a small amount of change, you can turn out meal after meal of low carb recipes. If you’re not the one on the low carb diet, then maybe you’ll be reluctant to start cooking low carb meals, but you’ll be pleasantly surprised at the number of really great tasting meals you can prepare when you start preparing low carb recipes.

However, then again, if you’re not the one who want to eat low carb recipes, then you always have the option of adding a few high carb recipes to your meal along with the low carb dishes, and enjoy the meal the way you like it. In this way, everyone gets what they want and you will have no problems with preparing low carb recipes or pandering to the dieter in your family!

Do you want to lose those excess kilos rapidly? Well, take a free look at Atkins low carb recipes, by visiting our resource called The Atkins Diet Plan

categories: Atkins,diet,weight loss,health,fitness,blood pressure,diabetes,advice,self help,blood sugar,fat,cholesterol,plus size,other

Is There an Atkins Grapefruit Diet?

Sunday, April 18th, 2010

The Atkins Grapefruit diet is a diet plan, not endorsed by the eponymous Dr. Atkins company, that tries to play on the popularity of two diets: the grapefruit diet and the Atkins diet. However, a close look into this diet shows that it may not be all it claims for itself.

First off, it’s pretty hard to any find information on the Atkins grapefruit diet plan at all. Smart people realize that when someone is perpetrating a deception, or a con, they will often gloss over the facts. This is what the Atkins grapefruit diet seems to be doing in an attempt to get people to associate it with two supposedly effective diets.

Is the Atkins Grapefruit Diet part of the Atkins Diet or support by the late Dr. Atkins’ firm? The answer is a loud no! But, not only is there no mention of the Atkins Grapefruit Diet on the Atkins web site, there is just no fruit of any sort allowed in the list of allowed foods in the Atkins diet Induction phase either.

The induction phase includes the following foods: fish of all kinds, all fowl such as turkey and chicken, any shellfish, any meat such as beef or pork, eggs cooked in any style including fried, cheese, vegetables, herbs and spices, fats and oils, low carbohydrate beverages including diet soft drinks.

Please, notice one thing - that fruit does not feature on that list at all! Yes, later phases of the Atkins diet do allow small amounts of fruits such as cantaloupe and strawberries, and the pre-maintenance and maintenance phases do even allow small quantities of grapefruit, but when judged in comparison with the amount of Grapefruit recommended on the Atkins Grapefruit Diet there is a huge difference.

The Atkins Grapefruit Diet suggests a cup of grapefruit juice or a cup of grapefruit sections, with 8 and 18 carbs respectively. Even the most liberal phases of the Atkins diet recommends limiting intake to below 8 carbs per day, when it comes to grapefruit. That’s a direct contradiction of one plan to the other.

Most sensible people would turn to the Atkins website itself the moment they heard of the Atkins Grapefruit Diet and when they found no reference of that diet on their site, a red light would flash and an alarmbell would sound.

In general, remember this: any diet that relies too heavily on one food, such as grapefruit on a grapefruit diet, is unhealthy for any but extremely short periods. The Atkins Grapefruit Diet is not associated with the Atkins diet, and may interfere with the results of the Atkins diet in its early phases.

Do you want to lose those excess pounds rapidly? Well, take a free look at The Atkins Diet, by going to our website called The Atkins Diet Plan

Low Carbohydrate Vegetables

Saturday, April 10th, 2010

Any diet that asks you to go low carbohydrate and use only low carbohydrate vegetables is saying that you need to search for vegetables that are low in carbohydrates. You need to use these vegetables in stead of your regular vegetables. There are many great tasting meals that you can make with low carb vegetables.

They can be used in your various diet recipes or used for salads. They are great by themselves as healthy snacks and you can also blend them for a nutritious drink. The many websites that give recipes for low carb cooking and meals might have some recipes that will let you use your low carb vegetables in meals.

Imagine producing a splendid meal using only low carb foods. You can keep a magnificent side dish full of low carb vegetables that have been transformed into a delicious salad. This salad can be garnished with many interesting foods that are also low carbohydrate but taste great by themselves as well.

For example, you can make a salad from low carb vegetables that include boneless beef, top sirloin steak, fresh lemon juice, gourmet salad greens, medium plum tomatoes, ranch or blue cheese dressing. You have the choice of making a seasoning for this salad from dried oregano, garlic cloves and pepper.

As you can see, there are many ways that you can combine your low carb vegetables with other foods to make superb meals for you and others to eat. The main thing to remember is not to put things like a heavy French dressing on your low carb vegetables. This will turn your nutritious low carb vegetables into something heavy.

There are instances in your low carb cooking when you can make use of only one of the low carb vegetables to give you a magnificent dish that looks mouth-watering. This type of low carb recipe will call for only a low carbohydrate vegetable like eggplant. This vegetable is very versatile and you can use it in a variety of ways.

When you make up your mind to eat low carb vegetables in this way, you take your cooking experience into another dimension of gourmet food. The many low carb recipes that you can find on the Internet, will let you make great dishes with your low carb vegetables. After all, eating low carbohydrate vegetables is just another way of experimenting with new foods

Do you want to lose that excess weight rapidly? Well, take a free look at Low Carb Vegetables, by visiting our resource called The Atkins Diet Plan

categories: Atkins,diet,weight loss,health,fitness,blood pressure,diabetes,advice,self help,blood sugar,fat,cholesterol,plus size,other

Atkins Diet Low Carb Diet Menu

Tuesday, April 6th, 2010

With the advent of the New Age, gone are the days when having a Marilyn Monroe style of figure was considered to be the ideal of what a woman should look like. Now we have waif-thin role models of what the perfect woman should look like, and this is the shape we want to have too. To that purpose most of us will turn to every diet possible, but it’s a fact that a growing number of dieters are concentrating more on what the Atkins Diet, low carb diet menu has to offer for them over the others.

Certainly, there are any number of diets that are similar to the Atkins Diet and the low carb diet menu plans, but it has to be said that the Atkins Diet was the first of these now popular high fat, high protein, low carb diet menu plans. And the Atkins Diet low carb diet menu will offer you the most appetizing range of low carb foods to select from.

However, with only a little clever mixing and matching on your part, you can even invent different low carb diet menu plans that will rival anything found on any of the other similar diets. By going on the Atkins Diet, low carb diet menu planning becomes that much easier for you, and you will not need to worry that what you’re preparing will comply with your dietary regulations.

The Atkins Diet low carb diet menu can help solve your problem in this way and it can also help you compile a list of foods and high carb diet menu plans that you must not eat. By doing this you can take your food lists shopping with you, where they can help you to know which foods should stay off your shopping list. This can be an extra-ordinary aid to you in adhering firmly to your low carb diet menu.

This does not mean that it will be simple to stick to your low carb diet menu. Quite the contrary in fact, even though you can eat what can amount to almost anything you choose from the high fat high protein part of your Atkins Diet low carb diet menu, if you love your carbs you’ll feel the lack of them.

And if you have been sustained for most of your life by these high carb foods, as most of us have, then you’ll have an even more difficult time becoming used to the rigors of the Atkins Diet low carb diet menu plans. The only thing that’ll help you now in sticking to your low carb diet menu and away from your high carb cravings could be your Atkins Diet low carb diet menu plans and the food lists.

So, keep your low carb diet menu plans near to you and your high carb foods away from you. These low carb diet menu plans and food lists will become your nearest allies in the next few weeks as you struggle through the induction phase, but don’t worry. With a little perseverance on your part, you’ll come through with flying colours and a slimmer body using your Atkins low carb diet menu.

Do you need to lose those excess kilos real fast? Well, take a free look at Atkins low carb diet menu, by going to our website called The Atkins Diet Plan

categories: Atkins,diet,weight loss,health,fitness,blood pressure,diabetes,advice,self help,bood sugar,fat,cholesterol,plus size,other