Atkins Diet - The Controversy Revealed

What is Atkins diet (or simply Atkins)? It is actually a diet adopted by Dr. Robert Atkins, offering a high fat, high protein and low carbohydrate meal plan which claimed to be able to help you lose weight rapidly, while giving you all the energy you require. You must be wondering, "High fat diet, are you kidding me?". You bet it does.

Theory

From Atkins' theory, 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. In summary, overweight people eat too much carbohydrates which lead them to gain weight fast.

Controversy

Whether you believe it or not, there will still be quite a number of people who do not buy his story and experiments, especially the nutritionists, diet experts or practitioners. However, one must admit that this diet was once a phenomenon and was highly successful due to its popularity. Statistics had shown that a lot of people lost significant amount of weight a few months after trying out the diet. There was also no significant changes in cholesterol or blood pressure levels in these people. Hence, there was a "low-carb craze" driven by Atkins diet.

Tide changed when Dr Robert Atkins died a sudden death and speculations occurred. Many questioned about safety issues regarding this high fat, high protein diet and whether this diet is a suitable for long-term weight loss. Atkins' family members claimed he died from a fatal dead injury, while others rumoured he was obese at the time and had died from a heart condition. Till now, nobody actually knows how Dr Atkins died, and if his diet really works all the time

Facts

From recent researches, it was found that high-protein, low-carbohydrate diets put people at risk of heart disease. Low-carb dieters' initial advantage in weight loss was due to reduction in stored glycogen and related water in muscles, not fat loss. There was no evidence that any diet will cause weight loss unless it reduces food energy (calories) below the maintenance level and that weight loss from the Atkins diet may be the result of less food energy being consumed by the dieter, rather than the lack of carbohydrates. However, a long term study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2006 found that women reduced heart disease risk by eating more protein and fat from vegetable sources.

It is all up to individual to take the stand in trying out Atkins diet. But in my opinion, why apply methods which rose so much doubts and speculations when you can use definite weight loss methods like ultimatedietsolutions.wordpress.com/2008/04/13/how-to-lose-9-pounds-in-11-days-calorie-shift-diet Calorie Shift Diet and ultimatedietsolutions.wordpress.com/2008/04/11/how-to-lose-fat-with-interval-training-vs-cardio-training Interval Training? Discover the weight loss secret behind them...

To your slimming success!

Ron Lin,

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