The Atkins Diet: Everything You Need to Know
The Atkins diet is a low-carbohydrate diet, usually recommended for weight loss. It also helps in lowering your blood pressure, lowers the risk of diabetes, heart disease and brain disorders.
Studies of this diet claim that you can lose weight eating as much protein and fat as you want, as long as you avoid foods that are rich in carbs.
To begin with, consume vegetables, proteins, and healthy saturated fats. Later you can start to consume whole grains too.
The Atkins Diet Is a 4-Phase Plan
The Atkins diet is structured in the following 4 phases:
- Phase 1 (Induction): Eat high-fat, high-protein, with low-carb vegetables and consume under 20 grams of carbs per day for 2 weeks. This will kick-start your weight loss.
- Phase 2 (Balancing): Add more nuts, low-carb vegetables and small amounts of fruit back to your diet.
- Phase 3 (Fine-tuning): When you are very close to your goal weight, add more carbs to your diet so that weight loss slows down.
- Phase 4 (Maintenance): At this stage, eat as many healthy carbs as your body can tolerate, and you won’t regain the weight.
Foods to Avoid
Avoid these foods when following the Atkins diet:
- Sugar: Soft drinks, juices cakes, candy, ice cream, etc.
- Grains: Wheat, spelt, rye, barley, rice.
- “Diet” and “low-fat” foods: These usually have high sugar content
- High-carb vegetables: Carrots and turnips
- High-carb fruits: Bananas, apples, oranges etc.
- Starches: Potatoes and sweet potatoes
Foods to Eat
Base your diet on these healthy foods:
- Meats: Beef, pork, lamb, chicken, bacon, etc
- Full-fat dairy: butter, cheese, cream, full-fat yoghurt
- Nuts and seeds: Almonds, walnuts, cashew nuts, etc
- Healthy fats: Extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil
- Seafood: Fish
- Egg
- Low-carb vegetables
One of the main reasons the Atkins Diet has been effective for weight-loss is its ability to allow for the body’s natural processes to kick in. With a lower intake of carbs, your appetite decreases, and it reduces further as you increase your intake of proteins. Toward the end of the diet, you end up naturally consuming fewer calories, allowing you to sustain your target weight.
So try it out. You won’t be disappointed!
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