Atkins Diet Menu Plan

So you're staring a new diet and are still in the decision process of whether to take the Atkins diet plan menu route or not. With so much being said about the Atkins diet it'd be hard not to believe that this could finally be your last diet plan.

The beauty of the Dr. Atkin's Diet is that you can tailor it to suit your own body body and a typical Atkins diet menu plan looks pretty tempting whether you're on a diet or not;

Breakfast:

A fried egg with bacon. And a decaff coffee with single cream.

Lunch:

A chicken breast with melted mozzarella on the top and mixed lettuce leaves with olive oil.

Dinner:

A delicious 8oz pan-fried rump steak with 80g spinach and topped with soured cream.

Tasty Snack:

2 slices of ham.

The question is, how is this low carb, high protein diet supposed to work? Well, the diet is based on the theory that many over-weight people actually eat too many carbohydrates.

The body is a fat and carbohydrate burning machine and it has to do this to create energy. However, it burns the carbs first so by removing these from your diet it means the body has to burn the fat first.

The Atkins diet also claims to lower your chances of devloping diabetes. The theroy is that when you eat a high-carbohydrate meal, the resulting sugar enters your bloodstream and the body combats the sugar levels from getting too high by producing extra insulin.

This allows the sugar to be stored in the liver as glycogen but if there is too much then the insulin starts to turn the sugar to fat.

Where the real problem lies is if the body is making too much insulin to deal with the extra sugar, then your tolerence to insulin rises and you may in turn eventually develop diabetes.

On the flip side of this there are claims that a typical Atkins Diet Menu Plan is actually too high in fat and this can pose a huge health risk.

If you do not maintain a healthy weight for your height then you increase your chances of contracting adverse conditions such as heart disease, diabetes and even some cancers.

The Atkins Diet is an extreme low carb diet by cardiologist Dr. Robert Atkins and was first introduced to the world in 1972. Since that time there have been hundreds of research studies carried out by Universities and research teams to evaluate the Atkins diet.

Although low carb dieting was first written about as far back as the end of the 19th century, it was the Atkins diet that truly brought it to life. Like most diet plans the Atkins diet has its good and bad points for sure but no one can deny that Dr. Atkins brought new concepts and awareness that have affected the way we look at diets for weight loss and health for ever more.

The good points:

1) No other diet burns fat as fast as the Atkins diet. To sustain life the human body uses two different fuels. These come in the form of glucose (produced by carbs) and ketones (produced by fat). Glucose is the main fuel with ketones being the backup. Unsurprisingly, to lose weight you have to burn the fat off somehow and this is what every weight loss diet is based on.

Conventional diets are generally designed to burn fat through starvation which involves eating fewer calories than you actually use everyday. To keep going the body has to tap into it reserve resources, i.e. the fat surrounding your thighs and abdomen.

As described above, the Atkins diet attacks the fat burning process from another angle. By limiting the amount of glucose the body has from carbohydrates the body starts to use ketones instead as its main source of fuel. Within just three or four days your body is changed into a fat burning machine.

2) You won't feel any hunger pangs with the Atkins diet. Unlike other diets that are based on a low calorie intake the Atkins diet plan and menus do not restrict you in the same way. Dr. Atkins does advise however that this does not give you the green light to go ahead and stuff yourself. Instead you should eat until you feel satisfied.

As you are replacing carbs with protein when you are on the Atkins diet, the typical Atkins diet menu plan consists of meat and fast. This takes longer for your body to digest and therefore you won't feel the need to eat again so quickly as with other diets.

3) The Atkins diets helps to keep you healthy. Many of the researches carried out have shown that the Atkins diet reduces cholesterol, triglycerides and your blood pressure. Studies have also shown that in many cases the symptoms of sleep apnea, acid reflux and even diabetes have been reduced or have completely disappeared when using the Atkins diet.

The North American Eskimos have provided us with a natural case study of the effects of a low carb diet over hundreds of years. Their diet has very few carbs and heart disease and diabetes were not that common in their society, at least until sugar and white flour were introduced.

The bad points:

1) Burning the fat too quickly. A danger here is how the body defends itself against toxins found in the environment and pre-prepared foods. The first defence is to try and all eliminate them through your liver and kidneys but when there is an overload of toxins the body will hide them in your fat cells. Through the burning of these fat cells the toxins are released again into your bloodstream where they can cause damage.

2) Feel the fatigue. Most people will have experienced the feeling of fatigue after a heavy meal and this is because the body uses a lot of energy to digest food. In the same way, the process of switching from carbs to ketones causes stress to the body and it uses energy resources to deal with this. Also, as we have just learned, when the body is burning fat too quickly it will also be under duress in dealing with toxic overload, especially in the early days of using the Atkins diet.

3) Nutritional value of the Atkins diet. Most of our nutrients are gained from eating plants and vegetables and by sticking to an Atkins diet plan you will be missing some essential nutrients and enzymes that are necessary for maintaining a healthy metabolism.

Is the Atkins Diet right for you?

Research has proven that the Atkins diet is safe and effective and it is claimed by a lot of people to be a choice diet, especially if you need to lose weight fast. Lots of water and vitamin supplements are recommended with most diets but this is especially true when you are on the Atkins diet.

You can adjust the Atkins diet with a less intensive and aggressive diet plan if you have a lot of weight to lose and can do so over a longer period of time. This will have the effect of being less stressful and will also give your stretched skin a chance to shrink too.

One important key to health and success with any low carb diet is to make every carb count by choosing nutrient dense live carbs. These include fresh vegetables such as broccoli, cabbage, spinach, and green beans. This is critical where total carbs are very limited - such as with the first two stages of the Atkins diet.

An important key to the healthy success of any low carb diet is to include fresh vegetables that have a high density of nutrients such as broccoli, spinach and green beans. Where your total carb intake is very limited, as in the early stages of the Atkins diet, this becomes increasingly important.