The Atkins diet is probably one of the most famous diets in the Western world. I bet that you must have heard about it before. According to a survey in the United Kingdom, more than three million people in the country have been trying the dieting plan in 2003!
First of all, let's understand the basic concept behind this dieting plan. The essence of the diet is that people can lose weight by cutting down the consumption of carbohydrate and at the same time consume high fat food. This may also explain why this dieting plan is so popular. The plan allows people to have eggs and steaks. Most people will certainly go for that when they hear that they can lose weight while having steaks and eggs is allowed.
It is assumed that the fat stored in your body will be burnt or used while you cut your carbohydrates. You will not eat things such as bread or pasta. Junk food and soft drinks are not allowed either. Yet, you can eat meat, fish and chicken when you are on Atkins diets. You have to take this food for two weeks as the first phase of the dieting plan.
In the second phase, you can increase the consumption of carbohydrates by five grams each day. You will start from an intake of 20 grams per day. You have to increase the intake of carbohydrates till you cannot lose 3 pounds a week. And this is the amount of carbohydrates you will take and you should not increase the intake.
Then it comes the third stage. In this stage, the idea is to slow down the process of weight reduction. As a result, you will try to increase the consumption of carbs again by 10 grams per day. And the goal is that you will eventually consume something like 90 grams of carbohydrates per day. You will need to keep this for the rest of your life! Yet the fact is that an average person will take 200 to 250 grams of carbs a day. Taking only 90 to 100 grams a day for the rest of the life should not be an easy task.
You may wonder if there are any side effects of this dieting plan. As a matter of fact some people can lose weight with this plan. However, since carbohydrates are cut in the first stage. People who are on this diet may feel dizzy and weak. Since fruits and vegetables are generally not allowed in the first stage, you may have problems of constipation when you are on this diet.
