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Atkins diet

Atkins diet

The Atkins diet is a type of diet that promises not only that you will lose weight but also that your heart health will be in a better shape, next to the memory function which will improve and many other benefits. Atkins diet is a diet based on a low-carbohydrate diet.
Atkins diet is based on the theory that overwight people eat too many carbohydrates. What involves the Atkins diet is a limited consumption of carbohydrates  to change the body`s way of metabolizing glucose as energy over to convert the stored fat to energy.
Adopting an individual diet people can improve their general health as well as they can prevent heart problems, diabetes or fatigue.

There are four phases of Atkins diet:

  1. Induction
  2. Ongoing weight loss
  3. Pre-maintenance
  4. Lifetime maintenance

Induction

This Phase takes at least 14 days and after that you will observe the first changings. When you begin to see the changes you are ready to go to the next phase.

  • carbohydrate intake is limited to less than 20 grams per day
  • have 3 meals per day
  • you should eat everyday a diet that contains fruits, vegetables or salads
  • drink at last 8 glaces of water everyday
  • find an equilibrium between the consumption of fats and proteins (use chicken meat, fish, eggs, red meat  or fats that are found in butter, olive oil or other vegetables oil)
  • some of the vegetables that are accepted: broccoli, spinach, cauliflower, turnips, asparagus, tomatoes or pumkin.
  • do not use seeds, nuts, peanuts, etc.
  • try to avoid caffeine that is found in coffee, tea, energy drinks or carbonated drinks
  • it is recommended the intake of multivitamin and minerals except iron, everyday
  • try to always replace sugar with sucralose or saccharin
  • give up to snacks as they contain a lot of proteins
  • do not consume sausages as they contain a lot of hidden carbohydrates
  • do not use products for weight losing that do not have in the instruction if contain carbohydrates or no.
  • try to constantly avoid chewing gum or other products or medicins that contain sugar or caloric sweeteners
  • do not consume anything that contains sugar because this kind of products contain huge quantities of carbohydrates

The steps that you should follow in organizing your meal are:

  • Increase acceptable vegetables (some of the 54 allowed vegetables are: broccoli, spinach, cauliflower, turnips, pumpkin, asparagus or tomatoes)
  • Cheese
  • Nuts and seeds
  • Berries
  • Alcohol
  • Legumes
  • Other fruits
  • Starchy vegetables
  • Whole grains

Ongoing weight loss

The second phase implies the a 5 grams growth of carbohydrates every week. During this phase you should lose 1 – 2 kilos per week and you are allowed to choose your own food to eat. The quantity of carbohydrates should rise step by step and should be continuously supervised. It is recommended the consumption of vegetables and beside vegetables you can introduce seed and nuts or blueberry.

You should carefully watch the quantity of carbohydrates as you can easily go back to the old habits and all the efforts put in the induction phase will be lost.

The recommended products that have approximately 5 grams of carbohydrates are:

  • Vegetables: onion, capsicum, broccoli, avocado or spinnach
  • Cheese: mozzarela
  • Lemon juice
  • nuts, seeds or almonds

Pre-maintenance

During the third phase you can raise the intake of carbohydrates with 10 g per week. The lose of weight will shrink to 0.5 kg and also you can introduce small quantities of bread, pasta, rice or fish.

Recommendations:

  • diversification of food consumed but without making any excess
  • identifying food that helps you lose weight
  • realize how important is to eat the main three meals every day
  • identify food that makes you become addicted to it

Lifetime Maintenance

You are in the last phase when you learnt to select the food that helps you consume food that offers you the  optimum quantity of carbohydrates. You should consume at most 90 g of carbohydrates per day.

The ideal weight is maintained with a fluctuation of 1.5 kg per week. If you gain more than 2 kilos you should go back to the second phase to reduce back the quantity of carbohydrates.

You should keep the attitude that you had in the first 3 phases in order to go forward with the maintaing phase.

Always remember to constantly make exercises which is an important aspect of the Arkins diet.

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