Will You Lose Weight With Atkins

To lose weight with Atkins requires making some large changes to your usual diet. Typically health experts suggest a balanced diet should consist of 45% to 65% carbohydrates (or carbs). Atkins requires a much lower carb intake than this and so you really need to changes your eating habits.

Carbohydrate is your body's primary source of energy. However, Atkins believed that a high intake of carbohydrate such as simple sugars, caused over stimulation of insulin and results in uncontrolled hunger and eating, while the excess insulin also encouraged fat storage.

Hence, the Atkins diet is based upon reducing carbohydrate intake. He felt that by restricting carbs and replacing them with fat, that you could consume more calories and yet still lose weight.

There are many different views on Atkins. Many experts agree that you can lose weight with Atkins and a lot of people swear by the diet. However other experts argue that replacing carbs with fats, in other words eating a high fat diet can be extremely dangerous and very bad for your long term health.

Restricting some foods such as cakes, cookies, ice cream, candies, donuts, chips, crackers, French fries, and processed breads and flours clearly is no bad thing. Even if you do not follow Atkins it's a good idea to restrict most of these foods to some extent.

Where most experts disagree is the issue that you should replace them with fats. There are two types of fats, saturated and unsaturated. I won't go into detail suffice to say that saturated fats are much worse for you than unsaturated fats,

Atkins dieters tend to be encouraged to eat their full of complement of rich meats, cheeses, fats and oils. The risks to this are that filling your body full of fats, particularly saturated fats can lead to blocked arteries and heart problems. SO if you choose to follow this diet you need to be extremely careful about what you are eating.

The programme is split into 4 main phases which are weight loss, weight maintenance, good health and disease prevention. All of which are admirable aims but all of which most experts would argue can be obtained through eating a normal healthy balanced diet.

You may be surprised just how easily you can lose weight by eating a healthy balanced diet. You may be able to lose weight with Atkins but it really isn't necessary to make such major changes to your diet.

Simply by planning your meals in advance, ensuring you are enjoying what you are eating and that the foods are well balanced you can lose weight and surprisingly quickly. There are even online tools which will help you plan meals based on foods you enjoy.

A little exercise, even just walking speeds up your metabolism and burns more fat and if far better for you than potentially clogging your arteries with fat.