The Atkins Diet
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Are Atkins Diet And Low Carb Diets Safe?
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Atkins and South Beach Diets Compared
Low-carb diets have been in the market for quite some time now. Two of the most common these days are the Atkins and South Beach Diet. Beginnings Both were developed by medical doctors (cardiologists) who -- according to reports -- were...... What Is The Atkins Diet? The Atkins weight loss diet is based on one simple principle: Your body burns both carbohydrates and fat for calories. If you reduce the amounts of carbohydrates available, it will burn more fat and you will lose weight. According to Atkins,...... Diet Program Review: Atkins The Atkins diet is a popular diet that emphasizes a high fat, high protein, and low carbohydrate approach. The diet promises that you will not be hungry, you will lose weight, and have better health and wellness benefits that are in no other diet....... |
I have personally tried low carb diets and Atkins diet and these diets made me lose weight very quickly. However not only did I lose body fat weight, I also lost muscle weight. I had very obvious muscle and fat loss because I can visually see my reduced muscle mass in the mirror.
This certainly isn't healthy. Furthermore, the more muscle mass that you lose, the less toned your body shape is. The end result is that you will end up thin and yet looked flabby with lose skin.
The frustrating part will be that after you are off the low carb or Atkins diet, you will very probably gain back all the weight that you have loss and even more. This is because your muscles are active and they continuously burn calories. Since you have less fewer muscle mass now, your body's metabolism or capacity to burn calories slows down tremendously.
In other words, when you put on weight again, you are putting on body fat instead of muscles if you do not exercise. You will be fatter and less healthy than before you went on the low carb or Atkins diet. To compound matters, because of lesser muscle tissues resulting in lower metabolism and thus lesser calories being burnt, you are going to get fatter.
Since then I have stayed off both low carb and Atkins diet. Both types of diets are almost similar as they require you to cut down drastically on your consumption of carbohydrates. Atkins diet went a step further by advocating almost no carbohydrate consumption for 2 weeks before adding some carbs to your meals gradually thereafter.
Besides losing muscles, how safe are low carb diets? This is what Dr Lyn Steffen and Dr Jennifer Nettleton from the University of Minnesota's School of Public Health commentated in a Lancet report, "Low carbohydrate diets for weight management are far from healthy, given their association with ketosis, constipation or diarrhea, halitosis, headache and general fatigue to name a few."
The doctors warned that the diet increases protein load on the kidneys and alters the balance of acid in the body. This also results in loss of minerals from the bone stores and affect bone strength. The doctors went on to say that, "Our most important criterion should be indisputable safety and low carbohydrate diets currently fall short of this benchmark."
Dr Atkins, the creator of the Atkins diet died in 2003 after he was alleged to have slipped on an icy road and hurt his head fatally. However his medical report stated that he had a history of heart attack, hypertension and congestive heart failure.
Were Dr Atkins medical conditions related to his low carbohydrates diet is anybody's guess. Do you want to take the risk by going on a low carb diet? I don't think I will. If I ever want to lose weight again, I will rather go on the proven method of healthy eating and regular exercises instead of jumping on any fad diets.
About The Author:
Chris Chew is a fitness personal trainer of actors, fashion models, pageant contestants and celebs. See his websites for more articles http://www.sgfitness.com and http://www.sgfitnessonline.com
Atkins Diet Plans in the News
Atkins: A diet you can trust? - IndependentTelegraph.co.uk
Atkins: A diet you can trust?
Independent, UK - Sep 3, 2008
Esther Walker knows why A study in Australia this week found that the Atkins diet is, along with Weight Watchers, the most successful of all time; ...
Popular diets are nutritious enough Los Angeles Times
Atkins diet and Weight Watchers 'the best ways to lose weight' Telegraph.co.uk
Popular diets 'no health threat' BBC News
TheMedGuru - MedIndia
all 48 news articles
Time to go against the grain - Irish Independent
Irish Independent
Time to go against the grain
Irish Independent, Ireland - 4 hours ago
When people think of low-carb diets, they think of the Atkins Diet. Dr Robert Atkins treated 10000 overweight and diabetic patients with a 99pc success rate ...
Waist Not! - Jewish Exponent
Jewish Exponent
Waist Not!
Jewish Exponent, PA - Sep 4, 2008
It also showed that the dieters on the low-carb plan (essentially, the plan popularly known as the Atkins diet) lost the most weight, and did not have ...
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