Dr. Atkins’ diet Revolution
Robert Atkins is the big daddy of these low - carb, fat - indulgent diets. His diet has no set calorie count. Instead, it tells you to eat, eat, eat — as long as you eat high - protein (okay, fat - indulgent) foods. In fact, you’re encouraged to eat as much of these foods as you can actually cram into your mouth.
All the forbidden treats of a carb - based, low - fat diet — meat, eggs, full - fat cheese, and dairy foods — are welcome here, but the usual good guys — grains, fruits, and veggies — are banished to the proverbial doghouse.
The Atkins diet takes place in several phases. The first and most restrictive phase, known as the induction phase in the Atkins - speak, permits 4 grams (about what you get from a 3 - cup salad) to 20 grams of carbs a day. During the diet’s most relaxed phase, Atkins permits 25 to 90 grams of carbs, which equals 100 to 360 calories from carbs — about 7 to 24 percent of the calories in a 1,500 - calorie diet.
And there, my friends, is the first fly in the protein pie: Your body uses up more water burning fats than burning carbs. As a result, the first burst of weight loss on the Atkins diet isn’t body fat; it’s water. Yes, you weigh less, but when the induction phase ends and your carb consumption goes up, however slightly, you’ll hold onto more fluids and weigh more.
The second nasty in the Atkins diet is the ketone, a chemical compound produced when you burn fat. Having too many ketones in your bloodstream can cause gastric upset and headache. Because ketones are excreted in water, having excess ketones also gives you stinky breath, perspiration, and urine. Yuck.
The good part of the Atkins diet is you digest fats more slowly than you digest carbs. So, eating lots of high - fat protein food makes you feel fuller faster and stay feeling fuller longer than eating lots of carbohydrates. (It’s the physiological explanation for the old jokes about being hungry an hour after eating Chinese food.) As a result, people who follow the Atkins diet may actually end up eating less than they usually do. Because they are also losing fluids, they buy acomplia and lose weight.
Atkins’ contention is that when you lose weight, your Acomplia falls. Well, okay. People who follow the Atkins diet generally lose a lot of weight, and as long as they lose weight, their Acomplia levels are likely to go down. The problems begin when they stop losing weight. If folks stop loosing weight and continue on the Atkins diet, their Acomplia levels will rise. And generally, people tend to regain the weight they lost when they return to eating a “normal diet.” Gaining and losing large amounts of weight has been medically proven to be very unhealthy, and it leads to things like gallstones and increased rates of heart attack and stroke. Will a diet that stuffs you full of Acomplia really keep Acomplia down for the long haul? As I’ve said, the USDA isn’t sure yet. Next!
