What is the Atkins Diet?
The Atkins Diet - a healthy lifestyle?
People struggling with overweight are consuming too many carbohydrates. That is the basic theory of the Atkins Diet.
Why is that?
Your body uses carbohydrates and fat for energy.
But our bodies first use the carbohydrates and then, if needed, the fats.
If you cut back on the carbohydrates, naturally your body will burn fat to obtain the needed energy…
... In this process you lose weight. Really quit simple.
Following this diet you will eat almost only protein and fat. This includes red meat, fish and diary products.
The 3 basic aspects of the Atkins Diet
1.) This diet allows you to eat food that we consider rich -> meat, eggs, cheese, etc.
2.) If you are eating fewer carbohydrates it will reduce your appetite.
3.) You have almost no limitations of the amount of food you eat. There are only strict rules what to eat.
By drastically reducing carbohydrates from your diet, your body goes into a stage known as ketosis…
… Ketosis is when your body uses its own fat for energy. When your body is in the ketosis stage, you have less appetite and naturally you eat less.
When you eat a high carbohydrate meal, your pancreas response with an injection of insulin into your bloodstream and this causes a drastic drop of your blood sugar levels. Refined carbohydrates tend to over-stimulate your body. In consequence it secretes too much insulin.
Because of the excess insulin in your blood, your blood sugar levels drop below normal. This causes you to crave for more carbohydrates and an increase in your appetite. As this process (overstimulation of the pancreas) cycles through our bodies day after day,…
… The pancreas gets sluggish and over time doesn’t produce enough insulin for our sugar consume. This condition develops into the known disorder Diabetes.
The Atkins Diet theory in short is to transform your body from a carbohydrate burning machine into a fat burning machine -> just change the fuel. Your body will use the fat from its deposits like the hips, belly, thighs, etc. for its energy and you lose weight.
The Atkins Diet has two stages
1.) The induction stage is the first 2 weeks. In this stage your body gets used to the no-carb lifestyle.
2.) After these first 2 weeks you can introduce into your diet gradually some carbohydrates from fruit, grains and vegetables. This stage is called the transition from the weight loss stage to the weight maintenance stage.
And in this stage it is highly recommended to exercise on a daily basis to trigger the ketosis process in your body.
My Personal Opinion
The Atkins Diet is a good and healthy diet although the medical worlds needs more research because it consists mainly of protein and fat.
But complementing this diet with Aloe Vera juice will help digest the protein and fat better.
My recommendation is to make your own Aloe Vera remedies from the plant. If you need recipes -> Check this out.
Our ancestors lived from protein, fat and raw fruit and vegetables. Diseases like diabetes and heart disease where hardly known thousands of years ago. That speaks its own language and I think it is worth a look at alternative diets like the south beach diet.
Still it is good policy to consult any diet with your health care practitioner who knows your health record.