In 1960, Dr. Robert Atkins first developed the idea of Atkins Diet and it became popular in 1970. The main theme behind the popular Atkins Diet is to eliminate carbohydrates from the food we intake and force the body to burn the stored fat in order to gain energy.

According to Robert Atkins, carbohydrates or carbs are the main enemy behind weight gain. Keeping this idea in mind, he developed the Atkins diet control chart mainly emphasizing on proteins and fats.

Versions of Atkins Diet:

Atkins Nutritional Approach or popularly known as Atkins diet has two popular versions of it. This two versions, Atkins 20 and Atkins 40, work depending on how much fat you want to burn.

Atkins 20: If your waist measurement is more than 40 inches (for men) or more than 35 inches (for women) and if you want to lose more than 40 pounds weight, then this Atkins 20 diet is for you. This diet is also helpful for pre-diabetic or diabetic patients.

Atkins 40: if you want to lose less than 40 pounds, your waist measurement is less than 40 inches for men and less than 35 inches for women, and mainly pregnant or breastfeeding women who are looking for different kinds of healthy foods in their diet can follow this.

The main interesting fact behind the naming of this two versions is that in case of Atkins 20 you can consume only 20 grams of Net Carbs while in Atkins 40 restrict you to consume 40 grams of Net Carbs. And after reaching a certain level in case of Atkins 20 you can add only 5grams of net carbs and in Atkins 40 you can add 10 grams of net carbs to your diet.

Working process of Atkins Diet:

According to Atkins diet, the main enemy behind our weight gain and cardiovascular disease are Carbohydrates. So decreasing the intake amount of carbohydrate and balancing it with protein and healthy fat, we can easily control our weight gain problem.

The Atkins Nutritional Approach mainly works on the Net Carbs strategy. It means total carbohydrate amount of an item minus the grams of fiber plus grams of sugar alcohol.

There are all total four phases of this diet.

In the first phase, you need to be too much strict regarding your food intake and have to eat only 20 grams of net carbs mainly from vegetables. You have to avoid most of the fruits, sugary products, baked goods, and whole grain products, have to consume protein and fat from egg, fish, meat etc. In this phase, you don’t need to cut oil and fats and you must intake eight glass of water every day. Depending on your body’s function and weight-loss, this phase continues for at least two weeks.

In the second phase, you need to balance the food intake. Also, you can add 5 grams (Atkins 20) to 10 grams (Atkins 40) of net carbs in your diet. Must avoid foods which contain sugar. You can add high nutrient-carbs like berries, nuts etc. This phase remains until you reach 10 pounds from your desired weight.

The third phase is mainly pre-maintenance stage. In this phase, you must increase your food intake from 5 to 10 grams per week depending on your weight loss. If it seems that your weight loss rate is slowed down, then you have to cut net carbs again and continue it until you reach your desired weight.

For the fourth phase, you need to maintain this diet for your whole life to stay in the desired weight and also you need to exercise daily to control the fat gain.

Foods to eat and not to eat during this diet:

To work the Atkins diet the candidate needs to follow a strict diet chart which is mainly based on the theme of losing fat by decreasing intake of carbohydrates and burning body-fat in order to gain energy.

Atkins 20 diet chart: for breakfast you can eat spinach omelette with avocado, salsa, and cucumber, for lunch roasted chicken fry with salad, for snacks cheddar kale chips or mozzarella cheese or Atkins diet product like granola bar and for dinner chicken and broccoli alfredo or baked salmon steak with arugula salad etc. food to avoid in this diet are fruits like mangoes, pineapples, vegetables like potato and whole grain floor etc.

In case of Atkins 40, you can eat one to two whole grain toast and blueberries or nuts along with the Atkins 20 diet chart foods. Main foods to avoid in Atkins 40 diet are the sugary products, fruits, baked goods, cake, and pretzels etc.

Pros of Atkins Diet: The whole Atkins diet programme was mainly developed to lose weight and control the fat gain. But this low-carb diet is also very effective in case of patients with high-cardiovascular diseases or for type 2 diabetes and high BP patients. This diet also lowers the cholesterol rates and improves insulin resistance in the body. But the fact that it helps in losing weight is still not proved. Research shows that a low-carb diet like Atkins diet shows better and fast result than any low-fat diet.

Cons of Atkins Diet: As there are huge restrictions in Atkins diet to what to eat and avoid, it is often observed that the dropout rate of the candidate is always high. Also while following this diet, people often develop many health problems. Like consuming saturated fats can increase heart disease, high protein foods can alleviate diabetes, lack of carbohydrate and fiber can cause a serious gut problem, arthritis, constipation, kidney stones, dizziness, headache etc. Also, lack of vitamin can also cause eye damage, bone damage etc.

Does it really work for weight loss?

Through the whole study of Atkins diet, it can be safely concluded that for a kick start in your fat burning journey Atkins diet is very helpful. It helps to lose weight by burning the stored fat of body and also prevent weight gain for a long term. But it is better to be not to get used to it because it has many side effects in case of long-term diet course. So eat healthily, sleep well, work out every day and if you are thinking to boost your fat burning journey by Atkins Diet, must consult with your doctor.