Introduction
Atkin’s diet was proposed by Dr. Robert C. Atkins in 1992. The diet was focused on reducing the consumption of carbohydrates as they cause pancreatic issues and become a reason to store extra calories as fat. This diet uses the fat reduction by the method of low carbohydrate intake. Assimilating less carbohydrate uses stored carbohydrate of the body, and in the result, the stored fat reduces and in result weight loss occurs. This diet aims to consume a lot of fattening foods but without carbs. This diet got its popularity in 2003, and many people tried this approach. The diet promoters claim this diet to reduce weight in weeks, but substantial results do not prove the weight reduction claim. However, the fat reduction was observed in most cases who adapted this diet. This paper will discuss Atkin’s diet in detail, describe its application plan and analyses its effectiveness.
Discussion
The Atkins’ diet consists of four phases. The first phase is targeted to provide 20 grams of carbohydrate daily. This phase is run for two weeks, and the person is asked to eat all protein and fat-rich diets. This diet consists of leafy vegetables. The first phase also called the inducing phase does not allow to assimilate more than 20 carbs per day. The second phase is the balancing phase. This phase starts after the first two weeks induction phase and runs for one week. This phase called the balancing phase adds nuts, vegetables that are low in carbohydrate ratio and some fruits that include less amount of carbs. The third phase is the fine-tuning phase. This phase runs for the time till the person has reached his goal weight. In this phase, more carbs are added to the diet, and the person is allowed to eat a normal diet of 100 carbs per day. The fourth and last phase is the maintenance phase in which body can assimilate carbs without weight gain, and a person can eat as many carbs he wants.
Exercise is not essential in Atkin’s diet as the main focus of weight loss method is on weight reduction by calculated diet. However, an exercise in Atkin’s diet serves as an additional force to speed up weight loss process. It maintains person’s health, helps in prevention of diseases, shapes the body, and increases stamina and metabolic rate. The exercise can contain a 20 min workout daily. It can be running bicycling or any other exercise that burns fats. A good intake of water and nuts is required in an exercise in Atkin’s diet.
The behavior modification strategy in Atkin’s diet is started by finding the motivation of the person to reduce weight. The physicians who apply the plan has to remind the person of his motivation repeatedly. Personal motivation for behavior change can be how the person wants to see himself in future. The person needs to have confidence, be self-reliant and has to leave his addictions like smoking or alcohol consumption. If the person does not succeed in behavior modification, the physician can use extrinsic modification methods like setting a reward, better future opportunities and good look as motivation forces.
According to Dr. Robert C. Atkins consuming a diet that does not have carbs initiates the process of lipolysis. It increases metabolism rate which is the ability of the body to burn fat. Targeting only the carbs in the diet prepares the body for quick absorption of carbs and body adjusts itself to rapid digestion of carbs. Atkin’s diet may result in creating psychological stress that may result in mild hyperglycemia. This change sometimes causes biochemical changes in the body too.
Any study has not discovered the harmful effects of Atkins’s diet. However, most studies have described the diet effective to some extent in weight reduction. The performance of Atkin’s diet as compared to other weight reduction diets like Zone and Weightwatchers was almost the same and showed no varying results (Johnston et al., 2014). The diet, however, proved to more useful in some specific patients like Doose syndrome children and refractory epilepsy (Satte et al., 2017).
The diet has several risks associated with it the one potential threat in adopting this diet is the increased level of toxins in the body that is produced by increased ketone level in the body. High consumption of protein-rich diet causes this high ketone level. Increased protein-rich diet can also cause other meat-related diseases like muscle pain and cyst development in muscles. This high ketone level affects the kidneys if the diet is followed for a long time (Branco et al., 2016). Another risk involved is that body starts eating up the muscles if fat level reaches too low to complete the daily necessary calorie level.
Conclusion
The Atkin’s diet is an effective method of weight reduction that works by decreasing carb content in the diet. This diet is effective in weight reduction as it helps in increasing metabolism for absorption of carbs. The diet works best if accompanied by an exercise and the rate of fat reduction in the body rises drastically. Behavior modification in the process is necessary as without the motivation this dietary plan will not be possible. However, where this diet is effective in reducing weight there are some risks associated with it to that can cause long-term effects. In short, this diet is acceptable to be used as weight reduction method, and it proves its efficiency itself.
References
Atkins, R. C. (1972). Dr. Atkins’ diet revolution; the high-calorie way to stay thin forever.
Branco, A. F., Ferreira, A., Simões, R. F., Magalhães‐Novais, S., Zehowski, C., Cope, E., … & Cunha‐Oliveira, T. (2016). Ketogenic diets: from cancer to mitochondrial diseases and beyond. European journal of clinical investigation, 46(3), 285-298.
Gardner, C., Kiazand, A., Alhassan, S., Kim, S., Stafford, R., & Balise, R. et al. (2007). Comparison of the Atkins, Zone, Ornish, and LEARN Diets for Change in Weight and Related Risk Factors Among Overweight Premenopausal Women. JAMA, 297(9), 969. doi:10.1001/jama.297.9.969
Johnston, B. C., Kanters, S., Bandayrel, K., Wu, P., Naji, F., Siemieniuk, R. A., … & Jansen, J. P. (2014). Comparison of weight loss among named diet programs in overweight and obese adults: a meta-analysis. Jama, 312(9), 923-933.
Satte, A., Kossoff, E. H., Belghiti, M., Zerhouni, A., Ouhabi, H., Guerinech, H., & Mounach, J. (2017). Why should modified Atkins diet be encouraged for treating epilepsy in emerging countries?. African health sciences, 17(2), 556-558.
