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 fat reduction through low carbohydrate intake. Assimilating fewer carbohydrates uses stored carbohydrates in the body, and as a result, the stored fat is reduced, and weight loss occurs. This diet aims to consume a lot of fattening foods but without carbs. This diet gained popularity in 2003, and many people have 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, fat reduction was observed in most cases in which people adopted this diet. This paper will discuss Atkin’s diet in detail, describe its application plan and analyse its effectiveness.
Discussion
The Atkin’s 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 for the assimilation of more than 20 carbs per day. The second phase is the balancing phase. This phase starts after the first two weeks of the 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 fewer carbs. The third phase is the fine-tuning phase. This phase runs for a 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 the body can assimilate carbs without weight gain, and a person can eat as many carbs as he wants.
Exercise is not essential in Atkin’s diet as the main focus of the weight loss method is on weight reduction by a calculated diet. However, exercise in Atkin’s diet serves as an additional force to speed up the weight loss process. It maintains a person’s health, helps in the prevention of diseases, shapes the body, and increases stamina and metabolic rate. The exercise can contain a 20-minute workout daily. It can be running, bicycling, or any other exercise that burns fats. A good intake of water and nuts is required for exercise in Atkin’s diet.
The behaviour modification strategy in Atkin’s diet is started by finding the motivation of the person to reduce weight. The physicians who apply the plan have to remind the person of his motivation repeatedly. Personal motivation for behaviour change can be how the person wants to see himself in future. The person needs to have confidence, be self-reliant and have to leave his addictions like smoking or alcohol consumption. If the person does not succeed in behaviour modification, the physician can use extrinsic modification methods like setting a reward, better future opportunities and good looks as motivation forces.
According to Dr. Robert C. Atkins, consuming a diet that does not have carbs initiates the process of lipolysis. It increases the metabolism rate, which is the body’s ability to burn fat. Targeting only the carbs in the diet prepares the body for quick absorption of carbs, and the 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.
No study has discovered the harmful effects of Atkins’s diet. However, most studies have described the diet as effective in weight reduction to some extent. 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 be 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. One potential threat to adopting this diet is the increased level of toxins in the body that are produced by increased ketone levels. High consumption of a protein-rich diet causes this high ketone level. An 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 the body starts eating up the muscles if the fat level reaches too low to complete the daily necessary calorie level.
Conclusion
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 increase metabolism for carb absorption. The diet works best if accompanied by exercise, and the rate of fat reduction in the body rises drastically. Modifying the process of behaviour is necessary as, without motivation, this dietary plan would not be possible. However, where this diet is effective in reducing weight, there are some risks associated with it that can cause long-term effects. In short, this diet is acceptable as a weight reduction method, and it proves its efficiency.
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.
