Beware of the Atkins Diet and Low Carb Dieting

Dieters everywhere have many questions as to whether or not low carb diets and the Atkins diet are safe. In this article, I will address some of these issues and hopefully shed some light on the topic.

I have a personal friend who has tried using both low carb diets and also the Atkins diet. I am witness to the fact that these diets caused her to lose weight very rapidly. Her concern was that not only did she lose body fat, but she also lost some muscle weight.

Losing muscle is definitely not healthy. Additionally, the greater the muscle mass that you lose, the less of your body remains toned. The resulting consequence is that you wind up thin, but you also have loose flabby skin.

What causes the most severe frustration is that when you come off of the diet (Atkins or low car), it is very likely that you will not only gain back every pound of weight that you lost, but more than that also. The cause for this is because while you have muscles that are still active and continue to burn calories, the metabolism or capacity of your body to burn calories has slowed down enormously.

To put it differently, when you have regained the weight that you lost, you are not replacing the muscles that you lost. Instead, you are just putting on body fat, unless you exercise. This means that you will be even fatter and reduced your health to worse than before you carried out the Atkins or low carb diet. And to intensify the situation, because of reduced muscle tissues (which cause lower metabolism and fewer burnt calories), you will gain more weight_ getting fatter than when you started out.

What do medical professionals have to say about low carb diets? Dr. Jennifer Nettleton along with Dr. Lyn Steffen (both from the University of Minnesota's School of Public Health) gave their professional opinion that low carb diets for weight control are not only unhealthy, but have been associated with several medical conditions, such as constipation, halitosis, ketosis, and fatigue. And those are just a few.

The creator of the Atkins died in 2003 and his cause of death is something that has received much speculation. What we know is that he had a history of heart attack, congestive heart failure, and hypertension. Some believe that these conditions were related to his low carbohydrates diet, but no one really knows.

If I needed to lose weight, I would definitely go with this one single method, which is healthy and continues to work: Eat healthy and regular exercise. I don't know about you, but when it comes to dieting, I would rather choose my health