The Atkins Diet: Short Term Advantage, Long Term Nightmare

The Atkins diet quickly became all the rage when it first came out, offering people a way of dieting without all the negativity associated with deprivation. Its reputation for being a unique diet plan stems from the idea that a diet high in protein and low in carbohydrates will help your body lose weight. By cutting down on the carbs, your body switches to burning fat deposits to give it energy. Since your body is burning more fat than carbs, you lose weight much faster than usual and your blood sugar remains constant throughout the day (thereby theoretically keeping you from eating too much.)

The basic program of the Atkins diet follows in four steps. First is the induction period, where you bring your carbohydrate intake down to around 20 grams per day. Considering most Americans consume well over ten times that amount daily, this step is frequently the hardest. This is where the dieter cuts out nearly all forms of carbs, from cookies to bread to pasta to pizza-even most vegetables. In return, you can stuff yourself on protein-rich foods like fish, eggs, chicken and red meat. Even butter falls under the "acceptable" category. Your body starts to realize it can't rely on a steady supply of carbs anymore and switches to burning fat.

Next comes a step simply known as "weight loss" (or ongoing weight loss for Atkins purists) where you increase your carb intake by 5 grams every day until you discover what your level is for optimum weight loss-commonly considered the maximum carb intake level that allows you to lose up to three pounds a week. No matter what your level is, it's usually lower than what most Americans are used to (between 200-250 grams); most people on Atkins discover their level to be approximately 30-50 grams. This still prohibits you from breads, pasta and other grains, though many vegetables are put on the green list.

The third step is pre-maintenance, when you've almost reached your target weight and have that annoying last ten pounds to lose. Here you increase your carbohydrate intake yet again by ten grams daily to prepare your body to stop losing weight. Breads and pasta are re-introduced, but in small amounts. This leads to the last stage of maintenance, which is meant to-as you can imagine-help you maintain your ideal body weight. Your choice of foods is greater, but you'll still be following the low-carb Atkins diet forever, limiting your carb intake to under 100 grams.

Short term, this diet is a good idea to lose weight fast. It works remarkably well in just a short period of time. This is a highly motivating factor, which encourages people to shed pounds and keep it off. Since it also includes "staples" of the American diet like red meat and butter, men have also jumped on the diet bandwagon, using Atkins to shed those pounds that have been plaguing them for years.

The problem with the Atkins diet mainly comes with long-term use. A high-fat diet, especially one overloaded with saturated fats (and poly-saturated at that) greatly increases the risk of heart attack and disease. Also, by cutting out most of the "good" carbohydrates with the "bad" the body is deprived of many of the nutrients it requires to stay healthy, and it could easily lead to deficiency-related illness such as osteoporosis. Many doctors have expressed concerns with the lack of antioxidants in the diet (normally provided by fruits and vegetables) that could cause the dieter trouble later in life, and excess protein in the body has been linked to various kidney issues.

Bottom line, there's no question the Atkins diet is good for losing weight and losing it fast. People who have tried for years to lose weight without seeing any change may benefit from the encouragement of rapid weight loss, but I wouldn't encourage them to continue with the diet once they've lost the amount of weight they desire. The high fat and protein content of the diet is cause for concern, and staying on such a diet long-term has proven adverse affects on the body.

The noticeable lack of fruits and vegetables is equally worrisome, as such nutrients are needed to stay healthy. Overall, once you've finished losing weight with Atkins you'd be better off switching to another weight-maintenance diet or come up with one yourself-as long as it includes the nutrients you need.