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Whichever way you turn, someone is hyping a new diet that will make you reach all of your weight loss goals. Some have been established to be beneficial and others have ended up being harmful for your health. This brings us to the Atkins diet, what is it? Will this diet work for you?

Some years after Dr. Robert Atkins finished medical at Cornell University in 1955, he found himself overweight and looking for answers. Atkins made is diet plan similar to one that he had seen in the Journal of American Medical Association. He first published Dr Atkins Diet Revolution in 1970.

Through the years, he changed his plan a little but he never got too far away from the diet’s basic principals. The diets is focused on eliminating carbohydrates from the western diet.

The entire diet revolves around the idea that carbs are the main cause of being overweight. As you can see, the diet limits your intake of carbs. There are four steps in this plan, each step building on the one before.

Induction. The first part is definitely the most limited. The suggested time to stay on this phase is two weeks, but Atkins states that you it is safe to stay at this phase for months. Carbohydrates are limited to 15-20 grams per day of which 12-15 must come from leafy vegetables. This part of the diet will also let you eat little amounts of cheese, large amounts of meat and essential fats. At this stage, the goal is to put the body into ketosis and add some healthy fiber to the diet.

Ongoing Weight Loss. In phase 2, the carbohydrate count will gradually increase until weight loss occurs at a reasonable pace of about 1 or 2 pound each week. While it is acceptable to increase the amount of carbohydrates ingested per day by five grams, vegetables are the first to be increased in order to help determine how much of an adjustment can be made before you start to put on weight. Dieters should stay within this stage until 5 to 10 pounds away from their goal.

Pre Maintenance. This is the time when weight loss slows even more, Atkins recommends loosing the last ten pounds or so over a 1-3 month period. During this phase, dieters should use the method in phase 2 and add carbohydrates in at as much as ten grams per day again to the point that they are able without gaining weight.

Maintenance. Consider everything that you learned from the past phases and be consistent with a healthy program to stay at your best weight. Make sure you don’t return to your bad dietary habits when you reach the end of your diet.

Ketosis. This condition occurs when there are elevated levels of ketone bodies in the blood. This happens when the liver converts fat into fatty acids, a normal response of the liver to a diet that is extremely low in carbohydrates. Normally the body depends on glucose from the carbohydrates in your diet, when they are absent the body will begin to burn fat stores instead. You know your body is in ketosis state when you have a metallic taste in your mouth or bad breath.

Medical professionals are divided in their opinion on ketosis. While the debate is far from over, people have stated that it stresses the liver unnecessarily and can be destructive to muscle tissue.

For many people the diet does work, the first phase alone can net a ten to fifteen pound loss in as little as a week. As with any diet, the results will be exponentially multiplied with exercise in order to increases the metabolism and help to prevent cardiovascular disease.