Atkins Diet Weight Loss

ATKINS DIET PLAN

PHASE 4 -

Lifetime Maintenance

The day has arrived. You have reached the pinnacle with the

Atkins Diet Maintenance plan. You have arrived at the place where you once were in your early high school days. You look great and the mirror doesnt lie. Take a moment and congratulate yourself. Now, for a reality check. The hard part is just beginning. As many of us know, regaining the lost weight is a fact of life. But it doesnt have to be this way with the Atkins Diet. The distinction between pre-maintenance and lifetime maintenance is sometimes blurred. With Lifetime Maintenance your weight and food plans have stabilized and you are in a fairly constant routine. Your new habits and food choices will allow you to stay slim for the rest of your life. Review the rules of lifetime maintenance below.

Adhere to your Critical Carbohydrate Level for Maintenance CCLM.

Continue to eat natural, unprocessed, nutrient dense carbohydrates.

Exercise regularly.

Continue to take nutritional supplements, modifying your regimen to meet your needs.

Develop a strategy for dealing with temptation.

Never let yourself get 5 pounds above your goal weight.

Start getting in the habit of looking at the food labels of packages.

Avoid sugar, corn syrup, white flour, cornstarch and hydrogenated oil. Learn to develop alternatives to the foods you were addicted to in the past.

Become more food aware and learn to apply the 5 lb. rule when your weight increases. It is a lot easier to lose that 5 lbs. than it is to lose 20 lbs. This is most important to your

Atkins Diet

- Low Carb Beer andamp. Wine

A common question for people on the Atkins Diet is the consumption of alcohol. Beer and especially wine is high in carbohydrates. Liquor such as rum, vodka, and whisky is distilled so most if not all the carbohydrates are removed. Fortunately, the beer distributors are coming out with low carb beers and they are flying off the shelves. Michelob Ultra has 2.6 grams per 12 ounces, Miller Lite 3.3, Rolling Rock Green Light 2.6 and Bud Light around 6.1 grams of carbohydrates. If you drink liquor, ensure you do not mix with high carbohydrate juices or non diet sodas which contain large amounts of sugar.

Alcohol Use and Ongoing Weight Loss

Alcohol use can definitely interfere with Induction and your Ongoing Weight Loss. Each beer, each glass of wine or each mixed drink is more calories which your system has burn. If you consume the high carbohydrate drinks, then it is all the more tougher to sustain weight loss. The problem is that your body burns alcohol for fuel when it is in your system. So when you are drinking, your body will not burn fat until the alcohol is burned from your system. If you add carbohydrates to the mix, the you can see that burning fat is the last priority of your body. First it will burn alcohol, then carbohydrate, then fat. So you can see, it will quickly take you out of ketosis and put the brakes on your weight loss.

What Should I Do

ATKINS DIET ALCOHOL

Sometimes you have to make tough decisions and if this is one of them, then here is a few suggestions to help you with your Atkins Diet alcohol drinking.

1. During induction for 2 weeks, do not drink or drink in very limited quantities.

2. If you have to drink, drink low carbohydrate beers or light beers.

3. If you drink wine, limit yourself to 2 glasses or drink the low carb versions.

4. If you drink mixed drinks, do not mix with juices or regular soda such as Coca Cola or Pepsi. Use water or diet sodas which have no carbohydrates.

5. Mix bottled water between drinks. This will limit your alcohol consumption and limit dehydration and hangover syndrome the next day.

The decision for

Atkins Diet alcohol consumption is a very difficult problem for many Americans. It can be made much more manageable for paying attention to what you drink and how much you drink.

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ATKINS DIET INFORMATION

The Common Misconceptions of the Atkins Diet

Misconception. The Atkins Diet can be used as a short term or crash diet.

Fact. If you do Induction for two weeks to drop 10 pounds and then go back to your old way of eating, you will be treating it as a crash diet. This is not what Dr. Atkins intended and will lead to problems in the long run.

Misconception. You can lose weight during Atkins, then return to your old way of eating.

Fact. If your do this, you will gain everything back and you will have changed nothing.

Misconception. You can focus only on losing weight and ignore the maintenance aspects.

Fact. Any weight loss program that doesnt include a maintenance program is doomed to failure.

Misconception. You can any any food as long as you do not exceed 20 grams per day.

Fact. If you do this, you will be missing out on the health benefits of the nutrient dense foods like vegetables. This is not a recommended strategy.

Misconception. You can use the Atkins Diet for weight loss, but you dont have to bother with exercise and vitamin supplements as long as I am healthy.

Fact. If you dont exercise or take vitamin supplements, you are at risk for future health problems. Everyone should exercise regardless of any diets.

Misconception. You can continue to just do Induction until all the weight is lost.

Fact. You will lose more weight quickly if you just do induction but it is not recommended. You need to go through the phases to learn about yourself and your body and how it reacts positively to the good carbohydrate foods.

Misconception. You can go back to eating all your favorite foods after you lose the weight.

Fact. Your favorite foods are often the problem foods. You need to recognize these addictive foods and learn how to deal with them. If you dont, you risk going back into the cycle of high blood sugar and overproduction of insulin.

Misconception. You can do induction during the week and binge on weekends and still lose and maintain your weight.

Fact. When you do Atkins during the week and cheat on the weekends, you will not burn fat for several days causing you weight gain. Also, your insulin response could be raised due to increased sugar intake and this could upset your metabolic response. You are defeating the purpose of the Atkins Plan and it is not recommended.

Misconception. You can do Atkins while following a low fat diet.

Fact. That is in direct contrast to the Atkins Diet. You need to eat less carbohydrates to burn fat.. This means you need to increase your protein and fat intake because fatty acids play a role in metabolic function. Fat also plays a role in stabilizing blood sugar and increasing satiety.


Take some time to read these misconceptions and learn the truth about this diet. There is much Atkins Diet Information to digest and many things posted on the Internet are simply not true. More and more people are finally realizing the benfits of a low carb diet and the food manufacturers are creating more and better options for the low carb atkins diet.

ATKINS DIET INDUCTION

PHASE 1 -

The Rules of Induction

Eat either three regular-size meals a day or four or five smaller meals. Do not skip meals or go more than six waking hours without eating.

Eat liberally of combinations of fat and protein in the form of poultry, fish, shellfish, eggs and red meat, as well as pure, natural fat in the form of butter, mayonnaise, olive oil, safflower, sunflower and other vegetable oils.

Eat no more than 20 grams a day of carbohydrate, most of which must come in the form of salad greens and other vegetables. You can eat approximately three loosely packed cups of salad, or two cups of salad plus one cup of other vegetables.

Eat absolutely no fruit, bread, pasta, grains, starchy vegetables or dairy products other than cheese, cream or butter. Do not eat nuts or seeds in the first two weeks of the

Atkins Diet Induction period. Foods that combine protein and carbohydrates, such as chickpeas, kidney beans and other legumes, are not permitted at this time.

Eat nothing that isnt on the Acceptable Foods list. And that means absolutely nothing. Your just this one taste wont hurt rationalization is the kiss of failure during this phase of Atkins.

Adjust the quantity you eat to suit your appetite, especially as it decreases. When youre hungry, eat the amount that makes you feel satisfied, but not stuffed. When youre not hungry, eat a small controlled carbohydrate snack to accompany your nutritional supplements.

Dont assume any food is low in carbohydrate, instead read labels and check the carb count on every package or use a carbohydrate gram counter.

Eat out as often as you wish but be on guard for hidden carbs in gravies, sauces and dressings. Gravy is often made with flour or cornstarch, and sugar is sometimes an ingredient in salad dressing.

Avoid foods or drinks sweetened with aspartame. Instead, use sucralose or saccharin. Be sure to count each packet of any of these as 1 gram of carbs.

Avoid coffee, tea and soft drinks that contain caffeine. Excessive caffeine has been shown to cause low blood sugar, which can make you crave sugar.

Drink at least eight 8-ounce glasses of water each day to hydrate your body, avoid constipation and flush out the by-products of burning fat.

If you are constipated, mix a tablespoon or more of psyllium husks in a cup or more of water and drink daily. Or mix ground flaxseed into a shake or sprinkle wheat bran on a salad or vegetables.

During the

Atkins Diet Induction timeframe, adjust the quantity you eat to suit your appetite, , take a good daily multivitamin with minerals, including potassium, magnesium and calcium, but without iron.

Mounting research suggests keeping blood sugar from rapidly spiking pays off in many ways. The most common benefits to stable blood sugar levels are listed below.

Decreased blood-sugar and insulin levels
Stabilized blood sugar and insulin levels
Less prone to tiredness
Decreased levels of hypertension or blood pressure levels
Reduced cholesterol and triglyceride levels
Helps with weight loss because it reduces cravings

You should use the glycemic index as a guide or tool to help you in your food choices. Try to select foods low on the glycemic index and dont mix too many high glycemic foods together when doing the Atkins Diet. Use this glycemic index chart for your guide to sensible eating.

Research has shown excess weight is a serious health problem for many Americans. Obesity in America is almost reaching the epidemic stage. Being overweight consistently increases your risk for developing a number of serious illnesses including heart disease, stroke, diabetes, cancer, and high blood pressure. The Atkins weight management approach takes a healthy perspective, incorporating low carbohydrate healthy foods, balanced with nutritional supplements and aerobic and anaerobic exercise.

What are the Benefits

The benefits are exercise are profound. Your aerobic exercise will strengthen your cardiovascular system while the anaerobic or strength training will improve your muscle tone and joint health. Overall, your general health and mental health will improve and your body metabolism will increase.

Basic Metabolic Rate

You expend energy no matter what youre doing, even when sleeping. Thus your Basal Metabolic Rate is the number of calories youd burn if you were inactive all day. Activity and especially exercise increase your metabolic rate or metabolism. Research has shown that your basic metabolioc rate will increase up to 24 hours after exercise is completed. This is a superb method of losing weight. For example, you ride your bike 6 miles and burn 250 calories doing so. Then, for the next 24 hours, you continue to burn more calories even if you did nothing because your metabolism has increased. This is a 2 for the of one proposition and is greatly encouraged because your metabolism slows down with age. As you age, you will notice your weight will be harder to maintain even though you are eating at the same levels as before. This is because your metabolism has decreased and needs to be kick started with exercise.

Protein and fat are the mainstays of your Atkins nutritional regimen.

Increase your daily carb intake by no more than 5 grams each week.

Add one new food group at a time.

Eat a food group no more than three times per week to start. Then you may eat it daily.

If new foods provoke weight gain, then eliminate them from your diet.

Continue to do OWL until you have from 5 to 10 pounds left to lose.

Key Points of OWL

As you move into OWL, your rate of weight loss will gradually taper off. This is normal and intentional since your are increasing your carb intake.

The key to OWL is to correctly determine your Critical Carbohydrate Level for Losing CCLL.

By incrementally increasing your carbohydrate intake you can tailor your Atkins diet plan to fit your tastes, desires, and lifestyle.

Everybodys CCLL can vary substantially.

The Rules of Lifetime Maintenance - Atkins Diet

The day has arrived. You have reached the pinnacle. You have arrived at the place where you once were in your high school days. You look great and the mirror doesnt lie. Take a moment and congratulate yourself. Now, for a reality check. The hard part is just beginning. As many of us know, regaining the lost weight is a fact of life. But it doesnt have to be this way with the Atkins Diet. The distinction between pre-maintenance and lifetime maintenance is sometimes blurred. With Lifetime Maintenance your weight and food plans have stabilized and you are in a fairly constant routine. Your new habits and food choices will allow you to stay slim for the rest of your life. Review the rules of lifetime maintenance below.

Adhere to your Critical Carbohydrate Level for Maintenance CCLM

Continue to eat natural, unprocessed, nutrient dense carbohydrates.

Exercise regularly.

Continue to take nutritional supplements, modifying your regimen to meet your needs.

Develop a strategy for dealing with temptation.

Never let yourself get 5 pounds above your goal weight.

TIPS

Start getting in the habit of looking at the food labels of packages. Avoid sugar, corn syrup, white flour, cornstarch and hydrogenated oil. Learn to develop alternatives to the foods you were addicted to in the past. For example, you could switch from potato chips to pigs ears or have a Atkins Advantage Bar instead of a Snickers.

Become more food aware and learn to apply the 5 lb. rule when your weight increases. It is a lot easier to lose that 5 lbs. than it is to lose 20 lbs.

Exercise, exercise, exercise - Make it a part of your life.

Misconception. The Atkins Diet can be used as a short term or crash diet.
Fact. If you do Induction for two weeks to drop 10 pounds and then go back to your old way of eating, you will be treating it as a crash diet. This is not what Dr. Atkins intended and will lead to problems in the long run.

Misconception. You can lose weight during Atkins, then return to your old way of eating.
Fact. If your do this, you will gain everything back and you will have changed nothing.

Misconception. You can focus only on losing weight and ignore the maintenance aspects.
Fact. Any weight loss program that doesnt include a maintenance program is doomed to failure.

Misconception. You can any any food as long as you do not exceed 20 grams per day.
Fact. If you do this, you will be missing out on the health benefits of the nutrient dense foods like vegetables. This is not a recommended strategy.

Misconception. You can use the Atkins Diet for weight loss, but you dont have to bother with exercise and vitamin supplements as long as I am healthy.
Fact. If you dont exercise or take vitamin supplements, you are at risk for future health problems. Everyone should exercise regardless of any diets.

Misconception. You can continue to just do Induction until all the weight is lost.
Fact. You will lose more weight quickly if you just do induction but it is not recommended. You need to go through the phases to learn about yourself and your body and how it reacts positively to the good carbohydrate foods.

Misconception. You can go back to eating all your favorite foods after you lose the weight.
Fact. Your favorite foods are often the problem foods. You need to recognize these addictive foods and learn how to deal with them. If you dont, you risk going back into the cycle of high blood sugar and overproduction of insulin.

Misconception. You can do induction during the week and binge on weekends and still lose and maintain your weight.
Fact. When you do Atkins during the week and cheat on the weekends, you will not burn fat for several days causing you weight gain. Also, your insulin response could be raised due to increased sugar intake and this could upset your metabolic response. You are defeating the purpose of the Atkins Plan and it is not recommended.

Misconception. You can do Atkins while following a low fat diet.
Fact. That is in direct contrast to the Atkins Diet. You need to eat less carbohydrates to burn fat.. This means you need to increase your protein and fat intake because fatty acids play a role in metabolic function. Fat also plays a role in stabilizing blood sugar and increasing satiety.

1. You Will Lose Weight on the

Atkins Diet

You will lose weight even though you may eat more than you ever did. Why will lose weight on the Adkins Diet is because it targets our stored body fat. Fat is used as a backup system to generate energy. Carbohydrates are the primary source of energy. So, if we limit the carbohydrates, the body will efficiently switch to a fat burning source of energy.

2. You Will Maintain Your Weight Loss

This is a key point. As stated, the problem will most diets is that you invariably end them and go back to your old eating habits. Most diets cause you to eat foods you dont like and to eat less. This causes you to be hungry. We all can tolerate hunger for a while but no one can tolerate for a lifetime. You can be guaranteed, you will not be hungry on the Atkins diet. This low carb diet is commonly referred to as Atkins For Life.

3. You Will Achieve Good Health

The mental and physical changes will be readily apparent once you achieve your desired weight. You will feel more energized, look so much better, and achieved a more healthy body. Todays Atkins diet of simple sugars and refined carbohydrates is evident in all the fast food restaurants throughout America. The United States have the fattest people in the world and it is because of our consumption of junk food and refined carbohydrates.

4. You Will Lay The Groundwork For Disease Prevention

You will change your eating habits which will change your body chemistry for the better. You will learn to eliminate the high glycemic carbohydrates which have a dramatic effect on blood sugar levels. Your cholesterol levels will improve and your insulin levels will decrease. You wont just look better, you will feel better and your blood work will be the evidence behind the science of

Atkins for Life.

Summary

At this point, you are probably raring to go and ready to plow ahead. Stop, if you are serious about Atkins, you need to get some blood work done and a complete physical. This is important because you will be able to gauge your blood and cholesterol levels before you start and compare it while you are on Atkins. Also, anyone with kidney disease should not do Atkins. Pregnant and nursing mothers should only do the Lifetime Maintenance Phase on this low carb diet.

Whether you call it the Atkins Diet or the

Adkins Diet, you are now ready to learn about the four phases and what the Atkins Nutritional Approach can do for you.