Monday, November 10, 2008

Low Carb Diets, A Brief Look into the Atkins Diet

By Ricardo d Argence

You have just been to a social gathering and there are tears playing mischief in your eyes. Maybe your being overweight will never let you make an impression while your dumber but thinner counterparts get away so luckily. You need to do something about it and yet everyday when you lazily crawl out of bed nothing seems to right.

Nine out of ten times, it is noticed that an improper diet is responsible for the excessive weight gained by an individual. What we forget to pay heed to is that our body metabolism follows a certain pattern and if we go on disrupting it with our shifting eating habits, it will gradually fail and most of the calories ingested will get stored as fat in the body.

Dr. Atkins elaborated on his groundbreaking low carb diet in his book which was written and published in the 1970's. There have been many round table discussions since its re-introduction to public awareness during the nineties, because people did not accept it when first introduced. Nutritionists and health experts have made the Adkins diet famous and it has been proven to work.

The Atkins diet brakes up your portions of cabohydrates into different stages, as part of your food chart. Typically in a beginning phase, 20 grams of carbohydrates are permitted on a daily basis. In the first couple of weeks, the high protein diet consist of meat products such as bacon, poultry, and seafood. There is no allowance for high carbohydrate foods such as cereal, grains, and bread.

Dieters are recommended to increase their carb intake by 5 grams a day until the total of 40-90 gm per day is reached. At this point he needs to restrict further carbohydrate consumption since it would just promote the development of more adipose tissue.

Listed here are a few of the disadvantages resulting from the low carb diet. As the individual lowers his carb consumption and triggers the metabolism to start breaking down fat in order to release energy, this initially occurs in a healthy fashion. Starvation can cause lipolysis to occur which can cause ketone to form, because of the lack of fat being broken down.

The ketone bodies formed during ketosis, interfere with your blood cells' oxygen carrying capacity and may permanently damage brain tissues and lead to brain death or coma. So one should stay on the lookout for signs of ketosis. Bad breath is one of the chief indicators of ketosis since the ketone body formed in the digestive system and its interaction with the enzymes and bacteria leads to fermented products. Sluggish movement is also due to lesser energy being released on breakdown of fat. 1 gm of carbohydrate release 7 Kcal of energy while 1 gm of fat releases only 4.9 Kcal of biochemical energy.

The Atkins diet program is highly beneficial to you if when used in moderation with the combination of regular exercise. Regular exercise reduces stress levels and improves your mood apart from making you lose weight and look better. If you are physically well, you will feel more calm, relaxed and confident mentally. - 16459

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