Friday, October 10, 2008

Body Fat Loss, Does the Atkins Diet Work?

By Ricardo d Argence

Recently, there have been many media documented arguments over the Atkins diet between its supporters and detractors. I am going to attempt to summarize the pros and cons of the diet program, enabling you to make an educated, informed, choice.

Let's start by quickly examining the facts. The Atkins diet is a very popular diet that many Americans are choosing to try in order to lose weight. By releasing well over 500 products which include "low carb" , or "no carb" labels, marketers and companies have made huge profits and continue to make money by targeting people who chose this dietary change.

That must mean it works, right? Yes and no, experts have debated the long term effects on health and come to the conclusion that low carbs diets such as Atkins can be risky business, especially if you're over 40.

The father of low carb style diets was the Atkins diet, which basically believed that carbohydrate sugars was responsible for people becoming fat. With the rubbish out there these days there is some truth to that statement, as it's normally the highly refined sugary carbs mixed with the saturated fats which have had a big hand in causing this wide spread fat epidemic.

The main idea behind it is that carbs will increase blood sugar levels, which in turn triggers the production of insulin, and then directs the refined sugars into your cells preventing you from burning fat molecules. Using sugars for the bodies primary source of fuel when you cut the carbs in return would also start burning fat for energy was the theory.

Knowing the detrimental effects that sugar can have on your health, Atkins is opposed to any sugar in your diet. Fat and protein are a part of the Atkins diet, not sugars and carbohydrates. It will be difficult and near impossible for vegans and vegetarians to follow Atkins because the system specifically recommends animal proteins as its basis.

The bad news, the body not only starts losing fat, but also lean muscle, which is needed for a higher metabolism, and water stores in the attempt to gather nutrients formally gained from carbs. When the body burn larger amounts of fats without sufficient carbs it produce something called ketones.

Some possible side effects of Ketones could be head aches, dizzyness, dehydration, bad breath and vomitting. Due to the fuel from carb sugars, the brain can lost it's primary source as well a long term you can add bone loss, muscle breakdown and kidney disease to the picture, therefore can result in a brain damage and increased risk of a heart attack.

In spite of everything, if you want to lose your fat weight you should really try this effective diet. Checking with your doctor and doing research are good tools to use before starting any diet.

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