The Atkins Diet, formally called the Atkins Nutritional Approach, is a popular low-carbohydrate eating plan developed in the 1960s by cardiologist Robert C. Atkins. The Atkins Diet has several phases for weight loss and maintenance. It starts out with a very low-carbohydrate eating plan. The purpose of the Atkins Diet is to change your eating habits to help you lose weight and keep it off. The Atkins Diet also says it's a healthy lifelong approach to eating.
This article delves into a comprehensive review of the Atkins Diet, including an evaluation of the Atkins Carb Counter App. It explores the diet's principles, phases, potential benefits, and drawbacks, offering insights for individuals considering this approach to weight loss and overall health improvement.
Understanding the Atkins Diet
The Atkins Diet notes that obesity and related health problems, such as type 2 diabetes and heart disease, are the fault of the typical low-fat, high-carb American diet. The Atkins Diet says that you don't need to avoid fatty cuts of meat or trim off excess fat. The Atkins Diet holds that eating too many carbs - especially sugar, white flour and other refined carbs - leads to many issues. The Atkins Diet says that it leads to blood sugar imbalances, weight gain and heart problems. To that end, the Atkins Diet limits carbs. The Atkins Diet encourages eating more protein and fat.
Like many diet plans, the Atkins Diet keeps changing. It now encourages eating more high-fiber vegetables and has included changes to meet vegetarian and vegan needs. The Atkins Diet doesn't require calorie counting or portion control. You do need to track your carbs, though. It uses a system called net carbs. Net carbs is the total carbohydrate content of an item minus its fiber content. For example, a half-cup (4 ounces) of raw broccoli has 2.3 grams of total carbs and 1.3 grams of fiber. The Atkins Diet says its approach to carbs will burn off your body's fat stores, control your blood sugar and help you achieve optimal health. Once you're at your goal weight, the Atkins Diet also explains it will help you find your personal carbohydrate balance. The Atkins Diet claims exercise isn't needed for weight loss.
The Four Phases of the Atkins Diet
The Atkins Diet has four phases:
Read also: Understanding the Atkins Diet
- Phase 1: Induction. In this strict phase, you cut out almost all carbohydrates from your diet. Instead of getting about half of your daily calories from carbohydrates, as recommended by most nutrition guidelines, you get only about 10%. In this phase, you eat protein, such as fish and shellfish, poultry, meat, eggs, and cheese, at every meal. You don't need to limit oils and fats. But you can't have most fruits, sugary baked goods, breads, pastas, grains, nuts or alcohol. You drink at least eight glasses of water a day.
- Phase 2: Balancing. In this phase, you keep eating a minimum of 12 to 15 grams of net carbs as foundation vegetables. You also keep avoiding foods with added sugar. You can slowly add back in some carbs that are high in nutrients, such as more vegetables and berries, nuts, and seeds, as you keep losing weight.
- Phase 3: Pre-maintenance. In this phase, you slowly keep increasing the range of foods you can eat, including fruits, starchy vegetables and whole grains. You can add about 10 grams of carbs to your diet each week. But you must cut back if your weight loss stops.
- Phase 4: Lifetime maintenance. You move into this phase when you reach your goal weight.
Sample Menu
Breakfast. Egg-filled avocado with prosciutto.
Lunch.
Dinner.
Snacks. You typically can have two snacks a day. Snacks may include an Atkins Diet product, such as a chocolate shake or granola bar.
Expected Results
The Atkins Diet says that you can lose a large amount of weight in the first two weeks of phase 1 - but it also states that those aren't typical results. The Atkins Diet also notes that you may lose water weight at first. Most people can lose weight on almost any diet plan that restricts calories - at least in the short term. Over the long term, though, studies show that low-carb diets like the Atkins Diet are no more effective for weight loss than are standard weight-loss diets. Because carbs usually provide over half of calories consumed, the main reason for weight loss on the Atkins Diet is lower overall calorie intake from eating less carbs.
Read also: Delicious Atkins Dinners
Some studies suggest that there are other reasons for weight loss with the Atkins Diet. You may shed pounds because your food choices are limited. And you eat less since the extra protein and fat keep you feeling full longer. The Atkins Diet says that its eating plan can prevent or improve serious health conditions, such as metabolic syndrome, diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease. And most weight-loss diets - not just low-carb diets - may improve blood cholesterol or blood sugar levels, at least temporarily. One study showed that people who followed the Atkins Diet had improved triglycerides, suggesting better heart health.
Atkins Diet vs. Keto
The Atkins diet and the ketogenic (keto) diet are similar. Both focus on eating fat while limiting carbs. On the keto diet, fat can make up 90% of your calories each day. On Atkins 20, it's up to 70%. Researchers aren't clear whether the keto diet is safe or will help you keep weight off in the long term. Doctors mostly suggest it to lessen the number of seizures in kids with epilepsy.
The Atkins Carb Counter App: A User's Perspective
Truth: This app isn’t user-friendly if you cook real food from scratch. Logging your meals is more of a pain and less precise than it was with the Keto app. True, it’s free, and you have to pay per month with the Keto app, so you get what you pay for.
Packaged ingredients with brand names and major chain restaurants pop up in the search just fine, but not raw ingredients. No sautéed broccoli appeared in my search, but bags of frozen broccoli from Eden Farms plus a dozen other companies showed up. Also, the quantities are limited. It gives you only one measurement type (ounces or grams or cups) and you have to go with that. It’s harder to be accurate.
In short, the options on the app are so limited, it’s like they don’t expect you to actually cook. You can customize, writing in your own ingredients, but then you have to know how many macronutrients-carbs, fat, protein-every single ingredient has. And who has time to look up every ingredient’s stats on their own? An app is supposed to do that for you.
Read also: Atkins Diet for Vegetarians
App Details
Seller Alisa Unzhakova Size 22.5 MB Category Lifestyle Compatibility Requires iOS 10.0 or later. iPhoneRequires iOS 10.0 or later. iPadRequires iPadOS 10.0 or later. iPod touchRequires iOS 10.0 or later. MacRequires macOS 11.0 or later and a Mac with Apple M1 chip or later.
Additional Features
With the Atkins Health App, you will have access to workout programs designed specifically to help you reach your rehab, fitness and health goals! You can follow & track your workouts, your lifestyle habits, measurements and results-all with the help of your coach. You can use this app to book in to some of our specialty groups eg. Pilates Reformer. Download the app today! Ratings & Reviews Bug fixes and performance updates. iPhoneRequires iOS 15.1 or later. iPadRequires iPadOS 15.1 or later. iPod touchRequires iOS 15.1 or later. Apple WatchRequires watchOS 8.0 or later.
Practical Challenges and Considerations
The All-or-Nothing Mindset
Sometimes, Stricter Is EasierAmy SowderI had a hard time staying under 42 grams of net carbs, which was what the Atkins diet recommended for me after their diet quiz analyzed my goals and dietary preferences: I didn't want to lose more than 15 pounds, and I wanted a flexible diet with more options. I managed to keep under 42 grams five days out of 14. Other days, my range skipped between the fifties to the seventies.
Somehow it was easier to be more extreme, like when I stayed under 28 net carbs a day on the keto diet, because I'm better at all-or-nothing behavior than the path of moderation. It's not healthy in the long term, but that's the way my psychology works.
Sugar can be as addictive as cocaine or heroin, battering our dopamine pleasure receptors to the point that we build a tolerance and need more and more to feel the same sugar high, according to the National Institutes of Health. So for me, extreme rules often help. If I were starting from scratch, I’d go for the stricter Atkins plan, the 20-gram one, at least to start. But that's just me.
Navigating Prepackaged Foods
Once I started Atkins, I found tons of convenient, packaged foods designed with low-carbers in mind: ParmCrisps, SmartSweets gummy bears, Quest protein bars, Atkins Endulge chocolate-coconut bars, and my beloved Keto Bars, which come in dark chocolate coconut and chocolate peanut butter.
I gave in. I kept going for prepackaged, processed foods when I was super-tired or late at night. And while these items are great when used in a pinch, you shouldn't eat them almost daily as I ended up doing.
After all, sugar substitutes can hurt healthy weight-loss goals. In July, the Canadian Medical Association Journal released a report analyzing 37 research studies showing sugar substitutes are linked to weight gain, not weight loss or even weight maintenance. It gets worse: People who regularly consume artificial sweeteners are at a higher risk for obesity, diabetes, and heart disease, the report shows.
Transforming Cooking Habits
While experimenting with Atkins, I had to either trash the standby meals I usually make at home or transform them using substitutes. (Think: veggie noodles instead of spaghetti.)
Breakfast is always the hardest for me, as I adore cold and hot cereals. They’re easy, quick, and delicious. So, I had to plan ahead: I made an egg-chorizo-spinach-ricotta casserole that lasted so many days I had to put squares of it in the freezer. I’d pull one square out, microwave it, top it with cheese or avocado and salt-wham! Done.
But I got tired of that and other popular low-carb tricks. Tired of eggs, cheese and meat in the morning, I found my new favorite breakfast alternative, the Almond Muffin in a Minute. You make it with almond flour and an egg in a mug in the microwave. Easy peasy. And it totally did the trick. No weird ingredients that you can’t find in a typical supermarket, either.
Social and Lifestyle Adjustments
I live with my boyfriend, and we both share a love of cooking and eating well. It's one of the things that attracted me to him in the first place. But on Atkins, cooking together was hard because there was so much I "couldn't" eat. He struggled to figure out what to cook because of all my restrictions. I ended up making zucchini noodles for myself when he made whole-wheat pasta. I washed Bibb lettuce leaves while he bought himself a brioche bun for our lamb burgers with whipped feta.
Visiting family or eating at anyone else's home wasn't the easiest either. I didn't want to subject everyone else to the pain-in-your-ass aspects of my diet, but I didn't want to fall off the wagon either. It took planning, such as carrying nuts and Quest bars with me at all times. I also went to a Trader Joe's and stocked up on cauliflower rice and shredded cabbage for my weeklong visit back home over the holidays.
Full disclosure: I did enjoy a couple tiny slices of my mom's pumpkin cheesecake and my sister-in-law's Key lime pie during my visit. I was trying to do this diet with moderation, so that meant allowing myself a little wiggle room, right? My body didn't freak out and gain five pounds, but my evening dessert cravings did resurface a bit.
Beyond the Scale: Measuring Success
After two weeks, I lost two measly pounds. Two. That’s nothing, especially because I’m tall and can gain or lose two to three pounds per day in water weight alone.
But I was able to fit into my skinny jeans! I haven’t been able to wear them for at least three years. The waist area was now totally comfortable, with space even. Even though drastic weight-loss wasn't part of my Atkins-diet results, the diet did help me change my body composition, and I was less bloated. I lost inches, instead of weight, which was fine by me.
The real prize? The amazing results from my recent physical exam at the doctor’s office. More than a year after my scary pre-diabetic and iron-deficient lab results and deep into these low-carb diets, my doctor, Fedir Ilnitskyy, M.D., walked into the patient room with a file folder, a smile, and said, “You earned an A this time.”
The numbers don’t lie. My blood sugar levels had plummeted from a dangerously high level to the lower end of the healthy range. My cholesterol remained healthy and was unaffected by all the extra fat I was eating. (Okay, so I did eat a lot of cheese.
Potential Benefits and Risks
Some very low-carb diets also restrict carbs so much that they cause you not to have enough nutrients or fiber. This can cause such health problems as constipation, diarrhea and nausea. It's also possible that restricting carbohydrates to less than 20 grams a day - the level recommended for phase 1 of the diet - can result in ketosis. Ketosis occurs when you don't have enough carbohydrates that are broken down into sugar (glucose) for energy, so your body breaks down stored fat. This causes ketones to build up in your body.
In addition, the Atkins Diet isn't a good idea for everyone. For example, the Atkins Diet recommends that you talk to your health care provider before starting the diet if you take diuretics, insulin or oral diabetes medications. Also, people with severe kidney disease shouldn't follow the diet.
You won’t have to count calories, attend meetings, or buy special food on the Atkins diet. But it does mean big changes to the way you eat, especially if you’re used to starch on your plate or if you snack on chips, sweets, or other junk foods.
Limitations: You’ll have to cut out white flour, sugar, and other common carbs at first, and eat carbs only in vegetable form.
Cooking and Shopping: With the Atkins diet, it’s best to make meals from scratch. If you rely on prepared foods, read labels to find out how many carbs and how much sugar they have.
The foods you're allowed can sometimes come with added sugar or carbs, like lunchmeat and salad dressing. So check those labels too before you buy.
You can find Atkins-brand frozen foods, drinks, and snacks in stores, but you don’t need to eat them.
At restaurants, choose foods you’d eat at home. Ask the waiter about carb content and keep your hand out of the bread basket.
Exercise: You don’t need to exercise to lose weight with the Atkins diet, but you should get moving. Try to be active for 30 minutes or more every day. Talk to your doctor first if you've been inactive or have any medical problems.
Vegetarians and vegans: Atkins doesn’t require you to eat meat. Also, you'll skip the first phase of Atkins 20, which limits carbs too much.
Vegetarians get protein from:
Eggs
Cheese
Soy
Nuts
Seeds
Legumes
High-protein grains like quinoa