The culprits, he uncovered, are the carbohydrates. Those building blocks turn into glucose and if we do not use all of that energy on physical activity, it turns into fat and accumulates in our bodies.

Therefore his diet is based on a few or no carbohydrates at all. You can eat as much proteins (meat and animal products) as you like and you can eat as much fat as you like, as long as you avoid carbohydrates you will lose weight.

The diet was based on proteins; bacon is OK, huge steaks are OK, creams, cheeses are OK and you can eat as much of it as you want. Eliminate the flower, rice, sugars and other carbohydrates from your food and you will lose weight.

Low and behold it worked! People were losing weight in huge amounts while gorging on their favorite foods and Dr. Atkins became the talk of the town.

The diet calls for a ridiculously small amount of carbohydrate for the first two weeks, about 20 grams a day (one slice of bread has about 18gr.) and no fruit at all because they are high in carbohydrates and sugars.

After the initial two weeks and after you have lost 4-8 pounds a week, you can slowly and carefully increase the amount of carbohydrates until you stop losing weight. That is your plateau, your base line and now you know what your limit is and reduce the intake in order to lose weight. You can also check the amount of ketosis in your urine which is an indication that your body is burning the fat it has been storing.

The problem with this diet is two pronged ; you deny yourself some foods and you start craving them after a while. There’s a risk you will go off the diet and start eating carbohydrates. Together with the fat you’ve been eating it is a recipe for an immediate weigh gain.
The more serious problem is the cholesterol which you have been consuming in big quantities.

It has been known for years that cholesterol is a major factor in heart attacks and cardiovascular system problems and is altogether dangerous to your health. Indeed when Dr. Atkins stepped out of his office in New York, in April 2003, slipped on the ice and fell; he died 9 days later at the age of 72. His cause of death was characterized as “blunt impact injury of the head” but subsequent reports show he had congestive heart failure and his weight at the time of death would have made him obese.

Since his death, although his wife tried to continue with his institute and diet empire, the popularity of this diet has declines dramatically, and it is the least recommended diet by doctors and health professionals.

Their plan is simple and comprehensive. It involves a little work from the dieter, but it is not overwhelming. The plan utilizes nutrition, psychology and support systems that together help the dieter achieve his goal.
They have a few plans. Here is the most popular one which is called the point system.

What do you eat? Basically everything. Each food gets points assigned to it based on the carbohydrate contents, fat content and fiber content. You get a small paper calculator and with a sliding center you can check the amount of points the food you are about to eat, gets.

You are also assigned, based on your weight and the amount of pounds (or Kg) you want to lose, the number of points you should eat each day.

It’s up to the dieter to decide what and how much he eats as long as he does not exceed the points allowed. So if you crave chocolate you can eat it, but know that you have to eat zero or low points food for the rest of the day.
This is a psychological break through. You do not have to deny yourself the food you like the most. You can eat everything – in small portions.

The second part of this program is to write everything down. We often feel we don’t eat much and yet the weight keeps going up. Writing down everything you eat makes you aware of what you put in your mouth and you might discover the “nothing” you ate is actually quite a lot. It is an excellent way to control your food instead of it controlling you.

The third part of this program is the weekly weigh-ins. You are asked not to weigh yourself every day. Our weight fluctuates because of different reasons; water retention, meal just consumed, constipation. This daily ritual is unnerving and disappointing at times. What you are asked to do instead is to come to their centers once a week and they will weigh you. No cheating, no leaning forward or back. The same scale once a week. Your weight is written down in a little booklet you keep, and you can watch the pound go away.

Following the weigh-ins there are support meetings run by their counselors. In those meetings you get together with people in the same situation as you and you share complaints and advice. The counselor follows a program which explains the basis of nutrition and teaches you ways to shave points off your diet by using substitutes and sharing recipes.

The best thing about this plan is that it is sustainable for a long period of time. Since you are the judge of what you eat and don’t deny yourself the foods you crave, you can continue on the plan for a long time. The goal is to lose no more than 2-3 pounds a week (about 1 kg.). It becomes a way of life and a way to control your weight forever.

Calories

– The amount of calories in a certain food is a way to measure how much heat will be released while burning that food. A man needs about 2,000 calories a day, a woman a little less depending on their activity levels. Calorie amount is given so we will know how rich or dense the food is so we can calculate how many calories we eat.

- When looking at the box it’s important to understand that the amount of calories written as information is sometimes for only one serving and not the whole box. You have to be aware of that and make the calculations.

Carbohydrate

– Sugars and starches and other elements the body needs and uses as an energy source. There are simple carbohydrates that break down easily and quickly into glucose and those are the ones we try to avoid. Complex carbohydrates take a lot of energy to break down and keep out bodies busy for a while longer.

Cholesterol

- Our body produces most of the cholesterol it needs to be able to build cells and make hormones. When we add cholesterol to our bodies it is accumulating in the arteries and sometimes creates blocks and cloths that lead to cardiac arrest.
Enriched foods –those are elements, such as vitamins, which are added to the food to compensate for what it lost in the manufacturing process.

Fortified foods

- those are elements added to the food that were never there in the first place. For example; added vitamin D in milk that will help in the absorption of calcium.

Dietary fiber

– the parts of a plant or vegetable that our body does not digest. It increases the bulk in our digestive track, fills us up and gives our stomachs a lot to chew on. You need about 25 gr. of fiber per day.

Daily value

– It is a calculated number, based on a diet of 2000 calories a day, that tells you how much of each ingredient, in percentage, the food contains. You need 100% of that ingredient a day.

High Fructose Corn Syrup

- Sometimes (quite often) used in foods instead of sugar. Just as bad as sugar if not worse.

Hydrogenated fat

– a process that turns liquid fat into semi hard one. The process creates Trans fats that are harmful and turn quickly to cholesterol.

MSG (Monosodium Glutamate) – it is a flavor enhancer, somewhat similar to salt. It may cause an allergic reaction in some people. This is why it has to be spelled out.

Potassium – a substance helping the building of muscles and maintaining healthy blood pressure. Found in generous amounts in bananas and nuts.

Saturated fats – Usually come from animal products and are not good for our bodies. Some vegetables as coconut and palm oil contain saturated fats as well, that harden in room temperature. No more than 7% of your fat intake should come from saturated fats.

Sodium – is what we call salt. Salt is needed in the body but in big amounts can raise the blood pressure and cause the body to retain water.

Sugars – different kinds of sugars are used in the manufacturing of food; fructose, glucose, sucrose, maple and corn syrups. They are added to the food to enhance the flavor and have no nutritional value.

Use this information to make an educated decision about the kinds of food to buy and what to serve your family. Balancing all the elements and avoiding those that are harmful is the first step to healthy nutrition.