Atkins Diet | Phases, Foods, Benefits, Risks and More

Nowadays, there are plenty of different types of diets and food regimens out there to choose from in order to lose weight more easily. Obesity is a serious health issue the world has been suffering from greatly in the past couple of decades with its associated devastating comorbidities and impact on the quality of life.

Not all of diets are healthy plans, some of them are (fad diets), those diets that claim you can notice a dramatic weight loss in a short term with little to no effort, that usually appeals to the uneducated consumers that go with the flow from intermittent fasting and plant-based diets to keto and Atkins diets. All of them consist of different types of food to eat and ones to avoid with the same goal being rapid weight loss. Alone, they might not be enough but accompanied with exercise and a healthy lifestyle is the only way that these diets will work, and consistency is key to losing weight. If one diet doesn’t work for you, you can always try another that suits your body type, distribution of fat and weight goal.

History of the Atkins diet

The Atkins diet is a well-known old diet that has been around for more than 50 years now it was first developed by the famous cardiologist Robert Atkins in the 70s and became popular in America in the early 2000s with the publishing of the book (Dr Atkins diet revolution) which is one of the top 50 bestselling books in history with over 12 million copies sold in North America alone.  It was even the cause of the decline in carbs consumption that led the companies to produce more products that are low in carbs under the name of (The Atkins Nutritional Approach).

The Atkins diet plan

This diet is a low carbohydrate (sugars and starches), high fat, and high protein diet. It encourages the consumption of cheese, meats, and butter in substantial amounts and restricts the use of carbs as pasta , bread , and rice, providing daily nutrition in the form of  68% of the daily calories from fat, 27% of the daily calories from protein, and 5% of the daily calories from carbs.

Resources for following the Atkins diet

There are plenty of meal plans available in the Atkins books and on their website to check out, the most popular one being (The Atkins 20). Since not everybody’s goal in weight loss is the same, you get to decide on the plan according to your body’s responses to the plan and to better suit your lifestyle and personal needs, and in special situations like whether you are pregnant, breastfeeding, or if you have any diseases that are affected by your diet like diabetes for instance.

There is also a ton of products out there to help you plan your meals easily and plenty of recipes online to choose from to inspire you daily.

Theory of action

• The Atkins diet claims that a metabolic advantage of 950 calories per day would be burned. As fat requires more calories to burn which will make your body adjust and burn more of the stored fat in your body as a new source of energy instead of carbs,which will make you lose weight and sustain higher consistent energy levels throughout the day . In other words it is designed to “flip the body’s metabolic switch” .
• The increased protein content reduces your appetite faster, which makes you consume fewer calories than you normally would if you were eating carbs.
• It limits the postprandial spikes of blood sugar and insulin that cause sudden hunger and cravings and resultsin weight gain and over-eating.
• As carbs are the major stimulus for insulin release andthe inhibition of fat breakdown and promotion of fat storage that makes weight loss even harder. That is why stopping carbs can lead to lower insulin levels and increasing fat oxidation for energy use instead of carbs with subsequently less fat synthesis and total fat reduction that ultimately causes weight loss.
• Another factor is that low-carbs food choices are more limited,which is what makes dietary adherence have forced caloric restrictions.
• Finally,the goal is nutritional ketosis in which the liver forms ketones (acetoacetate ACAC and hydroxybutyrate BOHB) that enables the use of fatty acids from adipose tissue as a source of energy ketone levels don’t exceed 3 mmol/L unlike ketoacidosis which is a pathological increase in body ketones and a complication of uncontrolled type-1 diabetes mellitus in which ketone level exceeds 10 mmol/L.

Foods to eat and avoid

1) Types of Food you should eat

• All types of meats: beef, chicken, salmon, and shrimp
• Full fat dairy products: milk,yogurt, cheese, and butter.
• Nuts and seeds: walnuts,almonds, and sunflower seeds.
• Eggs
• Low carbs veggies:kale, spinach, broccoli, cucumbers.
• high fat low carb fruits:avocados, berries, wat
• Consume plenty of water at least 8 glasses per day and green tea to prevent constipation and dehydration.
• Vegetarians can have soy-basedfoods to replace the proteins and add lots of olive and coconut oil.

2) Types of Food you should avoid

• Sweetened carbonated drinks like soda and fruit juice
• Chips and cereals
• Cakes,candy, ice creams, chocolates
• Rice,wheat, pasta, bread, biscuits
• Starchy food like potatoes, beans, chickpeas,and lentils
• High carb fruits and veggies like bananas, carrots,turnips, and dates

Phases of the Atkins diet

The Atkins diet is done gradually over a long period of time. It generally goes through four phases as follows:

1. Induction: You are supposed to consume from 20-25  grams of carbs per day for two weeks,but for  no later than when you lose 15 pounds from your goal weight. In this phase you can have as much fat and protein as you wish to start the weight losing process. So you can start switching your metabolism more towards fat burning and using fat as the main source of fuel and not carbs. You can have foundation vegetables, proteins ,healthy fats and cheeses.
2. Balancing : then you can gradually increase the carb content to 25-50 grams per day and add more fruits and vegetables that are low in carbs and consume more nuts that have  high fat content.You can have the same sorts of food as in induction with added berries , cherries , legumes , tomato juice and dairy products.
3. Fine tuning :you are close to reaching your goal weight you can then start adding more carbs back into the diet to stop losing weight you are allowed about 50_80 grams of carbs per day. You can have the same food as in induction and maintenance with the addition of starchy veggies and fruits and slowly more whole grains.
4. Maintenance:you are free to eat what you wish as you will not regain any of the weight back as long as your daily carbs content does not exceed 100 grams per day.

And throughout the phases you will be able to find your own personal carbohydrate balance that maintains your weight and prevents you gaining more pounds. It will also help you distinguish hunger from habit and make it easier for you to feel full earlier in the meal. You also learn the right types of snacks to have and when to cut back on your carb intake which will help you decrease your risk for chronic diseases like diabetes, hypertension, and heart diseases.

Advantages & disadvantages of atkins diet

1) Advantages of the Atkins diet

• It has a bigger variety of meal choices that actually taste good
• It is very filling unlike other diets as it has a lot of protein and fat in it
• It also doesn’t require fasting of any kind for any amount of hours
• It doesn’t require portion control or calorie counting which means you can eat as much as you want with limits of course but you have totake into consideration (the net carbs) which is the total carb content of an item minus its fiber content that is required to track throughout this diet.
• It is also preferred in people who have carbohydrate processing problems like intolerance and malabsorption that lead to bloating, flatulence,and diarrhea.

2) Disadvantages of the Atkins diet

• Because this diet derives the largest proportion of calories from fats and protein which are known to increase the lipid content in the blood,increasing both LDL and cholesterol which lead to atherosclerosis and eventually to coronary artery disease.
• Electrolyte imbalance as ketosis leads to diuresis,so you should consume potassium-rich food like avocado and dark leafy greens which are also low on carbs to avoid getting hypokalemia.
• Hyperuricemia leading to gout and bone pain.
• Hypercalcemia giving rise to kidney stones,and osteoporosis.
• There is also what’s called a (keto flu) typical flu symptoms of headache, fatigue,lightheadedness and diarrhea but usually resolve in 7 to 10 days.
• Halitosis or(keto breath) a very embarrassing problem, but with drinking more water and keeping oral hygiene and using unsweetened mints can be controlled and resolved after adaptation to the diet.
• Constipation as there is restricted intake of starchy fibrous food and whole grains leaving behind the non-starchy insoluble fiber that requires more water intake,and regular exercise to digest better.
• Hypoglycemia in patients who take insulin secretagogues as there is low sugar level in the blood from the lack of carbs in diet.
• It has a lot of protein which is not suitable for people who suffer from kidney disease and liver disease as it increases the risk of kidney and liver failure.
• Some people may get mineral and vitamin deficiency,so they need proper supplementations.
• saturated fats especially increase glucose intolerance and insulin resistance that lead to metabolic syndrome afterwards with obesity, hypertension,and diabetes but according to the American heart association cardiovascular disease was lowered by 30% similar to the effect of statins the lipid lowering drugs when you replace saturated fat with vegetable oil.
• It also increases the risk of some types of cancers and the lack of carb rich fruits and vegetables is worrisome as they are known to reduce the risk of stroke and dementia and some types of cancers.

Difference between keto diet and Atkins diet

Both of them are low carb high fat diets that lead to ketosis because of carbs restriction but they are different in that:

• The Atkins diet is more comfortable and easier to get used to quickly as it offers a wider variety of food available in the Atkins meal plans.
• the Atkins dietis also higher in protein content in comparison to the keto diet.
• The Atkins diet mandates Low carbs only in the induction phase, it gradually increases the carbs content throughout the different stages unlike the keto diet which stays on the same low carb level till the end.
• You don’t need to monitor your ketone body levels in the Atkins diet.
• And the Atkins diet leads to kidney stone formation less frequently compared to the keto diet.
• The Atkins diet is more sustainable and easier to follow and stick to than the keto diet.

Modified Atkins diet (MAD)

For a very long time ketosis was used as a way to stop seizures in people suffering from refractory  epilepsy along with medium chain triglycerides diet (MCTD) and the low glycemic index treatment (LGIT) and one of the oldest diets used is the ketogenic diet that maintains a chronic state of ketosis. It has a ratio of 4:1 of fat : protein and carbs. It has shown more than 50% reduction in seizures in 33% of patients with intractable epilepsy and led to the reduction of antiepileptic drug dosage and even withdrawal in some mild cases but it has its restrictions:

• • It is low on calories, because proteins are totally restricted.
  • It requirescontinuous weighing of food.
  • It leads to hypoproteinemia and growth problems.
  • It can cause acidosis and kidney stones.
  • Hyperlipidemia and heart disease.

Here is where the modified Atkins comes in place, it is the same as the Atkins diet but for the fact that the induction phase where you limit most of the carbs is maintained indefinitely with even more fat introduction being encouraged, so it allows ketosis without calorie or fluids restriction and with more protein intake with the goal being seizure control not weight loss. It showed similar efficacy to the traditional ketogenic diet with better safety and tolerability.