It sounds too good to be true: Eat all the meat and fat you want and still lose weight. But small clinical trials show that Atkins does help peel off the pounds. What’s more, the regimen appears to help raise HDL cholesterol (the good kind) and lower triglycerides, another fat in the blood that is connected with risk of heart disease. One potential problem: the flood of low-carb foods - all typically high in calories - now on the market. Calories count, and gnoshing on too many “carb-free” snacks will only put the pounds back on.
Is the diet healthy? Debatable: The Induction phase is highly unbalanced, with a mere 20 grams of carbohydrate per day. In the short term, you take off pounds, and blood lipids (cholesterol, triglycerides) seem to improve. But nutritionists balk at the high fat and saturated fat content of the steaks, chops, and other foods that Atkins promotes. Also unclear: the health impact of a lifetime of restricted carbs and high protein.
What do the experts say? Registered dietitian Jane Kirby, author of ‘Dieting for Dummies,’ second edition (Wiley Publishing Inc., 2004), gives the plan a thumbs-down. “Most nutritionists recommend that 55 to 60 percent of your calories come from carbohydrate,” Kirby says. “With a 1,500-calorie weight-loss diet, that would add up to 188 to 225 grams of carbs per day. Even the maintenance phase, which recommends 40 to 60 grams, is far too low.”
Weight-loss researcher Gary Foster, Ph.D., of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, admits he’s surprised by the fact that the Atkins diet, while successful at producing weight loss, doesn’t seem to raise the risk of high cholesterol and heart disease. “We thought that the harmful effects of a low-carb Atkins-style diet might be the high amounts of saturated fat,” says Foster, who recently published a one-year study comparing Atkins and a more traditional weight-loss diet. “And that turned out not to be true, at least at the one-year mark.” So Foster is working on a longer diet comparison study, this one for five years.
Bottom Line: This one’s a puzzler. No nutritionist in her right mind would endorse a bonanza of high-fat, high-saturated fat foods like bacon, steak, cheese. Although Atkins is an average diet plan, it’s just not in the same league with today’s top diets like Nutrisystem or Medifast.
Hi, I'm a dietitian with experience in hundreds of weight loss programs and fad diets. When forming my list of the
Atkins worked great for me and my husband. His cholesterol went from a whopping 460 (on 80 mg lipitor and Ornish and PRitikin) to 165 with a better ratio too. My triglycerides went from 1500 to 100. We both lost over 30 pounds in a few months . The only problem was that we craved fruit in the summer. We then found that berries and melon seemed to be ok. Don’t use the atkins bars. Use regular food and don’t use “low carb” snack junk food and it is great. There was just an article in the NY Times about how the false rumors that fats were bad. (trans fats are the only bad fat) Check it out in the times how bad rumors start and why Atkins continues to work despite the food pyramid–it was all from a game of doctors playing “telephone”
While I did lose weight on Atkins, all that extra protein was too hard on my kidneys and I suffered kidney stones. On the advice of my doctor I had to stop the Atkins regimen.
I went on the Atkins Diet about 15 years ago and lost 250 pounds over 2 years. It really does work, but MAN did I ever get tired of eating meat, eggs and cheese. I think I ate enough ham and cheese omelets to fill a tractor truck bed!
I was ecstatic with the weight that I lost–happy enough to deal with the horrible breath that ketosis causes. I really thought that I had found the answer to a problem that had plagued me for years!
I was wrong. As soon as I started adding carbs, the weight came right back–and FAST!!!!!! Also, I am told that I did irreversible damage to my kidneys. I would not recommend Atkins for a long term maintenance of weight loss.
It’s important to understand, Atkins is not necessarily low carb…it is controlled carb. Eating low amounts of high glycemic carbs.
I did atkins for 2 years and lost a lot of weight, and kept my diabetes at bay without the need for medication. Dr’s and laypeople both marveled at my success. I was a little reckless with the meat and soda and I did develop kidney stones and had to stop it for awhile. I think diet lemonade, which is high in citric acid and plenty of water would have helped this as I was drinking mostly diet sodas which is very hard on your system and very dehydrating.
In the end, I don’t know anyone who would look at a plate with a chicken thigh, a salad with tomatoes, sprouts, peppers, sunflower seeds and italian dressing with some brocoli and think “Oh what an unhealthy diet”, and yet this is induction Atkins, much more strict than the other levels with regard to carb cutting.
I read Dr. Atkins book and used his diet plan with really good success. I weighed 240 Ibs and dropped to 170 Ibs and have been able to sustain the weightloss. Everybody who has written a review of the plan all say that the plan works. In my opinion people just love their carb-laden foods and don’t want to give them up which is why atkins gets a bad reputation from “experts”. This isn’t even a diet it’s a whole lifestyle change, it’s not just about eating meats and cheese, it’s about exercising, getting the proper nutrition, and not going overboard with “bad carbs” such as white flour, sugar and highly starched foods. People who actually take the time to read his book instead of making snap judgements about it know this. The premise of his plan is very simple, your body runs off of 2 (3 if you count alcohol) fuels: Carbohydrates and Fat. Carbohydrates burn faster than fat so your body will naturally use it first to burn. Now, if you don’t have a very active lifestyle, and your body doesn’t burn through all the carbs your ingesting, the excess carbs it doesn’t burn gets stored as fat. this is the whole “counting calories” way of eating. If you deprive your body of carbohydrates it has no choice but to burn fat, which is what the “induction phase” of atkins is for, but the induction phase is not the whole atkins diet! This diet proves it’s WHAT your eating not how much you eat, because I regurlarly eat 2000-2500 calories a day and still lose weight. And no matter how many experts set out to prove that this diet isn’t healthy for you their hasn’t been one study that I’m aware of that shows Atkins is dangerous to your health. Even in the above review all it says is ““Most nutritionists recommend that 55 to 60 percent of your calories come from carbohydrate,” Kirby says. “With a 1,500-calorie weight-loss diet, that would add up to 188 to 225 grams of carbs per day. Even the maintenance phase, which recommends 40 to 60 grams, is far too low.” I have one question…why? The above review provides no scientific/logical reasoning behind this statement. If you want to know where I get my information from it’s easy: buy mr. atkins book and take the time to read it. the book is called “Dr. Atkins new diet revolution”. And quite frankly the Nutrasystem pretty much works on the same premise as Atkins, it just works on the glycemic index and providing good carbs instead of bad, but you’ll notice the plan still focuses on carbs and the kind of food you eat. (which atkins also does, but the atkins organization doesn’t provide people with ready to eat meals, so I guess that’s a good reason for saying it’s an “average” diet plan that’s “not in the same league” as other plans.)