Atkins Diet Plan

The Atkins Diet Plan gained popularity in 1972 with the publication of the book, Dr. Atkins Diet Revolution. Dr. Atkins, the founder and former Executive Medical Director of The Atkins Center for Complementary Medicine, was one of the first vocal proponents of a low-carbohydrate diet. Long a voice for nutritional medicine, that first book has spawned newly revised versions as well as diet variations such as the South Beach Diet.

The Atkins weight loss (and weight maintenance) program is based on the theory that your body needs more protein and less carbs. The Atkins Diet (also known as the Atkins Diet Revolution) gives you the tools to change your eating habits, adopting a permanent lifestyle change that helps you lose and maintain your weight without having to count calories (although you will have to learn to gauge carb counts). Dr. Atkins believed that you would feel better, look better, and be re-energized by following the basic tenets of the diet.

While the program is somewhat restrictive in the initial stages, this allows your body to slowly ramp up and adjust to a new way of eating. The food you eat allows your body to target fat stores to be used for energy, rather than carbohydrates. Carbs turn to glucose to fuel your body. If you restrict your intake of carbs, the body will look elsewhere for that fuel, which means that energy will instead come from the fat stores in your body.