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Atkins Diet Plan
 The Atkins diet plan includes a four phase eating plan in addition to vitamin and mineral supplementation and regular exercise. This eating plan allows you to select which foods to eat based on your need to achieve weight loss goal and weight maintenance. The Atkins diet not only helps you in losing weight , but also provides you good health for your heart and memory function. Following Atkins diet plan has many other health benefits too. The Four phases of Atkins diet plan are given below:
- Phase 1 - Induction
The diet plan is mainly based on the theory that obese people eat several carbohydrates. Everyone’s body burns both fat and carbohydrates for energy, but carbohydrates are used first. To lose weight, it is essential for our body to reduce carbs hugely and eat more protein. Another way to lose weight is to burn stored fat effectively.. Hence it is important to restrict carbohydrate consumption in the first phase to 20 grams every day by taking carbohydrate mainly from salad and a few other non-starchy vegetables.
- Phase 2 - Ongoing Weight Loss (OWL)
Carbohydrates can be obtained in the form of nutrient-dense and fiber-rich foods, by increasing to 25 grams regularly the first week, 30 grams daily the next week and so on until weight gain stops. Then subtract 5 grams of carbohydrate from your regular consumption so that you can continue nonstop and restrained weight loss.
- Phase 3 - Pre-Maintenance
In this phase, Transition from weight loss to weight maintenance is made by increasing the regular carbohydrate consumption in 10-gram increments each week to maintain the lost weight.
- Phase 4 - Lifetime Maintenance
While controlling the consumption of carbohydrate it is important to select your diet from a huge array of foods to make sure weight maintenance and a sense of well-being. This lifestyle is the foundation for a lifetime to gain better health and become fit.
The followers of Atkins diet plan can eat all of the meat, cheese, eggs, and fats (like butter and oils) that they like, without counting calories. But a few limitations are there about what foods they should eat. Carbohydrates are limited to nearly20 grams every day in the first two weeks.
Successful followers of the Atkins diet plan should essentially change the way they eat. This means avoid eating cakes, pancakes, pies, pastas and potatoes permanently. Fruit and dairy products should also be eaten in a limited way.
The Atkins diet, as compared to other biggest loser diet plans, does not put any restriction on the amount of saturated-fat-laden products one can have each day. It also does not focus strongly on exercise. Huge portions of foods like butter, red meat, and bacon are encouraged in this diet. A little amount of carbohydrates may be introduced in the maintenance phase.
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