• Title: www.Atkins.com
• Author: Dr Atkins
• Cost: Around $17 for the main book
• Pages: 542 in our 2003 version
• Launched: 2nd January 2003 (this version)
• >> Click here to get this from Amazon.com

Overview

The Atkins Diet is one of the most controversial diets there has been, and it shows in this revised 2003 edition of the diet book (there is apparently a 2008 version, but this is the last version Dr Atkins actually wrote before he died, apparently the new one is written by people in his company and is not as good).

The diet spends a lot of time talking about the objections and problems that people have with the diet and takes you through why the objections are incorrect (backed up with studies) and how to get round the problems people report.

One of the main problems people report is struggling with phase 1 where you drastically restrict carbs. People sometimes report bad breath, constipation, fatigue and feeling light-headed or ill. In fact almost everyone I speak to quotes those reasons as why it is an unhealthy diet to follow and they’d never consider it.

However phase 1 is not the actual diet you will follow in the long term, and according to Dr Atkins then those problems only afflict a few people and he gives solutions to get round them. Wide spread publicity a few people who suffer from this must have tainted people’s opinions because I know I had the same worries about the diet before I started reading the book.

So the diet is obviously a low carb, high protein and fat diet, it is broken down into 4 phases – your induction phase where you only eat 20g of carbs a day and this will be the toughest. This phase is supposed to cure your sugar cravings, stabilise your blood sugar and also induce lipolysis and ketosis so you burn fat for fuel instead of carbs (this is all covered in the book as to why it works and why it is not dangerous like people say etc).

Phase 2 is the more lenient ongoing weight loss phase (OWL) and there you work out your Critical Carbohydrate Level for Losing (CCLL) by raising your carbs slowly until you stop losing weight, we all have a different metabolic resistance to losing weight which means we can eat more or less carbs than other people. Once you know that figure for youself then you can lower you intake below that to keep losing weight for the long term.

Then when you get to 5 – 10lbs away from your target weight you switch to phase 3 which is pre-maintenance where you push your carbs up again and find out if your Critical Carbohydrate Level for Maintenance (CCLM) is now higher than your CCLL was as you have lost weight. Once you know this level you then reduce the amount of weight you lose per week to about 1lb so you are ready to stop losing weight when you reach your target.

Then phase 4 is lifelong maintenance, you know your CCLM figure so you can just make sure you hover around that amount of carbs per day and you will neither put on nor lose weight, if you start to put on weight then lower your carbs slightly, if you start to lose weight then raise them!

You are required to take vitamin supplements every day which is a shock, Dr Atkins goes into this and says they are needed because even with a balanced ‘normal’ diet which is not low in carbs then because of soil depletion you are not getting all the vitamins and minerals you need.

Exercise is discussed and you are advised to start with light exercise 3 times a week, there are different levels of exercise based on your age and BMI but in the end you should be doing 30 minutes a day most days of the week, so a brisk walk each day would be good.

There have been a huge number of health concerns levelled at this diet which are all addressed in the book with references to scientific studies to back those claims up, the evidence is quite overwhelming and by the end of the book it is hard to find anything to argue about that he has not covered! Of course you have to trust the studies he gives unless you go and look them all up.

Cholesterol is the main issue that people bring up, eating saturated fat is supposed to raise your cholesterol, but in the book he explains that actually in 6 weeks from when you start you should have a much better cholesterol level than when you started (and he actually encourages you to get tested before you start and at 6 weeks in for proof).

The diet is reasonably easy to follow, there is a good variety of food and you are encouraged to eat vegetables, even fruits sometimes, along with cheese and nuts etc and cut out ice cream, sugary snacks and anything loaded with sugar or starch. This means you need to watch what you eat when out and about, but you should have no trouble making satisfying meals with the foods you are allowed.

A great deal of time is dedicated to talking about the metabolic advantage of eating a low carb diet where you can actually eat more calories than on other diets and still lose more weight than on them.

Plus metabolic resistance to fat loss is also discussed as this alters the amount of carbs you can eat, so some people will be more restricted on this diet and find it harder to stick to, however based on Dr Atkins explanation then they are also the people who find it hardest to lose weight and lowering carbs is the only way he thinks they will be able to do it. Common reasons for having a high metabolic resistance are discussed and solutions are proposed (thyroid problems, yeast overgrowth etc).

Dr Atkins is adamant it is not a diet and is a ‘nutritional approach’, he doesn’t want people to think of it as a short term solution because if you go back to the way you used to eat with massive amounts of carbs, then you’ll go back to the what you used to weigh as well. So a lot of the book is dedicated to telling you how to make sure you go through the pre-maintenance phase and onto the lifetime maintenance phase and how to apply it all to the real world and get over common problems that you will face like eating at restaurants (it is a lot easier than most diets, just order a steak with some vegetables!) etc.

If you can get over the stigma attached to this diet then you have to be impressed by the level of research put into the book to counter people’s objections, and how the diet allows you to eat satisfying foods while still reportedly allowing you to lose lots of weight and also gain lots of health benefits and more energy too.

Pros

• Allows you to eat tasty and filling food so you don’t feel hungry or deprived of nice tasting food
• May lower bad cholesterol and raise good cholesterol
• Encourages you to exercise more
• Gets you to stop eating processed foods/sugary foods and encourages you to eat meat, vegetables, fruits, cheese, nuts – more unprocessed healthy food

Cons

• Too long! 500+ pages is enough to put most people off
• Some people report getting very ill from following the induction phase (14 days minimum) and having really bad breath and constipation, although all that is explained in the book and only a few people will experience it and solutions are given
• Even though the benefits of avoiding carbs are explained then it is tough to avoid them as there are so many carb heavy foods just waiting to tempt us everywhere we turn!

User Comments

I was expecting a wave of condemnation all over the internet about the amount of saturated fat it asks you to eat, in fact I was surprised by the loyal following it has. Of course there are people who hate it, people who complain of being sick all the time, having bad breath, serious constipation, people who lost weight then put it all back on and more as soon as they went back to eating carbs (he says that will happen, going back to eating carbs is not following the diet!). Yet there are also a huge number of people who absolutely love it, people who have been on it for years (one person I saw has been on it 5 years!) and say it is the best thing to ever happen to them. Almost everywhere I turn I see people saying they lost weight with it! So this deserves a 4 as there does seem to be a certain percentage of people who really have a bad time with this diet, but then others seem to get on really well with it (could it be your level of metabolic resistance that affects this?).

The Atkins Diet Review Overall: There is a lot of stigma attached to this diet and people will instantly jump on you if you tell them you are doing this diet, even though they probably don’t have any reason to dislike it other than things they have heard in the media. If you can deal with that and are willing to read the whole book and commit to follow through with this, then based on the research given in the book this looks like a satisfying and healthy diet to follow which people stand a good chance of sticking to. Certainly the people online who I found when researching what people thought of the diet are extremely loyal to this way of eating and love to tell people about how easy it is and how their health has improved by following it. The decision of course has to be yours – if you think you can get over the stigma and follow it as a way of life then you might really enjoy it. Consult your doctor before you try it though! If you think it sounds good then you can get it off Amazon using the link below: Grab it from Amazon.com here >>