Sunday, October 12, 2008

How to Burn Body Fat, the Atkins Diet

By Ricardo d Argence

Supporters and detractors of the popular Atkins diet have recently engaged in numerous arguments in the media. I will try to summarize the pros and cons of the diet so you can make a decision for yourself.

Let's start by quickly examining the facts. The Atkins diet is a very popular diet that many Americans are choosing to try in order to lose weight. By releasing well over 500 products which include "low carb" , or "no carb" labels, marketers and companies have made huge profits and continue to make money by targeting people who chose this dietary change.

Which tells you that it does work...isn't it? Yes and no, the discovery of the risk factor associated with low carbs diet like Atkins, particularly for the age group higher that 40, was the outcome of debates on the long term effects on health by experts.

The Atkins diet, is a low carb and sugar diet believing that these two combined is the leading cause of weight gain. Despite the confusion caused by much misinformation, it has been determined that a significant factor in the obesity problem in America is the mixing of saturated fats with sugary carbohydrates made with refined sugar.

When carbohydrates are ingested, your blood sugar is elevated, triggering insulin production and causing the sugars in the carbohydrates to be stored in cells rather than burned off. The idea was that cutting carbs would force the body to use these sugars as fuel, thus burning fat for its energy instead.

Atkins also recommends against eating sugar, of which he does not approve. People following the Atkins diet are allowed to eat a lot of fat and protein, rather than consuming carbs and sugar. Animal proteins are specifically recommended in the Atkins diet, and those who do not eat meat or animal products will have difficulties following it.

The bad news, the body not only starts losing fat, but also lean muscle, which is needed for a higher metabolism, and water stores in the attempt to gather nutrients formally gained from carbs. When the body burn larger amounts of fats without sufficient carbs it produce something called ketones.

Headaches, dizzyness, dehydration, bad breath and nausea are all side effects of ketones. Bone loss, breakdown of the muscles and kidney disease, long term, not to mention lack of carb sugars causes the brain to lose its main source of fuel, causingdamage to the brain and an increased risk of a heart attack.

In spite of everything, if you want to lose your fat weight you should really try this effective diet. Checking with your doctor and doing research are good tools to use before starting any diet. - 15266

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