Showing posts with label Atkins. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Atkins. Show all posts

Kim Kardashian had always been famous for her impressive figure and it has been something she has managed to maintain through her celebrity lifestyle. So when she became a mother there was some talk about whether she would be able to return to her trim body shape of the past or whether she would hold on to the pregnancy weight for a long time. But we didn’t have to wonder long, as it was revealed not long after she had given birth that she had been able to drop 25 pounds thanks to the Atkins Diet.


 


It seems that she has been able to drop the weight by following this high protein diet that puts an emphasis on eating vegetables such as broccoli and spinach, as well as lean meats like chicken and turkey and getting important nutritional fats from sources such as avocado and nuts. The Atkins diet is one of the more famous methods of weight loss and it has been popular for a long time. It emphasises eating virtually no carbohydrates and filling up instead on foodstuffs that are very high in protein. But is this a safe way to lose weight, and has Kim Kardashian done the right thing in her plan for weight loss?


 


There was a certain level of controversy surrounding her use of the Atkins diet because she was sponsored to use the Atkins diet for her weight loss. This might suggest that she had foregone alternative, and perhaps healthier, ways to losing weight in order to receive the money for the sponsorship of Atkins. This seemed like a worrying step for people to be taking as it promotes putting money before the good of your health. However, Kardashian did indeed manage to lose the weight and supposedly was very happy with the results of the Atkins diet, so if it was effective and did the job she wanted, perhaps there does not need to be such criticism.


 


According to the experts at Atkins Nutrionals, Kardashian would have been generally eating a breakfast of either an omelette or Greek yoghurt. This would be followed by a snack of either fresh vegetables and a dip or an ounce or two of nuts. Lunch and dinner would be similar meals – generally full of lean meats, vegetables and a dressing. It was the object of the exercise to pace the weight loss and not to try to lose too much too quickly. She was on a diet of around 1,800 to 2,000 calories per day including a small amount of carbohydrates.


 


Many people criticise the Atkins diet because it places such an emphasis on meat. This means that it is both very high in fat and protein. The problem is that these are known to make you more likely to have problems with your heart or other issues. However, the people at Atkins contend that there are problems with any diet and that if you can ensure that you mainly eat lean meats and healthy proteins this can reduce a lot of the risks.


 


The diet may have helped Kim Kardashian lose the weight, but she had the help of specific doctors and well regarded nutritionists. Most people cannot afford or would not know how to get this kind of help with their weight loss. While the Atkins diet clearly can be a healthy and effective way of losing weight, it should not be relied upon as there are clearly certain risks that come with it. It might be best to stick with more traditional and standard ways of weight loss.

A popular diet for many years now, the Atkins diet consists of using already-stored fat deposits in the body as energy to create a fat burning machine out of your own metabolism. It does this by removing carbohydrates from your diet so that you don’t use them as an energy source – once they have been removed, you body can use fat instead to burn off calories and help you to lose weight. Initially, those following this diet remove all carbs from their food intake and survive of protein instead, then gradually re-introduce carbohydrates back into the diet after some time has passed.


 


The process of shifting your metabolism from using glucose as energy to using fat is known as ketosis, which means you can eat fat-rich foods and still lose weight. Because the production of glucose in the body is kept to a minimum, and your body doesn’t release insulin, it can even help to prevent diabetes. This form of diet is still extremely popular, and it’s status as an effective diet doesn’t appear to be fading any time soon. What makes it so appealing to people is that they don’t have to cut out the usual sins of a diet, which are high-fat foods. Naturally, given the inclusion of so much fat, it has been under scrutiny by many experts as being bad for your health. This hasn’t stopped millions of people from following its practices and rules though. It remains one of the most popular diets ever to have been devised, despite the risk it poses to people’s health over time.


 


The Atkins diet is easy to follow an follows a pyramid scheme of foods that you can include – you can have a lot of protein sources, such as meat and eggs, but whole grains are kept to a minimum at the top of the grid. To keep you from getting bored, and to introduce a little variety as you go along, you can begin to include low-carb foods once you’ve been on the programme a while – eventually you can begin to eat a few carbohydrate foods as well. This type of diet that enables flexibility is great for dieters as it stops them from getting bored and giving up – the main cause of so many diet failures. The Atkins diet relies heavily on the body’s natural functions, so it alters the way our bodies work by causing it to metabolise fat and use the very thing we’re trying to lose as energy. This means you’ll see both short-term and long-term effects. In the short-term, your body will lose the weight by burning the fat you already have stored, meaning you’ll see results quickly. In the long-term, your body is being prepared for metabolising differently so that you can include the right amount of carbs without gaining weight again.


 


There are risks attached, such as potential risks to your heart due to the inclusion of so much fat in your diet that may clog up your arteries or cause blood clots, as well as the risk of developing kidney stones. Because you are cutting out certain food groups, you’re also risking other areas of your health such as your bones. As with any diet shift, you should seek the advice of your GP before drastically changing your diet. There may be pre-diagnosed health risks that may make this unsuitable for you. However, maintaining a healthy weight is important, so if you are obese then you should seek out a way to return to a normal weight to avoid any undesirable health concerns.

The Atkins diet means cutting out carbs – but you didn’t need me to tell you that. Dr Robert Atkins’ diet plan is still the source of unending wellness controversy even 10 years after his death, as many still hold true the adage: carbs are the root of all rotundity, fighting the war against wellbeing. So does this mean that the Atkins diet truly works, or have we been holding onto a diet fad that needs to fade?


The NHS advice for healthy eating in the UK is that starchy foods, such as potatoes, cereals, pasta, rice and bread, should make up roughly one third of the food you eat. Paul Goldsmith, a 39-year-old teacher who has tried Atkins, said, ‘I try diets because I like to be told rules. Atkins was good because it allowed me to eat lots of nice foods. But it didn’t work in the long term. I’d end up ‘committing carbicide’ and eat lots of bagels or bread. For a man to say that bread goes straight to my hips, it’s probably an odd thing to say, but it’s true…I know I need to find something that I can do for the rest of my life.’


Nutritionist and dietician Nicole Berberian noted, ‘People tend to have a rapid response when it comes to weight loss, but Atkins is also known to have one of the greatest rebounds, so people pile the pounds on when they come off it.’ Many wellness experts argue that this dramatic change isn’t sustainable in the long-term, and so you carbo-load as soon as you get off Atkins, and all that hard work has been for nothing.


Sian Porter, a consultant dietician for the British Dietetic Association, commented, ‘Like all diets, when it comes to Atkins, there is some truth in the rumour – there is some underlying scientific evidence – but proof cutting out carbs is the best way to lose weight just isn’t there. She added that there’s no diet that is the be all and end all of weight loss, noting, ‘Diets are fads, but it’s about making permanent changes. Plus what you eat is only half the equation, the other half is physical activity.’


According to Paul Gately, professor of exercise and obesity at Leeds Metropolitan University, the Atkins diet and other low-carb diets have also led to misunderstandings among the general public. ‘One has to differentiate between simple and complex carbohydrates,’ he said. ‘Also, people tend to use carbs when they mean white rice, pasta and bread, but fruit and vegetables are healthy, and they are absolutely carbs, so sometimes the terminology isn’t appropriate in context.’



Carb Confusion: Is the Atkins Diet Damaging to Wellness?