Diets to Lose Body Fat, Is Atkins Safe?

Recently, there have been many media documented arguments over the Atkins diet between its supporters and detractors. I am going to attempt to summarize the pros and cons of the diet program, enabling you to make an educated, informed, choice.

First, let's take a brief look at the facts. Low carb diets are very popular in the United States where an estimated 40 millions Americans are using them to lose weight. Companies and marketers have been generating huge gains targeting those who have opted for this diet change, by providing over 500 food items that have little or not carbohydrates reflected on their labeling.

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 diet of all low carb diets, Atkins, which goes with the notion that carb sugars was the main reason for people becoming overweight. WIth all the false statements out there these days, there is slight truth to that statement, as it is usually a mixture of the highly refined sugars, along with the saturated fats, which have helped cause the wide spread fat epedimic today.

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 is also highly critical of sugar and recommends eliminating it from your diet. Instead of carbs and sugar, Atkins eaters are allowed plenty of fat and protein. The system specifically recommends animal proteins and notes that vegetarians and vegans will have a hard time following Atkins.

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.

Despite all that, this diet does seem to be an effective way of losing fat weight. If you're going to attempt this diet, do your homework, don't follow any diet without proper research.