Atkins Diet For Beginners

If you’re an Atkins beginner, or thinking about starting the diet you probably have a ton of questions. Is it the right kind of diet for your lifestyle, While proven to be incredibly effective, it has some negatives that will make it a non-starter for many people trying to lose weight. Here’s everything you need to know about the Atkins diet for beginners. There’s a lot to like about the Atkins diet. The food you’re allowed to eat is quite liberal compared to other diets, and the early and significant results are huge motivation boosters. One of the key selling points of Atkins is that it actually works when followed properly. It isn’t that people experience a one or two pound weight loss either. It isn’t uncommon for disciplined dieters to lose 50-60 pounds. The weight loss is rapid and significant, especially in the initial stages. If you’re a meat eater, and like a good steak you’ll love the Atkins diet.

Year after year this is one of the more popular diets (especially among men), because of the food you’re allowed to eat. Steak, hamburger and other common meat sources are encouraged as part of your regular meal plan. Most people try the Atkins diet for weight loss, and are pleasantly surprised with the other health benefits. In addition to shedding pounds you’re likely to lower your cholesterol and have a healthier blood sugar level. At the top of the list of what most people don’t like, and find the most challenging are the foods you’re asked to stop eating. You’ll be asked to stop eating bread, pasta and other common carb sources. You don’t realize how much bread you eat, and how important it is to your daily meals until you’re asked to stop. Since this is a carb restrictive diet, it means you’ll be lowering high energy foods. This can lead to feeling sluggish and fatigued.

If you normally eat carb dense meals, the first few weeks will be challenging as you begin to switch to a higher protein meal composition. People who try Atkins often complain about the discipline required to follow the plan and food lists. If you aren’t strict enough with your carb restriction you can start to gain weight. It’s an all or nothing diet. Many say it requires more discipline to follow Atkins than it does a balanced healthy diet, and to some extent this is true. There are some aspects of the diet, you won’t see on food labels or the main Atkins website. These are common complaints you’ll hear from people who have successfully completed the diet. If you experience weight loss on Atkins, you may need to continue the diet indefinitely to keep it off. It’s very common for people to regain the weight they lost when they switch back to a normal balanced meal plan. You’ll lose weight, but you’ll have to continue restricting common carbs for the foreseeable future to keep the weight off. This goes hand in hand with regaining weight, as mentioned above. The diet has a very specific interaction with food that doesn’t translate to normal meal plans. What you learn is only effective inside the Atkins world. Once you step outside that world, and eat normally, what you learned with Atkins isn’t very beneficial. It doesn’t teach you how to manage calories, portion control, or proper food selection on a balanced meal plan. Need to lose 10 pounds fast, Try this three week diet. It has detailed meal and exercise plans to help you lose 5-7 pounds in the first week, and up to 20 pounds after three weeks.

DEXA scan. This stands for dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry, measures bone mineral density, but can also accurately measure your body fat percentage. It’s pricey and can take up to 30 minutes, but it is the gold standard for measuring body fat percentage. Body measurements. Apps and online tools provide body fat calculations using your height, weight and the tape measurements of your neck, waist, and hips. Photos. Visual estimates provide a more accurate estimate than body measurements. Take a full body photo of yourself and then compare it with the photos of other people. Keep taking photos. It will come in handy later as you track your progress. Subtract your body fat from your weight and you get your lean body mass. Convert your body fat percentage into pounds first. For example, your body fat is 25% and you weigh 150 pounds. 37.5 pounds of body fat. Next, subtract that from your weight. 112.5 pounds of lean body mass. Save your number. You’ll use it later to calculate your protein. To achieve weight loss, your total calorie intake each day needs to be in a deficit: you consume less calories than your total daily expenditure.