            
| |
|
Four Steps to a Healthy New
Lifestyle
The Atkins Nutritional Approach
is often confused with its initial phase, called Induction, when
carbohydrate intake is most strictly curtailed. In reality, four
increasingly liberal dietary plans follow each other in a series of
seamless stages that eventually become a new way of eating you can adopt
permanently.
1. Induction
This two-week maximum fat-burning program jump-starts your body into the
metabolic state known as ketosis, making it consume its own excess body
fat faster than you ever thought possible. This phase is very strict in
its limitation of carbohydrates. (Because of its rigor, the Induction
phase is not suitable for children under the age of 12, pregnant women or
people with severe kidney disease.) You eat no more than 20 grams of carbs
a day. Most people lose at least 5 to 10 pounds in the first two weeks
during Induction. If you have a significant amount of weight to lose, you
may safely stay on the Induction phase longer.
The Rules of
Induction
 |
You may eat pure
protein (meat, fish and shellfish, poultry, eggs) and pure
fats (butter, olive oil, mayonnaise).
|
|
Eat no more than 20
grams of carbohydrates a day in the form of salad and other
vegetables, such as asparagus, broccoli and kale.
|
Eat absolutely no
fruit, bread, grains, starchy vegetables or dairy products
other than cheese, cream or butter.
|
Eat out as often as
you wish. Just be alert to hidden carbs in gravies, sauces
and dressings.
|
Eat no food not
specifically allowed.
|
Aspartame may
stimulate insulin production; avoid it and foods containing
it.
|
Check the carb
content of all foods you are unsure about with a
carbohydrate gram counter.
|
Caffeine stimulates
the production of insulin, so avoid regular coffee, tea and
cola drinks.
|
Eat the amount of
food that makes you feel satisfied, but not stuffed.
|
If you’re not
hungry, eat nothing or have a small protein snack to
accompany your supplements.
|
| | | | | | | |
2. Ongoing Weight Loss
You can liberalize your carbohydrate consumption slightly on Ongoing
Weight Loss (OWL), which you will follow for as many weeks or months as it
takes you to get close to your goal weight. It’s important to understand
that this liberalization on the carb front is not a license to return to your old
eating habits. Instead, increase your daily intake of carbohydrates by 5
grams each week, i.e., 25 grams daily the first week, 30 grams daily the
next week. By doing this very gradually you won’t fall out of ketosis.
This is how you find your Critical Carbohydrate Level for Losing (CCLL).
Typical 5-gram increments include 10 Brazil nuts, half an avocado, 1/4 cup
of blueberries or 1/2 cup of green beans. You can even add carbs in the
form of 4 ounces of dry wine, 6 ounces of light beer or 1 ounce of gin or
whiskey daily. Naturally, you will see a gradual decrease in the pace of
your weight loss as you add carbohydrates back into your diet. And
that’s fine. The purpose of the whole program is not to lose weight
fast, but to get it off and keep it off—forever.
3. Pre-Maintenance
When you get close to your ultimate weight goal, understandably you will
want to take off those last five or six pounds in a hurry. But it’s
important to carve them off over the course of two or three months.
That’s because the biggest problem with weight control is not losing but
maintaining. You may have gone on a crash diet in the past, only to gain
it all back faster than you lost it. What you should do is just the
opposite. By losing those final pounds with excruciating slowness,
you’ll actually be easing yourself into a permanently changed way of
eating.
For the Pre-Maintenance phase,
each week simply add another 10 grams of carbs to what you have been
eating each day on OWL. Or give yourself a 20-gram carbohydrate treat two
or three times a week. You can now even touch some of those formerly
forbidden starches such as a baked potato or a slice of pizza. Or add some
favorite fruits: apples, bananas, peaches, grapefruit. As long as you
don’t start gaining weight and continue to lose at an almost
imperceptible rate, you’re doing fine. However, if eating any foods
creates food cravings or provokes symptoms that disappeared while you’ve
been on the program, stop them immediately.
4. Lifetime Maintenance
Once you arrive at your goal weight, offer yourself some well-deserved
congratulations and prepare for a lifetime of slimness. When you have
totally stopped your weight loss, your appetite will increase toward its
normal level. For this reason, your Lifetime Maintenance program will
still be fairly restrictive of carbohydrate foods. You’ll need to find
your own Critical Carbohydrate Level for Maintenance (CCLM), meaning the
level at which you neither gain nor lose weight. At this level, you will
still restrict carbohydrates enough to curb some of your appetite. For
most people, this ranges between 40 and 100 grams of carbs a day—still
considerably less than the 300 grams the typical American consumes in a
single day!
**Note** Auddi does not believe in the
is weight-loss plan. Nor will she advise anyone to try it. She
has seen to many people do this diet and regain all of their weight once
they are off of it. If you choose this plan, let her know how it is
working for you so she might change her mind on this plan.
CLICK
HERE TO READ ABOUT THE DANGERS OF THE ATKINS DIET
|
|
