Is Atkins a Healthy Diet for Slim People?
The Atkins Diet wasn't intended just for people who are overweight. While the promise of weight loss is one major appeal of the diet, it also pledges that followers of all shapes and sizes can maintain a healthy lifestyle by sticking to for their entire lives. That includes slim people.
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Atkins Basics
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The Atkins Diet was founded by Dr. Robert Atkins, a physician and cardiologist who started the plan in effort to lose weight himself. It emphasizes protein and fats and strictly limits carbohydrates. Sugars and caffeine are almost entirely forbidden as well. The diet is based on the premise that eating foods high in protein (and fat) and low in carbohydrates helps your body burn stored body fat and not glucose.
Getting Slim
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Studies have shown that, if followed properly, the Atkins Diet will indeed result in weight loss. Supporters also insist that once the weight comes off, sticking to the plan helps it stay off. It also supposedly increases energy levels, and, according to some, staves off illnesses. And again, while the Atkins Diet doesn't not permit you to eat unlimited amounts of fat, most of the foods on the menu do taste good and can be eaten frequently.
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Staying Slim
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People who are already slim may follow the Atkins plan because they believe it will improve their health, as well as to maintain their current weights. These type of people would be well-advised to skip the two-week "induction" phase of the diet, which limits carbohydrate intake to 20 grams or less per day. The induction phase is where the majority of the weight loss occurs. Instead, people who don't need to lose weight would be better off beginning the diet at the "ongoing" phase, which allows 35-50 grams of carbohydrates per day (and sometimes more, depending on your weight).
Drawbacks
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The Atkins Diet all but eliminates fruit and other high-fiber foods such as bread and pasta. This can result in side effects from constipation to dizziness to a lack of energy--particularly early on. Skeptics also question the long-term effects of so much protein and fat on the kidneys, liver and heart. Also, with so many foods being eliminated, the diet doesn't consist of much variety, making lean meat, chicken, fish or eggs the main course at practically every meal.
Synopsis
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While the Atkins Diet was invented with overweight people in mind, it will, in fact, help slim people stay slim, and there is no proof of adverse affects on the body, only theories based on traditional choices. But whether you are already slim or hoping to get there, the best way to stay healthy on a high-protein diet such as this one is to incorporate regular exercise and to drink plenty of water, up to eight 8-oz. glasses per day.
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