How Does The Atkins Diet Cause Weight Loss?
Though the Atkins diet became extremely popular in the middle to late 1990’s, it was actually developed in the early 1970’s. The brainchild of Dr. Robert Atkins, the Atkins diet is essentially a low carbohydrate, high protein and high fat diet.
With the most basic understanding of nutritional biology, we know that humans need energy in order to carry out basic biological processes and activities. That energy is obtained by eating food. Different foods have different levels and amounts of energy. At the same time, different foods are metabolized differently by the body. Certain types of foods are broken down relatively quickly by the body, while others take longer to break down.
When it comes to metabolizing food for the purpose of obtaining energy, the human body typically breaks down carbohydrates in order to obtain the energy it needs. Carbohydrates are organic compounds that include starches, cellulose, and sugars, both simple and complex. Carbohydrates are most commonly found in foods like potatoes, pastas, fruits, grains, and processed foods that contain sugars.
Some carbohydrates, like simple sugars, are broken down rather quickly by the human body. They typically provide us with a quick source of energy. Other carbohydrates, such as starches, take longer to break down. These carbohydrates represent a more long-term source of energy.
Essentially, the Atkins diet operates under the concept that carbohydrates contribute to weight gain, since so many of them take a long time to be metabolized. According to the basic idea of the Atkins diet, if an individual cuts down on the amount of carbohydrates he or she consumes, the individual will stand a better chance of losing weight.
What makes things difficult for people who are trying to lose weight is the fact that the human body uses carbohydrates as its primary source of energy. This means that under normal conditions, the human body will first burn off all of the available carbohydrates (i.e. sugars and starches) before it begins to look for a secondary source of energy. For the human body, the secondary source of energy is fat.
The body will typically not burn fat as long as there are carbohydrates available to burn. This is what the Atkins diet essentially pins its hopes on. If an individual is able to reduce the amount of carbohydrates consumed, the body will begin to burn fat when the carbohydrates are no longer available.
The biological process by which the body is induced into burning fats instead of carbohydrates is known as ketosis. The general goal of the Atkins diet is to induce ketosis by “depriving” the body of carbohydrates, leaving only fats as a source of energy. Since the body needs energy in order to function, it will naturally use the best available source in order to obtain it. In the case of the Atkins diet, with carbs no longer available, the body starts to burn off fat. As participants in the Atkins diet begin to reduce the amount of carbohydrates they consume during a period of the diet known as Induction, the body slowly begins to burn off the fat in the body in order to obtain its energy. The fewer carbs a person eats the more fat the body burns. The result of this process is rather simple: individuals begin to lose weight.
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