Atkins: the Best Diet Plan
The low-carb Atkins diet is found out to be the most popular and most effective diet plans. It has shown to beat even the Zone and the Ornish diet plans. Women on the Atkins plan lost more weight than those on other low fat diet plans. Atkins followers lost about 10 pounds in 12 months; those on the Zone diet lost 3.5 and those on the Ornish lost 5 pounds.
What makes weight loss easier in Atkins is that, they opt for low-cab and high-fat diet. Atkins recognizes that the main problem with the Western eating habits is that, they have more of carbohydrates and sugar which is the main cause for obesity.
Because of fewer amounts of carbohydrates in our body, all the stored fat will have to be used up to get energy. Thus this diet helps in using up the stored body fat. In low-carb diets, our body burns more calories than in a normal diet. And moreover, fat helps people feel fuller and hence helps losing weight easier. Protein also makes people feel less hungry. Thus low-carb diet reduces overeating problems. Another reason for Atkins being more effective is that women replaced water with soft drinks.
Apart from weight loss, there were other benefits shown in people who adopted Atkins diet. They had higher levels of HDL cholesterol (good cholesterol) and lower blood pressure than those on other diets. According to Harvard researchers, low-carb high-fat diet is more heart-healthy.