Atkins Forever? How Long Should You Stay On The Atkins Diet?
The Atkins Diet was designed to be lifestyle diet by Dr. Robert Atkins in the 1970s. Dr. Atkins is proponent of Dr. Atkins is a proponent of ketogenic fat burning, which is achieved by eating fewer than 40 grams of carbohydrate each day. He also recommends the use of dietary supplements to help balance nutrition and the bodies systems.
The Atkins Diet has 4 stages: the Induction Diet, the Ongoing Weight Loss (OWL) Diet, the Pre-Maintenance Diet, and lastly the Lifetime Maintenance Diet.
The Induction Diet Stage severely limits carb intake, only 20 grams are allowed for 14 days. The recommended source of carbs is low starch vegetables. Following this stage is the OWL diet.
The OWL phase allows for the reintroduction of certain good carbs but the levels are kept below 40 grams a day. Dieters stay on OWL until they reach their ideal weight. Once the ideal weight is reached dieters transition into the Pre-Maintenance diet, where they experiment with reintroducing certain good carbs until they discover their carb tolerance level (the total carb grams they can consume in a day and not gain weight).
At this point, where dieters know how carbs affect them individually they have reached Lifetime Maintenance. They will now continually (read forever) avoid sugar, hydrogenated oils and fats, processed foods, and worst of all white flour!
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