The Pros And Cons Of The Atkins Diet

Diets have been around since the dawn of time, people have always been concerned with their figure. The desired figure may have changed but the method to achieving them were always through altering their diet. FAD diets began in the 19th century with Arsenic pills which claimed to speed up the metabolism and let people lose weight without changing their diet. Despite the fact that this pill ended up doing more harm than good. The diet I’ve chosen for my report didn’t come into existence until late in the 20th century; the Atkins Diet. The Atkins diet was created in 1972 by Robert Coleman Atkins. He was an American physiologist and cardiologist in New York. Due to stress from the years of medical practice Robert started to gain weight. Not long after the weight gain he read a study by Dr. Alfred W. Pennington where they advocated for the complete elimination of sugars from the diet advocating for increased consumption of fats and protein. He soon began advertising the plan to his patients with close to 100 successful patients. He went on to the tonight show to demonstrate his plan and from there on out it skyrocketed.
The current versions of the plan is Atkins 20and Atkins 40.
Atkins 20 is the original version of the plan and is now targeted to those who have losing more than 40 pounds as their goal, with their carbohydrate intake being 20g. Atkins 40 is the newer version and is more flexible their demographic being those who have less than 40 pounds to lose, the target carbohydrate intake is 40g. By limiting the intake of carbohydrates the body has to resort to using fats for cellular respiration. The founder of the Atkins diet claims that this diet works better than other FAD diets since other diets lower the amount of total calories, but is still high in
carbohydrates. This diet has a large emphasis on carbohydrates which is a big factor in cellular respiration. By decreasing the amount of carbohydrates that can be consumed, proteins and fats have to be consumed in higher amounts so that cellular respiration can still continue. The increase in protein and fatty acids is to increase the amount of glycerol which goes through β-oxidation to become acetyl-coa which goes into the Kreb cycle. β-oxidation being a catabolic process where fatty acid molecules are broken down in the mitochondria. Atkins doesn’t guarantee a set weight loss amount, instead they state that depending on variety of factors including age, weight, BMI, and a variety of other factors. Although they do state that the average person would lose 1-2 pounds per week. There are a variety of success stories where some people could lose from 40-120 pounds on this diet in the duration of 4-6 months. This diet can be continued for a long duration of time. Since this diet is relatively vague in their requirements, the cost for this diet isn’t as high as other diets where it consists of strictly organic products and high end protein sources. They do recommend the Atkins products to “assist” in the diet. The average week price for this diet would be around $100. This diet has split views in terms of science. The scientific backing for this diet is more in terms of the short term benefits the general idea of the diet. Studies have shown that restricting the amount of carbohydrates is related to insulin amounts decreasing. Insulin is known for regulating blood sugar and energy storage. Water weight is easy to lose in the beginning (meaning the first 1-2 weeks). Numerous studies have also been proven to reduce appetite. The diet is high in fats and proteins which results in a higher amount of fat burning; causing ketosis. In the long term this diet could cause heart disease due to the fact that this diet is high in fats. Along with nutritional deficiencies, this diet seems to be more for a short-term weight loss.