Atkins Diet Statistics Show Increased Weight Loss

Reviewing the Atkins Diet statistics, you would wonder how anyone could lose weight following a plan of dining on saturated fats like red meat, cheese and butter. Yet statistics reveal that the Atkins diet, while supplying fast weight loss, has no significant ill effects on the body in the short term.

What You Can and Can’t Eat

On the Atkins Diet plan you’ll eat almost pure protein and fat while severely limiting carbohydrates. Your daily diet will include fish, red meat, chicken, pork, cheese, eggs and so on. The foods that are banished will include anything made with white flour, refined sugar, white rice, and milk. Carbohydrates such as fruits and whole grains are restricted during the first two weeks of the diet and some are later gradually introduced. But most important, all the “white” foods (milk, bread, flour, sugar, potatoes and pasta) are to be avoided for the rest of your life.

Low Carb Diet Statistics Speak for Themselves

For many people, the results are nothing short of spectacular. Atkins diet statistics published in the distinguished New England Journal of Medicine in 2003 found that people on the high protein, high fat, low carbohydrate Atkins diet menu plan lost twice as much weight during a six month period as people who followed a more traditional low-fat diet. Atkins dieters typically get about 60% of calories from fat, 30% from protein, and 10% from carbohydrates.

Just look at the statistics: in another study at Duke University Medical Center done on 120 obese volunteers, patients who followed the Atkins diet lost an average of 31 pounds after six months, while those that followed the American Heart Association low-fat plan lost an average of 20 pounds. In addition, the Atkins Diet statistics showed a 49% drop in blood fats known as triglycerides and an 11% increase in HDL or “good” cholesterol compared to a 22% drop in triglycerides and no change in HDL for the low-fat plan volunteers.

Short Term vs. Long Term Success

Though mocked for over thirty years as a fad diet, the statistics show that Dr. Atkins' diet plan is an effective and healthy way to lose weight in the short term. Long term success is more difficult to determine because dieters tend to fall off the Atkins regime at about the same rate as people following other diet plans, and studies have been inconclusive regarding life long benefits.

Atkins Diet statistics show it gives the best results for short-term dieting but it remains a tough plan for most people to stay with indefinitely. Indeed, it’s difficult to imagine spending the rest of your life trying to enjoy burgers without the bun, cheese without the crackers, and well, pepperoni without the pizza.

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