Hold the Fruit Cup Please, I’m Watching My Weight

There’s a new diet that has invaded the nation, and it’s like the Beatles second coming. This diet stir is causing people to throw their buns in the air and shovel as much bacon, eggs and sausage into their mouths while feeling like they have found the holy grail of diets. For those of you who have been living in a hole and have no clue what I’m talking about, the holy grail is the Atkins Diet.

Tell me about Akins, you say. Well, Atkins is not simply the last name of this cross-dressing kid that went to high school with me; it’s a diet that is slimming down America one fatty pound at a time. Who knew a dieter could down a slab of beef with a lard shake and still lose weight? Apparently, no one can, rather no one should. I had a lot to learn about the misconceptions and the inner workings of the well-oiled machine called the Atkins Diet.

First of all, I went to the Atkins official website, www.atkins.com, where I learned the Atkins Diet is not a diet, it’s a “nutritional approach”. Even those of you completely out of touch with the Atkins diet have to know the diet has something to do with limiting carbohydrates. Who would have known the very food that is a part of all my meals and at the base of the food pyramid is pure evil?

Let me pry the carb-rich cookie from my hand as I explain the premise of the Atkins Nutritional Approach. The diet is broken into four phases that when combined lead to weight loss and increased energy. Who couldn’t stand to take off a couple pounds and have more energy?

Phase 1, the induction phase, consists of limiting carbohydrate intake to 20 grams or less each day. You would be amazed what foods contain carbohydrates. Naturally, foods like bread, cereal and pasta contain many carbohydrates, but foods like carrots, yogurt and peaches are high in carbohydrates too. The common fallacy is that carbohydrate consumption is limited to 20 grams a day permanently, but this is not the case. Phase 2, the ongoing weight loss stage, occurs after fourteen days of an extremely low carb lifestyle. At this phase, dieters have probably begun to notice weight loss and each week can begin to add 5-gram increments of carbs to daily intake.

In phase 3, the pre-maintenance phase, dieters have lost the amount of weight desired and choose to maintain their current weight by continuing to increase the carb intake daily by 10 gram increments each week as long as the desired weight is maintained. In phase 4, dieters are focused on the long-term upkeep of the new approach to eating. Processed and refined carbohydrates found in high-sugar foods or in breads and cereal are still extremely limited. (Please send all your processed an refined carbs to Corinne c/o The Tiger’s Tale.)

So, what foods can you eat that are conducive to this nutritional approach? You had better like protein! Foods such as eggs, cheese, nuts, beef, poultry and fish are all naturally low in carbohydrates. There is weight to be lost (by you) and money to be made (by food manufacturers) with this diet. As you gradually add carbs back into your meals, you’ll be surprised to see some of your favorite once-forbidden foods are now Atkins-friendly. Look in the grocery store and you will find favorites like cookies and pasta made low-carb style. Remember to look at the food label, because what claims to be low carb, while indeed is lower carb than in its usual form, may not be low enough to incorporate into the phase of your low-carb lifestyle.

Restaurants do not have to be off-limits with the Atkins diet. Many restaurants are offering Atkins-friendly menus that provide a carb counter. T.G.I. Friday’s, Subway and Ruby Tuesday are just a few of the many eateries that offer low-carb grub.

Okay, so maybe I was wrong about the diet. Eating lard by the scoopful doesn’t seem like it’s part of the Atkins Diet, but I still don’t understand how a dieter can feast on meat and cheese all day long and lose weight.

After doing a little further research, I got my science lesson for the year. The Atkins Diet works because the body is going to continuously burn food as fuel whether it is burning carbs or fat. Once the body doesn’t have those pesky carbohydrates to burn for fuel, fat that has been stored in the body begins to be burned instead. This process is called lipolysis. You can determine if your body has begun to burn stored body fat by purchasing Ketosis test trips at a drug store and testing your urine.

Remember diet alone is not the answer. Exercising will give you optimum results no matter what diet you are following. So, make certain you make each step count as you walk toward the refrigerator for that government-size cheese wheel. Maybe you can’t have a buttery roll along side a plate of linguine, and maybe you can’t finish dinner off with a piece of cake, but I can. I’m a vegetarian. What the heck am I supposed to eat on this diet?