The short name for the Atkins nutritional approach is the Atkins diet. It's a low-carb diet created by Robert Atkins. He put on a lot of pounds while he attended medical school. Atkins read about a low-carb diet in one of his medical journals. He built on that diet and eventually made it popular.

Atkins Grapefruit Diet
Atkins, in his Atkins Diet, believed prevailing theories about weight gain were all wrong. First, he dismissed the idea that saturated fats were bad. Carbohydrates, found in potatoes, and breads, were the real problem. In fact Atkins thought that the focus on fats had made a problem much worse. He pointed to all the low-fat foods that were high in carbohydrates. Dieters were being tricked into eating foods that would cause them to gain more weight.

This all changes in the Atkins diet. He shifts dieters' metabolism to burn body fats by cutting out carbohydrates from their diets. Once the fat was burned, the pounds will follow. Atkins flipped the equation from lowering caloric intake. The diet would work because it burned calories. In fact Atkins cited a study that claimed the body would burn an extra 950 calories on his diet. That sounded good but it wasn't true.

Healthcare
Dr. Atkins also touted the positive influence this Atkins diet could have on people with type 2 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes is most often associated with obesity. Therefore, by means of losing weight a person on the Atkins diet would be addressing their type 2 diabetes. In addition the Atkins diet also addresses the measure of taking in fewer carbohydrates which is part of managing type 2 diabetes, so that Dr. Atkins suggested people on his diet would no longer need to monitor their blood sugar or take insulin. The medical world, in general, disagrees with Atkins on this point. They agree lower carbohydrates help with type 2 diabetes, but there is no proof that carbohydrates cause the disease.

What steps does one take to follow the Atkins diet? Induction, ongoing weight loss, pre-maintenance and lifetime maintenance are the four necessary phases of the diet. Here are more details of Induction which is the most crucial of the phases.

South Beach Diet Recipes
The Induction phase is the most difficult phase of the Atkins diet. Atkins is flexible as to the time period – but recommends two weeks. During induction the dieter can consume only about 20 grams of carbohydrates on a day to day basis. The lack of carbohydrates will prompt the body to convert fat into fatty acids for fuel – a process known as ketosis. During this phase weight loss can reach as much as 10 pounds per week.

The other Atkins diet phases are generally used for determining the levels of carbohydrates ideal for losing weight and for maintaining a standard weight – not gaining weight. The diet lost popularity after Dr. Atkins died, but it's still popular.