The short name for the Atkins nutritional approach is the Atkins diet. Dr. Robert Atkins invented this low-carb diet.

He had gained a lot of weight in medical school. A medical Journal had an article about a diet. He perfected it and released it to the public.

Dr. Atkins had rather radical theories about the nature of weight gain as expressed in the Atkins diet. He held that saturated fats weren't as bad as people claim. The carbohydrates are the culprits. In fact Atkins thought that the focus on fats had made a problem much worse. Many low-fat foods are packed with carbohydrates.

That meant people on a diet often ate foods that were worse than they normally ate.

This all changes in the Atkins diet. He shifts dieters' metabolism to burn body fats by cutting out carbohydrates from their diets. Lose the fat lose the weight. Atkins flipped the equation from lowering caloric intake. Now it was all about what your diet can help you burn.

In fact Atkins cited a study that claimed the body would burn an extra 950 calories on his diet. But the claims were not true.

Dr. Atkins also touted the positive influence this Atkins diet could have on people with type 2 diabetes. As opposed to type 1 diabetes, type 2 is often closely associated with diet and people who weigh too much. So in general any diet that helps decrease weight will help address type 2 diabetes.

Dr. Atkins also said that his Atkins diet would remove the need for medications such as insulin, because it severely cut down on carbohydrates which Atkins claimed were the major cause of type 2 diabetes. But that's counter to the prevailing medical theories regarding type 2 diabetes which, although recommending that lowered intake of carbohydrates and weight loss help manage diabetes, ascribe no causal relationship between carbohydrates and type 2 diabetes.

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.

The first phase of the Atkins diet, Induction, is like the boot camp for the diet. It lasts for about 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 next three phases of the Atkins diet help establish the levels of carbs people can consume in order to lose weight and to maintain a desired weight.

Dr. Atkins himself died of complications of increased fat intake in his diet, which is something to keep in mind when choosing this diet.