The Atkins diet is really called the Atkins nutritional approach.

It's a low-carb diet created by Robert Atkins. He had gained a great deal of weight while he attended medical school. He read about this diet in the medical journal. He perfected it and released it to the public.

Atkins, in his Atkins Diet, believed prevailing theories about weight gain were all wrong. He disagreed that saturated fats were the problem. The carbohydrates are the culprits. Atkins held that our obsession with fat actually worsened the problem. Carbohydrates are used to make up for the lack of fat in low fat foods. Dieters were being tricked into eating foods that would cause them to gain more weight.

The Atkins diet shifts the focus. He shifts dieters' metabolism to burn body fats by cutting out carbohydrates from their diets. Lose the fat lose the weight. The goal wasn't necessarily to take in fewer calories. The diet would work because it burned calories.

Dr. Atkins claimed that his diet would result in the body burning an extra 950 calories each day. 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.

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. 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 are the specific rules of the Atkins diet? Induction, ongoing weight loss, pre-maintenance and lifetime maintenance are the four necessary phases of the diet. The details of the induction phase is as follows.

The first phase of the Atkins diet, Induction, is like the boot camp for the diet. Atkins is flexible as to the time period – but recommends two weeks. During this phase carbohydrates are severely limited – only up to 20 grams per day. The lack of carbohydrates will prompt the body to convert fat into fatty acids for fuel – a process known as ketosis.

Weight loss during this phase can be extreme – some Atkins followers reported losses of 5-10 pounds a 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. Dr. Atkins himself died of complications of increased fat intake in his diet, which is something to keep in mind when choosing this diet.

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