Wednesday, May 16th, 2012

Should You Stay On The Atkins Diet-If Asking Are You Committed

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There are so many different diets out there that it can get confusing. For example, there are fad diets like the 3 Day Detox Diet, which all focus on short-term weight loss and are not meant to be lifelong eating plans. Then there are the diets that stay around for years, but get lumped in with the fad diets; even though that isn’t accurate. Because of this, a lot of people want to know how long should you stay on the Atkins Diet.

That’s a great question, but there are a few issues with it. The first issue is that such a question hints that the asker may be looking for short-term solutions, and may not be ready for a real commitment to weight loss. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it needs to be mentioned as a possibility. The second issue is that it assumes the Atkins Diet is meant to be a temporary fix, but that’s simply not the case.

So, where did this idea come from? It seems that a lot of people were captivated by the promise of being able to lose 10 to 15 pounds in the first two weeks on the Atkins Diet. There’s no question that that’s a significant amount of weight loss in a short time, and that such a claim would attract attention. But, while people focus on the fact that the weight loss can occur in two weeks, they forget that it’s the first two weeks. In other words, the diet isn’t over in two weeks; the two weeks is only the beginning.

Another reason people may wonder how long should you stay on the Atkins Diet is because they don’t understand that it’s less of a diet and more of an eating plan. The Atkins Diet is made up of several phases and the first phase is the one that gets the most attention. During this phase people are strictly limited on their carbohydrate intake in an effort to get their bodies to start burning fat. What happens though is that people assume the entire program is like the first phase. However, more and more of the right type of carbohydrates are added in each successive phase.

The final phase of the Atkins Diet seems to get the least amount of attention, but it’s the most important phase as far as our question goes. The final phase is the maintenance phase and is meant to be followed for the rest of a person’s life. You will be able to eat more carbs, and more varieties of food. However, you should start this phase if you are already at your target weight. In fact, if you are already at your target weight before trying the Atkins diet, then the program allows you to start following it in the final phase to maintain your weight.

So what’s the real answer to how long should you stay on the Atkins Diet? The answer is that you should stay on it for as long as you want to lose weight and keep it off.

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