No one would participate in any dieting plan without seeing the potential pros and cons of it. The Atkins diet is no exception to this and one should carefully research the Atkins diet pros and cons before proceeding with it. Atkins diet pros include rapid weight loss, improved health, reduced risk of disease and methods to maintain weight. But the most popular in the list of Atkins diet benefits is that of rapid initial weight loss, which mainly depends on a high-fat and high-protein diet that may lead to cons and may compromise a good cardiac and other organ health.
When Doctor Atkins' book first landed in bookstores around the country, plenty of people bought it. It seemed that any new diet fad that came along got a million desperate people to try it. Unfortunately, most of the diets didn't work. Fad diets had a way of creating yo-yo dieters who lost a lot of weight at first, and then put it all back on once they stopped the extreme diet regimen that was prescribed. But, there was something different about the Atkins diet. It worked; and it kept working. People who could never lose weight before were suddenly losing ten, twenty, or even a hundred pounds, all because of the Atkins Diet.
he Atkins diet burns fat. When you begin the Atkins diet your body is switching from burning carbs for energy to burning ketones which come from fat for energy. The Atkins diet is designed to do this so your body becomes a fat burning machine.

Conventional diets use the concept of eat fewer calories than you use in a day which causes your body to burn fat reserves. The Atkins diet approach burns fat quicker because you take in less carbs and your body is forced into burning ketones.
The main component of the Atkins diet is the severe restriction of carbohydrate intake. This requires limiting foods with sugar, bread, cereal, some starchy vegetables and pasta. There is no restriction on portion size, and the Atkins dieter can eat a whole range of low carb foods including chicken, steak, shellfish, pork chops, eggs, duck, turkey, any kind of meat, salads, cheeses, fatty salad dressings, nuts, and the Atkins bars and shakes.
In 2004, Jody Gorran, a 53-year-old businessman from Florida, sued the promoters of the Atkins diet, saying that the plan clogged his arteries and nearly killed him. Mr. Gorran claimed that he was seduced by the plan and that by eating the high levels of protein and fats touted by the plan, his cholesterol soared. His lawsuit was backed by the Washington-based advocacy group called Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. Mr. Gorran sought damages and to seek an injunction preventing the sale of Atkins' books and products without fair and adequate warnings about the dangers of the diet. The lawsuit was dismissed late in 2006 by a judge, but an appeals continue.
Researchers at Brisham and Women's hospital have found out that a diet with too much proteins and low carbohydrates may cause reduce kidney functions. Atkins diet, being a high protein diet, would require the kidney to work harder to process the excessive proteins. Hence it may affect the kidney functions as a result.

Hence in conclusion, Atkins diet may be an effective diet towards weight loss, however, it may cause adverse effects to your kidney in the long term. The long term effects of Atkins diet is not known yet.


Read About Women magazine and also read about the atkins diet and high calorie foods

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