The Atkins Diet

Among the most popular of diets, the Atkins Diet has attracted the attention of celebrities and doctors. The Atkins Diet promises extensive weight loss by following their simple menus which cut out carbohydrates to maximize weight loss. The Atkins Diet continues to gain popularity today, becoming a serious rival for other food management programs like Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig.

What is the Atkins Diet?

The menus the Atkins Diet offers focus on a couple of key principles. First, they allow the person to eat much of the normal food, but focus on cutting out so called 'bad carbs.' The Atkins Diet food list covers everything from chocolate desserts to steak to celery sticks, but all these food choices take note of excess processed sugars and starches which translate into bad carbohydrates and therefore excess pounds.

What can you eat on the Atkins Diet?

Atkins offers planned menus for the beginner and hundreds of recipes for those would like to begin putting together their own menus. The Atkins Diet uses a number of different phases, depending on what state a person's body is in. The first step for most people aiming for weight loss is the induction phase. Below is a week of menu items as presented on the Atkins website for those in the induction phase:

• Southwestern Omelet
• Cheese Baked Eggs
• Smoked Salmon Frittata
• Atkins Advantage Shake - Milk Chocolate Delight
• Cucumber Salad
• Salt and Peppered Sliced Tomato
• Caesar Salad with Poached Salmon
• Thai Coconut Soup
• Dubliner Cheese Tart
• Atkins Advantage Bar - Chocolate Chip Granola
• Sugar Free Jell-O Cup
• 2% String Cheese
• Chicken with Rosemary Roasted Vegetables
• Garlic Lime Bluefish with Tomato Salad
• Roasted Pork Tenderloin with Broccoli

These dishes represent three meals a day and two snacks for five days, but the Atkins Diet offers many more options. The Atkins food list includes a host of vegetables as well. A small sampling follows:

• Okra
• Olives green
• Olives black
• Onion
• Pumpkin
• Rhubarb
• Sauerkraut
• Peas
• Spaghetti squash
• Spinach
• Summer squash
• Tomato
• Turnips
• Water chestnuts
• Zucchini

Most importantly, the Atkins Diet food list encourages dieters to eat three full meals and two snacks every day, from that point of view, the Atkins Diet really fits the definition of a healthy diet.

Does Atkins work?

Does a healthy diet work to help reduce or maintain weight? Yes, so Atkins works as well as any healthy diet, and like any such diet, the Atkins Diet could work better with exercise and a supplement. In fact, the Atkins Diet page suggests using exercise and a supplement to encourage more effective weight loss. Using an herbal supplement like Acai Berry or Hoodia Gordonii will improve weight loss while at the same time boosting energy and helping to keep the dieter motivated.

Acai berry contains as many vitamins as a multivitamin along with many of the building blocks of life like proteins and amino acids. It gives an energy boost too, which will help users make the most of their exercise sessions. Hoodia Gordonii works to prevent hunger pangs and keep the user feeling full to prevent unnecessary cravings. Using either one of these herbal supplements, in combination with the Atkins Diet, can help you reach your weight loss goals.