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Who does not desire to have a fit and shaped up body? Perhaps we
all do. Overweight is the biggest enemy of our health. But
factors such as sedentary work, lack of time to exercise and the
availability of delectable fast food have made it extremely
difficult to have stabilized weight.
It is not only a person's appearance that is badly affected by
being overweight but also his fitness. Usually obese people keep
on confronting one or the other health problem. There are times
when excess of weight becomes a mental torture and leads to
depression.
It is quite an easy task to gain weight but immensely difficult
to reduce it. Though there are various remedies prescribed to
shed weight, all can't to followed or trusted. One old and quite
effective way to become light is the use of Atkin's Diet.
Dr. Robert Atkins (1930-2003) was the father of Atkin's Diet. In
1972 he popularized the diet in his famous series of books. In
practical application also the diet turned out to be quiet
successful. Thus it became more and more popular with time.
Dr. Atkin believed that carbohydrate is the primary reason
behind gaining weight. This is because carbohydrates are
composed of energy providing items such as sugar, starch,
cellulose and gums. So if a person reduces the intake of
carbohydrates (carbs) he or she can greatly get rid of many
pounds. Thus people should avoid potatoes and other starchy
vegetables along with sugar, grains, pastas and fruits for these
are the major sources of carbs. In the opinion of Dr. Atkins
doing this will translate a carbohydrate-burning metabolism to a
fat burning one. Atkin's diet is critical of carbs related but
not of fatty and protein rich stuff. In fact it recommends its
users to eat food that provides them fats and proteins. In the
case of proteins it particularly emphasizes the consumption of
animal protein.
Though atkin's diet has done wonders in many cases, it has many
shortcomings. If this diet is quite popular with one set of
people, some others are enormously critical of it. this is
because of several reasons. Firstly Atkins meals are not only
low in carbs but contain negligible amount of essential
vitamins, minerals, fiber and other nutrients. Secondly atkin's
diet is flourishing with cholesterol boosting fats that can be
very troublesome. Thirdly since atkin's diet promulgates animal
protein, vegetarians find it difficult to adopt it. In the
fourth place according to the American Heart Association (AHA),
a high protein diet is not adequate to lose weight. So diets
such as Atkin's can cause nutritional deficiency and other
cholesterol related problems (cardiac arrests) in the long run.
Finally critics believe that eating meat and other high protein
products can lead to osteoporosis, colon cancer, heart diseases
and renal diseases.
However the best way to reduce weight is to avoid excess as well
as complete elimination of anything. A person should take a diet
rich in essential nutrients (vitamins, minerals, proteins,
fibers etc.), stay away from fatty foods as much as possible.
Also carbs such as sugar should be consumed in a regulated
manner.
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