The trouble is, we do need fibre and fruit and veg for long term health.
Not all of the foods on the restricted list are bad for you, which is where this diet draws the most criticism.   Fruits provide natural sugars that give a boost of energy.
Green vegetables are sources of carbohydrates but they also supply the body with healthy nutrients for proper function.
Potatoes provide complex carbs and lots of minerals, as does the new generation of fortified pastas, which often come in spinach, carrot or beet varieties to help you get your daily allowance of veggies too.
Therefore, you can’t really eat this as a long term diet, except if you are a guy who never eats any colorful foods! Which is definitely not a long term healthy eating strategy.
Dieters can jumpstart their weight loss by reducing the carbohydrates they eat says the plan.  If you like a lot of meat, then you won’t mind a diet with no significant carbohydrate consumption.
The Atkins diet is similar to quitting something cold turkey.  This method of eliminating carbs works for some, but others need a gradual approach to be successful.
Atkins’ dieters eat every few hours to keep their metabolism high.  Drinking plenty of water is good for flushing out the system.  It is also good for helping you to feel full.

The Atkins diet has endured much controversy over the past 36 years or so ever since it was introduced.
Experts that recommend low fat diets were shocked that someone could propose a plan that was so high in fat.  The Atkins diet has brought results to many, but has it been at the cost of their health?
The Atkins diet is a low carbohydrate, high protein diet plan that was developed by Dr. Richard Atkins.  The first two weeks are the hardest for anyone who has ever tried this diet, as just about every carbohydrate is eliminated.
Some vegetables are permitted, but the carbohydrate count each day must remain low, under 20 grams.  There are supplement bars for some phases of the diet, but not this one. This is boot camp, and the no pain, no gain school of weight loss.
On the other hand, during those first two weeks, dieters are allowed to eat eggs, bacon, and butter in huge quantities.  Fatty cuts of meat in whatever cream sauce you can find are actually encouraged.
This sounds like a heart attack waiting to happen but this was felt to be harmless and necessary to rid the body of its craving for carbohydrates. Fat also makes you feel full, so actually triggers appetite suppression.
The premise of the diet is to eliminate sugars, fast foods, and other undesirable foods.  The restrictive phase of the diet is in place to train the body to burn stored fat instead of protein for fuel.  No carbohydrates in the diet mean that the body will have to look to its own stores for energy to burn.
You will instantly lose about 5 pounds of water weight if you eat like this.

With this diet plan, meals should not be skipped.  Going for a long period of time between meals causes the body to store fat instead of burn it.
As is true of any diet, if you skip meals, starvation mode kicks in and the body will fight you for those fat deposits that you want to get rid of.  Eating several times a day, like the 5 Factor Diet advises, increases metabolism and fat loss.
The 5 Factor diet has a built-in “cheat day”.  One day a week participants can eat favorite foods that they have eliminated from their diet due to the plan’s requirements.  Although the diet allows for this exception, the principle of five meals a day and the components of each meal should still be enforced.
The exercise portion of the 5 Factor diet includes activity five days a week for twenty-five minutes a day.  Dieters can visit the 5 Factor diet website for exercise plans and suggestions.
The plan was developed for celebrities that need to get in shape in a hurry for appearances and movie roles, but has been passed on to the rest of us.
The website contains sample meal plans, menus, dining guides, customized eating and exercise plans, journals, and much more.
Dieters are not left to their own devices with this diet plan.  There is a learning curve, as with just about any diet plan, as you get started, but that is no reason to quit the diet, especially if you start seeing results.

The 5 Factor diet is the newest diet/weight loss craze in Hollywood.  Celebrities are swearing by this plan, which was created by Harley Pasternak.
With the number five as the basis, the plan centers around five meals a day, and five workout sessions containing five exercises each.
Participants eat five meals each day.  They need to be low in fat and calories.  Protein is included in each meal in the form of lean cuts of meat.
Any carbohydrates in the meal need to rank low on the glycemic index scale.  Lower glycemic numbers add up to a more stable blood sugar level.
Fiber is also a component of each meal.  There are two types:  soluble and insoluble.  The insoluble fiber will wash out of your system but it will also take a bit of the fat from the meal along with it.  That’s a great bonus.
Drinking water before a meal helps you consume less food.  Water flushes out the body.  Think of it as giving yourself an internal shower.
Each meal takes five minutes to prepare and has no more than five ingredients.  Sounds impossible, doesn’t it?  Most people probably don’t actually time the preparation of their foods and preparing the meals may take longer.
The most important thing to remember is to prepare your food with care in order to be sure it turns out correctly.
Another tip for cutting back on the time it takes to put a meal together is to prepare the foods ahead of time.

In this series of articles we will be highlighting some of the more popular weight loss plans currently being used to try to lose weight, get fit, keep the weight off, or all three.

Here are some of the diets we will be covering:

1. 5 Factor Diet
2.  Atkin’s Diet
3.  Blood Type Diet
4.  Body for Life
5. Cabbage Soup Diet
6. Cactus Diet Plan
7. Diet Watch
8. Dr. Phil Diet
9. eDiets Plan
10. Grapefruit Diet
11. Green Tea Diet
12. Jenny Craig
13. LA Weight Loss Program
14. Low GI Diet Plan
15. Mayo Clinic Plan
16. Medifast Diet Plan
and more.

Atkins versus other diets

With high carbohydrate diets, you are riding the wave of carbohydrate highs. After you eat, you feel great and full. Then a few hours later, you come crashing down and are hungrier than you were previous to eating the carbohydrate.

This cycle continues and, over time, you will eat more and gain weight because the excess carbs will get stored as fat. Of course, as we now know, not all carbs are created equal.

The more complex carbs do  not cause the same sugar spikes as a candy bar or soda, but it has also been shown that the more carbs you have, the more you want, because it triggers insulin reaction in the body. Some low carb diets which concern themselves with the glycemic index of foods are basically measuring the spike caused.

Far better to feel full, than binge and spike.   The protein, fat and vegetable meals of the Atkins plan put your blood sugar back in balance.

They provide just enough of each type of food, with a proper amount of carbohydrates (from the vegetables and salad and small amount od snacks and dessert you are permitted).

The vegetables provide quick carbohydrate energy, and the protein gives the meal staying power. This combination helps suppress your appetite throughout the day, and between meals.

The Atkins diet is actually a craving control diet that can help suppress your appetite. You can lose weight easily if you follow the diet, though giving up so many of the foods which are a mainstay of the American diet, like pasta, pizza and potatoes, can be hard.

If you’ve had a problem with carbohydrate cravings before, this new way of eating will help control those cravings. The more closely you stick to the plan, the better your cravings will be controlled and the easier it will be to follow the diet.

It is not a long-term eating lifestyle, but it is a successful short term diet if you want to drop 20 pounds quickly. It might also help you look at just how many carbs you consume every day without even thinking about it!

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One of the most powerful appetite suppressing foods on the Atkins diet are eggs. Eggs are a great form of quick and easy protein. If you don’t have any cholesterol or heart issues, you will be successful on this diet both short and longer term if you have a larger amount of weight to lose.

A recent study showed that eating eggs for breakfast actually staves off hunger pangs through the rest of the day. The research concerned two groups of women. One group ate eggs for breakfast and the other had a breakfast of bagels and cream cheese. The calorie count for both breakfasts was exactly the same.

The subjects kept track of what they ate the rest of the day and answered questions about their levels of hunger and satisfaction throughout the day. The results showed that the women who ate the eggs for breakfast felt more satisfied throughout the entire day. They ate less at each meal than the women who were in the bagel group. Even the fat in the cream cheese did not keep away the hunger the way the protein in the egg did.

Eggs contain about 6 grams of protein each. This helps to even out blood sugar and produces a feeling of satisfaction. Both of these factors help to curb cravings.

Egg yolks also contain lutein and xenazanthin. These nutrients have been shown to have incredible effects on eye health. So it’s important to eat the whole egg, and not just the white. Many doctors now say that the whole egg should be eaten because it keeps the system in balance, the white negating the cholesterol from the yolk.

Eggs contain choline as well, which is important in brain functioning and memory. These nutrients are just an added benefit to the appetite suppressing qualities of eggs, one of the mainstays of any no-carb diet like Atkins.

Continues in Atkins and Appetite Suppression Part 3

One of the most common, and helpful effects of following the Atkins diet is appetite suppression.

Many followers of the plan report that the between meal hunger pangs they used to experience fade away very quickly. This makes it easier to stay on the diet and continue to lose weight.

While other diets have their followers starving between meals, the Atkins diet offers relief from constant hunger. The Atkins diet, with its specific combination of foods and ingredients, has powerful appetite suppressing effects.

This is in main due to the amount of protein and fat in the diet, which has drawn fire from a lot of critics who say it is not heart-healthy as a long-term successful lifestyle strategy, versus a mere diet strategy. But if you want to lose weight fast, it DOES work. Keeping it off, however, might be another story.

The first key component in the appetite suppression aspect of the Atkins diet is the amount of protein in it.  Protein, much more so than carbohydrates, has the power to satiate hunger.

If you’ve ever eaten a carb-heavy meal like Chinese food, and then felt hungry afterward, you know that carbohydrates don’t have much staying power.

They are burnt quickly as energy, or stored as fat. Protein, when combined with a small amount of healthy fats, can keep you feeling full for long periods of time.

Continued Atkins and Appetite Suppression Part 2