What is the Atkins diet meal plan?
The Atkins diet is a low-carb diet that allows you to eat lean proteins and fat instead of cutting them out entirely, like other diets. It is a long-term diet and is better balanced than other popular fad diets. The diet is broken down into four phases. The first phase vegetarians and vegans can skip.
What you do on the Atkins diet is cut all carbs out completely. This means no pasta, no sugar, no potatoes, no cookies, no candy, and, definitely, no bread. In general, you will be avoiding both sugary and starchy foods.
In place of carbohydrates, you get to eat the permitted Atkins diet foods such as vegetables, fruits, and lean protein from eggs, poultry, seafood, butter, oils, and cheese.
Some of the neat features that come with the Atkins diet meal plan
The Atkins diet isn’t entirely unique but it does allow you to eat meat and fat. The diet has easy an easy to use website and apps to help you with choosing the right Atkins diet foods and recipes for you.
The apps include a weight loss tracker, a carb counter, a database of meal plans, Atkins specific recipes, and even shopping lists.
These apps help eliminate the tedious components of the diet and make it easier for you to simply do the diet, exercise, and shed pounds.
The benefits of using the Atkins diet
- Using the Atkins diet applications eases the burden of calorie counting.
- You get shopping lists without having to plan.
- You don’t have to purchase any special, gimmicky diet foods or drinks.
- You get to eat what you want for the most part and still lose weight.
- You get a wide selection of Atkins diet foods and recipes to choose from.
- Great for vegans and vegetarians since meat is only an option.
The cons of using the Atkins diet meal plan
Like with any diet, the Atkins diet meal plan has a few flaws amongst its ranks. Some notable cons to this diet are:
- You are cutting out carbs. Although this sounds good, not all carbs are bad carbs. Brown rice and buckwheat are two great examples of good carbs.
- Being able to eat meat and dairy isn’t necessarily a good thing. Both meat and dairy come with many health risks ranging from hormones, antibiotics to even radiation. To avoid this look for meat and dairy that is grass fed, free range, with no antibiotics. This will assure quality meat and dairy products for you.
- Fish could prove dangerous. Yep, you read that correctly, if you eat fish you may be at risk for exposure to toxic wastes or worse. When it comes to fish, check where it was fished from first. Since some oceans, like the Pacific Ocean, are still heavily contaminated by garbage, chemicals, oil, and other hazardous substances. If your fish is farmed, check to make sure the fish is to government standard or avoid it altogether.
- Eating dairy can cause you to gain weight rather than lose weight since it is high in fat content.
- Men, should they choose to not eat meat, need to avoid eating too much soy and soy-based products. Soy acts like the female hormone estrogen and can affect men’s hormonal health greatly.
- When using oils, refrain from using vegetable, canola, corn, and peanut oils. These oils are either GMO or contain other oils you shouldn’t be eating. Go for an extra virgin olive oil from a legitimate source.
The take away when using the Atkins diet meal plan
Always consult your doctor before starting any new diets. Your doctor will tell you what you need to lose as far as weight and what you need to consider when dieting.
All around, the Atkins diet does help people lose weight. You will still need to exercise at least 30 minutes a day since movement keeps you healthy.
A healthy diet tip would be to omit eating dairy and meat altogether to help your weight loss goals.
