The Atkins Diet Plan, one of many long term plans on the market, offers a high fat, low carbohydrate meal plan designed to help you lose weight rapidly, while giving you all the energy you require. According to Dr. Atkins, the diet will assist you in managing numerous health concerns, including headaches, blood sugar problems, slow or sluggish metabolism, food intolerance and allergies. According to reports, many individuals with high cholesterol, hypertension, diabetes and polycystic ovarian syndrome regained new energy on this eating plan.

Dr. Atkins Diet Plan was introduced in 1972 to assist people suffering from obesity and heart disease. The diet provides fast weight loss and Atkins believed that up to two thirds of calories could come from fat and that people should eat meats and cheeses rather than breads, pastas, fruits and vegetables. This is not a diet for vegetarians, as the plan recommends high amounts of animal proteins.

The way in which the Atkins diet works is through changing the body's metabolism. The body burns fats and carbohydrates in order to provide the energy to function normally. Carbohydrates are turned into glucose and are used before fats in our bodies. According to Atkins, if we reduce the amount of carbohydrate intake, our body will burn our fat as fuel, cause weight loss. Through this burning of fat, we also affect our body's insulin production which, according to Atkins, will prevent more fat from being formed.

There are four phases in the Atkins Plan:

• Phase 1 — the Induction Phase - carbohydrate consumption is restricted to 20 grams per day.
• Phase 2 — Ongoing Weight Loss — you increase carbohydrates to 25 grams daily the first week, 30 grams daily the next week and so on until your weight loss stops and then cut back 5 grams to continue moderate weight loss.
• Phase 3 — Pre-Maintenance — helps you change from weight loss to weight maintenance by increasing the daily carbohydrate intake in 10-gram increments each week.
• Phase 4 — Lifetime Maintenance — you select from a wide variety of foods while controlling carbohydrate intake.