The Atkins diet is a high protein, high fat diet, with very low carbohydrate intake (Willett and Skerrett, 2004, 44-48). It has been shown to work for weight loss over the short-term, but there are doubts about its ability to work over the long-term. There are also doubts about the credibility of any diet that recommends you can eat as much fat as you want. High protein diets have never been popular with the medical profession because they can damage the kidneys. As with any weight loss diet, the Atkins diet only works if you stay with it. Returning to normal eating patterns after you have lost the desired weight just returns people to their prior weight, or often higher. The Atkins diet only continues to keep the weight off if you continue it for life, and not many people can tolerate the low carbohydrate allowance for the long-term.
If the Atkins diet truly worked long-term you would expect that it would be a popular and well-used diet among long-term dieters. However, recent evidence has shown just the opposite is true (High-protein, 2001, 1-3). Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, and Brown University looked at data from the National Weight Control Registry, and at the outcomes of 3,000 people who have successfully lost at least 30 pounds, and have kept this weight off for at least one year. The registry has been active since 1995.
The study found that only 8 percent of the people who fit this criteria had diets which fell in line with the Atkins diet's most liberal carbohydrate allowance of 90 grams per day when they calculated the amounts of protein, carbohydrate, and fats in the diets of 2,700 registry members (High-protein, 2001, 1-3). Dr Atkins most stringent carbohydrate allowance is 25 grams per day. Most of the dieters studied were eating a high-carbohydrate diet with about 225 grams for a 1,500 calorie plan. One researcher ...