Thesis: Cutting carbohydrates out of the diet completely, or cutting down on them very severely does not make sense scientifically, and is not necessary to those wishing to lose weight and eat a healthy diet.
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. Two recent studies reported in the New England Journal of Medicine found that people on the Atkins diet lost twice as much weight over a six-month period as those on a standard low-fat diet recommended by most major health organizations (Two, 2003). However, one study, conducted by the Veterans Affairs Department, found that those on the Atkins diet regained much of the weight by the end of the year, at which time the difference in weight loss between the two groups was not significant. The weight lost by people on the Atkins diet was also relatively minor compared to their starting weight (Atkins, 2003). The average starting weight for participants in the first study was 288 pounds, but the average weight loss was only 13 pounds. In the Veterans Affairs Study, the average starting weight was 217 pounds, but the average loss after one year was only 9.7 pounds.
There are doubts about the credibility of any diet that recommends you can eat as much fat as you want (Willett and Skerrett, 2004, 44-48). 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 ...