Are Atkins Diet And Low Carb Diets Safe?
Author: Chris Chew

Are low carb diets safe? How safe is Atkins diet? Are low carb
and Atkins diets dangerous to your health? These are burning
questions for dieters all over the world.

I have personally tried low carb diets and Atkins diet and
these diets made me lose weight very quickly. However not only
did I lose body fat weight, I also lost muscle weight. I had
very obvious muscle and fat loss because I can visually see my
reduced muscle mass in the mirror.

This certainly isn't healthy. Furthermore, the more muscle mass
that you lose, the less toned your body shape is. The end result
is that you will end up thin and yet looked flabby with lose
skin.

The frustrating part will be that after you are off the low
carb or Atkins diet, you will very probably gain back all the
weight that you have loss and even more. This is because your
muscles are active and they continuously burn calories. Since
you have less fewer muscle mass now, your body's metabolism or
capacity to burn calories slows down tremendously.

In other words, when you put on weight again, you are putting
on body fat instead of muscles if you do not exercise. You will
be fatter and less healthy than before you went on the low carb
or Atkins diet. To compound matters, because of lesser muscle
tissues resulting in lower metabolism and thus lesser calories
being burnt, you are going to get fatter.

Since then I have stayed off both low carb and Atkins diet.
Both types of diets are almost similar as they require you to
cut down drastically on your consumption of carbohydrates.
Atkins diet went a step further by advocating almost no
carbohydrate consumption for 2 weeks before adding some carbs
to your meals gradually thereafter.

Besides losing muscles, how safe are low carb diets? This is
what Dr Lyn Steffen and Dr Jennifer Nettleton from the
University of Minnesota's School of Public Health commentated
in a Lancet report, "Low carbohydrate diets for weight
management are far from healthy, given their association with
ketosis, constipation or diarrhea, halitosis, headache and
general fatigue to name a few."

The doctors warned that the diet increases protein load on the
kidneys and alters the balance of acid in the body. This also
results in loss of minerals from the bone stores and affect
bone strength. The doctors went on to say that, "Our most
important criterion should be indisputable safety and low
carbohydrate diets currently fall short of this benchmark."

Dr Atkins, the creator of the Atkins diet died in 2003 after he
was alleged to have slipped on an icy road and hurt his head
fatally. However his medical report stated that he had a
history of heart attack, hypertension and congestive heart
failure.

Were Dr Atkins medical conditions related to his low
carbohydrates diet is anybody's guess. Do you want to take the
risk by going on a low carb diet? I don't think I will. If I
ever want to lose weight again, I will rather go on the proven
method of healthy eating and regular exercises instead of
jumping on any fad diets.


About The Author: Chris Chew is a fitness personal trainer of
actors, fashion models, pageant contestants and celebs. See his
websites for more articles http://www.sgfitness.com and
http://www.sgfitnessonline.com