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The popular name for the ‘Atkins Nutritional Approach’ is the ‘Atkins Diet’, which was the brainchild of Doctor Robert Atkins. He had gained a lot of weight while in medical school and after reading about a certain diet in the medical journal, he decided to improve it and release it under his own name.

Atkins, in his Atkins Diet, stated that he believed that the prevalent theories about weight gain were all wrong. First, he dismissed the idea that saturated fats were bad; instead he said it was it was carbohydrates that led to the weight problems Americans have. Atkins declared that our obsession with fat actually worsened the problem. He pointed to all the low-fat foods that were high in carbohydrates, which meant that people on a diet often ate foods that were worse for them than what they normally ate.

The Atkins diet shifts the focus. Atkins said that by cutting out carbohydrates, people would burn stored body fats. And if you lose the fat, you lose the weight. He said it was not just a matter of eating less. Dr. Atkins held that your diet could actually help you burn calories. The Atkins diet supposedly burned more calories than were consumed everyday. But the claims were contested.

Dr. Atkins also promulgated the positive influence that his diet could have on suffers of type 2 diabetes. Type 1 diabetes is a disease you get early in life, but type 2 is often closely associated with diet and excess body weight. So, it should follow that any diet that helps decrease weight, will help people with Type 2 diabetes. The Atkins diet is low in carbohydrates, which must be avoided with type 2 diabetes regardless of the caloric intake, so because of this aspect of the diet, Atkins claimed that those who suffer type 2 diabetes would no longer need medication such as insulin. In general, doctors disagree with Atkins on this point, although they do agree, however, that a lower carbohydrate intake helps control Type 2 diabetes, but there is no proof that carbohydrates cause diabetes.

What are the steps one has to take to follow the Atkins diet? It is followed in four phases – Induction; On-Going Weight loss, Pre-maintenance and Lifetime Maintenance. Here is an overview of the most important phase – The Induction Phase.

The Induction phase is probably the most difficult of the phases in the Atkins diet. Atkins is rather flexible about how long it should last ” but recommends two weeks. During this time, carbohydrate consumption should be severely limited ” up to 20 grammes per day. The goal is to enter a fat burning metabolic process called ‘ketosis’ which is when the body, being starved of glucose, begins to convert previously stored fat into the fatty acids needed to power the body. Weight loss during this period can be extreme ” some Atkins dieters report losses of 5-10 lbs. a week or more.

The goals of the three final phases in the Atkins diet are the learning of the ideal carbohydrate levels for the next two phases: continued weight loss and weight maintenance. Millions of people are still losing the weight they want to on this diet ” but beware the dangers of taking in too much cholesterol.

The Atkins Grapefruit diet is a diet plan, not supported by the eponymous Dr. Atkins firm, that hopes to play on the fame of the grapefruit diet and the Atkins diet name. However, a closer look at this diet reveals that it may not be all it claims to be.

First of all, it’s very difficult to find information on the Atkins grapefruit diet plan. Clever people know that when someone is carrying out a deception, or a con, they will often gloss over the facts. This is what the Atkins grapefruit diet seems to do in an attempt to get people to associate it with two supposedly effective diets.

Is the Atkins Grapefruit Diet part of the Atkins Diet or endorsed by the late Dr. Atkins’ company? The answer is a resounding no, not only is there no mention of the Atkins Grapefruit Diet on the Atkins web site, but there is no fruit of any kind allowed in the list of allowed foods in the Atkins diet Induction phase either.

The induction phase allows the following foods: Fish of all kinds. All fowl such as turkey and chicken. Any shellfish. Any meat such as beef or pork. Eggs cooked in any style including fried. Cheese. Vegetables. Herbs and Spices. Fats and Oils. Low carbohydrate beverages including diet soft drinks.

Please, notice one thing – that fruit does not feature on that list at all! Yes, later phases of the Atkins diet do allow small amounts of fruits such as cantaloupe and lemon juice, and the pre-maintenance and maintenance phases do even allow small quantities of grapefruit, but when judged in comparison with the amount of Grapefruit recommended on the Atkins Grapefruit Diet there is a huge difference.

The Atkins Grapefruit Diet suggests a cup of grapefruit juice or a cup of grapefruit sections, with 8 and 18 carbs respectively. Even the most liberal phases of the Atkins diet recommends limiting intake to below 8 carbs per day, when it comes to grapefruit. That’s a direct contradiction from one diet to the other.

Most sensible people would turn to the Atkins website itself the moment they heard of the Atkins Grapefruit Diet and when they found no reference of that diet on their site, a red light would flash and an alarmbell would ring.

In general, remember that any plan that relies very heavily on one type of food, such as grapefruit in a grapefruit diet, is unhealthy for any but extremely short periods. The Atkins Grapefruit Diet is not associated with the Atkins diet, and may interfere with the results of the Atkins diet, especially in its early phases.