Three Pros and Cons of the Atkins Diet

You may be surprised to find that the Atkins diet has been around since 1972. It has also been one of the most controversial diets out there. Many people believe it to be unhealthy because of the way the diet is designed you are required to eliminate a few entire food groups from your diet. By eliminating these food groups (fruits especially and grains) it is believed that your body will burn fat for energy causing you to lose weight quickly. So, let’s jump in and take a look at three pros and three cons of the Atkins Diet. We’ll start with the pros first.

Pros of the Atkins Diet

1. Lose weight quickly. Depending on how you look at it, this could actually go as either a pro or con. For the sake of this article, we’ll call it a pro. The first phase of the diet, the induction phase, is the most restricting phase and it’s during this time when people seem to lose the most amount of weight. Because of the quick loss in the beginning, it tends to keep most people motivated and driven to keep going and not give up.

2. You can eat high fat food and still lose. One of the main things people like about the Atkins diet is that you can eat foods that most diets restrict you from – butter, eggs, bacon, steak, hamburger, etc. This actually makes the diet appealing to men because of their hearty appetites. 

3. No hunger pangs. People often say that another thing they like about the Atkins diet is that they don’t ever feel hungry. This could be because of the ‘hearty’ meals you’re eating (like mentioned above the steak, burgers, etc) but more than likely it’s probably because you are eliminating carbohydrates. When you eliminate carbs from your diet you don’t have the up and down blood sugar levels that you do when you’re eating them.

Cons of the Atkins Diet

1. Boredom. This usually occurs mostly in the induction phase when you are so limited on what foods you can eat. While it’s nice to be following a diet that lets you enjoy all the fatty foods you want, eating those over and over and over can get boring really quick.

2. Constipation and a few other not so nice issues. It’s not surprising that constipation is a negative side effect of this diet. You’re body isn’t getting the grains and fruits to help regulate your digestive system. Some people also complain of bad breath and in some cases dehydration can be a problem too.

3. Easily regain weight. Unfortunately, the biggest con to the Atkins diet is how easily people gain the weight back they lost. Often times they actually end up gaining even more than they lost during the diet. 

As you can see, the Atkins diet has pros and cons to it. Only you can decide whether the pros outweigh the cons for you.