Weight Loss Goddess

Atkins versus other diets

With high carbohydrate diets, you are riding the wave of carbohydrate highs. After you eat, you feel great and full. Then a few hours later, you come crashing down and are hungrier than you were previous to eating the carbohydrate.

This cycle continues and, over time, you will eat more and gain weight because the excess carbs will get stored as fat. Of course, as we now know, not all carbs are created equal.

The more complex carbs do  not cause the same sugar spikes as a candy bar or soda, but it has also been shown that the more carbs you have, the more you want, because it triggers insulin reaction in the body. Some low carb diets which concern themselves with the glycemic index of foods are basically measuring the spike caused.

Far better to feel full, than binge and spike.   The protein, fat and vegetable meals of the Atkins plan put your blood sugar back in balance.

They provide just enough of each type of food, with a proper amount of carbohydrates (from the vegetables and salad and small amount od snacks and dessert you are permitted).

The vegetables provide quick carbohydrate energy, and the protein gives the meal staying power. This combination helps suppress your appetite throughout the day, and between meals.

The Atkins diet is actually a craving control diet that can help suppress your appetite. You can lose weight easily if you follow the diet, though giving up so many of the foods which are a mainstay of the American diet, like pasta, pizza and potatoes, can be hard.

If you’ve had a problem with carbohydrate cravings before, this new way of eating will help control those cravings. The more closely you stick to the plan, the better your cravings will be controlled and the easier it will be to follow the diet.

It is not a long-term eating lifestyle, but it is a successful short term diet if you want to drop 20 pounds quickly. It might also help you look at just how many carbs you consume every day without even thinking about it!

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One of the most powerful appetite suppressing foods on the Atkins diet are eggs. Eggs are a great form of quick and easy protein. If you don’t have any cholesterol or heart issues, you will be successful on this diet both short and longer term if you have a larger amount of weight to lose.

A recent study showed that eating eggs for breakfast actually staves off hunger pangs through the rest of the day. The research concerned two groups of women. One group ate eggs for breakfast and the other had a breakfast of bagels and cream cheese. The calorie count for both breakfasts was exactly the same.

The subjects kept track of what they ate the rest of the day and answered questions about their levels of hunger and satisfaction throughout the day. The results showed that the women who ate the eggs for breakfast felt more satisfied throughout the entire day. They ate less at each meal than the women who were in the bagel group. Even the fat in the cream cheese did not keep away the hunger the way the protein in the egg did.

Eggs contain about 6 grams of protein each. This helps to even out blood sugar and produces a feeling of satisfaction. Both of these factors help to curb cravings.

Egg yolks also contain lutein and xenazanthin. These nutrients have been shown to have incredible effects on eye health. So it’s important to eat the whole egg, and not just the white. Many doctors now say that the whole egg should be eaten because it keeps the system in balance, the white negating the cholesterol from the yolk.

Eggs contain choline as well, which is important in brain functioning and memory. These nutrients are just an added benefit to the appetite suppressing qualities of eggs, one of the mainstays of any no-carb diet like Atkins.

Continues in Atkins and Appetite Suppression Part 3

One of the most common, and helpful effects of following the Atkins diet is appetite suppression.

Many followers of the plan report that the between meal hunger pangs they used to experience fade away very quickly. This makes it easier to stay on the diet and continue to lose weight.

While other diets have their followers starving between meals, the Atkins diet offers relief from constant hunger. The Atkins diet, with its specific combination of foods and ingredients, has powerful appetite suppressing effects.

This is in main due to the amount of protein and fat in the diet, which has drawn fire from a lot of critics who say it is not heart-healthy as a long-term successful lifestyle strategy, versus a mere diet strategy. But if you want to lose weight fast, it DOES work. Keeping it off, however, might be another story.

The first key component in the appetite suppression aspect of the Atkins diet is the amount of protein in it.  Protein, much more so than carbohydrates, has the power to satiate hunger.

If you’ve ever eaten a carb-heavy meal like Chinese food, and then felt hungry afterward, you know that carbohydrates don’t have much staying power.

They are burnt quickly as energy, or stored as fat. Protein, when combined with a small amount of healthy fats, can keep you feeling full for long periods of time.

Continued Atkins and Appetite Suppression Part 2