eMedex Weight Loss Guide

No diet can survive without at least some science backing it up. In fact, there are some weight loss programs like the Atkins Diet that the medical community refuses to consider an official diet because their scientific background is shaky or lacking. Even today, the complete mechanisms of the Atkins Diet are not completely known or understood. Here are some of the science fundamentals that Dr. Atkins used to create his program.

The most controversial part of the Atkins Diet is that fact that it promises quick weight loss by restricting carbohydrate consumption to an extreme extent. Dr. Atkins himself pointed out that carbs are one of the primary culprits for making people fat. This is true, to some extent.

Carbohydrates are nutritionally your biggest source of energy. When you eat carbs like bread or pasta, your body breaks the food down into simpler sugars like glucose and glycogen (right). Glycogen, in turn, is the primary source of energy for your brain and muscle cells. The only problem is that the reservoirs for glycogen stores are quickly filled up, and anything that isn’t used immediately has to be stored as fat.

By following the Atkins Diet, you minimize the amount of available carbohydrates, thus minimizing their risk of getting converted into fat. Once your body realizes that it’s out of carbohydrates, it’ll begin harvesting energy from proteins (found in foodstuff like meat and milk) through a process known as ketosis. It’s this process that produces the ketones which cause chronic bad breath in dieters.