It is very easy to cut down on the amounts of carbohydrates you consume when you check out the list of the acceptable proteins and vegetables in the Atkins list. But the Atkins diet is too different from the normal manner of our eating, and that is the reason why it will take some getting used to. American food is generally about carbohydrates, and that extends even to the snacks. The Atkins diet is too deviated from this kind of eating. Using some substitutes for the carbohydrate foods might stave off this situation though.

Sugar substitutes are the most important in this list. Now, sugar substitutes can be both good as well as bad, depending on the constitution of your body. Aspartame and Splenda may not be good for everyone. But they can be used in preparing low carbohydrate snacks. These can be used in making sweet snacks without actually having any carbohydrates in them. There is criticism, though. Some people find that they crave for real carbohydrates much more after having these artificial sweeteners. If you find that is happening with you, you will need to eliminate them from your diet completely.

One more difficult food to give up is bread. Bread is almost a staple food, a primary food, which people cannot do without. There are low carbohydrate breads available in the market, but more often than not, they will contain masked carbohydrates in them and some other stuff that you can certainly do without. If you have the time and the inclination, you can check out a recipe for making low carbohydrate bread yourself. That way, you can be sure what you are putting into the bread.

Pasta follows the list of common carbohydrates that people consume. Pasta is a favorite food for many people, but the thing that makes pastas delicious are the toppings that go with it. The toppings could be meat, vegetables or cheese, but people on the Atkins diet could also do well if they use squash as a substitute for the pasta. Spaghetti squash is a recommended option. It is a yellow gourd and makes a good replacement for pasta. Another option is zucchini. You can replace noodles with lasagna made with large pieces of eggplant. Since the meats and cheeses used are all low carbohydrate, they fit in well with the Atkins requisites.

Finding a substitute for rice becomes a bit difficult. Some people would use cauliflower, which is chopped into small pieces in a food processor. These are then cooked in a microwave without any water. They become like rice, and can be used in all kinds of rice dishes.

You can also substitute potatoes with cauliflowers. You will have to puree the cauliflower till it is smooth and resembles mashed potatoes in texture. Then add the topping you prefer, and you have something that looks like potatoes, but doesn’t have those harmful carbohydrates in it.

If you love pizzas, there’s no need to sacrifice them when you are on the Atkins diet too. You can make some Atkins permissible pizzas at home. Use low carbohydrates tortillas to make the crust, or you can use Portobello mushrooms to make the crust.

These are great substitutes for the normal carbohydrates foods that we eat. They look good, taste good and fit in with the Atkins plan.

Darren Williger is a guitar playing, tea drinking, meditating, low carbohydrate eating, wine making sales maker who writes for MyLowCarbPages.com, and MindSatori.com.

The Atkins Diet, which received widespread public interest in 1972, did not fail to encourage the introduction of regular exercise. The dieter who has agreed to abstain from carbohydrates must appreciate the extent to which new chemicals can build up in a system that looks to protein as an energy source. Those chemicals form in the body muscles.
Still, the formation of those chemicals should not be viewed as a reason to cut back on the use of muscles (or in other words, to cut back on exercise). In fact exercise can help to push unwanted chemicals out of the muscles. Prolonged exercise improves the circulation of blood in the muscles.
Exercise should be seen as an essential part of all low carb living. After all, even low carb food contains calories. Exercise gives the dieter an added way to burn off those calories. Moreover, the expected changes in the body biochemistry, changes that take place in a body on a high protein, low carb diet dictate the need for exercise.
Following exercise, the number of muscle capillaries increases by as much as 50%. At the same time, the existing muscle capillaries develop an even larger opening. Blood flows faster in those capillaries. The faster-flowing blood speeds removal from the exercised muscles of unwanted chemicals.
At other locations on these low carb pages you will find information about low carb recipes and low carb snacks. While those foods all contribute to the value of a low carb diet plan, the willingness to stick with those foods does not guarantee success with that same plan.
In order to feel secure about the results expected from adherence to a low carb diet, the dieter needs to take time to exercise his or her muscles. Research on weight loss has revealed that any effort aimed at a reduction of body fat should include sessions during which the dieter engages in muscle strengthening exercises.
A person on a low carb diet might take-in a good deal of fat. Of all the tissues in the body, muscle tissues are best equipped to use the calories that are found in fat. The more muscle that a dieter can develop, the greater the amount of fat that his or her muscles will manage to burn.
Those muscles do not need to be exercising at all times. A muscle burns some fat, even when it is at rest. Still, muscle building exercises can help a dieter to develop a set of fat burning “tools.”
One word of warning: Muscle weighs more than fat. At first the stronger muscles formed by someone on a low carb diet can cause a slight weight gain. Eventually though the dieter will loose weight. Moreover, the exercising dieter will facilitate removal from his or her muscles of any chemicals that form while the body uses protein as an energy source.
Dieting should make the dieter feel healthier. A dieter is more apt to enjoy that feeling if he or she takes time to exercise while adhering to any sort of low carb diet.

The Atkins diet works on the principle that ketosis occurs to metabolize the stored fat in the body and convert it into energy. Ketosis is quite important in weight loss, but the problem is that most people do not quite understand it, even if they are on low carbohydrate diets.

The primary intention of most of the diets is to reduce the calories put into the body. This helps the body to reduce its weight, but the problem is some of the weight lost is also from the fat and the lean muscle tissue of the body. These are essential components of the body. Even if you find your weight going down, actually your body’s functioning is becoming slower. The reduced muscle is slowing your body’s metabolism down. You might find your weight reducing, but you must keep in mind that your body is quite vulnerable to increase its weight with the lost muscle mass.

The Atkins diet works on a different principle. It restricts the amount of carbohydrates that enter your body. It causes the ketosis only by burning the fat and not the muscle part. Hence, you get energy from the ketones derived from the ketosis of the fats. This conversion is an irreversible reaction done by the liver. The ketones are excreted by the body.

The chemical compounds known as ketones are effective sources of fuel for the body. The liver creates them from the fatty acids obtained by the metabolism of the body fat. The fatty acids make their presence felt only when sugars are absent in the body. This is where the Atkins diet scores. It reduces the sugars present in the bloodstream. Because of this, the reaction of ketosis is triggered and the ketones are produced.

Some critics do maintain that a ketogenic diet is harmful to health. But ketosis is a totally natural reaction. The human body naturally creates ketones from fats for its supply of energy, when glucose is absent.

Dr. Atkins indicates the use of ketone testing strips during the Atkins dietary regimen to monitor the extent of ketosis occurring in the body. These strips are small plastic strips that are meant to be held in the stream of urine as it flows out of the body. The chemical indicators present in the strip will change their colors. The colors produced will range from pink to purple, which can be matched on a scale to know the ketone levels in the urine.

You can get the ketone strips at any chemist’s stores in the diabetic supplies. You will need to ask for them in some stores. No prescription is needed. You can use them for half a year without any problems. Since they have a time limit for their efficiency, it is a good idea to label them with the date you open the box.

The ketone strips are good indicators to let you know of your progress with the Atkins diet. But at the same time, you must not worry unduly if the strip doesn’t turn purple even if you are obeying the Atkins routine quite diligently. Sometimes, the trace amounts of ketone do not make their appearance, or they may be too insignificant in amount to effectuate a color change. In some cases, you won’t see the color change in your urine after you have exercised, because they might get excreted through your perspiration. You will know that the ketones are being used up if you are losing your body mass.

Also, it is erroneous to assume that a darker shade of purple means that the weight loss is happening speedily. In fact, a very dark purple must trigger some alarm bells, because that might be because of dehydration. It might happen because the urine is getting too concentrated and it is necessary to drink water to dilute it.

The main source of ketones in the body is the fats in the bloodstream. The fats could have come through dietary consumption or through a metabolic process within the body. That is why you can see a dark purple color after an especially fatty meal. The crux of all this is, you must take the ketone strip only as an indicator and not lay bets on the color they show you.

Ketosis is one of the most important things that the Atkins diet tries to achieve. Simply eliminating carbohydrates from the diet can bring on this state. Follow the Atkins diet accurately and use the ketone strips to monitor your progress.

Contrary to what most people think, the Atkins diet is not a new fad. This diet was introduced in the 70s and has been running strong since then. The basic reason why this diet gained popularity was because it did not have the low fat rule that most diets of that time had.

That is the reason why many people accepted the Atkins diet, which resulted in a lot of unwanted publicity too. Here are some things about this diet that you might want to know.

The basic premise of the Atkins diet is a study into why we get fat accumulated in our bodies. Dr. Atkins established a direct relation between the carbohydrates including the sugars that we consume and increase in body weight. It is not the calories that we put in our bodies that’s important; it’s the way the body breaks them down that matters. Dr. Atkins brought forward another term, the insulin resistance. He maintained that people who do not have properly functioning cells in their body are more prone to have weight gain than others.

When carbohydrates enter the body, the body assumes that there is a danger level looming. That triggers the pancreas to release more insulin in order to utilize these carbohydrates. This converts the sugar into glycogen which is stored in the liver and the muscle cells as a reserve for energy. But there’s a limit for this storage. When this limit is crossed, the dam literally bursts and the carbohydrates begin getting stored as fats.

People who have inherent insulin resistant characteristics will have more problems in utilizing the carbohydrates. With more insulin releases, the body becomes immune to it, and that causes a poor metabolism of the carbohydrates in the body. Fats begin building up.

However, insulin resistant individuals have an even harder time of using and storing excess carbohydrates. The more insulin that your body is exposed to, the more resistant it becomes. Overtime, the pancreas releases more insulin and cells become insulin resistant. The cells are trying to protect themselves from the toxic effects of high insulin. They create less glycogen and more fat.

These are the reasons why people who become resistant to insulin gain more in weight. Instead of providing energy, the carbohydrates get converted into fats. This may also cause other side-effects such as fatigue, inability of focusing on things, hypoglycemia, bloating of the intestine, drowsiness and depression.

For people who are resistant to insulin, the best diet is a diet that is low in carbohydrates. This is what the Atkins diet is. This diet prohibits foods such as simple sugars in cookies, sweets and sodas and the complex sugars present in breads, rice and grains. The Atkins diet also puts a restriction on oatmeal and whole wheat bread, which are otherwise considered healthy.

The permissible amount of carbohydrates with the Atkins diet is 40 grams per day. This allows the ketosis to begin where the fat in the body gets metabolized. The ketosis also improves the production of insulin and protects the body for further fat accumulation. The Atkins diet reduces the urge for carbohydrates that most people feel.

It may be difficult to live through the Atkins diet initially, but with this program you can stabilize your lifestyle with healthy eating habits. Usually, people try to bring in some carbohydrates in their diet slowly at a later stage so that they keep their nutrients in a state of equilibrium.

Several diets have come and gone; many of them have used the Atkins principles too. But the Atkins diet remains a very effective diet for people who are insulin resistant.

If you are planning to take up an Atkins dietary program, you must know that you are going to drastically change the manner in which you are feeding yourself. Your eating lifestyle is going to change, and you can find that much more prominently when you enter the food mall. You will be suddenly hit with the realization that you cannot stuff pastas and macaronis in your shopping cart. This can create a feeling of frustration, but if you are a bit more managed, you can surely get over these pangs.

When you are shopping when on the Atkins diet, you must be very careful. You can do some homework by reading what’s permissible on the Atkins book and websites. Then make a list of things you would like to buy and then go out shopping. Include low carbohydrate snacks that will keep those hunger pangs away when you are in between meals.

If you are shopping for the entire family, then you will need to keep their tastes into account too. Since it is not always possible to cook differently for yourself than for the rest of the family, you will need to arrive at a common acceptable taste for everyone. One suggestion is to cook the meat dish for the entire family and then a carbohydrate side dish for everyone else but you. You can all have turkey together, for example, and you can make a potato dish for the other people of the family, which you won’t eat.

Organize your meals in the beginning of the week, so that you can shop at one time and save on costs too. At the store, buy the protein products first. When you have bought all the proteins and the acceptable foods with the Atkins diet, you will find that you don’t feel much like buying other non-Atkins foods.

Buy your meat products together. You can go for the family packs of meats and you can even cook it all together and preserve it in your refrigerator. You can buy chicken pieces, steaks, seafood and ground beef in this way. Cooking in bulk also helps to follow the Atkins diet more easily.

You can buy cheese too, if you like it. Cheese can be bought in large wheels and slabs. But read the labels. Also, you will need to add some fiber to the diet when you are having cheese, such as salads and raw vegetables. This also makes for a good snack in between meals.

Try not to go much inside the food stores. This is because you will find the fresher foods at the outer edges of the stores. The insides usually have the packaged items which you can give a miss. In the induction stage of the Atkins diet, it is very important to avoid the packaged foods. The low carbohydrate labels on them can be misleading too, so it’s best to avoid them. You can experiment with these foods at a later date.

It is always important to read labels. But at the same time, the labels may not be speaking the gospel truth too. You have to be your own best judge to make the decision here.

Shopping when on an Atkins diet is different from normal shopping, and you will soon find out why. You might be going to hitherto unexplored sections of the food stores. You might be contemplating buying stuff to cook dishes you never tried before. But it is fun, and with proper management, you will certainly make the most out of it.

People on the Atkins diet want to try out all the low carbohydrate diets that are present on the shelves, because they seem to fit in quite well with the Atkins routine. There is a whole cartload of low carbohydrate foods available today, which include low carbohydrate baking products, snacks, pasta and bread substitutes… the list just goes on. It seems logical to use these foods when on the Atkins diet, but experts would suggest that you use them as less as possible.

With the Atkins diet, it is best to center your attention as much on the raw and the unprocessed foods as you can. In the Atkins pyramid, the foods occupying the central position are the fresh vegetables and the fresh meats. These can be combined with natural cheeses, some fruits and even whole grains that are unprocessed. Packaged meats, canned vegetables and all instant foods have no place in the Atkins pyramid.

Why does the Atkins pyramid have foods in their raw unprocessed forms? There’s a reason. There are very commendable health benefits with these foods. When foods get processed, they are treated with several industrial methods which introduce a whole lot of chemicals into them. The manufactured foods have a lot of chemicals which could invite several untenable problems in the human body.

If you are looking for a healthy diet, it should contain foods in as natural a form as you can afford. Then there are some foods that are there on the plan, but may not be good for health. The best example of such a food is bacon. Bacon contains protein and hence people think it is permissible in an Atkins diet. But bacon also contains the carcinogenic substance, sodium nitrate. With bacon, people are exposing themselves to some serious health risks.

All material on the Atkins diet suggests the consumption of unprocessed, raw and unrefined foods for good reason. People who stick with these when on the Atkins diet will find better effects in their efforts to lost weight and will actually see their health improving. They will be putting more naturally fresh foods into their bodies and even get the nutrients that are needed for maintaining their good health.

Let us analyze the low carbohydrate foods further. These foods are always associated with low carbohydrate foods. These foods act as good substitutes for the unhealthy carbohydrate-rich foods that we normally eat. Low carbohydrate foods can help to stave off the cravings for unhealthy foods too and can make the Atkins diet seem more interesting. But, to know the truth, you must just look at their labels to find out what all they can contain.

Experts recommend using these products as less as possible. In most cases, the low carbohydrate foods can cause cravings for carbohydrate foods, including sugars. This makes it more difficult for the person to remain on the Atkins diet. You must stop consuming the low carbohydrate foods if you find that they are making you desire carbohydrates to an increased extent. Also, these foods might have carbohydrate quantities in them which might actually cause a surge of carbohydrate levels in your body rather than reducing it.

Sometimes, people who fail with the Atkins routine are failing because they are consuming some foods that are not unprocessed and not unrefined. This can happen when people consume too many of those low carbohydrate foods. Eliminating these foods and concentrating on the natural foods will work much better. Permissible foods, i.e. the foods that are present on the Atkins food pyramid always work. Try being as natural in your food as possible, and stop yourself from succumbing to the temptation of the packaged foods.

Occasionally, you might need to depend on packaged foods because of the lack of time in a busy lifestyle. Packaged meats and vegetables have become a norm, and so have canned soups and bacons. But it is advisable to stick to raw and unprocessed foods as much as you can. You will see the great benefits of sticking to this plan in your overall health and weight loss efforts.

Weight loss plateau is the dreaded monster of any weight loss program. Experiencing weight loss plateau on an Atkins diet is a common issue. This s a stage that everyone goes through in almost all weight loss programs available in the market today.

To remedy this issue you have to first check out what is the weight loss plateau and how this situation is created so tat you can understand what happens during the stage called the weight loss plateau.

Weight Loss Plateau Secrets Revealed

It is common to experience a sudden drop in your weight over a period of time and ten to be without any loss at all in your weight after a certain period. This is called as the weight loss plateau, were your body appears to suddenly stop burning fat and losing weight, causing your weight to arrive at a stall. When this situation occurs over certain days or weeks this is called as the weight loss plateau.

What is Really Happening?

The weight loss plateau causes one to maintain the weight that you are currently at, irrespective of how hard you are trying to make it drop again. What is really happening here and how can you overcome weight loss plateau? The truth is, you may be actually burning fat of you are doing the right tings. The problem is your body is also replacing those fats lost with muscle weight which is much denser tan fats. So your body is actually being sculpted and becoming leaner but your weight scales will be higher or appears that you are not losing weight.

In reality your body is becoming more sculpted since those fast are being replaces with muscles! So it is not a good idea to measure your weight loss success merely by measuring the amount of weight you lose. It is far better to start measuring the inches you lose as that ios a far better indicator of your overall weight loss success tan by weighting alone.

How to Overcome

It is highly recommended that you measure your weight before you start your diet program. Measure your waist, arms and hips so you know when you are losing fat and when you need to make necessary adjustments to your Atkins diet.

Then check the progress once a week, just like what you are doing to your weight. Sometimes weight loss plateau can occur over a period of four weeks, so it is a good idea to start tracking the amount of inches lost before you decide tat ti is time to give up altogether and start binging again.

When it is Most Common

Weight loss plateau often occurs just when you are about to reach your final weight loss goals. If you have lost a lot of fat and gain dense muscles in the process, your body might start resisting the extra fat you are trying to lose. When this occurs, it is a good idea to stop and think about your overall goals. Is your body trying to tell you something? Maybe it is time to start maintaining weight instead of losing it.

Finding the real reasons

There are some valid reasons for a weight loss plateau that you need to check. Firstly, if you have been experiencing a weight loss plateau for more than four weeks, than start checking out the amount of carbohydrates you are eating. Are there any hidden carb in the food you consume? Perhaps you are dehydrating yourself. This will cause your body to start increasing its water retention and that can mimic a weight loss plateau.

Are you starving yourself?

If your body starts to be deprived of calories, then, you will experience a weight loss plateau. The emergency mode your body gets into will cause it to cling on to fat cells in an attempt to save to itself from starvation. Have a healthy helping from the permissible foods and do not start to count calories. This will backfire on your weight loss goals.

Most Effective Way

This is the recommended way to overcome weight loss plateau-exercise! Exercise burns off fat and gets your body burning those extra calories and fats far more effective tan dieting alone. If you want to see dramatic results in your Atkins program, then start an exercise program.

The basic premise of the Atkins diet is to make the average Americans eat healthier than what they normally eat in their diet. The main intention is to strike a healthy balance between proteins and carbohydrates. This is of course totally different from what Americans consume in their normal diets. There is quite sadly a surfeit of processed foods being consumed in the nation which have sugars present in them in various forms and carbohydrates that are processed to a high degree. Quite unsurprisingly then, the rates of diabetes and related conditions are spiraling in America. This is regardless of the fact that diabetes worsens in stages and can be easily identified at its onset.

When we speak about diabetes, one factor to be taken into account is the glycemic index. This is an index of carbohydrates taking into account the reactions they produce with insulin. If a carbohydrate has a high glycemic index, it will release a lot of insulin for metabolizing the sugars (producing high glucose amounts). Americaconsumes a lot of refined sugars which rank highly on the glycemic index.

When we are children, we can digest these carbohydrate foods easily, that is because the metabolism of the body is more efficient when the body is younger. Side-effects like weight gain and mood swings are too obscure in youth to be noticed to drastic levels. But as we advance in age, these effects make their presence felt in stronger ways. One clear-cut indicator of the side-effects happening with advancing age is the alarming rate at which Americans are becoming obese as they reach their middle age.

Obesity also causes insulin resistance. This is a dangerous situation, because when it happens, the person is not able to use the insulin for the proper elimination of glucose from the bloodstream. This also leads to excessive strain on the pancreas, due to which a lot of insulin might be discharged, sometimes scores of times of what the body actually needs. The obvious effect of this is the dipping of blood sugar to tragically low levels. The human body has a wonderful coordinating system, and that causes a surge of adrenaline release in the body to rectify this problem of low blood sugar.

As a person grows older, this relation between the blood sugar and insulin becomes more and more drastic. The hyperinsulinism, as it is called, is the precursor to type II diabetes. Symptoms of the condition are hypertension and high levels of fats in the body.

When people continue their high carbohydrate diets for a long time, they finally become diabetes. Insulin creates the fat in the body, and if the weight increases, it can lead to late onset diabetes. Diagnosis might reveal pre-diabetic conditions. These must be nipped in the bud, or they will lead to permanent and irrecoverable diabetes conditions.

The warning signs of incoming diabetes are easy to diagnose, though. They can be found out through an insulin test. When confirmed of a pre-diabetic condition, it is absolutely necessary to switch over to a low-carbohydrate diet like the Atkins diet. This helps to control the blood sugar immeasurably.

The Atkins diet contains a combination of essential carbohydrates with fats and proteins. They help to keep the body feel satiated and mitigate the frequent cravings for food. Also, reduced levels of carbohydrates will protect the body from the incessant insulin surges. The pancreas functioning remains normal and pre-diabetic conditions are avoided. The vicious cycle is cut off and the body blood sugar level remains at desirable levels. This is what the Atkins diet can do… it can protect you from the onslaught of a diabetic condition.

Everyone likes to have a little snack when not having a meal. In fact, there are people who sustain only on snacks throughout the day. The lifestyle has become such that we cannot avoid snacks. But, most of these snacks tend to be rich in carbohydrates. This is certainly not good for people who are on the Atkins program. It is important to have snacks to keep the blood sugar level optimum, but the snacking rules are different for people who are following the Atkins plan.

If a snack is sweet, it has too many carbohydrates, calories and zero nutritional value. These must be avoided, howsoever much tempting they might seem to be. Estimates by the Snack Food Association suggest that Americans consume 3.1 billion pounds of chocolate per year, and the overall sales of snack foods cumulate to over $30 billion dollars a year.

Carbohydrates are certainly the worst kinds of snacks, but they are also the most popular. Most of these are made from white flour, corn meal and use white sugar and corn syrup. These translate into high trans fats (which lead to atherosclerosis). Certainly, people conscious of their health can do without these snacks.

However, the situation is not so bleak for the Atkins program followers. There are some interesting snacking choices that can be used. The first thing you must do if you are on an Atkins diet is that you must get as much information as possible. You must check out what the ingredients of the snack foods are. If there are artificial flavors and preservatives and trans fats, do not consume them.

Do not stock snacks in your house. Out of sight is out of mind. It is a very unhealthy habit to stock snacks in the house, and that applies to everyone in the house, whether or not they are on the Atkins diet. Get rid of all the snacks in the larder and the refrigerator.

Then, substitute these unhealthy foods with healthier snacks, which are permissible on the Atkins diet. This will also keep you from becoming too hungry and stay on the plan in a healthier way.

Learn how to make some of the low carbohydrate snacks referring to the Atkins recipe books. It is easy to store cheese in various forms, and also pieces of meats. You can learn how to make some Atkins permissible snacks out of these.

Even most soups are allowed on the Atkins program. They are quite nutritious and very easy to make too. They can satisfy you if you want something hot to snack on. Use soy chips and celery if you are on a crunch craving. To add to the protein content of these snacks, you can add cream cheese or peanut butter, and even put in a few nuts.

These snacks work for all the stages of the Atkins diet, including the difficult induction phase. After that, you can incorporate more daring snack choices, like berries with cream and fruits that are acceptable on Dr. Atkins’ list.

The Ongoing Weight Loss (OWL) is the second phase of the Atkins diet, immediately following the induction phase. During this phase, you will find that the weight loss is decelerating by a marginal amount. This is an easier phase than the induction phase because during this phase, some select carbohydrates will be reintroduced into the diet. The weight loss will occur, but not as rapidly as in the induction phase. But the weight loss will be steady.

The OWL phase is the period when the body’s ability to metabolize the fats increases. Though there are some carbohydrates that will be reintroduced into the diet, the ketosis will still occur. The extra fats will be used to provide energy to the body and that will help to reduce the extra weight of the body.

Not only do you reenter carbohydrates into your diet during the OWL phase, but you will also learn to make some choices. There are some rules set up for the recipes that can be consumed during OWL, and that will permit you to have some delicious food. During this phase, you will make some better carbohydrate choices, replacing the poor ones you used to consume before.

One of the important things people learn when they are in the OWL phase is that they can consume some carbohydrates and still lose weight. This is what you will be doing; finding out the optimum level where your body can consume carbohydrates without gaining weight. During the induction, the allowable carbohydrate amount is 20 grams; during the OWL phase you will learn to gradually increase from that level.

The program following the OWL phase is the maintenance phase. This is when you continue the habits you inculcate during the OWL. The maintenance phase is what maintains the lifetime healthy condition in your body, but you need to understand that the OWL phase is the real test.

When you are in the OWL phase, most of your carbohydrates will be consumed through vegetables. It is certainly important to consume a variety of vegetables which is good for intestinal health apart from assisting in the weight loss. As the program continues, you can add to the amount of carbohydrates in the Atkins diet. Gradually, you will also be able to incorporate nuts, seeds and some berries. Despite all these additions, the main focus of the diet will still be on proteins.
It is not wrong to say that the induction phase is far simpler than other phases in the Atkins diet. Though a bit strict, it is easy to follow and you can actually see the weight loss occurring from your body. There is laxity in the OWL phase, but that means you will have to be more cautious about the number of carbohydrates you are taking in. You will have to make judicious choices of food or there could be a weight gain instead of a weight loss.

One of the important things you will need to do is to count the carbohydrate grams in your diet. Without measuring these, you might be introducing more carbohydrates into your body than necessary. There are many methods in which you can count your carbohydrates. You can do it through books that mention the amount of carbohydrates in each food. This is a method of learning; with time, you will know these counts by-heart.

Counting carbohydrates is a method of finding the optimal level of carbohydrates your body can take in. The first week of OWL sees an improvement of your carbohydrate level from 20 grams to 25 grams and later to 30 grams per day even. These can come through vegetables.
You will have to constantly monitor your weight. If your weight loss becomes too slow, you will have to lessen the amount of carbohydrates you take in. Investigate your own acceptable carbohydrate level this way.