About the Atkins Diet and Great Atkins Recipes

The Atkins diet is divided into 9 “rungs” of steps back to eating carbohydrates. Races are added in one week at a time during the “Continuous Weight Loss” stage or “OWL” stage. This stage is designed to allow each person to find their critical carbohydrate level to lose and to teach the dieter to eat these foods within reason, manage their glycemic levels, and control cravings. This phase begins when a person is within 10 pounds of their goal weight. The rungs must be reached in order, but the rungs can be skipped if you don’t intend to include that food in your diet permanently, such as the alcohol rung. The overall goal is to add 5 net grams of carbohydrate each week to your daily carbohydrate intake. Each run adds 5 more net grams to your daily intake, so at the bottom of the ladder you’ll have 45 more net grams of carbs than you started with.

The first step is to add more palatable vegetables in larger amounts to your diet. This can be as simple as eating more salad or adding more cooked vegetables as side dishes to your regular Atkins meals. Please note that you are still limited to the introduction of approved vegetables. The next race is fresh cheese or fresh dairy. Add more milk, yogurt, and other dairy products to your diet while following a more regimented plan. Some of the dairy options include hard cheese, cream, half half, sour cream, and low carb ice cream, yogurt, and milk. The third rung is nuts and seeds. Add almonds, walnuts, sunflower seeds, etc. It adds healthy fats and nutrients to your meal and is easy to incorporate into a low-carb diet. Top cooked vegetables or salads with nuts or eat them as an easy snack. You can find many great Atkins recipes for the new phases of your diet, with options to include dairy, seeds, nuts, and more vegetables.

Berries are the fourth rung and include all kinds of berries like blackberries, strawberries, and raspberries. Some limited quantities of melons are also allowed. AGR melons are allowed, including watermelon, honeydew, and cantaloupe. The fifth rung is alcohol and includes low-carb beer, white and red wine, and spirits. Spirits are carb-free, but low-carb beer and wine are, so choose wisely and keep portions limited. It’s also important to remember that your body burns alcohol before fat so you can delay your weight loss by drinking too much, if you notice this hold off until you’re back to normal.

After the alcohol you arrive at the vegetable step. The sixth rung allows you to add lots of beans, hummus and chickpeas, tofu, and other soy products. At this point, it’s important to make a note of eating higher AGR foods and make sure you don’t eat them alone because of their effect on your blood sugar. Be sure to eat them with foods high in fat and fiber to minimize the effects on blood sugar. Adding vegetables to your diet is easy if you know the right Atkins diet recipes to follow, its new rungs allow you to incorporate a wider variety of tastes and flavors. Step 7 allows you to add more fruits, in addition to the berries and melons on Step 4. Kiwi, apples, citrus, and peaches are some of your fruit choices. Continue to avoid dried fruits because they can be very sugar-dense and in one small piece you can consume as many carbohydrates as a whole fruit.

Starchy vegetables are next and include carrots, squash, and green peas. Corn and potatoes can be added as occasional treats. Remember to keep your servings of starchy vegetables small. Finally, the ninth rung on the ladder is the whole grain rung. Be sure to keep your whole and unprocessed grains in small portions. You can eat oatmeal, wheat bran, low carb breads and rolls, cooked barley, and a few other whole grain options.

Runs of the Atkins diet are designed to bring you back to a more normal eating plan, slowly reintroducing more common foods with higher amounts of carbohydrates. It is important that you continue to count your net carbs and keep them within your dietary parameters to maintain your weight loss and keep your body at its new healthy weight.