How does a low-carb diet work?
The Atkins diet is based on Dr. Atkins’ theory that the over-consumption of carbohydrates is the root of most people’s problems with weight gain. The body is fueled by sugar, whether it is the natural sugar found in foods or the processed sugar added to many foods. When your body runs out of sugar to use as fuel, it uses carbohydrates instead. Carbohydrates are long chains of sugars, which the body breaks down into sugar. Atkins believes that when people limit the carbohydrates available, they force the body to use its fat reserves as fuel.

Atkins believes that our body adjusts to having too many carbohydrates in an unhealthy way by affecting our insulin responses, essentially a precursor of diabetes. On the low-carb-high-protein diet the body’s insulin response regulates itself, and the result is a smaller appetite and easier weight loss. An active lifestyle is also a key component of the Atkins diet, since no calories of any kind can be burned without exercise.

The Atkins Diet in stages
The Atkins diet progresses in stages. The basic stages are induction, ongoing weight loss, pre-maintenance, and maintenance.

The induction lasts for 14 days and involves rapid weight loss by limiting carb intake to only 20 grams a day, as compared to the 300 grams of carbs in the average daily diet. During this period, a person only consumes carbs through green vegetables and salad leaves. Fruit, other vegetables, yogurts, potatoes, rice, bread, alcohol and pasta are all forbidden.

During the ongoing weight loss stage, the carb intake is increased to 25 grams a day. After, the weight loss will eventually stabilize and the carb intake will need to be adjusted again. However, the Atkins diet does not eliminate meal variety. You can still indulge in lean meats, poultry, nut butters, salad greens and other such foods.

In the pre-maintenance stage, the weight loss is less obvious and certain foods are tested back into the diet to see if they can be safely added without causing weight gain. If you gain weight, however, you must go back a phase or two until you are stable again. This is because every person’s body reacts differently to different foods. Some people may do fine on Atkins with diet drinks, for example, while others bloat with the artificial sweeteners. Keeping a journal to record what you ate the week you lost the most weight can help monitor the foods that react well with your body.

The basics of the last stage of the Atkins diet, the maintenance stage, are simple. The goal weight is reached and one food is re-introduced into the diet at a time so that you can safely judge what foods will cause weight gain and need to be removed again. The Atkins diet primarily allows the consumption of plenty of meat, poultry, fish, and eggs, and gradually allows the consumption of additional vegetables and fruit as well.

The safety of the Atkins Diet
Some researchers believe that there are health risks that can result from following the Atkins diet. For example, certain experts say that the high protein diet leads to high cholesterol. Others advise that 150 grams of carbs daily are necessary for proper body and brain function. Weight loss experts feel that the Atkins diet is not for people with a risk of heart disease, and that the restriction of fruits and vegetables is counter-productive to good nutrition. They stress that all reduction of calories, coupled with exercise, results in the burning of fat.

There is very little doubt in the minds of most that adhering to the Atkins diet will help you to successfully lose weight. There are so many motivational stories today about people who have reached their weight loss goals by following the high-protein-low-carb diet that Dr. Atkins created and recommends. Those who have lost weight fast on the Atkins diet are pleased with the results and support the diet program. Your doctor can help you determine whether this diet program is indeed the best choice for your weight loss goals.

Since one of our least favorite holiday traditions is trying to find room for exercise in a busy schedule, here are 6 tips on how to continue to improve your body over the party season while getting a head start on your New Year’s fitness resolutions.

Step 1 – Train efficiently
Strength training is a very efficient type of exercise, giving you many benefits with a small amount of exercise. During the holiday season, you might be able to get the same benefits by reducing the number of sets per exercise in your workout from 3 to 1. That will help you maintain muscle and strength while significantly reducing your training time.

Interval training is another economical form of exercise. Rather than following up your strength training with 45 minutes on the treadmill, you can get the same (or better!) fat burning results from a much shorter period (20 minutes) of interval training.

Step 2 – Cut the junk
Men’s Fitness Training Adviser Alwyn Cosgrove suggests that we ask ourselves, “Will this help me or not? Is this a positive step or not?” So unless you can justify doing 3 exercises for triceps, then cut the junk from your workout and focus on efficient exercises only.

Step 3 – Warm-up as a workout
You don’t need to spend 10 minutes on the treadmill before you strength train. Instead, you need to prepare specifically for what you are about to do. If your walk to the gym is more than a couple of minutes, you can go right into specific warm-up sets for your strength training exercises.

Step 4 – Whole body vs. split routines
Don’t be a slave to doing chest and arms on Mondays. This eliminates any excuse to skip workouts when you deviate from your “weekly” schedule. Plan your holiday workouts to train either your entire body in one session or alternate between upper body and lower body workouts.

Step 5 – Train your abs with every exercise
The 15 minutes of sit-ups you do each day is a waste of time and is damaging to your lower back. Instead of wasting away on the floor, approach every exercise as an abdominal exercise. Brace your abs (like someone was about to punch you in the stomach) and never let your low back “round”. This body posture is especially important for exercises such as the abdominal plank, squats, push-ups, and all standing exercises.

Step 6 – Plan your workouts
In the spirit of the holidays, I’ve given you a lot of tips to improve your workout efficiency. Now the most important part is up to you to put them into action. So don’t go into the gym without a clue and end up on the cardio machine for an hour because you didn’t know where to start.

Each Turbulence Training workout follows an efficient and effective template to get in and out of the gym in under an hour. You can also choose to do a weights-only or intervals-only workout, therefore cutting even more time off of your trip to the gym.

Turbulence Training Template
5 minutes – 2 warm-up sets for key weight training exercises

15 minutes – Weights

20 minutes – Intervals

5 minutes – Stretch (tight muscles only)