Lately, I’ve had a few readers ask me, “What is Atkins 72?” Since
I use that term quite often, I thought maybe more of you might have the same
question.
Most people think of the book, Dr. Atkins’ New Diet
Revolution, whenever they talk about a low-carb diet. But that became quite
confusing over the years because every new edition Dr. Atkins put out carried
the same name, even though the diet had changed.
The basic principles of the Atkins program stayed fairly
consistent, but the Rules of Induction, food quantities and types, how you add
carbohydrates back into your diet, and even the way you count carbohydrates changed
– depending on which edition you were following.
That made it difficult to help someone who didn’t understand
how to do the Atkins Diet correctly, or to give advice when someone was
stumbling or had stalled. To make it easier, the low-carb community began using
the year the edition was published attached to Dr. Atkins’ name in order to
distinguish one plan from another:
- Atkins 72 is the version published in 1972
- Atkins 92 is the 1992 version
- Atkins 2002 was published in 2002
So What is Atkins 72?
Atkins 72 is the very first, original Atkins Diet. The name
of that book was, “Dr. Atkins’ Diet Revolution.” Later on, he re-titled it to “Dr.
Atkins’ Diet Revolution: The famous Vogue superdiet explained in full.” It came
from a diet he ran into while following the scientific literature about
carbohydrate restriction studied in the early 1960s.
Dr. Walter Bloom designed a diet to test the metabolic
changes that occurred on a no carb diet. He didn’t designed this diet to treat obesity.
It was simply a 3-day observation diet. It consisted of bacon and eggs, meat,
and salad.
Intrigued by Bloom’s discoveries that a no carb diet
eliminated hunger, Dr. Atkins decided to test that diet on himself. It worked
so well, that he began playing around with assorted no carb and low-carb foods,
and found that as long as he started from a zero carb diet, he could add 10 to
15 carbohydrates per day and still get into dietary ketosis easily.
To Bloom’s original diet, he added cheeses, cold cuts,
cottage cheese, and a ricotta cheese cheesecake he made with sugar substitute,
and flavored in a variety of ways.
Through trial and error, he also discovered that he could
return as many as 40 grams of carbohydrate to his diet, and stay hunger free while
continuing to lose weight, provided he added them back slowly enough – in 5 to
8 gram implements. That meant he could have vegetables, melon, strawberries
smothered in whipped cream, and even an occasional Scotch before dinner.
These self-experiments, a diet trial undertaken by 65
AT&T workers in 1964, and the personal experience of his overweight patients,
led to what officially became the Atkins Diet in 1972.
It was revolutionary because it took that beginning 3-day
diet of bacon, eggs, meat, and salad with oil and vinegar dressing, and taught
you how to evolve that humble, zero carb beginning into a diet that fit your
own personal carbohydrate tolerance and food sensitivities.
What Makes Atkins 72 Different?
In 1972, there was no low-carb products, no “net” carbs, and
no carbohydrate ladder to dictate the order in which you had to return
carbohydrates to your diet. Although Dr. Atkins recommended such forbidden
goodies as ham, spareribs, corned beef, and lobster with butter sauce, the
approach was extremely personal.
His recommendation? “One of the big reasons this diet works
so successfully is because you eat protein and fat. And you eat them in just
about the sixty to forty proportions in which they usually occur together in
nature: in a reasonably lean piece of beef for example.”
Dr. Atkins didn’t believe that dieting should be a hardship.
That’s why he spent literally years to find a way of eating than provided
almost effortless weight loss. He didn’t want to be hungry, and he didn’t want
to feel deprived. He wanted eating to be a pleasure because he knew that if you
enjoyed what you were eating, then you’d be more likely to stick with it.
The first week of Atkins 72 is basically carbohydrate free,
but you do get to eat salad with oil and vinegar dressings, Roquefort, Blue
Cheese, or even a little Ceasar because there’s so little carbohydrate in
lettuce that the body considers it biologically zero carb. However, those
salads are more like window dressings because they’re limited to a total of
less than 2 cups of loosely packed salad per day.
The beauty of Atkins 72 is its simplicity, but it also takes
you back to the very foundation of what a low-carb diet was meant to be and do.
Although the first week may feel rough if you’re used to eating tons of carbs
or vegetables, an Atkins 72 Induction only lasts for a single week. That’s as
long as it takes to get your body into Ketosis.
After that, Dr. Atkins recommends you begin to fine-tune
your diet to fit your individual tastes and lifestyle. Carbohydrate additions
are interchangeable and flexible. Although he later designed a carbohydrate
ladder, in the 70s there was no such restriction.
“I don’t impose that rigidity on my private patients, so why
should I do that to you? I am so committed to making this a livable lifetime
diet that I am letting you select your own variations, within the rules set up
by your biological rule book.”
Put Back What You’ve Missed Most
In 1972, Dr. Atkins believed strongly in the idea of
gradually returning to your diet what you missed the most. Because deprivation
and hunger are the two strongest reasons why diets fail. If the diet you create
isn’t livable for the rest of your life, you’ll never make it to the finish
line. That’s why Atkins’ strongly recommended you customize the diet to your
likes and lifestyle.
“All that matters is that you add back to your diet a little
carbohydrate at a time, and that you stop adding carbohydrate when you’ve
reached your CCL (Critical Carb Level)….Just keep track of the grams of the
grams of carbohydrate you’re adding to the basic diet per day – keep them under
eight – and take your choice.”
He didn’t care if that was grapefruit, peaches, tangerines,
sugar-free chewing gum, bread made with gluten flour or soy, nuts, vegetables,
sour cream, or alcohol. In fact, even though he had you carefully find your
daily carbohydrate allowance, you were even allowed to bend the rules by eating
slightly higher carb goodies in weekly allowances, if that’s what it took to
keep you on plan, and you were still losing weight comfortably.
No comments:
Post a Comment