Come the 2nd of January many people will be starting their annual diets, no more chocolate, crisps, nuts or the dreaded Christmas pudding. However many will fail within the first week and even more within the first month. Many people simply don’t understand the diet that they are going onto and in the end, set their goals too high, this ends up in failure.

Therefore choosing the right diet can be just as important as actually carrying it through!

Over the next few weeks we at Weight-loss-Now will be giving you our experience of different diets, hopeful giving you a better understanding of their good and bad points.

The Atkins Diet or the Atkins Nutritional Approach first arrived in Britain in 1972 by an American Dr Robert Atkins; the thinking behind this diet is to cut or limit the amount of Carbohydrates that the body takes in.

This is a high protein, high fat diet which will suit any meat lover.

However it has come in for some bad press over the years due to the amount of fat and protein that the body has to absorb, some people say that it is unhealthy and dangerous as your body in not getting enough of the carbohydrates it requires to function properly and you may find it harder to concentrate and focus properly and may cause constipation and mood swings. This diet has not been around that long so no long term studies into any dangers are conclusive yet.

How does the Atkins diet work?

Our bodies need energy to do everyday tasks from breathing to taking a shower as we are doing a task our bodies are gathering energy from carbohydrates and fat, the carbohydrates are the first to be burnt as energy so the fat has nowhere to go (well we all know where it goes), so the thinking of Dr Robert Atkins is to drastically cut down on the carbohydrates and burn the fat first.

This diet does work and in the first couple of weeks people are expected to lose as much as 10 pounds per week.

I personally like this diet, I have used it and lost nearly two stone in the past, if you love eating fish, chicken and the odd fried breakfast then you will enjoy this diet.

As with all diets it is recommended that you speak to your GP before attempting any food cut down.