Today’s article will look at the Keto diet vs Atkins diet. Which is better and safer? We shall do our best in comparing these two diets and trey to answer that question to the best of our ability.
These are two of the most popular diets on the market today and we were very curious not only how they stacked up against each other but if one was safer than the other. We recently wrote up an article on the keto diet here, and explain it well, but today, we’ll compare it to a seemingly similar plan: The Atkins diet.
So, in this article, we will look at what each diet is, how they compare to each other and the safety of both.
Contents
What is the Keto diet?
This diet is designed as high fat, low carb, and we mean very low carb. This diet is based on the Atkins diet.
When you eliminate carbs and replace them with good fat you create a metabolic state in the body called ketosis.
Once your body reaches the state of ketosis it becomes incredibly efficient at burning fat and using that fat for energy.
It also turns fat into ketones in your liver and this is what is called brain food as it supplies energy directly to the brain!
Another wonderful health benefit from this diet is lowered insulin and blood sugar levels, which can create great results in combating type 2 diabetes.
Four basic choices with this diet
- SKD or STandard Keto Diet
- CDK or Cyclical Keto Diet:
- TKD or Targeted keto Diet
- High Protein Keto Diet
While the choices are awesome only the standard and high protein diets are commonly used by most people and they have had extensive research with interesting results. The others are used basically by athletes and bodybuilders.
Health benefits of the Keto diet
Studies have proved that you will lose weight more quickly with fewer health risks than the low carb programs on the market today, and not only will your health risks be lower, you will see improvements in your health as doctors are now using this diet to treat:
Heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease, epilepsy, cancer, brain injuries, Parkinson’s disease, polycystic ovary syndrome, and even acne!
Losing weight on the Keto diet
Numerous studies have concluded that with this program you can lose up to 3 time the amount of weight in the same time period as other low carb programs and 2,2 times the amount of low-calorie diets without any calorie counting or food tracking.
There are also health benefits that include lowered sugar levels, increased Keytone levels and even improved insulin sensitivity.
Summary
This program surely has many benefits and though numerous studies have proven it is not only low-risk health-wise it will improve your overall health and is the choice of many doctors for numerous health issues!
Now let’s take a look at the Atkins Diet and then we will conclude by seeing how they compare!
What is the Atkins Diet
Doctor Robert C. Atkins created this diet and wrote a book introducing it to the world in 1972.
It is a low carb high-fat diet that lets you eat just about anything that falls into those categories and when first introduced it was deemed unhealthy due to the intake of high fat to lose weight.
After more than 20 controlled studies involving low carb high-fat programs, it is now considered if not the best way to lose and maintain weight loss it surely is at the top of the list.
While most people will not see any raised levels of bad LDL there are some people who will be affected by this so it is wise with any weight loss program to monitor your results.
How Atkins works
This is broken into 4 different phases
- Phase One: this is limited to 20 carbs a day and is what they call the kick start and consists of low carb veggies and high protein meats
- Phase Two: This phase slowly introduces some fruits and nuts and more low carb veggies.
- Phase Three: You can now see the results you are looking for and as you approach your target weight you can add more carbs until you level out.
- Phase Four: Here you can eat pretty much anything as long as you monitor your weight and if you start to put it back on you can go back to previous phases for maintenance.
Many people have modified this with great results as it can get pretty complicated keeping track of all the different phases.
Others stay in phase one indefinitely and this is called the Keto Diet.
Foods To Eat
Healthy fats such as avocados, coconut oil, extra virgin olive oil. Low carb veggies such as broccoli, spinach, asparagus and Kale
Meats such as pork, beef, chicken, bacon, and lamb. Eggs, nuts, and seeds, salmon, sardines, and trout are also recommended.
Food to avoid
As with any program, the really good tasting things that got us where we are today are not going to be allowed on these programs such as sugars, vegetable oils, diet, and low-fat foods.
Also not allowed are high carb fruits and vegetables, starches, trans fats, and grains.
As you can see with this diet many different foods are allowed and that is a good thing in our book but there are also many things we are used to eating that just are not allowed and it can get confusing at first.
Summary
This program does work, it backed by many different studies, and has a proven track record and is a great way to both lose and maintain weight loss in a healthy way that also benefits your health with most of the same claims as to the Keto diet.
Our Take
Both The Keto and the Atkins diets are healthy ways to lose and maintain weight loss and it is hard to say which one is better.
breaking it down it all depends on how much work you want to put in and how much food you want to give up.
The food choices are much wider with the Atkins but the health claims are better with the Keo and we are going to leave the final decision in your hands by giving both of these programs a huge thumbs up!
Thanks for checking out our article and happy dieting!