A lot of people have lost a lot of weight on the Atkins Diet. However, there are still plenty of questions surrounding this popular diet plan. One of the questions people have is how long you should stay on the Atkins Diet. The typical amount of time is somewhere between six months and a year, but some do not last that long, while others stay on it on a long-term basis.
But how long others stay on the diet is not as important as how long you should stay on it. Therefore, a good starting point is to consider what your specific weight loss and dietary goals are. If you want to reset how your body digests food and burns calories, then you may want to stay on Atkins longer. On the other hand, if you're just trying to lose a few pounds, then you may consider going off the diet once your goal is reached (but be careful that you do not gain all of your weight back).
Let's be honest, though, a lot of people have a hard time sticking to the Atkins Diet. This is usually due to food cravings. While you can generally eat all the fish, meat and eggs you want, the diet places severe restrictions on carbohydrates; especially in the earliest stages of the program. So, while you may enjoy being able to eat tons of bacon or fried fish, the novelty soon wears off and you start missing simple things like bread.
Sticking to any diet is a very hard thing for most people. However, the Atkins Diet can be particularly troublesome. The problem is that they think they can do the diet for a couple weeks, lose some weight and then return to their normal eating habits. This is not the case. Sure, they may drop a few pounds, but if they go off the diet too soon they will not only get back the weight they lost, but may also gain more. This can be very discouraging, and some people are quick to say that the Atkins Diet does not work, when in reality it was not sticking to the diet that made it not work. That would not be so bad, but too many people then give up on diets all together.
One of the things that makes the Atkins Diet different is that it is comprised of four stages. You have to follow each stage precisely and you can not skip ahead. The tricky part is that the first stage is often the hardest, as it removes all but 12 grams of carbohydrates from your daily diet. This leads some people to have cravings, lack of concentration or not feeling well. In other words, the temptation to give up is often at its strongest in the first phase of the diet.
The good news is that each phase allows you to have more carbs, and it gets easier and easier to stick to. The question of how long you should stay on the Atkins Diet is best answered by saying "as long as you can." That's because there is a maintenance phase that is designed to be something you can keep doing. Of course, be sure to check with your personal doctor before starting any new diet.
