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A very common, and surprising effects of following the Atkins diet is the suppression of appetite. A lot of the followers of the plan report that the inter meal hunger pangs they used to have just fade away and very rapidly too. This factor makes it easier to remain on the diet and keep to lose weight. While other diets leave their followers starving between meals, the Atkins diet offers relief from constant hunger. The Atkins diet, with its specific recommendation of foods and ingredients, has powerful appetite suppressing qualities.

The main component is the quantity of protein in the Atkins diet. Protein, much more so than carbohydrates, has the capability to satiate hunger pangs. If you have ever eaten a carbohydrate dense meal and then felt hungry again shortly afterwards, you already know that carbohydrates do not have much lasting effect as a hunger satisfier. Protein, on the other hand, when it is combined with a small amount of healthy fats, can keep you feeling full for much longer periods of time.

One of the most powerful appetite suppressing foods in the Atkins diet is the simple egg. Eggs are a marvellous form of quick and easy protein. A recent report showed that having eggs for breakfast would actually keep hunger pangs at bay throughout the rest of the day. The study concerned two groups of women. One group ate only eggs for breakfast and the other had a breakfast of bagels and cream cheese.

The calorie count for both breakfasts was precisely the same. The participants kept track of what they ate for the rest of the day and answered questions about their hunger levels and satisfaction levels throughout the day. The results of the study showed that the women who ate the eggs for breakfast felt more satisfied throughout the entire day and they ate less at each meal than those women who were in the bread group.

Eggs contain about 6 grammes of protein each, which helps to even out blood sugar and produces a feeling of satisfaction. Both of these factors help to curb cravings. Egg yolks also contain lutein and xenazanthin. These nutrients have been shown to have amazing effects on eye health. So it’s important to eat the whole egg, and not just the white. Eggs contain choline which is important for maintaining brain function and memory. These nutrients are just an added benefit to the appetite suppressing qualities.

Broccoli and cauliflower, two of the most suitable vegetables on the Atkins programme, also have appetite-suppressing effects. These vegetables are very bulky and they help make your stomach feel full. When your stomach feels full, it will actually create a chemical signal in your brain. Your body will reduce its appetite because it assumes that your stomach is full of high calorie foods. This happens regardless of what is actually in your stomach. You can get the same results with water and psyllium husk fiber. Both broccoli and cauliflower provide bulk in your diet and are essential vegetables on the Atkins plan.

The Atkins diet recommends eating small, protein balanced meals a few times a day. This will help maintain your blood sugar level in a stabilized state and avoid carbohydrate-induced cravings. With high carbohydrate diets, you are riding a roller-coaster of carbohydrate highs. After you have eaten, you feel fantastic and full. Then after a few hours, you come crashing down and are hungrier than you were previous to eating the carbohydrates. This cycle continues ad infinitum and, over time, you will eat more and more and eventually gain weight.

The protein, fat and vegetable recipes provided by the Atkins plan put your blood sugar back in balance. They give you just enough of each sort of food, with the correct amount of carbohydrates (from the vegetables). The vegetables provide quick carbohydrate energy, and the protein gives the meal its staying power. This combination suppresses your appetite effectively throughout the day.

The Atkins diet is actually a craving control diet that helps suppress your appetite. If you’ve had a problem with carbohydrate cravings before, this new way of eating will help regulate those cravings. The more you eat on the plan, the better your cravings will be controlled and the easier it will be to follow the diet. Really, the longer you follow the plan, the more it works and the easier following the diet gets.

I read my first Atkins Diet book when I was working in an office in Barry, south Wales. I had been working there for about five years and had put on a lot of excess weight. I had never enjoyed taking part in sport, but my previously, I had worked on building sites, which meant a fair bit of physical activity ” enough anyway to keep me in decent shape. After five years on the office computer, I weighed 18 stone 12 pounds (264 lbs or 120 kg), three stone more than I had before and neither I nor my GP were happy about it.

One day a representative of some accounting firm came in for a scheduled appointment, and, while we were awaiting the other directors, we got to talking about working in an office and its tendency to make one put on a stone or two. He said that he had had the same problem before this new, more mobile, job that he had and that now he made sure he got out of the office regularly and walked everywhere he could, time permitting. He also said that he’d read an interesting book on dieting while on holiday in the United States and that he would send me a copy when he got back to his home town. I didn’t think anything more of it and never saw the man again. I think his name was Mr. Blackwell.

One day the book arrived out of the blue, but it remained on my desk unread for months and months, until one day, I had a dentist’s appointment. I had forgotten to take a book to work to read while I was waiting ” something I nearly always did/do because the magazines are always so old and boring. Anyway, I read 50 or so pages that day and I was really impressed. I had never been on a ‘proper’ diet before and I thought I should give it a a go. I had stopped eating pastry, cakes and chocolate months ago, but it hadn’t had much effect and my weight was still on the up, albeit slightly more slowly.

It occurred to me that the Atkins diet was a ‘thinking person’s’ diet There is a vast amount of scope for individual tastes and lifestyles and the usual problem of self-discipline did not seem to be much of a problem because for that reason. The book warned of addictions and fads and how best to overcome or prevent them. These did not seem to be an issue for me either - I liked coffee, but could take it or leave it and I had already given up chocolate. I knew that maybe beer and bread would be my biggest problem.

The only ‘must do’ in the seven-day induction phase is to eat not more than 20 gram of carbohydrate per day. The book had a clear list of almost all foods and their carbohydrate content. I found it really easy. In fact, I started eating in a more healthy manner in the induction stage than I had been eating before it! I bought a tub of Ketone sticks from the local chemist to check whether the Atkins Diet was working and found that I was in ketosis on the third day. It was very satisfying to know that now I would be losing weight whatever I did and wherever I was every minute of the day!

I gave up bread (and Guinness!) for a fortnight and felt great. I actually felt ’springy’ or ‘bouncy’ like a boxer in the ring before a fight. I had no trouble whatsoever staying within the 20 gram limit, although I did miss fruit more than I’d expected or some fruits anyway. But I found ways to make up for everything. There are many, many recipes and recommendations in the book so I won’t go into them here, but I started eating breakfast before I went to work and dinner in the evenings. I really took great care and attention over preparing lunch for work the next day, usually consisting of a salad, some cheese and various nuts to snack on. You can eat a few strawberries too. In the evening, I would cook up something like a curry (no flour) eating it with green beans instead of rice; or a traditional British meal without potatoes followed by cheese and strawberries and cream. I lost 18 pounds in two weeks and felt really great.

Some people have to try to make your life miserable, if you let them. It was obvious to everyone that I looked and felt better, but some people just have to try to spoil it. I was told: lots of people have died of kidney or liver failure after being on Atkins I read it in the newspaper; you will have a heart attack, it’s not natural; your cholesterol will climb sky high and you will need your toes amputated or you will have a stroke; it will affect your eyesight. All sorts of rubbish. So, I went to see my GP, who admitted that he did not know anything about the Atkins diet, but he also added that he had heard nothing bad about it either. He sent me for a series of tests at the hospital and the results were all satisfactory. He was happy that I’d lost 18 lbs and so was I. Six weeks later, I went for another cholesterol check-up, because of the high fat levels in the diet and, although my cholesterol level was up very slightly, the doctor said there was no cause for concern at all.

The Atkins diet book warns that you might develop bad breath (halitosis). I don’t know whether I did or not - no-one said anything, but I started brushing my teeth four-five times a day just in case. I guess that’s another benefit of following the Atkins diet: increased oral hygiene. It also warns of constipation. I didn’t get that either, although I didn’t give up black coffee, which has always had a laxative effect on me. But surely you can’t suffer from constipation if you’re allowed to eat well over 1lb of greens a day? I hadn’t been eating that well before the diet! So my two main concerns were nebulous.

After a couple of weeks I was getting bored. Not with the diet, but because I’m single and am used to going to the pub (and drinking beer). So, I decided to treat this scientifically. One day, after work, I had three pints of Guinness and felt great. Before the diet, I would have drunk five or six to feel the same. To my delight, the next morning the ketone sticks told me that I was still ‘on the diet’. Over the following weeks, I thoroughly enjoyed checking out what would ‘work’ and what would not. I found that cider is a complete no-no. Some beers and some lagers are OK. Red and white wine are OK. Consuming alcohol does not knock you off the diet, but it slows your rate of progress. But even slow progress is progress, I say. Better than giving up the diet.

Be very wary of people encouraging you to ‘just try a little bit’. They don’t understand or don’t want to understand the trouble they’re causing you. Your body can hold two days worth of carbohydrates. One chocolate, one slice of bread, a bowl of cornflakes or one sugar in your coffee will cost you TWO days to put right. Don’t let them do it to you. This is not a diet for the weekends, in fact I think that it probably could be dangerous to keep ‘falling off the wagon’, because of the high fat content of the diet, which is not dangerous if you stick to it, because you body devours fat and cholesterol in the absence of carbohydrates.

The story ends at this pont, with me having got down to under 16 stone and keeping it there, until very recently when I moved to the Far East to live. Once I get used to the food and have my own house and own kitchen, I will get down to 15 stone, I’m sure I will ” with very little effort.

Well, there you have it … My grateful thanks to you, Mr. Blackwell, wherever you are these days, you changed my life and my understanding of food and drink with that book and thank you, Mr. Atkins too.