Are you one of those people who feel you’ve tried everything to lose weight?
Low fat? Extreme calorie cutting? Counting points, juicing, fasting, cabbage soup… you’ve probably tried everything. And despite all your best efforts, those extra pounds stubbornly refuse to budge? Meanwhile, everyone around you, maybe even your doctor, says the reason you’re overweight is because you eat too much? It sounds so simple! But it is a well-documented fact that people who are significantly overweight may also have metabolic disorders, which not only cause weight gain, but also make it very difficult to lose the weight.
The United States is facing an obesity epidemic, and but there’s a misconception that overweight people just simply eat too much and are lazy couch potatoes, when they may in fact have a metabolic resistance to weight loss. Add in the use of prescription drugs or hormones that inhibit weight loss, excessive insulin and insulin resistance, plus high triglycerides, and it’s a recipe for disaster.
Fortunately, numerous studies show that a low-carb diet can help overweight people with excessive insulin output (hyperinsulinism) or insulin resistance lose weight and decrease or even eliminate metabolic resistance to weight loss and the associated health risks. Even if you’ve never lost weight on a 1,000-calorie-a-day low-fat diet, it’s quite possible you can lose weight with a 1,800- to 2,000-calorie-a-day plan—if you cut your carbs to 20 to 40 grams of Net Carbs a day.
Now, not everyone will lose weight this way, but there are still more options. Dr. Atkins and his practitioners discovered that certain vitanutrients could help break past the remaining barriers to weight loss. The leading nutrient in the final weight loss battle is L-carnitine, which is an amino acid that plays a role in fat metabolism—it helps convert fat to fuel. When carnitine is deficient, the conversion of burned fat to ketones is impaired. Often, more effective responses occur with the use of acetyl carnitine, a compound that helps focus the carnitine action.
You may also need to supplement with co-enzyme Q10 (CoQ10), another vital nutrient necessary for fat to convert to fuel. Both CoQ10 and carnitine are extremely valuable for other reasons, such as preserving heart health. Other nutrients that might jumpstart slow weight loss include chromium, alpha-lipoic acid, glutamine and the combinations of inositol, choline and methionine. Your best bet? Find a doctor who has experience with these vitanutrients, and can advise you on how to supplement with them while following Atkins 20™ or Atkins 40 . .
If you have a metabolic resistance to weight loss, it will take patience and time, but with the combination of Atkins’ low-carb diet plan and possibly supplementing with vitanutrients that help convert fat to fuel, most likely you will see positive results. In fat, research shows that even losing just 5% to 10% of your body weight offers major health benefits!