The Adkins diet has been hot for a long time. Each day people are choosing it as their weight loss process and every day people reduce weight because of it. Some people stick to it casually by trying to drop most carbohydrates and sugar from their food and drink, while others follow the plan the way it was meant to be followed.

The Adkins diet plan has 4 steps. These phases include induction, ongoing weight loss, pre-maintenance, and lifetime maintenance. The amount of carbohydrates and food that you can eat changes with each phase. Let’s have a detailed look at how the phases of the low carb diet plans function.

Induction is the initial phase of the Adkins diet. During induction you’re only permitted 20 grams of Net Carbs everyday. Food selection is incredibly limited to largely protein, salad greens, and non-starchy vegetables. In this phase, your body cleanses from all of the sugar and protein that it’s used to. Some people say they gain improved energy through this phase, while others state fatigue while the body adjusts to switching from carbohydrate burning to fat burning.

The next phase is continuing weight loss, also called as OWL. During OWL you raise your carbohydrate usage by reintroducing a larger selection of foods back into your diet. Each week you’ll steadily increase the amount of carbohydrates that you eat until your weight loss stops. At that moment, you’ll cut back 5 grams of carbohydrates and stick to that many carbohydrates per day for the remaining period of your OWL phase. Though changing from induction to OWL will decrease the speed at which you drop weight, you will still see steady weight loss from week to week. OWL is simpler to follow due to including more food varieties.

When you are not more than 5 to 10 pounds away from your weight loss goal, you’ll move to pre-maintenance step. With this phase you’ll include an additional 10 grams of carbs back to your food intake weekly until your weight loss almost plateaus. You still want to be losing weight at this point, but the weight you lose will be extremely slow and almost unperceivable. Like with the previous phase, you’ll be reintroducing more food choices to your diet. By switching over to this phase, you will lose your final 5 to 10 pounds very slowly while also training your body for the next and concluding stage, the way you’ll be eating for the rest of your living to retain your weight.

The final phase of the Adkins diet is lifetime maintenance. Your food intake doesn’t change much from phase three to phase four. Lifetime maintenance phase remains a low carb diet, though less restrictive than in the beginning, it’s still a low carb diet and you will have to adhere to it for the rest of your life to maintain your weight loss by means of Adkins.

For some people, the Adkins diet is a perfect way to lose weight. For others, it’s misery. If you can stick to the four phase plan you will definitely see results. Sticking to it, like any diet, is the toughest part though.