As recommended by the USDA, an adult should consume between 4-8 servings of carbohydrates a day, depending on their age and gender. However, according to the Atkins Diet Foundation, there’s a bit of confusion as to how many carbs that actually is and the average person’s ability to determine it.

But is this even important? According to Atkins, the answer is yes.

The food and diet company – founded by Dr. Robert C. Atkins in 1972 - did some research recently to determine how Americans perceived carbohydrates, including how many carbs they were eating throughout the day and how often they considered the contents of their meals. They were hoping to clear up what they’re refering to as ‘carb confusion.’

The study concluded that Americans typically don’t monitor the food on their plates – as shown below – with six in 10 reporting they didn’t know how many carbohydrates they eat on a daily basis. Findings revealed that:
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The Atkins Diet has been around for more than 30 years and maintains a strong following. On the diet you’ll adopt a lifestyle of eating that is low in carbohydrates and high in protein and vegetables. While always available via books, now those who want to try the program can have free access to the Atkins Community.

The Atkins Community is a web site that allows you to customize your meal plans, set your weight loss goals, calculate your current BMI, and communicate with other dieters. Those who sign up can also receive a free copy of the book The New Atkins for a New You. The program, along with the free access to the web site, gives access to some extra support while you work towards your weight loss goals. There are still four stages to the Atkins weight loss program, but there have been some changes made so that it is healthier, more simplified, and with more emphasis on maintenance.
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This is the story of Amber, a woman who didn’t take care of herself until she had an awakening while taking care of others.

Amber’s struggles with her weight were spawned from a teenage fight with chronic asthma. Before then, she was at an average weight. But through a combination of medications that caused weight gain and a spiraling depression, she began to put on the pounds – 100 pounds throughout her high school years to be exact.

The depression worsened as she dealt with the senseless cruelty that teenagers are capable of inflicting on people who are different than the ideal. Amber’s asthma made any hopes of turning things around even more difficult since she couldn’t participate in school sports or other activities.

Unfortunately, activities could not be avoided during gym class, when Amber was forced to run the track. She struggled as kids teased her. She even felt little support from her gym teachers, who she thought looked down on her as lazy.

While Amber continued to struggle with her weight after high school, things did get a little better. She met and married a very supportive husband, and the couple had a daughter together.

But the respite was short-lived, as Amber gained more weight after having her daughter and she fell further into the depths of depression. What made matters worse is she picked up smoking, not caring whether she lived or died.

Then hope arrived unexpectedly in the form of a job as a nursing assistant for a hospice agency. Taking care of terminally ill patients gave new meaning to Amber’s life, as she began to realize a purpose.

“These people needed me and I was able to provide comfort and love to them and their family,” Amber told us. “It was a wonderfully rewarding feeling. The feeling of gratefulness that people had for me started to make me appreciate myself.”
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The Atkins Diet, introduced nearly forty years ago, has been credited for beginning the now popular low-carb revolution. Though buzz about low-carb diets had quieted over the past several years,  the Atkins Diet remains a popular way for people to lose weight by eating fewer high carbohydrate foods and more high fiber vegetables.

Newer to the scene is the South Beach Diet, which is less prohibitive than the Atkins Diet and restricts saturated fats, which have been associated with health problems such as heart disease and high cholesterol.

For the purposes of this comparison I am using Dr. Atkin’s New Diet Revolution, the last book actually written by Dr. Robert Atkins before his death and The South Beach Diet Supercharged: Faster Weight Loss and Better Health For Life.

Cost

Both of these books are available online and in stores for less than $20.00. Both the Atkins Diet and South Beach Diet have websites that offer free tools to help dieters count carbohydrates, set goals and encourage other members of the diet community. Both diets offer various packaged foods you can buy at the grocery store that help users stay on track which can increase the cost of the diet for individuals.

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U.S. News and World Report is famous (and in some cases infamous) for ranking products, institutions and services of all kinds, be it cars, colleges or diets. Yesterday, they released diet rankings in a number of categories, most notably the best commercial diets and the best diets for weight loss. They also created a list for both the best diabetic diets and the best heart-healthy diets, and a list of best overall diets.

U.S. News reports that they spent six month researching diets, and then had a panel of 22 health experts score the diet on seven different criteria. The diet was judged on its nutritional completeness, its safety, its ability to prevent or manage diabetes, its ability to prevent or manage heart disease, short-term weight loss, long-term weight loss and how easy it is to follow.

It’s little surprise to us that Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig topped both lists, as multiple studies have shown these two diets to be effective. Below are the top eight diets from the best commercial diets and the best diets for weight loss.

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