One of the big stories in the weight loss world is the recent acceptance of the Atkins Diet by an increasing number of recognized researchers in the medical field.

This is a remarkable turn of events. For nearly thirty years Dr. Atkins has been described as a fraud, charlatan and quack by the medical establishment. The American Medical Association described Atkins low carbohydrate diet as a "bizarre regimen".

One problem with the Atkins diet, according to some critics, is its period of "extreme carbohydrate restriction"...under 30 grams daily during the first two weeks. Dr. Atkins calls this the "induction period", during which the body switches from burning carbohydrates to utilizing fat and protein as the primary fuel. This causes the body to switch to burning stored fat from our belly, hips and other unwanted places.

Insulin, a natural hormone, plays an important role in converting carbohydrates into fuel and fat. After you eat carbs, they are broken down into sugar molecules and transported into the bloodstream. Your pancreas then secretes insulin, which sends the blood sugar into muscles and the liver as fuel.

Think of insulin as a switch. When it's on you burn carbohydrates for energy and store excess calories as fat. When it's off, after the insulin has been depleted, you burn fat as fuel. So when insulin levels are low, you will burn your own fat, but not when they're high. The Atkins diet and South Beach Diet are based on this principle.

New research confirms the effectiveness of the Atkins Diet and South Beach Diet approaches. The results of several scientific studies are remarkably consistent. Subjects on some form of the Atkins plan lost twice as much weight as those on the low-fat, low-calorie diets. In all five studies, cholesterol levels improved similarly with both diets, but triglyceride levels were considerably lower with the Atkins Diet.

The low fat diet hypothesis has failed the test of time according to Walter Willett, chairman of the department of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health. Dr Willett is the spokesman of the longest-running and most comprehensive diet and health studies ever performed. Those data, says Willett, "clearly contradict the low-fat-is-good-health message and the idea that all fat is bad for you."