Perhaps you’ve been overweight for a long time. Once there may have been a time when you could drop pounds pretty easily, if you sharply cut your caloric intake. You’d gain the weight back but, at least at the price of hunger, you could shed it again. Then, although your weight continued to yo-yo up and down, you began to notice that the yo-yo went up easily, but getting it to fall down again got harder and harder.
Now you may be simply unable to drop pounds. If you are at that stage, it means that you have a metabolic disorder and insulin has closed the trap. Because you have been eating too many refined carbohydrates, your pancreas (the organ that secretes insulin) has become so efficient that just a touch of blood sugar will release a flood of the hormone. Insulin is needed to transport glucose (blood sugar) to your cells, where it is either used for immediate energy, stored as a future source of energy or stored as fat. Your body only requires so much energy, so the higher your levels of insulin, the more fat is stored. In later stages of the metabolic disorder, it takes more and more insulin to transport glucose, which translates into more and more body fat. (For more on the connection of carbohydrates, insulin and excess weight, see The Path to Diabetes.)
To bring down your insulin levels and take control of your weight, you’re going to need the Atkins Nutritional Approach™. This three-pronged program includes a controlled carbohydrate eating plan, exercise and nutritional supplementation.
