The atkins diet is based on the premise that people eat too many carbohydrates and this leads them to be overweight. There is only part truth to the preceding statement; if energy intake (rather than just carbohydrate intake) is more than energy expenditure you may become overweight. In actually, anytime you eat more calories than you burn, whether they be carbohydrate, protein, or fat, you will gain weight. Atkins idea is that we can only burn fat once the carbohydrate is used up. In order to preserve body tissue (protein), carbohydrate is initially the major means of energy for the body. Once the stored carbohydrate is used up, we can than begin to break down the fat. The idea is that our bodies burn carbohydrate first, and than can begin burning fat. By considerably reducing the carbohydrate content in the diet and replacing it with protein and fat, Atkins claims that we can begin burning fat more efficiently. The truth is that anytime calories are restricted or decreased you will lose weight.