What you need to know before starting a low carb diet

In the last 12 months or so, low-carb diets have captured the hearts and weight-loss hopes of the American public. And why not? These diets promise rapid weight loss and the ability to continue eating fatty foods. If you love steak and eggs, this seems to be the best diet. However, before signing up, the low-carb diet takes a review. Is it really the right diet for you?

The premise of Atkins or any low carb diet is that carbs are the source of all of our weight loss problems. There is something real to the argument in that Americans have been eating excessive amounts of refined carbohydrates that have caused many of us to become insulin resistant as the body continues to wage war against repeated blood sugar spikes. blood caused by our bad eating habits.

The Atkins diet and other very low-carb diets bring your body out of a sugar-burning state by eliminating virtually all carbohydrates during an induction period that can last two weeks or more. The body will continue to burn sugar as a primary source of energy until it essentially dries up and then turns into burned fat. During the conversion, the dieter may feel tired, irritable, have headaches, or feel dizzy. Once you get past this incredibly difficult period, you can eat some carbohydrates, but generally no more than 60 grams per day. That’s like eating a bagel a day and then stopping. This is a difficult path to follow for a while.

In fact, a recent study showed that most adults who start a low-carb diet quit the diet within a year. It’s true that there is a lot of progress being made by Atkins and other food manufacturers to drastically reduce the amount of effective carbohydrates in some food offerings that could be classified as comfort foods (eg, muffins, brownies, yogurt, and more). This helps, but you can’t have much if you want to stay within the diet guidelines.

In addition to the loss of almost all traditional comfort foods, by cutting out carbohydrates, the diet also cuts out many foods that are good for us. Fruits and vegetables have fiber, vitamins, and phytonutrients that help us stay healthy. Limiting fiber while consuming lots of saturated fat is not the most heart-healthy diet.

The low-carb diet moves a person from a primary sugar-burning state to a fat-burning state. However, some literature makes it seem like you can’t burn fat any other way. The fact is that we are all burning some fat, we may just be adding more fat faster than we burn it. Modifying your diet to eliminate refined carbohydrates and focus on high-quality protein and good fats will gradually train your body to burn more fat and less sugar.

To their credit, the Atkins group has refined their dietary guidelines from their original stance of ‘eat all the fat you want’ to ‘eat moderate amounts of good fats’. Not only is this a heart-healthy step forward, but it’s also likely to help your weight loss efforts, as essential fatty acids (the good fats) can help you burn more fat. However, when you consider that carbs are already limited on this diet, I’m not sure what he eats except grilled chicken breast, fat-free cottage cheese, and egg-white omelettes. This effectively transforms the diet into a high-protein, low-calorie diet which, if turned low-calorie, will induce the body to slow down its metabolism.

But the one thing you need to know about why the Atkins diet produces significant weight loss in the first week is that it sends your body into ketosis. Without getting into technicalities, this is a bodily imbalance that causes your body to excrete toxins (ketones) through urine like crazy! What you are losing then is mostly water, not fat. In the long term, restricting carbohydrate intake to the levels recommended on Atkins and similar diets is overlooking the fact that your body needs carbohydrates to utilize the protein you eat. Therefore, like the low-calorie diet, this diet cannot help you gain or even maintain muscle mass if carbohydrates are not consumed at a higher than recommended level.

Finally, if you go off the low-carb diet, your body will immediately stop burning fat as its main source of fuel. Adding carbohydrates back into the diet will usually cause weight gain as the water weight loss returns within a few days.

If you are committed to fat loss success, then you cannot ignore the body’s need for sufficient levels of calories to prevent the body from slowing down its metabolism. You also need enough protein that your body can use for a well-shaped figure (this applies to both men and women), youthful skin, and beautiful hair. Stick to fruits and vegetables, allow yourself a serving or two of whole-grain bread or pasta, focus on high-quality protein and good fats, get calcium from low-fat dairy products like yogurt, and your body will respond with a slow, steady, steady rhythm. . healthy weight loss.

Here’s to your health and weight loss success!

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