Best Low Carb Diet

Poll

	|   |

Author:
Michael Harris

A low carb diet, as the name implies, is a diet that is low in carbohydrates (bread, rice, sugar, especially the refined variety) and high (or rather adequate) in fats and proteins (meat, eggs, cheese, butter, nuts, etc.). A number of variations of the diet exist (most well known, Dr. Atkins Diet), but the one thing that is common to all is the drastic cutback on the intake of carbohydrates in the diet plan.

Most of these plans substitute the outgoing carbohydrates with fats and proteins. Although different types of these diets may vary in the recommended intake of carbohydrates, fats and proteins, as a general rule a low carb diet is tantamount to a high-fat and moderate protein diet.

In a low carb diet at least 60–70% of the daily calorie intake must come from fats, contrary to a normal diet where a major portion of the calories comes from carbohydrates. The carbohydrate calories should not constitute more than 5–10% of the daily calorie intake. The remaining 20–30% calories can come from proteins.

Why a low carb diet?

How often have you come across overweight people feeling frustrated at not being able to lose an inch of the stubborn abdominal fat in spite of exercising and in spite of being on the traditionally recommended low fat, high carb diet for months? Too often to even remember! The reason, obviously, has to lie in the wrong approach to attack the problem underlying excess weight and excess inches.

Scientific research has shown that dietary fat is not necessarily converted into body fat, whereas carbohydrates readily convert into fat by the action of insulin – a hormone produced by pancreas in response to elevated sugar levels in the blood (as caused by carbohydrates) to allow blood sugar to be used by cells.

However, insulin also aids in fat deposition and stimulates the brain to produce hunger pangs. The vicious cycle of more carbohydrates, more and more insulin repeats, resulting in cells becoming insulin-resistant with time. Consequently, excess sugar either stays in the blood (causing diabetes) or starts converting to fat (causing obesity) instead of being used up by cells to produce energy, leading to obesity, fatigue and lethargy.

Benefits of a low carb diet

A low carb diet helps prevent hyperinsulinemia (i.e., elevated insulin levels in the blood) and increases the level of glucagon, a pancreatic hormone that reverses the action of insulin, stabilizes blood sugar levels, and helps burn fat to energy and remove cholesterol deposits from arteries.

And because the body gets into the fat-burning mode, sustained weight and inch loss occurs, accompanied by lowered blood pressure, better lipid profile and raised energy levels.

Due to the consumption of fats and oils, the appetite and hunger pangs stay in control, because fatty foods are more satisfying and take longer to digest. And since limited amounts of complex carbohydrates do accompany the fats (obviously, the healthy types), the body metabolism does not switch to starvation mode. A vitamin–mineral supplement and a fiber supplement may be added if necessary.

Once the body chemistry is back to normal and the excess weight knocked off, complex carbohydrates and some vegetables/fruits can be added to the diet. But if one does not want to go back to the earlier state, one has to kiss goodbye the white bread, pastries, cakes, ice creams and things like that, except for an occasional binge.

About the Author :

Michael J. Harris is an avid weight lifter who uses a low carb diet plan as part of his overall fitness routine. For more info visit Low Carb Diet Tips


Article Source: www.iSnare.com

A Quick Note From The Publisher... If you like the article above, you may be interested in the following article which is also related to Popular Diet... Low Carb Diets - What Are They and How Do They Work ? Low carbohydrate diets have been made popular by weight loss schemes such as the Atkins diet and South Beach diet. They are appealing due to the fact that the foods you can eat are essentially the opposite of most other diets. That is, you eat a lot of protein and fats and very restricted carbohydrates. The basis of this diet is that you require carbohydrates to produce insulin, and it's this that makes you metabolise the fats in your food. Without the carbohydrates, you put yourself in the position that the food you eat goes essentially undigested. Your body reacts by using up it's stored carbohydrates (in the form of glycogen) very quickly and you then go into a state of ketosis. This results in a very rapid initial weight loss since a lot of water is also stored with the glycogen. Depending on the particular diet, the carbohydrate restriction can be very severe - for example on the Atkins diet, in the initial phases you may eat no more than 15-20 grams of carbohydrate a day. Also, the type of carbohydrate becomes important too. It becomes permissible to eat restricted amounts of fruit, but the real issue is refined carbohydrates, as these cause spikes in insulin production. So, the foods which are a no-no are things which contain milled white flour and white sugar (and other sources of refined carbohydrates). These include * Sugar * Bread * Cakes * Sweets (candy to our American friends) * Alcoholic drinks * Rice * Pasta * any non-diet drinks * almost all ready-meals and also, in the initial strict part of the regime, * Potatoes * Rice * Fruit * Vegetables (apart from a small quantity of leafy green vegetables) The things which you may eat are * Any unprocessed fresh meat * Unprocessed fish * Eggs * Cream * Oils...