If you’re wondering why your waist size hasn’t reduced in the last few days, weeks, months, years that you’ve been ‘dieting’ then you’re probably doing something wrong. That’s because you haven’t tried a Low Carb diet.
Unless you’ve monitored other aspects of your dieting routines, one could easily point towards carb eating habits that keep you exactly where you are, nothing gained, nothing lost.
Why a low carb diet you may ask. Read below and we’ll help you understand.
What is a Low Carb Diet?
A low-carb diet is a diet that limits carbohydrates, mainly found in sugary foods, pasta and bread. Instead, you eat whole foods including natural proteins, fats and healthy vegetables. There are many different types of low-carb diets, each diet has varying limitations on the types and amounts of carbohydrates you can eat. The idea of every type of low carb diet is to simply reduce carbohydrates like:
- Sugars and starches such as bread and pasta
- And replace them with proteins and healthy fats
What is your daily need or intake required for carbs?
As mentioned in our other articles there’s no clear, hard set rule that fits all body types. It all depends on your body individually. Low Carb diets are based on the following characteristics:
- Age
- Metabolism Rate/Activity
- Gender
- How active you are
- Bodily reactions to certain allergens
- Obesity levels
- Blood sugar levels
- Presence of type I or type II Diabetes
- How your digestive system reacts to certain foods
People with obesity or diabetic problems may have issues in terms of digesting carbs due to a kind of intolerance the body builds.
A Guideline to Your low Carb Diet
Slowly eliminating processed unhealthy carbs from your diet will show apparent results in almost no time. There may not be a hard-set diagram as to how much carbs one should take – since there is no ‘one size fits all solution’, however, here are some tips that have shown results in the past.
100-150 Grams per Day
This is considered the non-extremist low carb daily diet for the more active and lean body type. What you can enjoy in this range is:
- Multiple pieces of fruit
- Pretty much all the veggies
- Sweet or normal potatoes
- Brown rice
- Oats
50-100 Grams per Day
If you’re carb sensitive but still require it in your diet – then you should regulate your intake down to this. Carbs you can eat:
- A generous amount of vegetables.
- A lesser generous amount of compared to the 100-150 per day bracket
- Small amounts of potatoes or sweet potatoes
20-50 Grams per Day
If you’re looking to lose weight in turbo mode, this bracket is what will suit you, especially if you have a herky jerky metabolism or have obesity or diabetes.
This bracket is where you can set your body to auto-weight loss mode [in a sense]. When you’re eating less than this range your body will actively start supplying energy for the brain to manage your daily upkeep. This is known as Ketosis, where the Ketone bodies affect your nervous system to modulate your appetite. Carbs you can eat:
- Only low-carb vegetables but plenty of them
- Berries and whip cream – doesn’t sound so bad
- Avocados, nuts, and seeds
If you’re looking to ‘maintain’ weight, then the first carb bracket is what’s probably good for your active lifestyle. If you’re overweight and are looking to LOSE weight, then the other two ranges are your best bet.
Low-Carb Foods
The rule of thumb here whatever you consume – do it for good health. Meaning whatever you eat, needs to be healthy. That means avoiding low carb junk foods and processed foods. These are the common sources of naturally occurring carbohydrates include:
- Meat
- Fish
- Eggs
- Vegetables
- Nuts
- Healthy fats
- Full-fat dairy products.
However, if you are healthy and want to maintain your existing weight then you can include:
- Potatoes,
- Sweet potatoes
- Oats
- Rice
- Non-gluten grains.
The Benefits of a Low Carb Diet
Helps in Weight Loss
Studies show that low carb diet can cause weight loss and improve health. In a study low-carb diets and low-fat diets were compared to show a staggering difference in how the body managed the calories by lowering the blood sugar levels, blood pressure and managing triglycerides. They modulate healthy cholesterol levels by raising HDL (healthy fats) and improving the pattern of LDL (unhealthy fats). So low-fat diets compared to low-carb affected the cholesterol levels of HDL and LDL patterns. Therefore, it’s to your advantage in all aspects to go with the latter.
Other Health Benefits
Low carb diets affect your insulin levels. Insulin is a hormone that transports the glucose from carbs into the cells that need nourishment. Another function of insulin is to store fat is to store fat. According to research the assumption that low-carb diets work so well is because they reduce the levels of this hormone. When you start managing your carbs the first few pounds you lose is that of water weight. That is because insulin also encourages the kidneys to store water – which causes bloating and added weight in the form of water retention.
A low carb diet, however, causes the kidneys to release the retained water causing that excess weight to flush. According to research this also causes significant modulating between body fat and muscles. Most exciting of all is the fact that it reduces abdominal belly fat, a cause for most diseases.
All in all – we can easily say that a low-carb diet IS, in fact, good for you if you want to see instant results, get on your low-carb diet today and watch the calorie count drop and those lean muscles shine.
