Low-carbohydrate diets are experiencing major popularity in this age of rapid weight loss and fast dieting. Low-carb diet proponents assert that restricting or eliminating carbs is the best and quickest way to lose weight quickly.
According to Bonnie Taub-Dix, RDN, founder of BetterThanDieting.com and author of Read It Before You Eat It: Taking You from Label to Table, “carbs have always been on the chopping block.”
It makes a big difference whether you eat a croissant or a slice of whole-grain toast with your eggs in the morning, according to Taub-Dix. “It’s time to change the topic and begin to associate carbohydrates with beneficial things. The majority of us don’t get enough fibre or vitamins, but carbohydrates provide a lot of energy.
Carbohydrates are our body’s primary energy source, unlike protein and fat, so they are used up before fat. Protein, on the other hand, serves as the foundation for muscle repair and is not used as an energy source. Therefore, if you live an active lifestyle, carbs are an important part of your diet.
However, if you do it correctly, reducing your carb intake can help you lose weight quickly. Here is all the information you need to know about low-carb diets for weight loss, including positives and negatives. Additionally, we describe the most common varieties of low-carb diets so you can choose the one that fits your lifestyle the best.
What is the low carb diets?
Any diet that restricts carbohydrates, including those in grains, starchy vegetables, and fruits, is referred to as a low-carb diet. There are many different kinds of low-carb diets, and each one places limits on how many carbohydrates you can eat each day.
For example, if you follow the ketogenic diet, only 5% of your daily calories should come from carbohydrates. The U.S. Dietary Guidelines advise that between 45 and 65 percent of your daily calories should come from carbohydrates, which is a stark contrast to this. That amounts to about 225 to 325 grammes of carbohydrates per day on a 2,000 calorie diet.
The recommendations state that we should get about 50% of our calories from carbohydrates, but Taub-Dix adds that this does not give us permission to consume excessive amounts of them.
Portion control techniques are very important for weight loss and maintenance. For instance, one eight-ounce New York bagel can easily be equivalent to eight pieces of bread at once, or two cups of pasta can easily be equivalent to five pieces of bread. Taub-Dix says that while white pasta can help you feel more satisfied, whole-wheat pasta is healthier for you overall.
Can a low-carb diet aid in weight loss?
Because they forbid the consumption of simple carbohydrates like sugar, white pasta, and white bread, low-carbohydrate diets are the most effective for quick weight loss. Over time, the accumulation of these empty calories can result in weight gain. Instead, low-carb diets encourage you to eat more protein and fat because these foods increase satiety and help to maintain stable blood sugar levels.
Low-carb diets, like the keto diet, can help your body enter ketosis, a state in which it burns fat for energy, by reducing the amount of carbohydrates you consume. Naturally, burning more fat will result in weight loss, but the issue with low-carb diets is that they can be extremely restrictive and aren’t long-term sustainable.
Taux-Dix asserts, “I’m going to feel like something is missing in my day if I don’t have toast with my breakfast. “Eating carbs has an ‘ah’ factor. Serotonin is released, which gives us a comforting feeling. It’s similar to receiving a hug from food.
The long-term advantages of low-carb diets for weight loss are hotly contested, according to science. A 2018 study published in the European Journal of Nutrition found that while low-carb, high-fat diets cause weight loss, long-term adherence to the diet is very challenging and may lead to yo-yo dieting.
Enjoying carbs in moderation is the best strategy for sticking to a low-carb diet in order to lose weight. According to a 2018 BMJ study, people who consume moderate amounts of carbohydrates or stick to a low-carb diet expend more calories than those who consume a lot of them. Additionally, ghrelin levels—the hormone that makes you hungry—are lower in low-carb dieters than in high-carb dieters.
Also Read ABout Introducing Prevention’s 19-Day Weight Loss Plan for 2020
What is the negative effects of a low-carb diet?
There are health concerns that a low-carbohydrate diet may promote bad eating habits, such as overeating foods high in saturated fat and limiting your intake of some vegetables, fruits, legumes, and whole grains.
According to a 2018 The Lancet study, limiting carbohydrates in your diet may lead to an increase in mortality. 15,828 adults between the ages of 45 and 64 were followed in the study. Researchers discovered that individuals who obtain 50 to 55 percent of their energy from carbohydrates had the lowest mortality risk compared to those who ingested 40 percent or fewer carbohydrates and experienced a higher mortality risk.
Since low-carb diets encourage you to reduce your intake of all carbohydrates, you will be omitting starchy vegetables, fruit, and whole grains from your diet, which are important sources of fiber, vitamins, and antioxidants that are good for your health. Nutritional deficiencies, inflammation, and disease can result from omitting these essential nutrients from your diet.
And while eating a lot of protein has its advantages, research indicates that consuming excessive amounts of beef, pork, chicken, and other animal proteins can lead to heart problems. A 2018 study published in Circulation: Heart Failure found that consuming a lot of protein can raise your risk of developing heart failure.
In general, if you don’t have a well-balanced diet that includes a variety of foods, cutting out carbohydrates can have long-term detrimental effects on your health.
The most popular low-carb diets for weight loss
The good news about low-carb diets is that there are plenty of options, and not all of them involve counting carbs or sticking to a very small amount. Here’s a breakdown of some of the most popular low-carb diets and what to consider before you decide to follow them.
- Keto Diet: The keto diet, aka the ketogenic diet, originally started in the 1920s as a way to help treat epilepsy, but since then it has become one of the most popular low-carb diets for weight loss. On the keto diet, you will limit your carb intake to no more than five percent of your daily calories. This will help your body hit ketosis, a state in which your body uses fat for fuel instead of carbs. While the keto diet has helped thousands of people lose weight, it’s highly restrictive, which can be hard to sustain long-term.
- Atkins Diet: Another popular low-carb diet, you might remember Atkins from the early 90s. The Atkins diet is a high-protein, high-fat diet that helps you lose weight by filling up on meat, dairy, and fats, in place of carbs. Atkins has three different plans: Atkins 20, Atkins 40, and Atkins 100. All three plans involve keeping your daily carb intake low. During the first phase of the Atkins 20, for example, you will have only 20 to 25 grams of net carbs daily. As you progress within your plan, you gradually increase the amount of net carbs you can enjoy.
- Whole30: The Whole30 diet is a Paleo-inspired eating plan, where you restrict sugar, alcohol, dairy, grains, gluten, and legumes from your diet for 30 days. The goal of Whole30 isn’t necessarily to lose weight but to help you combat your sugar addiction, focus on clean eating, and uncover food sensitivities. However, many people follow Whole30 as a way to detox after the holidays or lose weight before a big event, like a wedding. Because it helps you avoid eating highly processed packaged foods and promotes healthy home cooking, you might lose a significant amount of weight, depending on what your eating habits were like before you started the diet. Why 30? Creators of the diet believe that 30 days is all you need to reset your body and improve you relationship with food.
- Paleo diet: The Paleo diet is another low-carb eating plan that focuses on eating lean protein, vegetables, fruits, and healthy fats. The Paleo diet mimics eating patterns of our Paleolithic ancestors who ate only foods they hunted or gathered for. This means you can eat fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds, and lean protein, but dairy products, grains, beans and legumes, and highly processed foods, like sugar and artificial sweeteners, are off limits.
The bottom
Low-carb diets shouldn’t be sustained over an extended period of time.To find the best diet for you if you want to follow a low-carb diet to lose weight, be sure to consult your doctor and a registered dietitian. You want to ensure that you’re still eating a balanced diet that leaves you feeling satisfied and provides the nutrients you require because, as we previously mentioned, restricting carbs can result in nutritional deficiencies and yo-yo dieting.
According to Taub-Dix, “Diets should be something you could live with forever. Many people claim to have cheated on their diet or to have “fallen off the wagon,” but a long-term diet shouldn’t feel like that.
Also Read ABout Introducing Prevention’s 19-Day Weight Loss Plan for 2020