How Much Weight Can You Lose In 14 Days Of No Carbs?

Zero-carbohydrate diets have grown in popularity, most likely fueled by diet support forums and websites that advocate eating carb-free diets for weight loss. No-carbohydrate diets are an offshoot of low-carbohydrate diets, which limit carb consumption in order to bring about weight loss. In calorie-controlled diets, eating fewer calories typically results in greater amounts of weight loss; however, there is little evidence suggesting that limiting carbohydrates beyond the amount recommended in popular diets such as Atkins will yield faster rates of loss.

Identification

Carbohydrates are foods that contain sugars. Dairy products, table sugar, honey, syrup, candy, baked goods, pasta, rice, potatoes, fruits and vegetables all contain carbohydrates. When you eat carbohydrates, the sugar in them causes your blood glucose levels to rise. Low-carbohydrate diets restrict carbohydrate foods. Zero-carbohydrate diets don't allow you to eat carbohydrate-containing foods at all. Instead, all you can eat on a zero-carbohydrate diet is animal protein and fats such as beef, pork, fish, poultry, seafood, eggs, and game meats.

Background

In 1935, "Harper's Monthly Magazine" ran an article by the Canadian Arctic explorer, Vilhjalmur Stefansson. In his exploration, Stefansson spent a great deal of time amongst Inuit populations. He was impressed with their low levels of disease and overall good health. Stefansson observed that the Inuit people ate an all-meat diet, and speculated that their excellent health was a result of that diet. Steafansson was one of the first proponents of a zero-carbohydrate diet.

Theories/Speculation

Many low-carb experts believe that early humans often went for long periods of time eating only meat, because there were no plant foods seasonally available. In the book "Protein Power Lifeplan," the authors Michael Eades, M.D., and Mary Dan Eades, M.D., suggest that humans have evolved very little in terms of nutritional needs since the time of early hunter-gatherer societies, and that humans might be genetically programmed to eat a diet that consists predominantly of animal proteins.

Rates of Loss

In "Dr. Atkins New Diet Revolution," Dr. Robert Atkins suggests that dieters can lose as much as 15 pounds during the first two weeks of a carbohydrate-restricted diet that limits you to 20 g of carbs or less per day. According to Bethesda Naval Medical Center, while your initial rates of loss may, indeed, be as rapid as Atkins suggests, much of the initial weight loss is water weight. Carbohydrates are stored in your body at a ratio of three parts of water to one part of carbohydrates. As you embark on a low-carbohydrate or zero-carbohydrate diet, your body depletes its supply of carbohydrates. As this happens, it also depletes the supply of water that is stored with the carbohydrates, resulting in quick weight loss. Atkins suggests that following the initial quick weight loss from a low-carbohydrate diet, the rate of loss evens out at about 1 to 2 lbs. per week. No evidence exists suggesting faster or slower rates of loss on zero-carbohydrate diets.

Research

Little research has been done about the effects of eliminating carbohydrates from your diet for weight loss. In 1930, two researchers with the Russell Sage Institute of Pathology studied two men who ate only meat for a year and recorded no adverse health effects associated with the diet. The two men did lose weight initially as they depleted their body's stored carbohydrates, but then their weight remained roughly the same.

Studies have been done on low-carbohydrate diets such as Atkins. One 2003 study at the University of Philadelphia and published in "The New England Journal of Medicine" followed two groups of dieters for one year. One group ate an Atkins-style low-carbohydrate diet, and the other group at a more traditional calorie-controlled diet. In the first three to six months of the diet, the low-carbohydrate dieters experienced 4 percent greater loss than the other group; however, by the end of the first year both groups had evened out.