Most low-carb diets are aimed at weight loss, but it is possible to gain weight on a low-carb diet even if you restrict your daily intake of carbohydrates in accordance with the guidelines for the diet. To ensure weight loss, even low-carb diets must result in a restricted intake of calories.
Low-Carb Diets
Low-carb diets, such as the Atkins diet, require you to restrict carbohydrates, but do not require you to count calories or restrict meal portions. Low-carb diets thus require that you limit foods high in carbs, such as fruit, starchy vegetables, pasta, rice, potatoes, pizza, sandwiches, burgers and sugar-sweetened foods. You can, however, have unlimited amounts of high-protein and high-fat foods such as meats, poultry, fish, tofu, vegetable oils and sugar free dairy. Most low-carb diets require, in addition, that the fats you consume are healthy fats, such as the fat found in fish and olive oil.
Fat Burning
Carbohydrates are converted into glucose in the dietary tract. Glucose can enter the bloodstream from here, and the cells in the body and brain can use this molecule as an energy source. When you consume few carbohydrates, the body must get its glucose from a different source. The easiest way to get glucose is to break down glycogen, the stored form of glucose. When the body's deposits of glucose become depleted, the body uses excess fat or protein or burns stored fat.
Ketosis
Stored fat cannot be converted into any significant amounts of glucose, so when protein and carbohydrates are limited, there is not enough glucose for the brain to use as a fuel. Fatty acids cannot enter the brain from the blood. However, the brain can use ketone bodies, a group of molecules that are produced by the liver when it processes fat. When the brain switches from its ordinary glucose metabolism to burning ketone bodies, you are in ketosis, a sign that your body is burning fat.
Weight Gain
According to the Mayo Clinic, weight gain occurs when you consume more calories than you use. When you follow a low-carb diet, your body cannot get its energy from carbohydrates, but it can still get energy from excess proteins and fat. The liver converts fat into glycerol and fatty acids, and glycerol can be further converted into glucose. This can be used as energy, or it can be stored as fat in the body's fat cells. Excess protein can also be turned into glucose and stored as fat. When your body stores fat instead of burning fat, you gain weight.
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