You may be interested in a low-carbohydrate diet because it promises fast weight loss without making you count calories, but low-carbohydrate diets can be unhealthy. They do not meet recommendations for a healthy diet, as stated in the 2010 Dietary Guidelines from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service, since they do not emphasize fruits, vegetables and whole grains. If you need to lose weight, talk to a nutritionist about strategies that can work for you.
Diet Foods for Quick Weight Loss
A low-carbohydrate diet may have a diuretic effect for fast weight loss, according to MayoClinic.com. This type of diet emphasizes fat and protein, so your meal plan will probably include meats, poultry, seafood, eggs and fats such as oil and butter. You may get limited amounts of low-carbohydrate foods, such as some vegetables, dairy products, nuts, fruits or legumes, and you will probably not be eating grains or sweets. This diet may lead to fewer calories and dehydration, which both contribute to rapid weight loss. Protein and fat are filling nutrients, so they can help you stick to your diet because they suppress hunger. You can also stave off hunger by designing a meal plan with several small meals or snacks each day.
Water Weight
Some of the weight that you lose on a low-carbohydrate diet for quick weight loss is from water from glycogen depletion. When you eat plenty of carbohydrates, your body stores some of them in the form of molecules called glycogen in your liver and muscle, according to the American Academy of Family Physicians. These glycogen molecules are bound to water, which is heavy. A low-carbohydrate diet can use up your glycogen stores because your brain requires carbohydrates to function. As you use up your glycogen, your body no longer holds onto the water that was bound to the glycogen, so you may lose weight quickly when you start your low-carbohydrate diet because you are losing water weight.
Drastic Calorie Reduction
You may lose weight quickly when you start a low-carbohydrate diet because your calorie intake may significantly decrease. The average American gets more than half his calories per day from carbohydrates, according to the 2010 Dietary Guidelines from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. A low-carbohydrate diet may cut out all but about 20 g of carbohydrates, which is equivalent to 80 calories per day, since carbohydrates provide 4 calories per gram. This means that on a low-carbohydrate diet, you could be taking in less than half the calories you were previously consuming. For example, if you were previously consuming 2,600 calories daily, on your low-carb diet, you might only be consuming close to 1,300 calories each day. It takes a deficit of 3,500 calories to burn a pound of fat, so you could lose weight at a rapid rate of more than 2 lb. per week on this diet.
Risks
You need carbohydrates from your diet so that you can use stored fat for energy. If you do not get enough carbohydrates, your body will not be able to complete the normal fat metabolism. Ketosis occurs with incomplete fat breakdown, and it is a risk on a low-carbohydrate diet, according to the MayoClinic.com. You may feel tired or dizzy if you are in ketosis. Another risk of a low-carbohydrate diet for rapid weight loss is constipation, since you may not get enough dietary fiber from sources such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains and legumes.
Member Comments