Low carb diets can help you lose weight--at least on a temporary basis--because all diets are temporary unless you change your eating habits long-term. Some popular low-carb diets include the South Beach Diet, the Atkins Diet, the Zone and Protein Power.
Features of Carbohydrates
When you consume unhealthy carbohydrate foods (those that are full of sugar or starch), you experience a dramatic rise in blood sugar, and your body releases insulin into your bloodstream to prevent it from rising too much. Some of the sugar you consume from carbohydrate-rich foods gets stored in your muscles and liver, but most of it becomes stored as fat. When your insulin drops, you become hungry again, so you eat more and thus gain weight easily.
Identification
When on a low-carb diet, you give up starch- and sugar-laden foods, including baked goods, bread, candy, pasta, potato chips and pretzels. A low-carb diet includes protein foods such as beef, pork, chicken; some vegetables; and fats such as butter and oils. Fruits and vegetables are only allowed within the daily amount of carbohydrates you are able to consume in this diet. Low-carb diets are criticized by the Government of Victoria, Canada, for not including many fresh fruits and vegetables.
Function
Low-carb diets are generally broken up into phases. The first phase allows you the least amount of carbs because a low carb intake forces your body into a ketosis state, meaning that without the readily available source of energy your body receives from carbohydrates, your body resorts to using the fat that is already stored in your body. When your stored fat gets burned for energy, you lose weight. Subsequent low-carb diet phases allow you to slowly introduce healthy carbohydrates (such as whole grains) into your diet until you eventually reach your target weight and are no longer losing or gaining weight.
Benefits
A low-carb diet allows you to lose weight relatively quickly. Because you are not allowed highly processed and sugary foods in a low-carb diet, but can consume whole grains and whole foods that have higher nutritional value, you receive a lot more nutritional value for the amount of calories you take in.
Considerations
It is important to consider the details involved in the low-carb diet you choose. The Atkins Diet, for example, does not limit the amount of calories you can consume, which could actually cause you to gain weight by consuming a lot of fatty oils, for example. The South Beach Diet, on the other hand, encourages you only to consume healthy fats (such as extra virgin olive oil) and to cook with low-fat or fat-free oils while limiting your overall calorie intake.
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