Categories: NUTRITION | Posted: 10th August 2017
Why Low Carb Diets Work
So today I came across a post trashing low carb diets and although I favour a balanced approach to nutrition in the long term, it’s not always the best approach to follow when you have a significant amount of weight to lose.
The problem that many people face when going low carb is exactly that, they simply restrict carbohydrate calories which is unsustainable, leaves them feeling miserable, leads to a massive blow out since they are starving and piling the weight back on again, we’ve all been there!
The real reason most people struggle is because of three main reasons
(1) Not replacing carbohydrates with other sources of energy, usually going too low calorie.
(2) Believing in the marketing messages about avoid fat at all costs, causing hunger and fatigue.
(3) Not knowing when to re-introduce carbs to reset the bodies hormones and spike the metabolism.
In 2006, intervention studies were undertaken by a Nordmann Et Al in 2006 which showed that low carbohydrate diets produced significantly greater weight loss than low fat diets which are naturally greater in starch.
Following the above 3 principles, I have clients consistently losing 2-3 lbs of fat every single week, are abundant in energy, have no complaints of fatigue or irritability and have even lowered their cholesterol and blood sugars to safe levels.
Now that you’ve seen the results, here is more evidence why low carb diets will always beat a balanced approach at the start of any kind of diet and is how I consistently produce results for my clients on my 12 week programme.
If you have weight to lose, that means that you have a significant amount of energy stored which only gets released in emergency situations, for example when food isn’t plentiful, particularly carbohydrates.
FACT: You’ll burn your carbohydrates for energy before you burn fat in any case.
So in response to this, it makes sense to reduce the amount of sugar in your blood stream which reduces the amount of insulin you’ll naturally produce. Not many people know this, but insulin actually STOPS fat burning due to a reduction in lipolysis and shockingly insulin actually stimulates the production of fat storage.
Whatever point of view you take on nutrition with a view to lose fat, you can’t object to this fact!
But it doesn’t stop there, when carbohydrates are low then protein is increased which gives your body a nice metabolic boost since it takes more energy to digest than carbohydrates or fats.
FACT: This point alone throws doubt into the calories in vs calories out myth, a calorie is not a calorie.
Protein also keeps you feeling fuller whilst maintaining lean muscle tissue which is essential to long term, sustainable weight loss since 1 pound of lean muscle burns 50 calories per day.
Now you may be wondering, where do you get your energy from? The answer is quality fats, not the kind which clog up your arteries… I’m talking about monounsaturated, polyunsaturated and omega-3 fatty acids which keep you feeling full and keep energy levels high without the crash and burn of a high starch diet.
FACT: These types of fats reduce the risk of heart disease, improve blood sugar level control and cholesterol.
In fact, eating high quality fats when going low carb is the difference between feeling hungry, miserable and wanting to eat everything under the sun and feeling energetic, vibrant, healthy and satisfied.
Now any diet you choose to follow is not going to produce sustainable results if you aren’t able to stick to it, which is the main reason why so many of you will fail. It’s easy to get excited by the short term weight loss which will be a high percentage of water alongside fat loss, but it’s important to manage your expectations, stay the course and remain focused.
How low should you go? You do not have to go completely KETO to get results, in fact some starch will help you to perform more intensive exercise. When starting out, start reducing your carbohydrates particularly at dinner onwards since this is the worst time of day to consume them, the reason for that is you’ll be asleep with rising blood sugars when your food is made available to be burned for energy, now unless you are a ‘sleep runner’ this isn’t a good thing!
It’s also important to note that if you go too low carb for too long, you will struggle to lose weight due to adaptation, the production of ‘fat storing hormones’ and a lower metabolic rate, it’s for that very reason that carbohydrates do need to be reintroduced on a regular basis!
Once you achieve your target weight and have increased your lean muscle tissue and activity level, you will naturally require more starch due to less available fat stores and benefit from an improved ability to handle sugars in your bloodstream… without the weight gain!
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