Low Carbohydrate Diet - Part 3

Low Carbs and the Low Carbohydrate Diet : The best way to get lean or just another diet fad? Part 3
By Chad Tackett

For your low carbohydrate diet ("low carb diet") to be a success, it’s absolutely critical that you understand carbohydrates ("carbs") and their roles, how to select the right kind of carbohydrates and the carbs to avoid, and several low carbohydrate diet techniques that can help you achieve excellent results.

There are all sorts of low carbohydrate diet plans out there that can help you lose weight (not necessarily fat), but they are so miserable that it's impossible to stay on them very long - even more difficult is keeping the results you achieved before going off the low carbohydrate diet program.

Low carbohydrate diets first emerged decades ago; today they are enjoying something of a renaissance as the diet of choice. Everywhere you look there are low carb bars, low carb drinks, low carb meal replacements, low carb frozen dinners, etc. Low carbohydrate diet books like The Atkins Diet, Protein Power, and Sugar-Busters have all been best-sellers.

Virtually 100% of all bodybuilders and fitness competitors use some version of a low carbohydrate diet when getting ready for contests. But despite their immense popularity, low carbohydrate diets have many drawbacks and are still the subject of controversy.

Because of the popularity of low carbohydrate diets, carbohydrates in general have gotten a bad rap. Many people believe carbohydrates are fattening. This simply is not true! Carbohydrates are not fattening as long as you eat the right kind and you don't eat too many of them. However, it is true that a reduction in carbs and an increase in protein will give you some interesting hormonal and metabolic advantages for fat loss. It's also true that some people don't respond well to the conventional high-carb, low-fat diet.

Some people are "carbohydrate-sensitive" and "insulin-resistant." This means that these people release more insulin than normal when they consume carbohydrate foods. When excess insulin is present, they do not release stored body fat as readily and they are more likely to store free fatty acids into adipose tissue. The result is that even on a low-fat, low-calorie diet combined with regular exercise, some people still have a difficult time losing body fat if they eat a lot of carbohydrates.

Reducing carbohydrates and increasing protein with a low carbohydrate diet gives you a metabolic advantage: the high protein in these diets speeds up your metabolism because of the "thermogenic" effect of the protein. This means that protein foods speed up your metabolism because your body has to work harder to digest, process, and utilize this nutrient as compared to fat or carbohydrates.

Protein has the highest thermogenic effect of any food: nearly 30%. For example, if you eat 100 calories of chicken breast, 30 of those calories are burned off just to digest it! Therefore, the net caloric value is only 70 calories. Too much of any food will be stored as body fat, but because of its high thermogenic effect, protein is less likely to be converted to fat than any other food type.

Reducing your carbohydrates with a low carbohydrate diet from the traditional recommendation of 50-55% of your total calories to 40%-45% of your total calories may help you lose fat more quickly. Some "carbohydrate-sensitive/insulin-resistant" people might benefit from reducing carbs to as low as 30% of total calories for very brief periods (do not do so without the recommendation of your physician), but under no circumstances should you ever remove all or even most of the carbohydrates from your diet.

Unfortunately, many people take carbohydrate restriction too far when on a low carbohydrate diet, often going close to zero carbs. These diets are almost impossible to stick to, and most people end up gaining back all the weight they lost as soon as they re-introduce carbs to their diet. Going to such extremes is not necessary and may be hazardous to your health. Other disadvantages of very low-carb diets include reduced energy levels, irritability, inability to concentrate, slower metabolic rate, and loss of lean body mass. This is why you need to understand how best to use a low carbohydrate diet.

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