Low Carb Diets

Low carbohydrate or carb diets are based on the principle that a diet very low in carbohydrate leads to a reduction in the body's insulin production, resulting in fat and protein (muscle) stores. The idea of low carbohydrate diets is to ultimately force the body to use fat as its main energy source.

When you tend to cut out carbohydrate from your diet and increase your protein and fat intake, you avoid eating things such as pasta, bread, rice and alcohol and prefer eating lots of meat, cheese and butter.

Mostly people who want to lose their weight quickly, they go on low carb diets. However, the majority of weight loss comes from loss of water and muscle tissue, not fat that is what you need to lose to keep the weight off. Even, if you're trying to lose weight forever, losing precious lean muscle tissue is like sabotaging your own body. Muscle tissue is metabolically active, and burns your calories even when you are at rest or sleeping. A decrease in the amount of muscle tissue you have will lead to a decrease in the number of calories you need each day to maintain your weight. Ultimately, it will make much harder to keep your weight under control when you stop following the low carb diet.

Essential vitamins and nutrients come from a balanced diet and low carb diets are certainly not balanced. As you can only get many essential nutrients from fruit, vegetables and grains, low carb diets only allow very small amounts of fruit and vegetables.

If anyway you’ve decided to reduce the carbohydrate in your diet, it’s time to think ahead bit so you can have your best chance of success. Now what can you eat as low carb diets? Here are four main resources of diet to give you a strong start.

Vegetables: Sprouts (e.g. bean, alfalfa), greens (e.g. lettuces, spinach), hearty greens (e.g. collards, mustard greens), herbs (e.g. parsley, cilantro), bok choy, celery, radishes sea vegetables, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, mushrooms, avocado, cucumber, peppers, summer squash, asparagus, bamboo shoots, leeks, tomatoes, onions, okra, carrots, pumpkin and any vegetables other than beets, corn, parsnips, peas, plantains, potatoes and winter squashes particularly acorn and butternut.

The above list is roughly arranged from lowest to highest carbohydrate counts, but all are non-starchy and generally low in carbohydrates.

Fruit: Rhubarb, strawberries, cranberries, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, grapefruit, melons, apricots, plums, peaches, pears, guava, cherries, apples, papaya and any fruit other than grapes, banana, mango, tangerine, oranges, pineapple, kiwi and dried fruit.

Meats: Most meats are acceptable except breaded meats, and ones that served with high carb sauces. Try to avoid hams and luncheon meats, because they have added sugars. You need to limit consumptions of processed meats, especially with nitrites (hot dogs, bacon, etc.). On diets that limit saturated fat (e.g. South Beach, Zone), the fattier cuts, such as the dark meat of poultry, are to be avoided.

According to Atkins, mussels and oysters contain carbohydrates, so be sure to count them. Atkins also points out that some organ meats have carbs, so they can be consumed not more than 4 oz. a day.

Some plans (e.g. the Zone), recommend limiting even egg yolks. You may also consume tofu, as half a cup of tofu has 10 grams of protein and 1 gram of effective carbohydrate (with 1 gram of fiber).

Dairy Products: Sometimes the carb counts of dairy products may surprise you. Milk has a lot of lactose (milk sugar), while cream looks like it's lower than it is because of the serving size on the container. Although a tablespoon of cream is labeled as having zero carbs, it has a little less than half a gram of carbohydrate. There are about 16 tablespoons in a cup, so the whole cup has about 6½ grams of carbohydrate.

Some milks are 'protein-fortified', and sometimes powdered milk is added for more "body". So, as this will alter the carb counts, be sure to check the label. Also, cream varies depending upon the amount of butterfat and lactose. You may go by some substitutes of milk in the form of unsweetened soy milk and unsweetened almond milk.

You need to be firm and patient
Once you start following the routine, things you didn’t think will come up inevitably. The first two weeks of a diet change can be too tough. The temptation when trying something new is to chuck it overboard at the first obstacle. To overcome, you must accept that unexpected “speed bumps” will happen, and be determined ahead of time to work through them. At this point of time you need to be guided from those who are ahead of you on the road.