Low Carb Diet

Low Carb Diet Eating Plan and Information

Interested in a low carbohydrate or "low carb" diet to loose weight? Read on for information about the success of low carb diets, and find some low carb diet food options.

• Weight Loss
• Dietitians

Low carbohydrate diets such as Atkins have been toted amongst celebrities and health magazines for several years as an extremely effective way to loose weight. Scientists from the UT Southwestern Medical Centre in Dallas, Texas, have found that dieters who follow a low-carbohydrate diet can loose significantly more weight than those on a simple, overall low kilojoule intake plan.

A 2008 study put 14 overweight people under observation for a fourteen day period while on one of two types of diet, Low Carb or Low Kilojoule (KJ). The scientists who conducted the study found that those eating low carb meals lost almost twice the amount of weight as those who simply cut overall kilojoules. On average, the kilojoule cutting group lost 2.2kg over the two week period, while the low carbohydrate group lost 4.3kg (these amounts are both considered extreme weight loss).

Why Does Low Carb Work?
Scientists found that the low carb diet was more effective for weight loss because the functions of the dieters' livers. Energy production is expensive for the liver, and in order to meet that expense on a low carbohydrate diet, the liver needs to burn excess fat.

Glucose and fat are both energy sources which are metabolised in the body and used as energy. The dieters on the low kilojoule eating plan got 40% of their glucose from glycogen, a substance made from ingested carbohydrates and stored in the liver as it is needed for energy consumption. Conversely, those on the low carb diet food plan got just 20% of their glucose from glycogen, because their bodies burned more fat instead of dipping into its reserves.

Your body puts away the carbohydrates you consume and uses them up slowly as you burn energy. Therefore, because putting less carbohydrate-rich foods in your body gives it less to store for later use, it will begin to consume fat.

What Are Low Carb Foods?
High carb food such as bread, pasta and rice are often seen as essential meal staples because they are filling, and are thus a hard thing to give up for dieters. There are however, many low carb options which will fill you up because they are also low GI (low on the glycaemic index).

Consuming low GI foods regularly means your blood glucose levels fluctuate minimally, meaning you will keep yourself feeling full all day long. While foods such as whole grain bread and brown rice are low GI, they are extremely high in carbohydrates - and need to be cut down significantly on a low carb diet.

Low Carb Breakfast Food:

• Eggs
• Ham
• Tomatoes
• Mushrooms
• Light yoghurt

Low Carb Snack Foods:

• Berries (strawberries, raspberries, blackberries)
• Vegetable sticks (carrot, celery, rhubarb)
• Avocado
• Deli meat
• Nuts (unsalted)
• Cheese
• Black coffee
• Tea

Low Carb Lunch Foods:

• Crunchy salads (less lettuce, more beans, capsicums, broccoli, tomatoes)
• Garden salads
• Deli meat

Low Carb Dinner Foods:

• Vegetable stir-fries (anything green, plus capsicum, tomato, cauliflower, eggplant, carrots, onion)
• Meat (cooked as a slab, such as chicken (breast or thigh), ham, lamb, beef etc)
• Fish
• Roasted root vegetables (pumpkin, kumara - not potatoes)
• Tofu

Low Carb Desserts:

• Artificially sweetened ice cream
• Berries
• Sugar-free jelly
• Sugar-free mousses or curds

Low Carb Drinks:

• Diet soda (Diet Coke, Diet Pepsi, Sprite Zero)
• Tea
• Black coffee

If you are starting a low carbohydrate diet for weight loss you will find it very difficult to adjust to if you have previously been consuming a lot of carbohydrate-rich foods like bread and pasta.

Studies have shown that high carbohydrate foods have addictive qualities, many believing the body can crave them in the same way as it would cigarettes for a smoker.

You will come to find that the 'fullness' feeling that you get from carbohydrates can be replaced, and food which is high in protein (meat, nuts, cheese) will fill you even more than carbohydrates will. However, low carb diets may lead you to feel tired and unenergetic, especially as your body adjusts to them in the beginning. Consult your dietary professional or doctor before undertaking any serious low carbohydrate dieting, and learn more about understanding nutritional information on food labels to help you find low carb food options.  

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Lifestyle images from Flickr: Low Carb Spicy Meat Balls, Yoga and Wine.