What is Low-Carb Diet?
A low carb diet is one that is low in carbs, and high in protein and fat. Instead of you eat carbs filled foods such as pasta, potatoes, rice, baked goods, bread, etc, you focus on eating lean meats, eggs, fish, dairy, nuts, seeds, and vegetables instead.A commonly thrown around phrase that you might have heard in the past is: the fat you eat is the fat you wear. This is so far from the truth.
Fat is good for us, and not only that, it’s absolutely vital for our overall health and well-being.
Anyone can start a low carb diet and see if it’s right for them. However, if you have diabetes, high blood pressure, or if you are breastfeeding, a minimal carb diet might not be the best option for you. Talk to a nutritionist or your general health care practitioner first to see how this diet will affect your health.
The Great Benefits of a Low Carb Diet
Low carb diet work wonders in terms of the benefits they provide. Some of these benefits include weight loss, reduced sugar cravings, better digestion, type 2 diabetes treatment, reduced acne, and more!Here’s a more in depth explanation of each of the benefits:
Low Carb Diet Leads to Weight Loss
One of the main reasons you lose weight while following a low carb diet plan is because you cut out a lot of empty and unnecessary calories from your diet.Carbs are very high in calories, and when you limit the amount of carbs that you eat, you naturally have a lower caloric intake.
This means that you can lose weight effortlessly, without having to calorie restrict! Another factor that contributes to why you drop weight on a low carb diet is that all of the protein and body fat that you consume keeps you full for longer periods of time. Therefore, you are less likely to overeat.
Low Carb Diet Leads to great weight loss. Cutting carbs is one of the simplest and most effective ways to lose weight.
Studies illustrate that people on low carb diet lose more weight, faster, than those on low-fat diet programs - even when the latter are actively restricting calories.
This is because low carb diet plans act to rid excess water from your body, lowering insulin levels and leading to rapid weight loss in the first week or two.
In studies comparing low carb and low fat diets, people restricting their carbs sometimes lose 2-3 times as much weight, without being hungry.
One study in obese adults found a low carb diet plan particularly effective for up to six months, compared to a conventional weight loss diet. After that, the difference in weight loss between diets was insignificant.
In a year-long research on over than six hundreds overweight adults on low fat or low carb diets, both groups lost similar amounts of weight.
Low Carb Diet Reduces Sugar Cravings and Reduces Blood Sugar and Insulin Levels
A low carb diet can get rid of sugars cravings. When you consume carbs, especially simple carbohydrates, you get glucose highs.A low carb diet make the energy stable throughout the day, so you no longer have to experience sugar highs and crashes. Also the satisfaction you receive from protein and fat naturally reduces sugars cravings.
Low carb and ketogenic diets can also be particularly helpful for people with diabetes and insulin resistance, which affect millions of people worldwide.
Studies prove that cutting carbs lowers both blood sugar and insulin levels drastically.
people that suffer from diabetes who begin a low carb diet need to reduce their insulin dosage to half almost immediately.
In one study in people who have type 2 diabetes, 95% had decreased or eliminated their glucose-lowering medication within six months.
If you take blood sugar medication, talk to your doctor before making changes to your carb intake, as your dosage might need to be adjusted to prevent hypoglycemia.
Low Carb Diet Reduces Your Appetite
The bad thing we feel in dieting is hunger. It is the main reason that make people feel hopeless and finally give up. Nevertheless, low carb diet leads to automatical lowering in appetite.Studies continuously show that people who cut carbs and get more protein and fats, they end up getting fewer calories.
The most Proportion of Fat Loss being in Abdominal Cavity
Not all fat in your body is the same. Where fat is stored determines how it affects your health and risk of disease.The two main types are subcutaneous fat, which is under your skin, and visceral fat, which accumulates in your abdominal cavity and is typical for most overweight men.
Visceral fat tends to lodge around your organs. Excess visceral fat is associated with inflammation and insulin resistance, and may drive the metabolic dysfunction so common in the West today .
Low carb diet is very effective at reducing this harmful stomach fat. In fact, a greater proportion of the body fat people lose on low carb diet seems to comes from the abdominal cavity.
Over time, this should lead to a drastically reduced risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes.
Low Carb Diet Improves Digestion
When people eat low carb diet meals, they tend to consume more whole foods than usual. Instead of consuming a diet high in processed carbs, you switch your focus to proteins and fat.The addition of vegetables is what truly improves the digestion of people who follow this diet.
Vegetables, especially leafy greens, are full of fiber which helps keep the bowels healthy and keeps things regular.
Low Carb Diet causes Triglycerides Drop Drastically
Triglycerides are fat molecules that circulate in your bloodstream. It is well known that high fasting triglycerides, levels in the blood after an overnight fast, are a strong heart disease risk factor.One of the main drivers of elevated triglycerides in sedentary people is carb consumption, especially the simple sugar fructose.
When people cut carbs, they have a tendency to experience a very dramatic reduction in blood triglycerides. Besides, low fat diet often causes increaing in triglycerides.
Low Carb Diet Increases Levels of Good HDL Cholesterol
Often High density lipoprotein (HDL) called good cholesterol. The higher your levels of HDL relative to bad LDL, the lower your risk of cardiovascular disease.One of the best ways to increase good HDL levels is to eat fat, and low carb diet include a lot of fat.
The bad thing we feel in dieting is hunger. It is the main reason that make people feel hopeless and finally give up. Nevertheless, low carb diet leads to automatical lowering in appetite.
Studies continuously show that people who cut carbs and get more protein and fats, they end up getting fewer calories.
Low Carb Diet Prevents and Treats Type 2 Diabetes
The reason why low carb diets have the potential to prevent type 2 diabetes is because low carbohydrate diets restrict the number of high glycemic index foods you consume. Meaning no cookies, donuts, cakes, other baked goods, or simple carbs such as pasta, white rice, sugary cereal, potatoes, and so on that can spike your blood sugar.Since you avoid all these foods on a low carb diet, you will also avoid any large spikes in your blood sugar level which is a risk factor for developing type 2 diabetes.
Low Carb Diet Improves Bad LDL Cholesterol Levels
People who have high “bad” LDL are much more likely to have heart attacks.However, the size of the particles is important. Smaller particles are linked to a higher risk of heart disease, while larger particles are associated with a lower risk.
It turns out that low-carb diets increase the size of “poor” LDL particles while reducing the amount of total LDL particles in your bloodstream. As such, lowering your carb intake can boost your heart health.
Low Carb Diet Effective Against Metabolic Syndrome
Metabolic syndrome is a condition highly associated with your threat of diabetes and heart disease.In fact, metabolic syndrome is a collection of symptoms, which include:
Abdominal obesity
Elevated blood pressure
Elevated fasting blood sugar levels
High triglycerides
Low good HDL cholesterol levels
However, a low carb diet is highly effective in treating all of these symptoms.
Often, these cases are eliminated under this diet.
Low Carb Diet May Lower Blood Pressure
Elevated blood pressure, or hypertension, is usually a significant risk factor for many diseases, including cardiovascular disease, stroke and kidney failure.Low-carb diets are an effective way to lower blood circulation pressure, which should reduce your risk of these diseases and help you live longer.
Low Carb Diet Reduces Acne
Many people notice that when they switch to a minimal carb diet plan, their skin improves. They are able to see changes in their acne, and this isn’t a coincidence.There are quite a few studies that show the connection between high glycemic diets and acne. Therefore, it makes sense that when you limit the amount of high carb foods you eat, your acne will improve.
Another reason that acne improves with a low carb diet is definitely that the focus can be more on whole foods instead of processed foods which often contain chemicals that contribute to the formation of acne.
Low Carb Diet Therapeutic for Brain Disorders
Our brain usually needs glucose, some parts of it only able to burn this type of sugar. So, our liver produces glucose from protein when we don't eat any carbs.However, a great part of our brain can also burn ketones, which are created during starvation or when carbs are very low.
This is the mechanism behind the low carb diet, which used for a long time to treat epilepsy in children.
Many times, this diet already healing children of epilepsy. In one study, over half of the children on a ketogenic diet experienced a greater than 50% reduction in their number of seizures, while 16% became seizure-free.
Very low-carb and ketogenic diet programs are now being studied for other brain conditions as well, including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease.
