Low carb diet is an eating plan which greatly minimises the consumption of high amount of carbohydrates to reduce the onset of obesity especially with overweight individuals. Within this plan, foods such as pasta, rice, white bread, yam and sugar are replaced with foods rich in protein contents such as fish, meat, egg, cheese etc.
The area of research supporting low-carb diets has tremendously grown over recent years. According to Erlanson et., al. (2005), researchers have agreed that a weight loss plan that adopts the use of low-carbohydrate diets is the fundamental reason for adopting this diet plan so as to ascertain a state of satisfaction thereby triggering off the actual amount of needed energy. Notwithstanding the health benefits of low carb diet, many people still believe that low carbohydrate diets are pointless and even harmful to the body however, New Carb Cycling Article suggests that neither side has a strong proof.
On the other hand a diet rich in fat has long been equivalent with an unhealthy diet due to concerns on cardiovascular risk factors in particular, questioning the use of high-fat diets for weight loss. There is needs for individuals to adopt the low-carb diet plan as a way of addressing many health challenges such as; shedding excess weight, regulating blood pressure and controlling blood sugar level (Nilsson et., al 2013).
But a major concern is, if this low-carb diet plan can actually address and regulate these enlisted health challenges. While attempting to adopt the low-carb diet plan, an individual can start by making reasonable changes towards minimising unhealthy carbs in the diet. Great success can be derived by changing one or two food classes at a particular time, as trying to make radical change over to a low carb diet at a time can tend to be quite difficult for the body system to immediately adjust to the changes. By adopting this method, you will be surely amazed at the tremendous results you will obtain effortlessly than you could ever imagined.
In the course of writing this article, I carried out a survey on few of my friends who recently switched over to the low-carb diet plan. The aim of the survey, was to obtain their views and experiences while on the diet plan.
From the survey, majority of the respondents admitted that they adopted the low carb diet plan so as to lose weight. Indeed, one of the respondents affirmed;
‘Since I went on low-diet plan, I have lost weight and still losing weight very instantaneously’.
Another respondents replied thus;
“The most difficult part of switching over to the low-carb diet is, surrendering the regular foods that have become part of my eating routine”.
Studies suggest that low carbohydrate diet greatly promotes weight loss. But is this really the case?
One might want to know the logic behind losing weight through low carb diet. Paleobook suggest that weight loss could arise as a result of water loss which is primarily what is expected to be lost, in other to keep excess weight far away.
By minimising the quantity of carbohydrates consumed, calorie intake is also restricted to some extent which aids in attaining weight loss. Since carbohydrates are reserved in water presence in the body, getting rid of them from the diet will facilitate the body to use already reserved carbohydrates as fuel for energy generation. By so doing, the excess fluids are burnt off and individuals would no longer need to inject or generate insulin which aids to store fat. Literally, reducing insulin circulation could possibly help to prevent or reduce weight gain.
According to diabetes.co.uk, carbohydrates greatly influences the blood sugar levels and consuming low carbohydrate foods helps to regulate the blood sugar levels. Studies agree that individuals with diabetes have expressed that consuming a low carbohydrate diet helps them to control their blood sugar levels. Carbohydrates are converted into glucose hence, consuming too many carbohydrates tend to fluctuate the blood sugar levels in accordance with the carbohydrate intake. The diabetics cookbook recommends a reduction in carbohydrate intake as it aids in reducing blood sugar levels spike after eating.
A very common question that has risen over the years is;
What happens when the body is stripped off carbohydrates?
The exclusion of carbohydrates from the body necessitates replacement with protein which is ideal for burning fat.
Research suggests that consuming food rich in protein could be the basics of losing weight. Above all, eating a protein-rich food tends to boost the body metabolism by 25% thereby increasing the calories lost. The importance of adopting low carb diets is to enable the body to utilise fat as the primary energy source which in return makes an individual to produce ketone for fuelling and generating energy to the parts of the body.
By adopting this plan, an individual will cut out all carbohydrate from his/her food intake and increase protein and fat intake. Foods to cut out includes; flour, spaghetti, pasta, yam, bread, cassava, rice, alcohol and potatoes while those to be eaten more includes; beans, vegetables, meat, seafoods, cheese, salmon, butter and eggs.
REFERENCES
Nilsson L.M, Winkvist A., Johansson I., Lindahl B., Hallmans G., Lenner P. & Guelpen B. V., (2013) Low-carbohydrate, high-protein diet score and risk of incident cancer; a prospective cohort study, Nutrition Journal, 12:58.
Erlanson-Albertsson C. & Mei J. (2005) The effect of low carbohydrate on energy metabolism, International Journal of Obesity, issue 29, pp 28-30
Diabetes.co.uk
