What Makes an Ideal Low Carb Diet

Low-carb diets are diet plans low in carbohydrate intake. These are designed to help the user control or lose weight as well as treat obesity. Carbohydrates are the body's first source of energy, when a low-carb diet is followed; it usually involves taking extra protein and fat to make up for the caloric deficiency of carbohydrates. The American Academy of Family Physicians provides the following definition of low-carbohydrate diets.

Low-carbohydrate diets restrict caloric intake by reducing the consumption of carbohydrates to 20g to 60g per day (typically less than 20 percent of the daily caloric intake). The consumption of protein and fat is increased to compensate for part of the calories that formerly came from carbohydrates.

The ideal low-carb diet should be one in which your diet is focused around maintaining a standard calorie intake, normal for your age, gender and height, but deriving those calories from sources other than carbohydrates, preferably protein. The reason why low-carb diets, like Atkin's Diet, are useful in weight loss is because they train the body to utilize its full calorie reservoir for energy. Carbohydrates, sugar, are the first to be digested by the body. When the body requires energy, the stored carbs are the first to go. Thus far, all's well. But when the stored carbs are used up and the body needs more energy, it again craves sugar. Hence the other stored nutrients such as fat never get used up. The result is a build up of fat cells in the body.

So what should be in your Low-Carb Diet? Here are a few essentials;

1. Commitment: your commitment to your own health is essential for your diet to succeed.

2. Balance: just because you're cutting on the carbs doesn't mean that your diet is or should be out of balance. Make sure your nutritional requirements are complete. Buy a nutritional table or some other source of authentic information about what kind of nutrients and how many calories are present in each kind of food.

3. Eat more Vegetables: vegetables are a great source of minerals, protein and vitamins. But avoid vegetables with starch such as corn or potatoes. Green leafy vegetables are an excellent source of nutrition. Mushrooms, avocados, cauliflower, etc are all great.

4. You Will be Taking Fats: since your body will be low on carbs, it will require more fats. The fats help it to run smoothly as well as fill the calorie deficiency caused by the absence of carbs. The only real danger is having a diet high on both carbs and fat. But fat means healthy fat, the kind found in olive oil, avocados, fish fat, flex seeds, etc.

5. Watch the protein: your protein intake should comprise about 35% of your total calorie count. This is a safe, healthy proportion. But go for the high quality protein such as white meat. Chicken, fish, etc are much better than beef, pork or other forms of read meat.

6. Cut out Beverages: avoid carbonated drinks like coke.

7. Low Carb Doesn't mean No Carb: remember you're on a low carb diet, your not trying to eliminate carbohydrates completely from your body. But as you increase the proportion of other nutrients in your diet, the share of carbs will go down. This means that you now have to make smarter decisions about the 'kind' of carbs you do eat. Firstly, don't waste the carb slot for the day by eating something distasteful. It's better to have a small portion of really tasty chocolate cake, rather than a big tasteless bar of chocolate or a small scoop of rich ice-cream. Secondly, go for high quality carbs such as nuts. You're body shouldn't feel tortured.

8. Brown is Healthier than White: don't go for refined grains. Brown bread is better than white bread, whole grain flour is better than white flour and brown sugar is better than white sugar.


By Johan Knutsson