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Low Carb Dieting—A Great Way to Healthy Lifestyle
"Diet" is often a frightening and little scary word, because diet usually means deprivation. But there is another healthier and convenient alternative that doesn't deprive you of the foods you wish to take - the Low Carbohydrate Dieting or popularly called “Low Carb Dieting”.
Usually people diet for two reasons--to lose weight and to improve overall health or both. If you're a healthy adult who's not overweight and who has no family members who are obese, then the low carb diet will work just fine. Recommended carbohydrates are the ones contained in whole grains, fruits, and vegetables. However, even those who are healthy and who are not overweight can also maintain their health and vitality by adopting a low carb diet. For those who are overweight, or who have diabetes, the low calorie and low fat diets recommended by most dieticians simply don't work. Furthermore, for diabetics, they can actually worsen their condition. The only diet that strikes at the real cause of obesity, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, hypoglycemia, and type-2 diabetes is the low carb diet.
There is a vast difference between "low fat" and "low carbohydrate" diets. The standard low-fat/low-calorie weight loss diets basically starve the body, and both fat and muscle end up being burned for fuel. You lose weight, but the loss of lean muscle tissue only serves to reduce your metabolic rate, thus slowing your efforts even more. With a properly planned low carb program, your body will burn mostly fat, and will preserve the lean muscle. If you exercise, you will add lean muscle while losing fat, which will increase your metabolic rate, and increase the fat-burning effect. Muscle tissue weighs more than fat, but takes up less bulk, so you may find yourself getting smaller in size without seeing a drastic drop on the scales.
There are many different versions of the low-carb diet, such as Dr. Atkins New Diet Revolution, Protein Power, Neanderthin, The Carbohydrate Addict's Lifestyle Plan, Life Without Bread, and others.
All of them, however, have one thing in common -- a very strict reduction in the consumption of carbohydrates. For those who are overweight, or who have diabetes, the low-calorie and low-fat diets recommended by the government do not work well. In fact, for diabetics, they can actually worsen the condition. The only diet that strikes at the real cause of obesity, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, hypoglycemia, and type 2 diabetes is a low-carbohydrate diet. Many doctors and nutritionists are now starting to recognize this. Most low-Carb diets replace carbohydrates with fats and proteins.
Although diets vary in their recommendations, as a general rule, a low-Carb diet is synonymous with a high-fat and moderate protein diet. Those on a low-Carb diet should get at least 60 to 70 percent of their daily calorie intake from fat. Carbohydrates should make up less than 10 percent, and in some cases, less than 5 percent of your daily calorie intake.
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