How does a Low Carb Diet work?

Burning Fat

Much research has proven that dietary fat is not necessarily converted into body fat. Carbohydrates, on the other hand, are readily converted into fat by the action of insulin. According to many experts, most overweight people became overweight due to a condition called hyperinsulinemia -- elevated insulin levels in the blood. When you eat a high-carbohydrate meal, the increased blood sugar stimulates insulin production by the pancreas. Insulin is the hormone that allows blood sugar to be used by the cells. However, a side effect of insulin is that it also causes fat to be deposited, and it stimulates your brain to produce hunger signals. So what do you do? You eat more carbohydrates, and the cycle repeats. In time, your body cells become resistant to insulin, meaning that your pancreas has to work overtime, producing up to four or five times as much insulin just to keep up with the demand. It has been shown that high levels of insulin have a deleterious effect on the body, including premature aging.

Restricting the intake of carbohydrates puts a halt to this vicious cycle. When you restrict your carbohydrate intake, your insulin levels decrease and the levels of glucagon increase. Glucagon is a hormone that causes body fat to be burned and cholesterol to be removed from deposits in the arteries.

If you severely restrict carbs, your body goes into a state of ketosis--burning fat with the subsequent production of ketone bodies in the bloodstream. The condition is called "ketonuria" if ketones are spilled out into the urine. The result of ketosis is that your blood sugar levels stabilize; your insulin level drops; and because your body is burning fat, you lose weight!

When your diet causes your body to go into a state of ketosis, you are said to be on a ketogenic diet. For most people, restricting your carbohydrate intake to fewer than 30 grams a day will induce ketonuria. Most people on ketogenic diets lose weight fairly quickly. However, although some diet experts believe that ketosis is a safe condition, it is not necessary to be in ketosis to lose weight. Keep in mind, however, that when you choose a higher level of carbohydrates than what is needed to bring on ketosis, you may have to limit your total food intake (calories) somewhat in order to lose weight.

Also, for diabetics who are not obese, it certainly is not necessary to induce ketosis to reap the benefits of a low-carb diet. It is quite possible to bring your blood glucose levels under control without being in ketosis. However, if you must lose considerable weight, a ketogenic diet is the most efficient method for bringing your weight back down to where it should be.

What are the benefits of a Low Carb Diet?
A Healthy Way to Lose Weight

In general, on a low-carb diet it is not necessary to count calories. Eat all you want, as often as you want, in order to prevent hunger. Don't stuff yourself, just eat until you're no longer hungry. Remember, there is a difference between being hungry and having an appetite. Hungar means your body needs more food, so you need to eat. Having an appetite means you have the feeling that you want to eat, whether your body needs more food or not.

In some cases, for those who are metabolically resistant, reducing total food intake may help to stimulate or maintain weight loss. But it's the carbs, not the total calories that must be kept low.

Because you are consuming fats and oils, your appetite stays under control, because fatty foods are very satisfying. Eating a high level of fat actually causes you to lose weight faster than if you were fasting! That is because, during a fast, your body thinks it is starving, so it kicks into a very high efficiency state of metabolism. This slows down weight loss. But with a high fat diet, combined with very low amounts of carbohydrates, your body knows it is not starving, and metabolism is maintained at a normal level. Although consuming fats is necessary for a healthy diet, try to limit consumption of trans-fats (margarine and shortening). Good fats include olive oil, flax seed oil, canola oil, oils found in nuts, and also real butter. Most fats should be the monounsaturated and saturated fats. Avoid the polyunsaturated fats when possible, except for those containing the essential omega-3 fatty acids contained in fish.

But isn't a low-carb diet high in protein and doesn't eating a lot of protein damage the kidneys? First of all, a low-carb diet is not necessarily a high protein diet. It's an adequate protein diet. It's primarily a high fat diet. But the answer to the second part of the question is no, there is no evidence that eating lots of protein will damage healthy kidneys.

Advantages of Low-Carbing

Sustained weight loss
Stabilized blood sugar (especially important for diabetics)
Lower insulin levels
Better blood lipid profile (low cholesterol)
Lowered blood pressure
More energy
Vitamins and Minerals

But isn't a low-carb diet deficient in vitamins and minerals that are found in fresh fruits and vegetables? A low-carb lifestyle used to control diabetes and not to lose weight can be quite balanced--just stay away from refined carbohydrates. However, most low-carb diets used for weight loss are not "balanced" in terms of providing all the essential micronutrients. That is why it is extremely important to supplement your diet with good-quality vitamin and mineral products. It is also important to take a fiber supplement.

Look at it this way: All your life your body has been constantly subjected to high "doses" of sugar, in the form of refined carbohydrates. Your body recognizes only one carbohydrate -- sugar. All carbohydrates you eat, except fiber, are converted into sugar. Eating a diet that is 70% carbohydrates means that most of what you eat is sugar. That type of diet is also unbalanced. The purpose of a low-carb diet is to bring your body chemistry and insulin sensitivity back into balance. To do that, you must eat a diet that is unbalanced in the opposite direction of they way you have been eating for years.

Once the weight is off, and your blood chemistry, blood pressure, and energy levels are back in the normal range, then you may start adding some more complex carbohydrates back into your diet. By eating a moderate amount of foods like vegetables and berries, and a limited amount of grain products, such as whole-grain breads and beans, your diet will then be balanced and you can stop taking the supplements, if you wish. Besides, the low-carb diet is not as unbalanced as you might think. Meats, butter, nuts, cheese, and eggs contain a lot of essential vitamins and minerals.