Low Carb Diet and Foods - good carbs VS bad carbs

The low carb diet is one of the most talked about and well known diets around right now. Specific low carb foods are now showing up in stores and on menus around the world. This is probably why when the average person decides they want to lose weight, the first thing that enters their mind is the low carb diet. In this article I will explain what this diet is, if it actually works, if it is required for weight loss to happen, and whether or not you should do it. I will also list some low carb foods and explain the difference between good carbs and bad carbs.

How is a low carb diet supposed to work?

The idea behind the low carb diet goes something like this... carbs raise blood sugar and insulin levels. This leads to weight gain. So then, less carbs means less weight gain. Your body also uses carbs for energy. So, if you start eating mostly low carb foods and therefore restrict the amount of carbs you take in, your body will use glycogen and stored fat for energy instead, which is a process known as ketosis.

Is the low carb diet a "gimmick" diet?

On the surface, the low carb diet is a gimmick diet (aka fad diet). By gimmick diet, I mean it is based on the gimmick of eating "low carb." The reason this would be considered a gimmick is because, while these types of diets CAN work, they are NOT something that is required for weight loss to happen. Eating mostly low carb foods isn't necessary at all, actually. See, for the average person, weight loss occurs when one thing and one thing only happens. That one thing is when your daily calorie intake falls below your daily calorie maintenance level. That's CALORIE... not CARB. Let me explain...

Every human body has a certain number of calories that it requires from your diet each day in order for it to maintain your current weight. This is called your calorie maintenance level. Let's pretend for example that your maintenance level is 2500 calories. So then, if you started eating 2000 calories a day, you would lose weight. If you still ate 2500 calories a day, but then burned off 500 through working out, you would lose weight. If you did a combination of both, you would lose weight. So generally, weight loss is all about calories, not a low carb diet and eating low carb foods.

In the simplest sense, calories are what really controls a person's weight. Eating less of them is what will make weight loss happen. And, if you greatly limit your carbs, you just so happen to end up limiting your calories as well. Weight loss diets are all about limiting something. In that sense a low carb diet is a lot like a low calorie diet, except it limits JUST carbs. For this reason, I don't know why these types of diets are so popular. Why put such a big limit on only carbs when you can put a much smaller, much healthier, and much more proportionate limit on protein, carbs and fat as a whole? This way you wouldn't have to eat only low carb foods. This way your calorie intake would decrease by restricting a little bit of everything (protein, carbs and fat) rather than JUST carbs alone as you do on low carbohydrate diets. But... that's just my opinion.

Low Carb Foods

Since the basic idea of the low carb diet is eating low carb foods, you are probably interested in knowing which are low in carbs. As it turns out, most foods high in protein and fat will usually have very few carbs. Meat, chicken, turkey, cheese, fish, eggs... these are all examples of low carb foods.

Then there are specialty foods and products that normally have a lot of carbs but have been specially made to fit into a low carb diet.
For example:

Spaghetti
Pasta
Atkins cereal
Atkins candy bars and peanut butter cups
Atkins breakfast bars

Good carbs VS bad carbs

Once you've learned about low carb foods, the second most important thing a person on a low carb diet needs to know is which are good carbs, and which are bad carbs. First of all, the technical term for good carbs is complex carbs, and the technical term for bad carbs is simple carbs. Bad carbs (simple) are high glycemic. Good carbs (complex) are low glycemic. The term "glycemic" refers to the amount and speed a food will raise your blood sugar and insulin levels (which leads to fat gain).

"Bad carbs" (simple) are foods like white bread, white rice, pasta and all typical junk food high in sugar.
"Good carbs" (complex) on the other hand are foods such as oatmeal, whole wheat bread, brown rice, and other whole grains.

Does it actually work?

Yes, people have lost weight on a low carb diet. That is the truth. However, bare in mind that people tend to lose a lot of weight early with this method of weight loss because of all of the water they are losing. Due to eating only low carb foods, glycogen is used for energy, and this causes a decrease in water weight. Also bare in mind that limiting carbs is also limiting calories. A decrease in calories often leads to a decrease in weight.

My personal opinion...

As I mentioned before, the low carb diet can lead to weight loss. People have indeed lost weight using it. If the whole low carb foods craze appeals to you, then by all means, give it shot. If the whole theory behind it all seems like something that is right for you, go for it. I want to make that point clear. Some diets fit certain people better, and maybe this one fits you. However, to me the low carb diet is like hopping on 1 leg to get somewhere when you could have just walked. You may still get there, but your method of travel was unnecessary. My personal opinion? I prefer to walk instead of hop. However you get there is completely up to you.

Source:intense-workout.com