A popular approach to loose excessive body fat and to improve certain aspects of health is low carbohydrate dieting. Read how to do it the best way and diminish the dangers.
If you think about loosing weight and possibly also improve your general health with a low carbohydrate approach, you must do it the right way to avoid the downright opposite result or even make hazard to your health. Here are some useful advices.
THE BASIC PRINCIPLES OF LOW CARBOHYDRATE DIETS
All types of effective diets are based on a reduction of the total amount of energy you consume. That means you must consume less carbohydrates, less fat or less of both. You must therefore eat less than before.
By the low carbohydrate approach you radically reduce your carbohydrate consume, that is the consume of sugar and starch. You still need some energy, and 80 % of that energy shall come from intake of fat according to the typical receipts. You shall also have a high consume of protein.
If you have a diet with nearly no fat consume in the first place, you will need to increase the consume of fat somewhat when you radically reduce the consume of carbohydrates.
The diet must also contain enough dietary fiber, vitamins and minerals. The fat you consume should be a mix of mono-unsaturated fat, poly-unsaturated fat of the type omega-6, polyunsaturated fat of the type omega-3 and only moderate amounts of saturated fat. No fat in your diet should be chemically altered in any way.
Your diet should also be such that your blood sugar level is moderate and nearly constant all the time. Such a diet is said to have a low glycemic index. By basing most of your energy need on fat, you achieve much of this goal, since fat is only slowly converted to sugar. The carbohydrates you consume must be from natural unrefined sources to further complete this objective, since such carbohydrates are taken up slowly. Eating 3 - 4 equally meals of moderate size every day will also help.
HOW TO PRACTICALLY ACHIEVE THIS WITH FOOD SOURCES
To achieve this, you stop adding sugar in your food and stop consuming premade dishes or drinks with added sugar. You shall also only have a law intake of food with a high starch content, like potatoes, cereals, bread, peas or beans. The amount you still eat of these food sources shall be unrefined and also otherwise natural.
Much of your diet shall be based upon food rich in proteins and unsaturated fat like: fat fish, nuts, almonds, flax seeds and sunflower seeds.
You can also consume some food rich in proteins, saturated fat and cholesterol like fat milk, fat diary products and fat red meat but do not let these be a major part of your diet.
Fat added to your meals should mainly be of the mono-unsaturated fat type found in olive oil. You should avoid adding much butter which contains saturated fat or much oils containing omega-6-fat like soy oil or corn oil to avoid getting a bad fat mix.
You shall however not take in too much fat either. Therefore you must solve the rest of your need for proteins with lean fish, lean meat, poultry, mushrooms, lean milk and lean diary products.
You must also eat good amounts of vegetables and some fruit to get enough dietary fibers, vitamins and minerals. Even though fruit is sweet, you will hardly get too much carbohydrates from a moderate consume of fruit.
You should not at all use margarine or other sources of chemically altered fat. Avoid sweet drinks, snacks and cookies since these products contain a lot of added sugar and often the worst form of fat. Make all your dishes yourself from unprocessed food sources, since you then have full control of the types of nutrients you consume.
POSSIBLE BENEFITS WITH THIS DIETING APPROACH
Some people report that it is easier to loose weight with this approach, but scientific investigation is so far not conclusive about this claim. It is not clear exactly why this slimming approach shall work better for some. Possibly it is only because it makes some persons feel full and satisfied earlier and longer and therefore eat less with this approach. But possibly the approach also results in a higher rate of fat burning.
If you have tendency to freeze on limbs you might feel warmer and thus more comfortable by eating a higher amount of fat.
The approach can be good for people in a pre-diabetic state and help to stabilize the blood sugar content for persons suffering from diabetes. It can possibly be used as a major treatment modality for diabetes type 2. The diet may thus allow diabetics to gradually reduce the dose of insulin.
POSSIBLE HAZARDS WITH LOW CARBOHYDRATE DIETS
Many experts are of the opinion that a high amount of fat in the diet is dangerous for the health, regardless of what type of fat you consume. This danger may however not be there if you consume the right combination of fat types.
It is however difficult to have a high fat consume with the right mix of fat types. If you eat much fat meat and much fat diary products, you will get too much saturated fat. If you eat much eggs you can get too much cholesterol. You will then probably increase your risk for heart and circulatory disease if you are predisposed.
You should monitor your cholesterol level well when using this diet approach, and go back to another type of diet if it elevates or if you get worse symptoms of circulatory disease.
Diabetics that begin a low carbohydrate approach can experience a dangerous drop in blood sugar levels. To avoid this one must begin gradually, monitor the blood sugar level well and adjust the dose of insulin to fit all the time.
It takes longer time for the body to mobilize fat and use it for work than carbohydrates. A low carbohydrate approach can therefore reduce your ability to do physical work or to exercise, especially the first weeks. The body tend however to adjust to the new main energy source, so that most persons regain the working ability after some time.
Fat contains more energy than carbohydrates. If you do not manage to reduce the amount of food you eat well enough, you can get the opposite result and actually get fatter with this approach.
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Knut Holt is a business consultant and marketer focusing on the health field. At his site there are more information about health and fitness. You can also find presentation of products to improve health, and of products in the categories hobby, automotive and apparel.
http://www.panteraconsulting.com
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