Low Carb Diets – The Truth

May 20, 2011 by Tatianna

 

If you watch TV and pay attention to commercials you will notice that every few advertisements there an add for a weight loss pills, or a diet. The ironic part is that they always followed by a fast food commercial.

Most diets advertised do not provide adequate nutrition, therefore they can leave the dieter in a poor state of health, with damaged metabolism. Especially when they are the extremes, it surprises me how far people will go to loose weight. Even if you do end up loosing weight on an extreme diet, your body will develop a lower capacity for burning calories, this is why everyone who does loose weight gains it back.

 

Carbohydrate Restricted Diets

Restricting your carbs not only drops your energy levels, but it harms your athletic performance. You need carbohydrates for your brain, heart, muscles and all of your vital organs. The main fuel of the brain and central nervous system is glucose, which is obtained from carbs. If carbohydrates are unavailable for several days, the body begins to produce an alternative fuel made from only the partial burning of fatty acids knows as ketones. Ketones build in the blood causing an abnormal condition called ketosis.

So the weigh loss you get from that is NOT FAT but water, as the kidneys try to rid the body of excess ketones.

These type of diets upset the body’s chemical balance causing potentially serious side effects, such as fatigue, headaches, nausea and dizziness.

Consuming low or no-carbohydrates diet will result in a diminished rate of energy production from fat metabolism. When carbohydrate stores are depleted from the body, the rate at which fat is metabolized is reduced, because carbs are essential in the ability to metabolize fat. You will loose water weight but not fat.

With the lack of carbs it is true that the body will rely more on free fatty acids for fuel , but it will rely much more on Protein supplies from breaking down muscle. Which means you will burn some Fat, but you will burn even more Muscle.

In addition to that, if you are restricting your carbohydrate intake, you will have much lower energy during the exercise and you wont be able to push for maximum effort.

I my self had an experience with cutting down on carbohydrates about six years ago. I got really skinny and really sick. But it wasn’t the good skinny, it was no muscle, weird and pale looking skinny. I started having regular migraines, I was always tired and I couldn’t sleep.
I wish I knew all of the things I know now, back then. It took me two years to rebuild my metabolism, but I still haven’t stopped having the migraines, and I still have problems sleeping.  It is easy to damage your system, but it’s very hard to undo that damage.

Always follow a Nutritional Rule of 1 – 2 – 3 ratio, Fat – Protein – Carbohydrates for all your meals except dinner. Dinner should be 1 – 2 – 2 ratio, with only complex carbohydrates such as veggies.