Low Carb Diets: Pros and Cons

Many people reduce the amount of carbohydrates in their diet to lose weight. Low-carb diets help people quickly lose weight, switch to healthy protein and healthy fats. For the first time such a diet was invented 20 years ago by Dr. Robert Atkins, but its popularity increased only in recent years. This diet has its advantages, but there are serious drawbacks.

The dangers of low carbohydrate

Carbohydrates – the main reason that the body accumulates fat, and the weight is rapidly increasing. Limiting the amount of carbohydrates – this is the right step towards reducing weight. Such a diet will help reduce the amount of fat in the body and accelerate the growth of muscle mass. However, if your diet consists solely of proteins, you may have serious health problems. Along with increased cholesterol, this diet can cause kidney damage. The high content of proteins in the diet with the almost complete absence of carbohydrates can lead to a decrease in calcium in the bones and the removal of nutrients from the body.

Balance your diet

As with everything else in this life, going to extremes is dangerous and harmful. A healthy balanced diet consisting of all the essential nutrients is the best supplement to a workout program. It makes sense to reduce the carbohydrate component and make sure that you eat enough to support yourself for life and for training. Nutrients feed the muscles and enable them to work better during exercise. Again, this is not a reason not to abandon proteins with the words: “The head was all the bread, the ancestors ate, and they didn’t have anything”. Bread is an extremely harmful carbohydrate, because for the most part it is made from highly processed wheat, in which there are less nutrients than many years ago when bread was processed using a different technology and the “grandfathers” were fed on it. Some nutritional advice: Try not to eat carbohydrates five hours before bedtime. During this time, excess carbohydrates are burned, not absorbed by the body and do not become fat.

All carbohydrates are not equivalent. Simple carbohydrates, such as chips, cakes and white bread, are easily digested and make you feel hungry after a short period of time. Complex carbohydrates, such as fruits (although you should be careful with them), vegetables and whole grain breads are slow-burning carbohydrates. They will let you feel full longer. In this sense, complex carbohydrates are “good” carbohydrates, and simple carbohydrates – “bad”. It is worth remembering.

1. The elimination of carbohydrates helps to lose weight and keep weight

Yes it is. Partially. But as soon as you start eating carbohydrates again, the body shouts “Hurray” and desperately stores them. Proponents of the Atkins theory believe that nothing bad will happen if we reduce the carbohydrate component of the diet to a minimum, but this is impossible. Fashionable vegetarianism with its high-carb menu can be viable if you eat non-meat sources of protein and vitamin-mineral complexes, and in an omnivorous diet, carbohydrates are needed anyway.

Studies by nutritionists and scientists show that the less you consume carbohydrates, the more sensitive you become to them. In other words, when you start eating carbohydrates again, the body begins to “think”: “Hey, what is it? I have not seen such food for a long time, probably, now is a hungry time, I would rather store them in the form of stocks of fat. ”

2. Reducing carbohydrates and increasing the amount of protein helps in weight loss.

The main role of protein is to promote the growth of muscles and tissues, as well as in repairing cells; carbohydrates act as the main source of energy for our body. However, if carbohydrates do not enter the body, our body will decompose protein for energy (gluconeogenesis), which reduces the amount of protein in the body.

This affects not only muscle mass, but also slows your metabolism, which means that you end up burning fewer calories and gaining weight.

3. This is a great way to lose weight fast.

When you first stop eating carbohydrates, you will start to lose weight. However, when your weight and fat levels drop too quickly, your body’s hormones can be greatly altered.

People who like to lose weight quickly, but do not like power control and are not friends with the gym, low carbohydrate seems like a great idea, but this is far from true.

4. Protein is best for muscle building and weight loss.

Here’s something that may surprise you: muscles and their growth largely depend on carbohydrates. A low-carb diet tends to make the muscles flatter and less dense, so if you are trying to increase muscle mass, you definitely need to consume enough carbohydrates.
Low levels of carbohydrates can make your muscles soft. In addition, it can make you tired and lethargic.

5. You will lose a lot of water.

In fact, the way it is. Sometimes the excess mass in our body is water, which is stored for a variety of reasons. For what? Ida read here in this article, man! From three to five grams of water you will lose along with 1 gram of carbohydrates, which you refused.

When you come back to eating carbohydrates, the water will begin to accumulate in large quantities. Despite the fact that your body will eliminate it quickly enough (if you help him, of course), you will still feel bloated, as if you swallowed a small whale.

6. Any protein more healthy than any carbohydrate a thousand times.

Red meat and other foods that have a lot of protein, but at the same time a lot of unhealthy fats, increase the risk of cardiovascular diseases, cancer and obesity.

A protein-rich diet can have many other negative effects, such as irreversible kidney damage and an increased risk of osteoporosis.

Water that helps to lose weight? A diet of soda and Brussels sprouts? What new nutritional trends will emerge in the coming years? Is it really worth trying them all and never turn on your head?