Low-Carb Product Links
LCBooks
Concise Weight-Loss Plan
Things you can and can't eat!
Beware of Hidden Carbs!
Biochemistry 101
The Food Pyramid the way it's SUPPOSED to be!
All about Nutrition Facts Labels
Studies supporting a Low-Carb Diet
Health and Nutrition News
Message Board


Please share this site with your friends!
Your Name:

Your Email:

Your Friend:

Friend's Email:

I am 43 years old and started the low carb in January at 230 lbs. Here I am 8 months later at 158--almost to my goal of 150. I feel better than I have in years and can wear clothes I haven't worn in years as well. I will most likely make this my way of life now. Nothing tastes as good. as thin feels.
--Mary McCree

For the first time in my life, my hypoglycemia is under control. My blood pressure is fantastic and every bit of my blood work is awesome! And yes, my kidneys still work and they aren't held in place with duct tape! So if this almost 37 year old mom of 4 teenage sons ranging from 13 year old twins to 17 can do it, so can you!!! Give it two weeks and then decide what you think. What have you got to lose but pounds?
--Tinakaye


Disclaimer | Feedback | Refer a Friend
Low-Carb Pavilion
Low-Carb Navigator

Automatic Activation
Search this site for:
RELATED LINKS
Low-Carb Foods     Dining Low-Carb     Counting Carbs    

Low-Carb Menus     Low-Carb Cooking     Holiday Dieting    

IETING! You hate it, right? Well, you're not alone. Americans love to be trim and healthy, but we hate to diet, and rightly so. Dieting deprives us. But all diets are not created equal. And there is one type of diet that lets you eat well and still lose weight. It is the much-touted low-carbohydrate diet.

This Web site will give you advice and answer many of your questions about low-carb dieting.

So you have questions?

More Low-Carb FAQs



What is a Low Carb Diet?

The Basics...

People diet for two primary reasons, to lose weight, or to improve health--or both. If you are a healthy adult who is not overweight and who has no family members who are obese, the food pyramid recommendations of the USDA will work fine, as long as you remember that the carbohydrates that are recommended are those contained in whole grains, fruits, and vegetables. However, even those who are healthy and who are not overweight can maintain their health and vitality by following a reduced carbohydrate lifestyle. (See Syndrome-X, below).

For those who are overweight, or who have diabetes, the low-calorie and low-fat diets recommended by the government do not work well. In fact, for diabetics, they can actually worsen the condition. The only diet that strikes at the real cause of obesity, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, hypoglycemia, and type 2 diabetes is a low-carbohydrate diet. Many doctors and nutritionists are now starting to recognize this.

There are many different versions of the low-carb diet, such as Dr. Atkins New Diet Revolution, Protein Power, Neanderthin, The Carbohydrate Addict's Lifestyle Plan, Life Without Bread, and others. All of them, however, have one thing in common -- a very strict reduction in the consumption of carbohydrates. Most low-carb diets replace carbohydrates with fats and proteins. Although diets vary in their recommendations, as a general rule, a low-carb diet is synonymous with a high-fat and moderate protein diet. Those on a low-carb diet should get at least 60 to 70 percent of their daily calorie intake from fat. Carbohydrates should make up less than 10 percent, and in some cases, less than 5 percent of your daily calorie intake.

After being told for years to eat a low-fat, high-carbohydrate "balanced" diet, Americans are now the fattest people on Earth, and getting fatter every year! The occurrences of adult-onset diabetes is also increasing. We now know, because research has shown, that fat is not the enemy -- carbohydrates are.

On a low-carb diet, you can eat until you're full, as long as you eat only allowed foods. Allowed foods are meats, fish, poultry, eggs, and cheese, plus a limited amount of green vegetables. Stay away from foods that are on the "Not Allowed" list.

Back to Questions



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! You can easily test to see if your diet is inducing ketosis with the use of inexpensive ketone test strips.

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.

Back to Questions



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. See the Diet Plan for more details.

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. (Why?)

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. Read more.


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.

Back to Questions



What are the Main Points?

Guidelines to Follow when Lowcarbing...
  • Limit carbohydrates to no more than 10 percent of your daily calorie intake
  • Eat only allowed foods
  • Eat NO foods that contain sugar or white flour
  • Be aware of "hidden" sugars and carbohydrates
  • Cut out caffeine
  • Take fiber supplements (psyllium husks are good)
  • Take vitamin and mineral supplements
  • Drink LOTS of water
  • See your health care professional before starting any diet

Don't try to diet without following a plan. The Low-Carb Pavilion provides a concise workable plan for losing weight on a low-carb diet, based on a combination of approaches found in the most popular low-carbohydrate diet books as listed in the Resources section below. If you have decided to begin a low-carb way of eating, click here to get started.

Back to Questions


Who Should Follow a Low-Carb Lifestyle?

Your Mileage May Vary

One of the most common short-hand notations found on most diet newsgroups is YMMV (Your mileage may vary)! And this is most certainly true of the low-carbohydrate way of eating. Not everyone will lose weight at the same speed. Some people reach plateaus in their weight loss (as with other diets). And some people experience some minor "withdrawal symptoms" as their bodies adjust to using fat for energy instead of carbs. Most of the negative side effects reported, such as tiredness, constipation, diarrhea, or headaches are only temporary. Most will disappear in a week or so. Some authors advise starting the diet slowly, by gradually reducing the number of carbs in order to minimize side effects. For most people, however, going "cold turkey" is the best approach.

So who should follow the low-carb lifestyle? Well, it wouldn't hurt for anyone who wants to lose weight to give it a try. But those who have developed hyperinsulinemia are perfect candidates for the low-carb diet. In fact, a low-carb diet is the ONLY treatment for hyperinsulinemia. Hyperinsulinemia usually leads to insulin resistance and its associated symptoms and disorders. It is often called Syndrome X.


Syndrome X

Syndrome X is manifested by some or all of the following symptoms and conditions:

  • Hypoglycemia
  • High blood pressure
  • High LDL cholesterol
  • High triglycerides
  • Anxiety/Panic disorder
  • Irritable bowel syndrome
  • Binge eating
  • Digestive disorders
  • Obesity
  • Heart disease
  • Type 2 diabetes

If you have any of these symptoms or conditions, a low-carb diet may be the best treatment. In fact, it is the only way to actually treat the CAUSE of all these symptoms and conditions -- hyperinsulinemia. Medications and other diets can only treat the symptoms themselves, not the underlying cause.

Is there anyone who should not try a low-carb diet?

Recent scientific studies have shown that a low-carb diet is safe and effective. Therefore, anyone who desires to lose weight or who needs to bring their blood chemistry back into line, should try a low-carb lifestyle. However, there are those who, for whatever reason, cannot stick with the low-carb diet. It is very difficult (though by no means impossible) for vegetarians to follow a low-carb diet. Also, those who just do not like a lot of meat, eggs, and cheese may find this way of eating difficult to stick with for a long time. But for those who love steaks, shrimp, fish, chicken, omelets, cheese, and pork chops, and who don't mind giving up the bread, potatoes, and desserts, the low-carb alternative can easily become a life-long way of eating -- especially since your cravings for the high-carbohydrate foods will go away after a couple of weeks of low-carb eating.

Back to Questions


Resources

Books

Related Websites

Other Low-Carb Web Pages

In the News...

Low Carb Shopping

Low Carb Recipe Sites

Newsgroups and Chat

Back to Questions



Netrition - The Internet's Premier Nutrition Superstore!
Netrition - The Internet's Premier Nutrition Superstore!


For comments and link submissions, email Go Here.




DISCLAIMER: The material on this website is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as medical advice. Do not use the information as a substitute for medical care or treatment by a licensed health care professional. This web site is not intended to provide or confirm a diagnosis nor is any claim made as to therapeutic efficacy. No claims here have been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.


34413 Counter reset on 7/5/08

Home | Food Guidelines | Hidden Carbs | Basic Biochemistry | Health News
Supportive Studies | Food Pyramid | The Diet Plan | Low-Carb Products
Guestbook | Feedback |


Policy Statement Copyright © 1997 - 2009 Wilstar.com Contact Jerry Wilson.


Sorry, your browser doesn't support Java(tm).

Need help dieting this year? Learn how to eat right and live a healthy life style at health line! Our database has info on medical symptoms, common pregnancy symptoms and how to stay on a healthy track!

Low-Carb Products