With the popularity of low-carb diets today, most of us have at one time or another considered cutting carbs. In this series of articles we have discussed ‘low-carbing’ and whether or not it’s right for everyone.

In this article we’re going to talk about carbohydrates and how they are stored in the body. Does a large supply of excess carbs make us fat?

Many people believe that only dietary fat will lead to body fat. False! Actually, eating more calories than your body needs to perform daily activities and daily metabolism is what causes body fat. It is as simple as putting 20 gallons of gas in a 15 gallon gas tank…..the excess must go somewhere. In the case of human nutrition, the excess is stored as fat.

Just as excess protein can be stored as body fat, excess carbohydrate can be stored as body fat. Unfortunately for the American public, our consumption of simple carbohydrates has skyrocketed over the last ten years! Too many of us took the popularity of the low-fat and fat-free diets as an excuse to fill up on empty carbo-calories. After all, it’s okay to eat the entire package of licorice since it’s all fat free….right? Again, False!

Carbohydrates that the body cannot use are stored as body fat, plain and simple. Carbohydrates usually are ingested in the forms of polysaccharides (starches), disaccharides (sucrose and lactose) and monosaccharides (glucose and fructose). Essentially what occurs in the digestive process is a breakdown of the polysaccharides and disaccharides to the monosaccharides. The primary site of digestion is the small intestine, where the monosaccharides are then absorbed into the blood. Of the three monosaccharides, glucose is of most importance to human physiology. This is called blood sugar. Fructose and galactose are converted to blood glucose either in the intestinal wall or the liver.

A high-carbohydrate meal will lead to a rapid increase in the blood sugar level, usually within an hour. Naturally, the higher the food is on the glycemic index (refined sugars), the higher the blood sugar level will rise. The maintenance of a normal blood sugar level is very important for proper metabolism. The human body regulates blood sugar levels by a hormone called insulin. The rises in blood sugar levels stimulate the pancreas to secrete the hormone insulin into the blood. Insulin then facilitates the uptake and utilization of blood sugar by various tissues in the body, most notably the muscles and adipose tissue.

The fate of blood sugar is dependent on many factors, with exercise being one of the most important.

1) Blood sugar may be used for energy, particularly by the brain and other parts of the nervous system.

2) Blood sugar may be converted to either liver or muscle glycogen. Liver glycogen may then be later converted to blood sugar. Muscle glycogen is, for the most part, locked into the muscle cell once it enters, where it is converted to energy.

3) Blood sugar may be converted to and stored as fat in the adipose tissue. This situation occurs when the dietary carbohydrate, in combination with caloric intake of other nutrients, exceeds the energy demands of the body, and the storage capacity of the liver and muscles for glycogen.

4) Some blood sugar also may be excreted in the urine if excessive amounts occur in the blood, because of rapid ingestion of simple sugars.

So, what happens if we don’t consume enough carbohydrates? Because the carbohydrate stores in the body are rather limited, and because blood sugar is normally essential for optimal functioning of the central nervous system, it is important to be able to produce blood sugar or glucose internally if the stores are depleted by starvation or a zero-carbohydrate diet. This process is called gluconeogenesis, meaning the formation of glucose. In this process, protein is converted to glucose, and fat is converted to glucose by breaking down glycerol in the liver. The by-products of carbohydrate metabolism, lactate and pyruvate, may also be converted back to glucose in the liver.

With this understanding of how carbohydrate is metabolized in the body, it is clear that low-carb or no-carb diets may lead to decreased levels of energy.

Low-carb diets, however, have been proven to take off the weight. In some cases, weight loss has been dramatic when the subjects abruptly switched to a no-carb diet. Such rapid weight loss is attributed to water loss. Low carbohydrate intake depletes liver and muscle glycogen (stored sugars) and water molecules linked to these sugars. This depletion triggers a drop in body weight.

Especially during the introduction phase of a low-carb diet (2 weeks), the dieter is encouraged to eliminate virtually all carbohydrates from the diet. Even a slight intake of high glycemic foods during this phase would cause immediate weight gain by rebuilding glycogen stores.

Because carbohydrate is the body’s preferred fuel source, this first phase of the diet would most certainly challenge exercise enthusiasts.

So, is the low-carb lifestyle right for you? Maybe. We hope that this series of articles has helped you understand low-carb diets and their potential impact on the body.

SOURCE: (International Sports Sciences Association; Frederick C. Hatfield, Ph.D.; 2001)

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Unless you’ve been living in a cave for the last few months, you’ve probably noticed that low-carb mania is sweeping the nation. Food manufacturers are in a heated race to see who can get the most low-carb fare into the grocery stores, and every advertiser worth their salt is emphasizing the low-carb message. Popularized by the late Dr. Atkins, the low-carb diet has taken the nation by storm and was by far the biggest trend of 2004.

So, does the low-carb diet work? Anecdotal evidence and recent studies both conclude that following a strict low-carb diet will in fact help you lose weight. Serious questions remain, however, and must be addressed before fully embracing the low-carb lifestyle. Some of these questions include:

* What are the long-term effects (10-20 years) of low-carb eating?

* Can you stick with the low-carb diet, or will your love for carbohydrates keep you cheating and frustrated?

* How does a low-carb diet mix with exercise? In particular, what impact does it have on your muscle?

* Have you read the materials on the low-carb diet, or are you just following the second-hand information you heard from a co-worker?

In this series of articles we will attempt to address these issues.

Real fitness experts emphasize that you should make changes to your diet that you can stick with for the long term. All too often, people start on a new “diet” and willpower their way to weight loss. They don’t enjoy it, mainly because their “diet” is telling them they can’t eat the foods they love. BOOM They’re off the diet. Perhaps a few months later they try another diet, just to find that it is also too restrictive and BOOM they’re off again. This yo-yo dieting takes a toll on the body, often leading to lost muscle mass and even worse a feeling of failure.

For any “diet” to work, it has to be created in such a way that you can live with it. Life is simply too short to be absolutely miserable, and trying to willpower yourself into a “diet” that you can’t stick with is a sure path to misery.

So, should you start a low-carb diet? That’s the million-pound question! And the answer is…..drum roll please…..maybe! If you think you can stick with it, and if you take the time to read about it and get the facts, and if you discuss it with your doctor, and if you know what you are getting into, and if you have the support of your family, then maybe the low-carb diet is right for you.

Why not just a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’? Because everybody is different and no single plan is going to work for everyone. Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, Slim-Fast, the Atkins Diet, the South Beach Diet, and hundreds of other plans have all helped people, but not one of them has helped everyone.

What’s important to realize is that you must discover your own nutritional plan: one that works for you.

And finally, a reminder to exercise must be shouted from the gym floor! No matter what nutritional approach you take, all of the experts recommend that you exercise on a regular basis. Think about it: there are hundreds of diet plans out there in the world today, and many of them offer conflicting information, but the one thing that they all have in common is that they strongly encourage you to exercise. So although the experts may disagree on what you should eat, they do agree on what you should do: exercise!

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I just wanted to give some people out there some ideas on what to eat on a low carb diet.

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This is Part 2 of 3 Why Not Fruits? As of July 2009 -50 lbs since I’ve been on eating Low Carb with very little exercise. This is about MY Life and MY experience I talk about my own personal experience with fruits, please do not call ETF(ethical treatment of fruits) I am just telling you about how I am doing living without most fruits that are high in sugars and the roller coaster ride it caused me. This is my time to share with you my experiences being on the low carb lifestyle and how I feel. I take this time to talk about my new discoveries and how fruits and my body and why my weight loss has been successful. It didn’t happen over night, after many attempts, I finally found what works for me. Check out Jimmy Moore’s site if you are interested in low carb product reviews and info. www.youtube.com

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This is Part 1of 3 Why Not Fruits? As of July 2009 -50 lbs since I’ve been on eating Low Carb with very little exercise. This is about MY Life and MY experience I talk about my own personal experience with fruits, please do not call ETF(ethical treatment of fruits) I am just telling you about how I am doing living without most fruits that are high in sugars and the roller coaster ride it caused me. This is my time to share with you my experiences being on the low carb lifestyle and how I feel. I take this time to talk about my new discoveries and how fruits and my body and why my weight loss has been successful. It didn’t happen over night, after many attempts, I finally found what works for me.

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Everyone these days wants to find easy, low-carb recipes to build a healthy diet that is low in carbohydrates. With the recent low-carb craze, dieters can find information all over the place. Here are some guidelines to help you get what you want out of the low-carb phenomenon.

Whether you are searching the Internet, paging through a cookbook or digging through a friend’s pile of recipes, you need to keep in mind what it is that you want out of this diet. You should desire low-carb recipes that appeal to you, that will help you lose weight healthily, that you want to eat and that you can prepare without too big a headache.

Just because foods are low-carb and diet-friendly doesn’t mean they have to be bad or boring. You can find easy, low-carb recipes without sacrificing foods you enjoy. You can easily find recipes focusing on meat, poultry or seafood. You can find dozens of great ideas for breads, pastas, sauces and dips, as well as low-carb desserts and snacks. You can even have low-carb beer and other alcoholic beverages.

When preparing meals containing meats, be sure to choose carefully. As you make an effort to avoid carbohydrates, you will naturally move toward foods higher in protein. Many of these high-protein foods are our favorite meats, but many of these meats are also contain large amounts of fat. To get the best out of your diet, choose easy, low-carb recipes that call for lean meat, poultry or seafood. Even lean cuts of pork are better for you than meats like bacon and beef.

Breads are another area of interest in a low-carb diet. People are often surprised to learn that cutting breads out of their diet entirely is unnecessary. With an assault on carbohydrates in their diets, many people see breads as off limits. Books have even been written discussing how to live without bread.

Breads themselves are not bad, but some can certainly not low in carbohydrates. Many easy, low-carb recipes are available that allow you to enjoy sandwiches, burgers, toast or muffins. These recipes use a slightly different list of ingredients, but they yield healthy, tasty breads. Also, breads contain fiber, which is important to include in your diet.

Many recipes targeting a low-carb audience will specify nutritional information for the food, especially carbohydrate, protein and fiber content. This information is provided for a reason: as you probably know, foods low in carbohydrates and high in protein are central to the Atkins and other low-carb diets. Fiber is also a big part of the equation; simply put, you can have more carbs in your diet if they are in the form of fiber. Also, foods high in fiber are generally full of “good carbs,” the type of carbohydrates you don’t need to eliminate from your diet.

This brings up another good point: you don’t need to completely eliminate carbohydrates from your diet. Keeping some carbs in your diet is healthy and does not negatively affect your diet. Most low-carb recipes have at least some carbs. Instead of cutting out all carbohydrates, you should focus on minimizing or eliminating “empty carbs,” carbohydrates that come from foods with little or no nutritional value. Soft drinks and candy bard have empty carbs; fruits and vegetables, for example, have good carbs.

An important part of a low-carb diet is variety. You’re trying to limit carbohydrates, but that doesn’t mean you should eat eggs every day and avoid bread like the plague. Abide the guidelines for a healthy, low-carb diet: limit but don’t eliminate carbs, get plenty of fiber, make sure your protein-rich meats are not too full of fat.

Again, to easily sustain a healthy, low-carb lifestyle you should eat foods you enjoy. Low-carb foods should not be a burden. The list of diet-friendly choices has enough variety to make even the pickiest eaters happy. You have plenty of delicious, easy, low-carb recipes to choose from.

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The idea of living a low carb life can make many people take cover and hide. The low carb lifestyle is more than simply following the Atkins diet; it’s a total change in how you eat to live. Basically more and more of your life will revolve around a particular way of eating to maintain a healthy weight. This information isn’t designed to put you off. Far from it. It’s here simply to help you acknowledge that it will take work to develop a low carb routine but once you do it’ll become much easier from that point onwards. This information is here to help you prepare for the Atkins diet; nothing more and nothing less.

The most important part of the low carb lifestyle is the diet itself. You’ll have to make a real effort to eat only low carb foods and not slip back into the habit of eating carbohydrate rich foods. Carbs themselves can be highly addictive and it only takes one slip and you’ll find yourself hooked again and suffering from those insane carb cravings. This can and will lead to a downward spiral and overall failure in your low carbohydrate dieting efforts.

One of the most tempting times to stray from the diet will be when you’re at parties, as the high carbohydrate food on offer there (chips, cake, rolls etc) will be too much for some people, and they will break their promises of not touching these high carb items. To avoid this, make sure that before you leave your home you’re stuffed full of low/no carb food, so feel much less of an urge, as it is common to arrive at parties feeling pretty hungry and this is when you’re most likely to indulge

In a principle similar to “hitting the wall”, a situation that many athletes find themselves in during the later part of a marathon where their body runs out of carbohydrates and they find it harder to run, the first couple of weeks on a low carb diet will make you feel very lethargic, while your body adjusts to its new energy source. However, like with the running phenomenon, you just need to push through this period, and once you have adjusted it will become much easier.

Low carb living is not as difficult as you might think and this article may have made that harder to believe. We just believe that honesty is the best policy for anyone starting a new diet; especially one like the Atkins diet which must be strictly adhered to for maximum results and long term weight loss. Once you see the starting results possible with low carb dieting your weekly weighin will be more than enough to keep you motivated and on the straight-and-narrow of the low carb lifestyle.

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i plan on eating only fruits and veggies, some lean protein, and eggs from now on. i really need to lose about 12 pounds by august. if i start eating smaller portions and cutting all the bad stuff plus breads from my diet, how much weight will i lose PER WEEK?? i heard the first couple weeks can result in dramatic weight loss.

oh by the way, i already am pretty active, so please don't waste time mentioning exercise. i go walking a few times a week, plus i'm on my feet walking around at work also. so i'm always moving around.

Every person is different. For me, the weight dropped off pretty quickly, but I didn't switch to lose weight, so it's hard to say exactly how much I lost and how fast.

12 pounds by August seems very reasonable as long as you do legitimately have 12 pounds to lose.

There are several diets out there, but I can't keep track of which is the healthiest. My brother is doing the Atkins friendly-low carb diet and I am terribly worried about him. His diet includes high calorie and high fat foods and he has little physical fitness. Is this low carb diet actually healthy?

Do you have any suggestions I can give him?
Or maybe I am wrong and the Atkins diet is healthy, please let me know what you think.

Thanks!

The healthiest diet to follow is one with lean meats (not high fat) plenty of vegetables and lean meats. Atkins is actually really good at giving you a heart attack and most doctors won't recommend it. Carbohydrates give your body necessary fuel. Fats are also necessary, but the healthiest places to find them are in olive oil and fish oils. Fatty ground beef, for example, is not the healthiest meat choice you could make. Get a good variety of lots of healthy, non-processed foods in your diet to make sure you're getting all of the nutrients necessary for life.

Anywhere from 1800-2000 calories a day is healthiest for women, around 2000 a day is healthiest for men. Regular exercise is a must.

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