Health and Fitness Tips

Health and Fitness Tips - Reduced Carb Dieting and Fat Loss:


Reduced carb dieting can definitely improve fat loss, but it may not be for the reasons that some people think. The fact is, one of the biggest reasons that low carb diets can help improve fat loss is because its very difficult to overeat when you restrict an entire group of energy dense foods like carbohydrates.



If you put any restriction whatsoever on fat intake on top of that, then it’s virtually impossible from a practical standpoint to overeat. See how hard it is to eat in a calorie surplus if you’re only allowed to eat lean protein, salad veggies and green veggies with a little bit of essential fat. You’re going to lose fat like crazy on a diet like that, but its not necessarily because carbs are low, it’s primarily because calories are low. The problem is a diet like that is hardly sustainable.



That said, there are some advantages of a lower carb diet. For one, a low carb diet, tends to be higher in protein. Since protein has a much higher thermic effect, it can lead to slightly greater fat loss than a diet of the same calorie amount that is high in fat and carbs.



There are also quite a few studies showing that lean protein is very effective at blunting appetite, so by eating lean protein with every meal and taking a slightly higher intake of protein, you effectively control appetite.



You also tend to get better glycemic control with reduced carbs, so there may be some body composition advantages to that as well. But again, the real bottom line is calories, not carbs.



Very low carb or ketogenic diet programs often tell you not to count calories and say you can eat as much as you like if you just stick to protein and fat. They are making a huge assumption that by restricting carbs and allowing high fat intake, your appetite will regulate itself and you will automatically eat in a deficit as a result.



This is often exactly what happens with low carb, high fat diets, which put no limits on your calories, but there is nothing about a low carb diet that allows you to eat unlimited calories. If you eat in a surplus, you are going to gain weight, no matter what the macronutrient composition of the diet.


More at: http://www.fitnessattitudes.com/carbs.html