A low-carbohydrate diet reduces the main foods such as bread, pasta, rice, fruits, cereals and even sugar. A low-carbohydrate diet may cut these in half, or may go the extremes of cutting them of of the diet almost completely.
Since a normal person gets about 50% of their energy from carbohydrates, how much energy can she get in a low carbohydrate diet?
Well, in an Atkins diet, or a very low carbohydrate diet, she may get as little as 5% to 10% of her calories (ie energy) from carbohydrates. So it’s much, much lower than her normal diet. Therefore, almost anyone on the low-carb diets or the Atkins diet will tell you that they start feeling a bit weak and a bit lethargic in the initial few weeks of the diets because their brain and muscles are getting less energy. They also experience constipation, dehydration and bad breath. These are almost givens when you embark on low-carb diets.
You will lose a lot more water. Your breath turns a bit smelly because your body begins to undergo ketosis whereby acetone increases in your blood, and it eventually comes out from your lungs in your breath.
You feel constispated because the low-carb diets are very low in fibre and low in water.
In the short term, these are the unpleasant experiences — that are almost givens — that most people encounter.
What’s the consequence then?
Many people simply find it hard to stick to low-carb diets.
They give up. Some may feel depressed, discouraged or de-motivated.
They go back to their normal diets, and gain back their lost weight, and then some.
Sidebar - A low-carb dieter’s confession:
I am seriously overweight. I’ve been on a low-carbohydrate diet for 10 weeks now and have lost 13.5kg. I’m really pleased with the low-carb diet. However it is hard to stick to after some time. The most important thing you must do is to eat lots of fresh vegetables and drink plenty of water to avoid constipation. I know because I’ve suffered from it. Losing 13.5kg really makes me feel pretty proud of myself so far, and hope that I can hold on to it for a bit longer yet. So good luck to you if you’re thinking of trying a low-carb diet. If you can stick to it, it is well and truly worth it.
A low-carb diet such as the Atkins diet has a structured program that requires its dieters to follow rigidly - and this task alone is quite difficult to do for most dieters. Most, if not all low carb dieters break the program’s rules more than once. This will upset their progress. They often swap portions, change their intake frequency, or even substitute different foods altogether in order to keep up with the program after they “cheated” a little. By doing so, they “cheat” even more. And the program soon loses its effectiveness.
Some criticize that the makers of these low-carbohydrate diets should make contingency measures for people who “cheat”. The makers of the diets will probably counter argue that dieters must pay the price of self-discipline if they want to lose their fat.
Well, this is exactly the problem: self-discipline.
If the dieters have had self-discipline with their eating habits in the first place, they will not have had to go on the weight-loss diets.
Do you see the obstacles in losing weight with low-carb diets now? They are the various types of physical disharmony — constipation, dehydration, bad breath, lethargy, weakness….
These, coupled with carbohydrates restriction, are enough to make it very difficult for the “average” dieter to lose weight, because the low-carb diets make the average dieter feel “miserable” and “weak” all day long. For average dieters to adhere to their low-carb dieting programs to lose weight is certainly an uphill task.
What’s the solution then? How do you overcome the obstacles?
Here’s the solution for you — don’t overcome the obstacles because tackling obstacles means doing unpleasant things. Instead, follow a better program that makes losing weight easier and faster.
Ideally, you should follow a healthy, balanced and unrestricted eating program that is not too rigidly structured (so that it’s less demanding on self-discipline). Actually, such a program does exist. This new idiot proof diet is such a program. It recommends that your body needs a reasonable amount of all the 3 types of calories to lose weight consistently — protein, carbohydrates and fat calories — and that you must eat them in the right proportions (do you know what the right proportions are?).
Unlike low-carb diets that limit carbohydrates, this idiot proof diet has no specific “portion limits” at any meal. You can eat as much as you like at each meal. Also, you can eat certain condiments in unlimited amounts with every meal.
You can get more details of the idiot proof diet here:
http://www.ourbestdiet.com/idiotproof
Next: Low fat food will get you nowhere
