Low Carb diets

The atkins diet is a well known low carb diet. The atkins diet menu plan is heavy on proteins in meats or beans and low in carbohydrates as in starches, sugars and gums. Many people have lost weight and kept it off by following such low carb diets.

According to Atkins, if you cut the carbohydrates, you'll force your body to burn fat rather than carbohydrates and therefore drop the pounds. In a low carb diets, potatos, rice, bread, pasta and anything starchy is bad. You replace these bad foods with meats and veggies instead. There are plenty of detractors to this theory. Some say such a diet would shorten your life due to the heavy consumption of fat and cholesterol from the meat. Not to mention the negative effect the heavy protein diet would have on your kidneys. Your kidneys have to work harder to get rid of the excess nitrogen produced from breaking down the protein for energy. Still, many people have experienced serious weight loss by following diets such as the Atkins diet.

Low carb diets vs diet pills

Why bother restricting what you eat when diet pills would do the job?

Diet pills work in one or more of these ways.

Suppressing your appetite
Forcing your body to burn more calories
Preventing your body from absorbing the fat / carbohydrates you consume in your food.

No doubt, you'd probably lose weight while on diet pills but once you stop taking those pills, the weight comes back with a vengeance. Diet pills are not without side effects. Some of the ingredients, like Ma Huang, used in some of the diet pills in the market can cause liver failure or other nasty side effects. Low carb diets are the better bet. You can lose weight and keep it off if you think of your diet as a nutrition plan which you make part of your life.

Are all carbs to be avoided? While the Atkins Diet tells you to avoid carbs, the South Beach diet tells you to choose your cabohydrates carefully, dividing carbohydrates into two groups, the good carbs and the bad carbs.

Another popular diet is the Mayo Clinic diet which apparently is really a fad diet has nothing to do with the Mayo clinic.

Whichever diet you choose, the smart way to go low carb is to skip the excessive sugars. Switching from soda, colas and other sweet drinks to plain water would cut off a whole lot of calories. Cutting down your cakes and icecream and chocolate would reduce your calorie intake further. Eating more fresh vegetables would make you feel fuller with more fiber, so you'd end up eating less. Drinking a large glass of water before you eat would reduce your appetite. Common sense touches like these would help you lose weight and stay fit in the long run.

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