People are often apprehensive about making the switch to a low-carb lifestyle. They are scared about cravings, lack of energy and even weight gain. They aren’t really sure how to start or how to plan the whole thing out. These are all valid concerns. Hopefully, all your questions will be answered and you will be 100 percent confident on changing your lifestyle after reading this post.
A low-carb diet is generally used for losing weight. Some low-carb diets may have health benefits beyond weight loss, such as reducing risk factors associated with diabetes and metabolic syndrome.
As the name says, a Low-carb diet restricts the type and amount of carbohydrates you eat. Carbohydrates are a type of calorie-providing macronutrient found in many foods and beverages.
Many carbohydrates occur naturally in plant-based foods, such as grains. In natural form, carbohydrates can be thought of as complex and fibrous such as the carbohydrates found in whole grains and legumes, or they can be less complex such as those found in milk and fruit. Common sources of naturally occurring carbohydrates include:
Grains
Fruits
Vegetables
Milk
Nuts
Seeds
Legumes (beans, lentils, peas)
Food manufacturers also add refined carbohydrates to processed foods in the form of flour or sugar. These are generally known as simple carbohydrates. Examples of foods that contain simple carbohydrates are white breads and pasta, cookies, cake, candy, and sugar-sweetened sodas and drinks.
Now when attempting a low Carb diet, you must first decide your limit of Carbs, some people limit to 100g, whereas some people (myself included) limit Carbs to under 20g per day.
Now on the lower end of the scale, the only Carbohydrates you will be eating are green vegetables, you NEED to be keeping green vegetables in your diet while attempting this Carb Cut, as almost all of your fibre will be coming from these vegetables.
A typical day may include a cheese omelette or eggs and bacon for breakfast, a chicken salad with a low-Carb salad dressing for lunch, grilled salmon with green vegetables or salad for dinner, and half an avocado, olives, some nuts, and cheese as snacks plus plenty of sugar-free drinks over the day.
My personal diet for a Low Carb day consists of a 4 egg cheese omelette for breakfast, a sardine omelette for lunch and chicken and veg for dinner. this amounts to no more than 10g of Carbs for the day!
So lets get on to what everyone wants to know about, the results you can expect to see.
of course these can vary, but expect to lose anywhere from 5 to 10 lbs in the first week!!
Now the majority of this weight loss will be water weight, so don't worry you're not wasting away too quickly.
Your stomach will appear a lot flatter over the course of the first week, and your skin will feel tighter all over.
Now some down sides (if you can call them downsides) the first 2-3 days you may suffer from Carb Flu, yes that is a real thing. You may feel very lethargic while your body converts your metabolism over to using fats as a primary source of energy, but don't panic this is very normal, and if you just push through, you will be very happy with your results when you start to see your body changing.I promise you after 1 week of this Low Carb diet you will feel 100x better in yourself and you may even want to go on for another week to see even better results!
I hope this clears a few things up regarding Low Carb diets, And I urge you to give this diet a go, even if it is only for 7 days.... PUSH YOURSELF.
