Starting a Low Carb Diet

Carbohydrates and more specifically, excess carbohydrates are stored in the body as fat. It doesn't matter if they are in the form of pastas or chocolate cake, they turn into glucose once they enter the bloodstream. Your blood sugar levels increase when you consume excess amounts of carbohydrates. This will signal you pancreas to release insulin which controls where the blood sugar is stored in the body. Sugar that is not used for energy is stored as glycogen in the muscles. There is a limit of glycogen that the muscles can store (around 2,000) and the rest will be stored as fat. When you reduce the number of carbohydrates per day or per meal, there is a two-fold effect. First there is less fat stored (excess carbs) then the body tends to use the body fat that is already stored for production of energy.

A low carb diet is a simple plan for anyone interested in losing weight. The low carb diet is usually very successful because it is simple and not really hard to follow at all.

A lot of experts say that low carbohydrate diets should be started on Saturday. The simple reason is you are able to concentrate more on "starting" the diet and, typically, the weekend offers more time to study the diet plan in detail. It also is a "cushion" time for the slight withdrawal affects (for the real "sugarhalics") and the fatigue that might accompany the start of the diet.

When you learn what it is that you can eat, it is very easy to eat at restaurants and other places where other diets can be a little tougher. Following low carbohydrate diets is just a matter of reading nutritional labels and keeping track of the amount of carbohydrates that you want to limit yourself to on a any particular day or meal. It is all just a matter of adding (and subtracting) carbohydrates that are in the foods.

They always say that you should NOT skip a meal while on low carb diets. It may lead to a "hungry spell" which could lead to an "eating frenzy" or eating foods that contain a high concentration of carbohydrates. A great pattern, and one that produces great results, is to watch the carbs during the day (eating low carb diets) and, for the later meal, eating larger but only eating foods for the later meal that have a low carbohydrate count.

The nice part of low carb diets is you can decide when and how often you eat as long as you keep counting those carbs. At all costs, anyone wanting to eat healthy should always eat at least three healthy meals per day. This can be done while still counting the carbohydrates in foods. Many foods containing carbohydrate, such as whole grains and fruits, have plenty of essential vitamins, minerals, fiber and other substances that promote health. They should not be overlooked thus sacrificing otherwise a healthy diet.