What Low Carb Diet Is Best for You?

A new trend in weight loss is a low carb diet. A low-carb diet means limiting your overall carbohydrate intake and increasing your protein and fat. These foods limit the intake of carbohydrates, but they are still very satisfied because protein and fat are good to eat. Carbohydrates are mainly made from sugar, and will make your body burn less fat as quickly as possible. Removing carbohydrates will make your body burn sugar (as usual), but after a short time your body will start to burn fat. This elimination period can lead to dieter feeling tired, irritable, headache, dizziness and fatigue.

A low-carb diet, the Atkins diet, is one of the first diet plans to eliminate carbohydrates for weight loss. The main purpose of the Atkins diet is to reduce carbohydrates and find the underlying causes of weight gain. The Atkins diet is easy to adapt to individual nutrition, with the ultimate goal of all nutrition to reduce and eliminate most added sugars and refined grains for the rest of your life. The four phases of the Atkins diet are induction, continuous weight loss, pre-maintenance and maintenance. Induction is the stage where individuals lose the most weight, with the next stage, the continuous weight loss during their phase where they continue to lose some weight. The last two phases only maintain the goal weight, and prevent weight loss. The length of each phase depends on the individual dieter.

The South Beach Diet is a low-carb diet that became popular in the late 90s. This diet restricts saturated fat and most types of carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are added slowly throughout the diet, with saturated fats added in the final phase. The first phase of the diet, the restriction phase, lasts for two weeks. After the first two weeks, diabetics are allowed to supplement their diet, with advice on the best carbohydrates to eat in order to continue weight loss. There is a list of foods to avoid and foods that are encouraged to eat during phase two, complete when the dieter has achieved their weight loss goal. The last phase is the maintenance phase, at which point nutritionists are encouraged to eat the appropriate level of carbohydrates to maintain their weight. Dieters can return to phase one and two if needed.

Other popular low-carb diets include Atkins Diet, Sonoma Diet, Zone Diet and Protein Power. These foods are all based on the reduction of carbohydrates in the diet, but have different phases, foods to eat and supplements to take. No matter what type of low carb diet you choose, the end goal is to maintain a healthy weight.

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