Low Carb Diet Plan For Weight Loss

The low carb diet, along with the low carb diet food that goes with it, has been around for decades. Discover more about this kind of food in this article now!

Every few years it seems to enjoy a resurgence in popularity, and lately it looks like this popularity is justified. Recent nutritional studies have proven that there is merit in following a low carbohydrate eating regimen, if done so intelligently.

Eating too many carbs every day can cause a person to become overweight, especially if it is combined with lack of exercise.

The Best Low Carb Food

You don’t have to go to a special store or even a special section of your grocery store to find low carb diet food.

Many manufacturers have jumped on the low carb bandwagon, creating all manners of low carb diet bars, shakes, and other food products. The fact is, though, that the best way to eat low carb is to eat foods that are naturally that way.

This includes pure protein foods such as poultry, beef, pork, and fish, and it also includes most vegetables. For nutritional balance, however, you need to include other types of foods in your diet, and this is where complex carbohydrates enter the picture.

Simple Carbs versus Complex Carbs

Today, most low carb diet food enthusiasts, especially those who are serious about eating a healthy, balanced diet, encourage the consumption of complex carbohydrates.

This may seem like a contradiction, but it really isn’t. Complex carbohydrates are those that come from high-fiber foods such as vegetables and whole grains.

They are processed much differently than the simple carbohydrates that you get in refined foods such as white sugar, white rice, and refined flour.

The fiber in vegetables and whole grains, though technically carbs, is mostly passed through the body without being absorbed. This process happens slowly, keeping the blood sugar level, but the fiber bulk passing through the digestive system helps keep it running efficiently.

Counting Net Carbs

Simple carbs and complex carbs are counted differently when people are following a low carb diet When you are looking for good low carb diet food, you need to do some math.

Using a carb count booklet or the nutrition label on packaged food, you take the total carb count per serving and subtract the number of fiber grams.

This gives you what are called the “net carbs” per serving. You count only these net carbs toward your daily total, since the fiber will pass through your system unabsorbed. Using this method you can easily include nutritious fruits and whole grains into your low carb diet while still losing weight.

Living The Low Carb Lifestyle

Is the low carb lifestyle sustainable? With common sense, it is. Though there are bound to be times when you give into temptation and eat foods high in simple carbs, for the most part, you can eat low carb diet food at every meal and feel perfectly satisfied.

There is so much variety available when following a low carb diet, especially when counting only net carbs, that there is no reason why you can’t be content with the diet for a long time – even for life.