These days, there are many types of diet plans that a person can follow if they want to lose some weight or make a habit of eating more healthy. So, if you are one of them, you have come to the right place.
Today, we are going to talk about the low carb diet – a diet that helps you to lose weight by simply eating fewer carbs, but eating everything else in an appropriate amount. This specific diet works with decreasing your appetite with no necessity to count your calories. The plan used here is good enough to make you feel full but still lose weight.
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What is a Low Carb Diet?
A low carb diet is when you make a diet plan with a low amount of carbohydrate in the food. This does not mean you increase any other mineral intake, but you reduce the number of carbs from your daily diet plan. This diet helps you to stay satisfied and not feel like you’re starving yourself.
It also ultimately leads you to feel fresh and less cranky the entire day.
Contrary to the type of dieting plans we have followed for decades, a low carb diet is said to be far more effective and fast than a high carb diet. Hence, we want to give you more details on this. Starting from the number of carbs to how many you should be taking a day, we will be explaining it all! So stay tuned!
These 5 diets are considered as a low carb diet:
How Many Carbs in a Low Carb Diet?
There are several low carb diet plans that one can follow based on their regular intake and their ability to cope with a new diet plan. Usually, it is said that around 55 to 65 percent of your entire calorie intake should be comprised of carbs in this diet.
As a result, if you do the calculation, a 2000 calorie diet will lead to an intake of 225gms or more amount of carbs every day. However, if you want to lose weight, it is suggested that you switch to around 50-150 gms of carbs each day.
How Many Carbs Should You Eat a Day?
If we want to speak realistically, the low carb idea depends a lot on your physical ability and immunization power. You should also go with something that you are comfortable with. Overall, it might vary based on the kind of work you do or recreational activities you might be into.
Accordingly, you can go for 50gms to 150 grams carbs per day diet which is considered to be a pretty moderate amount. You can eat loads of vegetables, fruit and a little number of potatoes or rice every day.
In a 50gm to 100 gms diet, you can eat plenty of vegetables but only 2 or 3 pieces of fruit. In addition, the starch-like carbs food should be taken less as well. This plan is a pretty good one to work with if you want to lose weight effortlessly and are also sensitive to carbs.
The lowest amount of carbs you might want to consider is 20gm to 50 gm each day. You can take lots of low carb vegetables, berries, nuts, avocados and so on. Thus, this diet gives your body a chance to get into the ketosis process, which might kill your appetite, yet cause you to lose your weight with much ease.
All in all, do keep in mind that a low carb diet is not implying you to cut off your carb intake completely, but you should lessen it to lose weight.
High Protein Low Carb Foods
Some foods are low in carbohydrates but have a good amount of protein. These foods might be great for you to keep you full, produce energy, and help you to cut back your carbs. There are not only vegetables with high protein and low carbs, but there are also fruits.
We have made a small list for you in this section so you can try them out during your low carb diet!
Low Carb Vegetables
There are many low carb vegetables that you can eat during your low carb diet. Since these are so high in protein, you will feel your energy level going up despite being on a diet.
These vegetables are listed as follows:
- Asparagus-Contains several vitamins and has 4gms of carbs
- Broccoli-High in Vit C, Vit K and has 4 gms of carbs
- Artichokes-4 gms of carbs per serving and helps with gut health
- Cabbage-Has 2gms of carbs per serving and is more in Vit C and Vit K
- Avocados-High in Vit C, potassium and has 3 gms of carbs
- Lettuce-Has 1gm carbs per serving and is high in vitamins and folate
- Cucumbers-Has Cucurbitacin E and protects against cancer
- Tomatoes-Has Vit A, Vit C, Vit K and helps decrease cancer risks
- Celery- Has 1gm of carbs per serving and is a good source of Vit K
Low Carb Fruits
Like vegetables, there are many low carb fruits to choose that are great for protein as well. You will get a lot of protein from these fruits and also get a tasty treat out of it as well. These items are rich in several types of sugars like glucose or fructose as well.
Some examples of these are given below:
- Honeydew – Has a lot of Vit C and helps maintain metabolism
- Watermelon – High in Vit A and low in fiber
- Peaches – Very low in carbs and easy to digest
- Avocado – High in Vit C and gives you a healthy amount of monounsaturated fat
- Cantaloupe – Known as a low fructose fruit and has a very little amount of carbohydrate
Low Carb Diet Side Effects
While there are always good sides to going into a diet, a sudden change in your food intake might have some major or minor side effects as well. So before you are getting yourself into a diet, you need to know all about it. There is no need to sugarcoat it and say there are no side effects.
However, in reality, there will be some noticeable downsides of taking a diet such as a low carb diet. That is why in this section we will be discussing the downsides of this diet. Take a look.
Feeling Nauseous
When you are going on the low carb diet, you might feel a little nauseous after the first few days. This is a comparatively minor side effect.
Vomiting
More than actual vomiting, you might feel like puking a little bit once in a while. This is nothing to worry about.
Insomnia
A low intake of food results in reducing physic exercising ability. This might lead you to have trouble sleeping.
Leg Cramps
Leg cramps might occur when you are reducing your carb intake by a significant amount. Again, this is nothing major.
Heart Palpitation
When you start following the low carb diet, you might feel a bit of heart palpitation due to being dehydrated.
Keto Flu
If you are going with a low carb diet you have a chance of getting flu. If you are in a low carb diet and you may be fallen into keto flu.
Temporary Hair Loss
Our body notices even the tiniest change in our diet and will react to it. So you might face hair loss for a little while.
High Protein Low Carb Diet Plan
When you are in a low carb diet plan, it is crucial that you keep it balanced for the best results. For example, we have added a whole section of high protein foods to eat during this time because it is the reason you will be able to stay fit and active throughout your diet. During this time you should simply avoid sugary food, wheat, trans fat and so on.
However, the food you can eat are:
- Meat
- Eggs
- Fruits
- Vegetables
- High-fat dairies like cheese or butter
- Fish
- Almond
- Sunflower seeds
Here is an example of how your low carb diet should be for an entire week. Take a look!
Sunday
Meat, eggs, coconut milk smoothie as a beverage, berries, and grilled chicken wings.
Monday
Omelet fried in butter, vegetables, blueberries, and almonds.
Tuesday
Bacon and eggs, leftovers of vegetables and meaty food from the day before, salmon fish with vegetables.
Wednesday
Eggs, vegetables, shrimp salad, and grilled chicken.
Thursday
Omelet fried in butter or oil, almonds, steak with vegetables, and protein powder.
High carb diet
A high carb diet is quite different from a low bard diet for obvious reasons. This type of diet was known to be the best plan for losing weight before the low carb plan came along. That is why in this article we will also be discussing a little about this diet plan as well.
High Carb Foods
If you are in fact treated in trying out the high carb diet, there is some specific food you can try out. These have a good amount of carbs and will help you get good results in your diet. As these are low on the Glycemic Index, you will not gain weight. The high carb food list is as follows:
- Pretzels
- Fettucini
- Chocolate milk
- Oats
- Quinoa Sweet potatoes
- Bananas
- Oranges
- Beetroot
- Apples
- Grapefruit
- Chickpeas
Although these foods are high in carbs, they are in fact very good food sources that will help in keeping you healthy without increasing your weight.
Final Verdict
Now that you know all about a low carb diet and a good amount about the high carb diet as well, it will be easy to grasp the basic concept of these diets. Therefore, if you are planning to go on with one of these diets but having second thoughts, we hope this article helped you in making a decision.
So all the best and stay healthy!
