High protein low carb diets - what you need to know

Everyone wants to get rid of unwanted body flab and look beautiful. In order to get a beach-ready body, women are willing to go to any extent. Weight loss treatments, diet pills, and fad diets have become the norm today. Unfortunately, everyone wants to lose weight fast that too without any pains. Fad diets such as Mediterranean diet and GM diet have all become very popular but these are very extreme diets that almost eliminate certain foods from the diet to attain fast weight loss. One such diet is the high protein, low carb diet. Most people are familiar with high protein diets that are nothing but disguised low carb diets. No matter what you call them, their sole aim is to cut down on carbs from your diet and replace them with foods rich in protein. As such, you are required to choose foods in a way that you get 30% to 50% of the total calories from protein alone.

The Atkins diet is a classic example of a high protein low carb diet though this diet has its own set of pros and cons. To understand them, you need to look at the way high protein diets work. In these diets, carbohydrates are restricted to such an extent that they are reduced to a mere fraction of that found in an average American diet. As a result, the body goes into a metabolic state called as ketosis that forces it to burn its own fat for fuel. Under normal circumstances, your body uses carbohydrates for fuel required for your brain, heart and other vital organs. However, when the body is in ketosis, it gets its energy from ketones, which are tiny carbon fragments formed after the breakdown of fat stores. While in this state, you are bound to feel less hungry and thus consume lesser food.  

Once on the high protein, low carb diet, you transform your body from a carbohydrate-burning machine to a fat-burning machine. Thus, instead of consuming lots of carbohydrates and keeping your fat stores on your thighs, hips, and belly intact, you make fat as your primary source of energy. The purported result of such a diet is rapid fat loss and drastic reduction in your size.

Although ketosis does play a major role in weight loss, it also brings along a host of health problems. Your kidney is hugely impacted with a high protein diet. As a result, you may develop kidney disease at a very early age. High protein foods increase the cholesterol levels in your body putting you at a risk of cancer, stroke, and heart disease. You may also develop osteoporosis and kidney stones since the diet causes you to excrete more calcium than usual through the urine. By saying “no” to carbohydrate-containing foods, you also forbid yourself from consuming minerals, fiber, vitamins, and anti-oxidants they contain. This could put you at a risk of developing cancer.  

The only way to strike a balance between proteins and carbohydrates and yet attain weight loss is to consume a diet that includes grains, fruits, legumes, and vegetables in the right proportions.