Carbohydrates are a major energy source that almost everyone has consumed since childhood. Nutritionists, doctors, and other healthcare professionals highly recommend eating a balanced diet to attain a strong and healthy body. However, obesity may occur because of sluggish metabolism brought about by aging, lack of exercise or physical activity, and unhealthy lifestyle.
There are already many diet plans that promise fast weight loss results such as ketogenic diet or low carb high protein diet. This type of diet claims to help burn calories through ketosis or converting fat stores into energy. Does it mean you need to cut your carbohydrate intake to lose weight fast? What are the foods you need to avoid to lose weight?
To know if reducing carb intake can help hasten weight loss, read on.
Short Answer
Reducing carbohydrate intake can help you lose weight fast. However, there are important considerations before you can fully benefit from doing it. Your age, metabolism, current health condition, and the availability of food substitutes to replace glucose as the body's main energy source need to be considered.
Take note that you need carbohydrates if you’re planning to engage in a short duration and intense exercises. Without the right amount of carbohydrates, you’ll easily get tired because your cells are depleted with glucose. It would take time to burn fats to convert into much-needed energy to be utilized during intense, short-duration workouts.
Lastly, when reducing carb intake, it’s highly recommended to take the proper supplements with the required multivitamins that the body needs. Doing so allows you to have sufficient vitamins, keeping your body healthy.
Reducing Carb Intake Increases Insulin Sensitivity
Insulin, which regulates glucose storage and usage, plays a vital role in metabolism. This hormone lowers blood sugar by increasing the transport of glucose in the adipose tissue and muscles, stimulating glycogen, protein, and fat synthesis.
Why is insulin sensitivity important? Here's how insulin plays a critical role in carbohydrate metabolism and weight loss:
· High insulin sensitivity promotes the effective use of glucose.
· With highly sensitive insulin, glucose is converted as energy. With reduced carb intake, cells utilize sugar as energy instead of being deposited as body fats.
· Dietary and lifestyle changes help increase insulin sensitivity. Without physical activity, like exercise and sports, excess glucose in the tissues form fats. Along with carbohydrate reduction, an effective weight management plan would hasten weight loss.
No Need to Starve Yourself to Lose Weight
As contrary to the common belief of starving yourself to reduce carb and lose weight fast, experts highly recommend avoiding starvation. Prolonging hunger will only result in stress and binge-eating, which loses your control over appetite, thus leading to unhealthy eating.
So, what can you do to avoid feeling hungry while on a low carb diet? Or, is it necessary to lower your carb intake to lose weight? The key factors to help you shed off pounds faster include practicing healthy eating and moderately intaking carbs.
Check out these expert recommendations to help control your appetite and reduce carb intake:
· If you want to lose weight fast, avoid hunger by eating only a moderate amount when you feel hungry.
· Explore your options by picking healthy food instead of starving yourself.
· Eat foods that have nutritional value than those that are high in sugar or too many calories.
· Feel nourished and satisfied by replacing high-carb foods and beverages like refined sugars, sweet desserts, preserved foods, and soda with more fruits, vegetables, and whole foods, such as nuts, seeds, and legumes.
· Reduce hunger by drinking a glass of water before eating, which also helps reduce carb intake.
Reduce Carbohydrates and Increase Protein and Fat Intake
Protein and fat can replace carbohydrates as energy if you resort to a low carb diet, such as keto. Ketosis occurs when the body starts using fats as an alternative source of energy.
While weight loss is fast with ketosis, healthy ketosis and weight loss are better, which means losing one to two pounds a week. This will avoid cravings and other unwanted effects on your internal body organs. With high protein consumption, your muscles use it as a primary nutrient to help prevent muscle damage during intense workout or training.
A high protein diet is beneficial to endurance athletes as it’ll help them maintain their ideal body weight and muscle health. To avoid any negative effects on your kidneys and liver, just make sure not to exceed 200 grams of protein a day.
Low Carbohydrate Diet and Weight Loss
A study showed how low carbohydrate diets could help with weight loss. A very low-carb diet was defined in this study as consuming 20 to 50 grams of carbohydrates a day, and a low carbohydrate diet is less than 130 grams of carbohydrates per day.
The study showed that a low carbohydrate diet involves lowering blood sugar levels to lower insulin and avoid fat storage. By inhibiting fat storage and improving energy utilization by the cells, weight loss is achieved.
Here are the findings of the said study:
· A low carbohydrate diet, specifically ketogenic approaches, causes rapid weight loss. With a low carbohydrate diet, your body has improved glycemic control, which also helps in weight loss.
· Weight loss is brought about by the effects of water loss at the initial stage, and consistent adherence to a low-carb diet results in fat loss.
· The weight loss effect is similar to other diet plans after one year.
· Low-carb approaches lower triglycerides, which help support cardiovascular health. But whether it has a direct impact on any cardiovascular risk remains controversial.
· Initiate low-carb through a two to four weeks of rapid induction phase–with 20 to 50 grams of carbohydrates, inducing nutritional ketosis. Eat whole, unprocessed foods and vegetables that are grown above the ground.
To attain successful weight loss, determine the best nutritional approach with shared decision making between you, your nutritionist, and your physician.
Conclusion
You can lose weight by reducing your carb intake. Choose nutritious food without necessarily giving up all carbohydrates in your meals. Also, avoid prolonging hunger because it may lead to heightened cravings and binge-eating, most especially for those who find food as a source of comfort.
A low carb diet, such as a ketogenic diet, can help you lose weight fast. However, you also need to ensure that you’re not taking too much protein to avoid kidney and liver damage.
Eating a balanced diet with healthy carbohydrates accompanied with physical activity and exercise, adequate rest and sleep, and diet modification is the best way to attain your weight loss goals fast.
