The Low Down on Low Carb Living

Thinking of taking the low carb plunge? There’s so much conflicting evidence out there that it’s hard to know what’s best to do for your body. There seems to be an overwhelming amount of evidence pertaining to the benefits of a low-carb lifestyle, the real question is whether you can hack it! Read on for a brief overview of these benefits and more.

Low-Carb Diets Make You Less Hungry

Generally, low-carb diets keep you full, for longer. A diet that consists of a lot of carbohydrates means that your blood sugar is constantly peaking and troughing, so, when the energy it gives you wears off, the hunger hits, hard.

In retaliation to this, diets that are low in carbohydrate mean that the consumer is ingesting large amounts of proteins and fats to source their energy from, and of course, fat and protein equal food satisfaction. This generally means that you’ll stay fuller for longer and will keep you from consuming more calories in an effort to stave off hunger. Sounds like a win-win, huh?

 

Low-Carb makes for Fast Fat Loss

 

Studies have actually shown that those on a low carbohydrate diet lose considerably more weight in a much shorter period of time than those who performed a high carbohydrate diet.

Participants also did not feel as hungry as they’re high carbing counterparts. A low-carb diet has also indicated a much shorter period of weight loss, with most losing the bulk of their weight in the first six months of completion. However, it is important to consider low-carb as a lifestyle instead of a diet to maintain weight loss for longer periods of time as opposed to viewing it as a sort of crash diet.

It’s also thought that a lot of this fat loss comes from the damaging visceral kind that exists around organs. Think this is a great reason to go low-carb? Us too.

 

Low Carb Diets Decrease Triglycerides

 

Not quite sure what triglycerides are? Never fear. Triglycerides are fat molecules, they basically act as storage for when your body needs extra calories/fat. Triglycerides are necessary for your body to function correctly, too much, however, and you might find yourself on the fast track to heart disease.

They make for an excellent test when it comes to assessing your risk factor levels for cardiovascular health. To perform this assessment, one needs to test your triglyceride levels (found in your blood) after a period of fasting. Most people find that the best time to do this is after sleeping. It seems counter-intuitive but eating a lot of carbohydrates can spike your triglyceride levels.

Those who live with low-carb diets generally have a much lower triglyceride count than those who don’t do low-carb. This feeds into our next point which is elevated levels of good fats (HDL’s)...

 

Eating Low Carb Often Means Increased Levels of HDL

 

Cholesterol gets a bad rap but there are two different kinds. There’s LDL and then there’s HDL. LDL is the “bad kind” and travels from your liver to the rest of your body whereas HDL is the “good kind” that carries cholesterol away from the body and to the liver where it can be either used or excreted.

The most effective way of reducing your chance of a heart attack is by having a lot of HDL in your body. The only way to induce HDL is to consume fat. We know, it sounds kind of backwards but it’s the only way to keep those ratios in check.

If you’re thinking of going low carb but want to increase your HDL levels, look towards foods like Coconut and Olive Oils, Nuts, Chia Seeds, Avocado, Fatty Fish, and Flax Seeds themselves as well as their Oil. Incorporating these types of foods into your diet as well as a good exercise routine will fast track you to having great HDL levels.

 

Blood Pressure Decreases With a Low Carb Diet.

We bet you’ve heard a lot about reducing fat intake and limiting salt to decrease blood pressure, however, reducing carbohydrate is a great way to cut down on this, which, in turn, decreases your chance of having a heart attack, stroke, kidney failure, and many other potentially life-threatening diseases.