To ditch the carbs for good, you need to understand the advantages of a low-carb diet, how to start, what to eat and how to avoid the common mistakes.
This is a guest post by Michael Joseph who is a passionate nutrition educator with a master’s degree in Nutrition Education. He is the founder of Nutrition Advance where he frequently writes nutrition and health-related articles. He believes that nutrition advice has become overly complicated and that we need to get back to the basics and value our traditional food. Photo credits go to Nutrition Advance.
The advantages of a low-carb diet: Why you need to Ditch The Carbs
In truth, fat is essential for your health, carbohydrates are not. This article will explain how to start a low-carb diet, what to eat and there is a sample meal plan at the end. But let’s begin by taking a look at a few of the main advantages of a low carb diet.
1. Advantages of a low-carb diet on blood sugar and insulin levels
Eating carbohydrates have the biggest impact on our blood sugar and insulin levels. Restricting carbohydrates in our diet has a direct result in lowering our sugar levels and insulin needs. High sugar levels play a part in almost all chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, dementia, cancer and cardiovascular disease.
By lowering carbohydrate intake, blood sugars are controlled and insulin levels are minimised. This is incredibly beneficial for those with diabetes (type one or two) and those with insulin resistance.
2. Advantages of a Low-Carb Diet For Hunger
Low-carb diets increase satiety due to the balanced blood sugar levels they promote.
Unlike diets high in carbohydrate, blood sugar and insulin spikes throughout the day are kept to a minimum.
In a comprehensive study analyzing food cravings and appetite, participants on a low-carb diet were directly compared to participants on a typical low-fat diet. The results showed that the low-carb group suffered much lower cravings and were a lot less bothered by hunger.
Due to the satiety-promoting effects of dietary fat, anyone who has adopted a low-carb diet will know this for themselves. A diet high in healthy fats definitely keeps cravings away.
3. Advantages of a Low-Carb Diet For the Heart
Low-carb diets have a beneficial impact on a whole host of heart disease risk factors. Specifically, they reduce triglycerides (a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease) and increase the concentrations of HDL (known as the “good” cholesterol).
Additionally, they lead to reduced blood sugar, insulin, and inflammation in the body; all of these things can be damaging to the heart. As well as this, another big advantage is weight loss, since heavier weights and obesity increase cardiovascular risk.
Here is a study documenting all these positive effects of an LCHF diet.
- Lower triglycerides
- Increased HDL levels
- Lowered glucose and insulin levels
- Increased weight loss
- Reduced systemic inflammation
4. Advantages of a Low-Carb Diet For Weight Loss
To investigate the impact of a low-carb diet on weight, Harvard School of Public Health analyzed more than 53 different studies featuring more than 68,000 participants.
The results were not surprising: out of all the weight-loss dietary interventions, the individuals using low-carb interventions lost greater weight than participants on low-fat interventions.
Low-carb diets positively impact satiety, weight, and the cardiovascular system.Considering how the personal anecdotes and new studies are piling up by the day, it’s clear to see that the advantages a low-carb diet brings are worth pursuing.
Not only do you get to eat amazingly fresh, delicious foods every day, but you also vastly improve your health and decrease the risk of illness striking in the future.
For me, it’s a no-brainer, and I promise that if you get the hang of a low-carb diet, you won’t even want to go back to your prior way of eating.
Once you have a taste for real food, all the ultra-processed foods taste terrible.
How do I follow a low-carb diet?
At its most basic, the low carb diet (or LCHF: low-carb high-fat) means eating plenty of healthy animal foods as well as nutrient-dense plant foods. We should encourage and emphasise the most nutritious types of these plant foods.
Look at spinach or an avocado; they are full of nutrients yet extremely low in digestible carbohydrates (which turn to sugar in the body). By the same token, if we examine bread or rice then sure, they do have a few nutrients, but not so many. Added to that, they also contain a significant amount of digestible carbohydrate which raises your blood sugars incredibly.
Looking at the picture above, we can see that the three most nutrient-dense food groups are encouraged.
How Many Carbs Should I Eat On a Low-Carb Diet?
If you are just starting a low-carb diet, this can be confusing. In brief, one man’s low-carb diet is another man’s high-carb diet. By that, I just mean that there is no one-size-fits-all amount of carbohydrate you need to eat.
However, to get the best advantages of a low-carb diet, it’s better to aim at the lower end of the scale.
Some easy targets to follow are:
- Moderate low-carb – 100g net carbs or below each day
- Low-carb – 50g net carbs per day
- Keto – 20g net carbs per day, or less
Extremely Low-Carb Diet Plans
Typically, diets extremely low in carbohydrate contain 20g per day or less of carbs. This way of eating is otherwise known as a ketogenic diet. For most people, following an extremely low-carb diet is optional rather than necessary.
Some people enjoy the low-carb, high-fat (LCHF) lifestyle just for overall healthier eating and the benefits on body composition. For others, though, keeping the carbohydrate low is a more critical pursuit.
Low-Carb Diets and Type 2 Diabetes
Due to what many see as the failure of dietary guidelines to manage the rising tide of type 2 diabetes, many diabetics have been turning to the low-carb diet. This decision makes complete sense. In a healthy person, insulin is released by the body to shuttle excess sugar out of the blood and into our cells. The diagram below illustrates this:
To make a complicated story simple; in Type two diabetics, the pancreas is now producing an inadequate amount of insulin which the body’s cells have become resistant to. The result is unchecked, rapidly rising blood sugar levels when eating foods that convert to glucose. Therefore, you could say that these people are intolerant to carbohydrate.
That brings us to the question: why would we feed a plate full of carbohydrate to someone with an intolerance to it? As well as this, protein and fat do not have a significant impact on blood sugar levels. As a result, ditching the carbs takes away the one dietary macronutrient that causes blood sugar spikes in diabetics.
While it’s generally accepted that there’s no cure for type 2 diabetes, a low-carb diet may permanently reverse the disease. And it has for many.
A Relaxed Low-Carb Diet
A carbohydrate intake of anywhere between 25g and 150g digestible carbs qualifies as a more relaxed low-carb diet. While 150g of carbohydrate is far from a small amount, it’s still a vast improvement to the standard carb-heavy diet most westernized nations follow.
Opting for a carb intake on the higher side of the scale may also be a choice for athletes who feel it helps their performance. However, elite sports performance is still definitely possible on lower amounts of carbs.
All things considered, the true advantages of a low-carb diet quickly become apparent on the lower side of the scale.
As a result of going very low carb, many people experience effortless weight loss, more energy (after the initial adaptation period), and an altogether healthier relationship with food.
Personally, I usually stick to somewhere between 50g and 80g per day. However, more than half of the total tends to come from fibrous plant foods such as avocado, nuts, dark chocolate and leafy greens.
At its most basic, the low carb diet means eating plenty of healthy animal foods and nutrient-dense plant foods.Common Mistakes
It’s also worth remembering a typical mistake many people make when they ditch the carbs. By this, I’m referring to the error of not replacing the reduced carbs with enough healthy sources of fat. As a result, people quite understandably feel terrible and struggle through the day with a lack of energy combined with food cravings. The result is getting stressed and ultimately giving up on their new diet before giving it a chance.
Hence low carb diets should emphasize larger amounts of fat, but the source of this dietary fat is critical as there are plenty of bad fats out there. A good rule of thumb is to stick to naturally-occurring fats from nature, rather than chemically processed ones created in a factory. As an example, organic grass-fed butter and margarine are poles apart regarding their respective health merits. And hopefully, you know that butter is the healthy one!
Another thing to (not) consider is the GI index of carbohydrate. Regarding this, you should be aware that the glycemic index of foods has no relation to low-carb eating. Although many people associate ‘high GI’ with bad and ‘low GI’ with good, all this means is that the body digests some carbs slower than others. No matter the speed, they are still all digested and contribute to the carbohydrate total.
Select the right amount of carbs for you and don’t be afraid of adding more healthy fat.
Which Low-Carb Foods Are Healthy?
Generally speaking, low-carb diets should include lots of fresh, single-ingredient foods. However, this isn’t always the case, and it is possible to ‘do’ a low-carb diet wrong.
In short; to experience the advantages of a low carb diet you have to formulate your diet correctly. To sum up, the food choices you make will determine whether your low-carb diet is healthy or unhealthy.
Hence here is an infographic that I created to show an overview of the best foods to include:
This graphic provides a good overview of how a low-carb diet should look. Also, let’s take a look at the individual food groups in a bit more detail. Take a look at the next page to see what to eat, what to avoid and a FREE low-carb meal plan.
Bev says
Due to some recent lifestyle changes and family situations, I was beginning to slip back into old ways of meal prep (can someone say, “Comfort Food”?), so needed to refresh my motivation by re-reading this article. Thank you, Libby! Here’s my personal tip for keeping Keto meal prep really simple that works for me: I often do not have time or energy to devote to recipes for every meal, so I have BPC (Bullet-Proof Coffee, or Tea) for breakfast; then, for lunch, I’ll use leftovers from the previous evening’s dinner, utilizing all of the breakfast and lunch recipes in your 7-day plan for dinners instead, which triples my dinner options! 21 dinners! At times, there may be no leftovers for the next day’s lunch, in which case, I will usually have salad ingredients prepped and include low-carb/healthy fat options like avocado, nuts, olives, cheese, egg, fish, or meat.
Waleed says
Allow me to affirm the benefits of LCHF DIETS as described in the article, with some suggestion and additions to it. Fats do clog arteries by the means of increasing the blood plasma aggregability, in other words it doesn’t increase the viscosity of blood but obstructs its rate of entrance within capillary vessels. But this is OK. not a problem, if it is continued for a reasonable period. However it is a big damaging clogging element, if the blood vessels are not giving sometime to heal. On the otherhand excessive carbs intake will finally be converted to visceral stored fat, and again this is absolutely OK, as long as this doesn’t continue fo ever, brcause it will start clogging body organs, like the liver, the pancreas, and the heart. However, if at a certain juncture, excessive carbs intake is disrupted, and a person alternates between LCHF & LFHC diets, this should periodically takes full advantage of each diet, and still give ample time to heal from its disadvantages… think about that. Nature usually forced all living beings to alternate between different categories of food depending on each season. And as a matter of fact, this is what body builders do. It’s called cyclic carbing….
Gary says
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Thank you!
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Jane Simmon says
I feel tired most of the time, since doing no carbs. What foods are high fat that I should have? Thanks
Janet Powers says
At 15-22 carbs per day it would seem my blood sugars would not be 200 in the morning gs or evenings. But alas it is. Any thoughts calories 900-1200
Libby www.ditchthecarbs.com says
Blood sugars are often high in the morning (dawn phenomena). If you are only on 15-22 carbs per day I would check every label of everything you are eating to ensure carbs are not sneaking in somehow to still give you a reading of 200, or is your protein too high? Do you have insulin resistance? These are all factors which may be at play here. Healthy fats won’t raise BS at all.
Rick Cook says
I would check your glucose meter. Mine was reading high about 50 out of range.
Carol says
When I had high morning blood glucose, it was rebound from a low at 2 am. Using a CGM, even on 3 day test, may reveal reason for high.
Chris says
Janet, i had the same problem with AM BS. I did a 4 day fast then Keto eating. In 2 days my Fasting blood surgar was ranging from 85-100 & its staying normal. I was only taking Metformin
cardio says
A lot of diets programs often restrict your food alternatives however carb cycling does recommend some of general healthy eating guides as good as low carbs intake. The carb cycling meal plans diet compels the body to metabolize fat and protein to produce a matter as known as a ketone. So, the body burning fat for energy will generate Ketones
Trina says
I am hypoglycemic, can I do this low carb diet? I need to eat 2-3 hours to maintain my sugar. I’ve been to nutritionist, have a diet planned out with set carbs and protein. But I haven’t lost anymore weight. This diet seems like a good one, I am afraid have a low sugar fit.
Jillian says
Actually your blood sugar will probably be more stable.
Pigeon says
Tribal you need to count calories too even low carbing if you eat too many calories you’ll not lose weight as the body works on what energy goes in and gets burnt off
Google TDEE BMR then work out your macros
Say 30 grams carbs a day etc
Jenny says
1/4 cup oats soaked overnight with 1/4 cup almond milk and 1/4 cup unsweetened yogurt is good, oats are easy to digest and soaking releases the phytates lowering the effect of the carbs. Add fresh strawberries, and a wee sprinkle of sugar-free sweetener if you need it, or a pinch of salt is nice too! 1/4 cup oats is not going to raise your blood sugar, but gives you the nutrients you need as a nursing Mum.
Other things that are fantastic for milk supply are fenugreek capsules (start with 3 caps three times a day for about a week, then reduce to one, three times a day as your supply kicks in). Brewers yeast or nutritional yeast are extra helpful, as is coconut oil! My little bub gained lots of weight and my milk suply was great after doing these things. (My previous two children I had a lot of trouble with supply). Small portions (again, about a 1/4 cup serving to limit carbs) of quinoa once a day are also helpful when breastfeeding.
Sarah says
I’m interested in hearing your thoughts on LCHF while pregnant or breastfeeding? Unfortunately, I’ve found that sticking to LCHF tends to reduce my milk supply when nursing, especially since I can’t eat/drink the foods that normally give it a boost like oatmeal or beer. Advice?
Libby www.ditchthecarbs.com says
I can’t give advice on this but I do know many pregnant women cruise through using LCHF, but with higher carb than they generally limited themselves to once breastfeeding. With anything, find out what works for you and go for it. I’m hoping some ladies here may be able to leave their experience with pregnancy/breastfeeding tips and LCHF.