THE LOW CARB DIET

Here at Bodybuilding Warehouse the advice team get lots of questions asking about doing a low carb diet to get “ripped” or “lose weight”. The common trend at the minute is to have that lean athletic look or the shredded physique adopted by many celebrities with their well defined abs ready for the beach. Both of these physiques are very achievable but only with the correct nutrition and training. A common diet followed by most people seeking to achieve this look is to lower their carbohydrate intake or to cut them out completely. You hear a lot of people commonly say usually around 6-8 weeks prior to their holiday away is “I’m off carbs”.

A common misconception that people have when adopting a low carbohydrate diet is that they cut out fat as well. Here lies the problem. Your body needs energy to in order to survive and go about your day to day living. Your body makes energy by using glycolsis (the breakdown of carbohydrates) and beta oxidation (the breakdown of fat). If you take away both energy systems your body’s energy will begin to suffer. You will notice:

Tiredness
Cravings
The feeling of been hungry constantly
Now trying to exercise as well is going to be tough when you have little to no energy stored. Your body will slowly enter a starvation. Eating something along the line of egg whites, chicken and veg or some white fish and veg every day is not going to do anything for you, one because there are minimal calories and it’s not even going to hit your basic metabolic rate let alone assist with benefiting the exercise you are doing.
If you are attempting to cut out carbohydrates don’t neglect fat. Make sure you include in your diet a good range of good fats. It does sound odd what I’m about to say but in order to lose fat you do need a certain amount of fat….good fats that is. You need to stimulate the turnover of fatty acid release from your body to burn more, which equals increase fat loss .

So cut out carbs yes, but don’t cut out fat as well. Great ways to increase the amount of good fats in your diet is to eat fatty rich foods such as oily fish, nuts, red meat, avocados, walnut oil and coconut oil.

By Danny