by Don Swayze
By now the term “low carb” must be practically a household name synonymous with weight loss and getting in shape. Low-carb diets seems to work well and many people rave about them. The system appears quite simple – eat lower carbs and lose weight. But what exactly is the mechanism that makes low carb dieting work?
First of all, by removing carbohydrates from your diet you'll be cutting a ton of calories out of your overall food intake. And by lowering the calories you will obviously be eating less and consequently this will then help make you lose weight.
In addition to consuming fewer calories, by skipping all of the starchy and sugary carbs that you would normally eat, your body will now be breaking down glycogen from the liver and from the muscles to free glucose.
So what is glycogen? Glycogen is simply glucose which is stored in the muscles and liver. Glycogen contains a large amount of water and by converting it to glucose the water is released so that the initial loss of weight is almost all water; but this can still be a substantial amount of weight.
After two weeks you will notice that the extreme weight loss experienced will slow down because it was mostly water being released. This is the time when your body will start to burn fat instead of releasing water, as long as your carbohydrate intake is lower than 50 or 60 grams a day.
The body will then be burning fat as fuel for the duration of the diet. When the body burns fat for fuel, ketones are produced. What are ketones? Ketones are a by-product which occurs when the body is burning fat for fuel and energy.
These ketones are released from your body through your kidneys. When the ketone level increases in your kidneys your appetite will also be suppressed a bit more, helping you to lose even more weight. It is highly recommended that you drink lots of water during this phase of your low carb diet to prevent you from dehydration.
However, not everyone can handle this eating plan and so how long you stay on a low carb diet is a personal choice. It is also strongly recommended that you consult your doctor or a physician before embarking on such a sudden change in your eating habits for weight loss.
Don Swayze is a contributing weight loss editor at http://www.LowCarb300.com. This article may be reproduced provided that its complete content, links and author byline are kept intact and unchanged. No additional links permitted. Hyperlinks and/or URLs must remain both human clickable and search engine spiderable.
