A Low Carb Lifestyle: The Easiest and Best Diet

I have been on many diets in my life, but none have worked better for me than a low carb lifestyle. Notice how I didn’t use the word diet?

That’s because the word diet usually implies a short term change to the way you eat.

If you’ve ever been successful losing weight on a diet (and I know you have), I’ll bet that the majority of you have put the weight back on. You may have even put more on than you started with.

As we get older our metabolisms change, not necessarily slow down, but are far from optimized. Your metabolism is how your body gets energy from the foods you eat. If your body’s not working efficiently you lack energy, have extra weight, and fat where you don’t want it.

A low carb lifestyle is a lifestyle that’s easy to follow once you switch from being a sugar burner to a fat burner. Yes I sad fat burner.

How much better do you think you would feel if the fat you’re trying to get rid of not only went away, but gave you energy while you were losing it?

Sound too good to be true? Read on, then make up your mind about living a low carb lifestyle.

PROVEN STRATEGIES FOR GAINING MORE ENERGY

What is a Low Carb Lifestyle?

It’s basically what it sounds like, but the results are amazing.

Significantly reduce the amount of sugars and other carbohydrates while increasing the amount of fat and protein that you eat. Then you will be able to switch from a sugar burner to a fat burner.

The carbs that you’re giving up are replaced by healthy fats and proteins.

Low Carbohydrate Diet

There’s not a consensus as to exactly how many carbs constitute a low carb lifestyle. But a good average number to use is between 50 and 135 grams.

How low can you go?

One of the best parts of the low carb lifestyle is that you don’t have to count carbs, at least it’s not recommended in the beginning. This is because if you just give up the obvious carbs such as bread, sugars and other sweets you should start to see immediate fat loss.

If you’re thinking you can’t get rid of your beloved sugar, think again that you can. In the words of the great Henry Ford “Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t—you‘re right.”

So think you can and you can!

If you think you can and focus on what you’ll be gaining, not on what you’re losing you’ll be amazed at what you can do.

Give up the carbs and eat whole unprocessed foods and your body will thank you by giving you more energy, and you’ll look, and feel better.

Ketogenic Diet

You may have heard of the Ketogenic or “keto” diet which is the more extreme version of a low carb lifestyle. When you eat extremely low amounts of carbohydrates (<50 grams), your body then reaches a state of Ketosis.

“Ketosis is a process that happens when your body doesn’t have enough carbohydrates to burn for energy. Instead, it burns fat and your liver makes ketones, which your body uses as fuel instead of sugars.

This may be an avenue for you to follow. But I don’t recommend that you start with a keto diet if you’re currently eating a moderate or high amounts of carbohydrates.

If you do choose the ketogenic route, I highly advise that you stay away from “dirty keto” diets. These types of diets usually advocate eating any and all low carbohydrate foods including unhealthy ones.

Master a low carb lifestyle first, and then see if you want or need to “up your game” and start a ketogenic diet.

PROVEN STRATEGIES FOR GAINING MORE ENERGY

Calories-In Calories-Out (Fallacy)

A low carb lifestyle is a hard concept for some people to accept. This is because most of us have learned that in order to loose weight you have to burn more calories than you take in.

We were also taught that all fat is bad.

This may work for some people, but not for the majority of people. If you’ve had success with this type of diet please leave a comment below.

The calorie in-calorie out approach has been blamed for the acceleration in weight gain and obesity in America over the past 60 years. They don’t call it SAD (Standard American Diet) for nothing.

You can lose weight with the calorie-in-calorie-out approach in the beginning of a diet. But it’s not sustainable. The human body is way more complex than a simple mathematical equation.

Also, if you start eating significantly less amounts of calories your metabolism may start slowing down to conserve energy. Your body will save this energy in the form of fat.

The main reason this approach doesn’t work is because it doesn’t take into account homeostasis or hormones.

Your body is like a thermostat and it wants to maintain certain parameters like the amount of sugar (glucose) in your blood. It regulates everything so that nothing will go too high or too low. So if your blood sugar is too high the sugar will be stored as fat.

Hormones are actually the key to weight loss.

If you want to give the low carb lifestyle a shot you need to get rid of the calorie-in calorie-out mindset. And if you want to loose body fat especially around the mid-section, keep reading.

Why a Low Carb Lifestyle Works

The first concept in understanding how a low carb lifestyle works is to erase the thought that the fat you eat creates fat.

I know it’s a really hard concept to grasp if you’ve never heard of it before. Try to erase that from your mind along with any thoughts of popping a “Lean Cuisine” into the microwave as a means to lose weight.

Switch From a Sugar Burner to a Fat Burner

I don’t know about you, but I would much rather have my body burn excess fat as energy than anything else. This is what happens when you start living a low carb lifestyle.

When you eat a diet high in simple carbohydrates such as sweets, pasta or white bread the sugars are easily absorbed into the bloodstream. This gives you that surge of energy that we’re all familiar with. But what happens soon after that surge is gone? You crash.

More importantly when the glucose (sugar) is more than your body can use as energy it can become toxic to your body. Your blood wants excess amounts of glucose out as soon as possible.

Your body releases insulin to “unlock” the cells to let the sugar in for use as energy.

Whatever can’t be used by your cells for energy gets stored as fat for future use.

But if your body is used to the easy energy “fix” of sugar, it won’t try to burn the fat as energy, it will use the sugar letting the fat deposit in places like your belly.

PROVEN STRATEGIES FOR GAINING MORE ENERGY

Regulate Your Hormones

Regulating your hormones is actually the key to losing (and keep loosing) fat and weight. Hormones are produced from glands which are part of the endocrine system.

If the endocrine system is running optimally you will lose fat, have more energy, and feel good (unless there’s something else going on).

Hormones are the chemical messengers in your body that travel in the bloodstreams to tissues or organs.

They are responsible for helping many different systems and processes in your body, including your metabolism.

Insulin, leptin and gherelin are the key hormones that help with fat loss.

Leptin

Leptin is produced in your fat cells. It’s main responsibility is to regulate fat storage and how many calories you burn.

It’s tells your brain when your full.

If your leptin levels aren’t optimal you’re brain won’t get the message and you’ll want to keep eating.

Leptin is sometimes called the satiety hormone because it helps inhibit hunger when the body doesn’t need energy. Conversely, it tells your body you need fuel (food) when it needs energy.

When your body’s levels aren’t optimal you can become insensitive to the hormone (leptin sensitivity) and you’ll keep eating. Your body will then have to create more and more leptin to tell your brain your full.

If you blame being overweight on the fact that you have no “willpower,” think again. It has nothing to do with willpower and a lot to do with hormonal imbalance.

Ghrelin

Ghrelin is another hormone that controls your hunger levels. It’s commonly referred to as the hunger hormone.

It stimulates your brain and increases your appetite, makes you want to eat more and promotes fat storage.

Again, if you’re one of those people who blame being overweight on your lack of will power, think again. It’s not your lack of self control it’s your hormones.

So when your stomach starts to rumble, blame it on the Gherelin “gremlin.”

Insulin

Last but definitely not least is the hormone insulin. It is the most influential hormone for regulating your weight.

Insulin is the fat storing hormone. It tells your body to put that fat away for another day when you need it.

Insulin is created in the pancreas. It helps your body turn blood sugar into energy, or stores it as fat for later use.

When you eat your blood sugar rises. Your body produces insulin to tell the cells to open up and use the sugar as energy. If it can’t be used at that time it needs to go somewhere for later use.

Guess how and where it’s stored? You guessed it…………….it’s stored as belly fat.

Think of it like this. When your insulin levels are high, your body will store fat. When your insulin levels are low you will release fat as energy. So keep insulin levels low and you will be a fat burner. It’s a little more complicated than that but you get the idea.

On the opposite side, some people’s bodies don’t produce enough insulin and this is called Type I diabetes. This is why some people with diabeties need to take insulin.

But when your body produces too much insulin you become insulin resistant.

PROVEN STRATEGIES FOR GAINING MORE ENERGY

Insulin Resistance

Insulin is the chemical messenger that tells your cells to open up and use or store energy (glucose) as fat for later use. The more glucose you consume the more insulin your body produces.

The cells stop listening so closely over time with elevated levels of insulin. As a result your body has to create more and more insulin to get your cells to open up.

If insulin keeps increasing your cells just can’t keep up with the demand for glucose storage. This results in blood sugar levels increasing which can lead to type II diabetes.

Keep your blood sugar levels low and your insulin levels will be low. You’ll reduce fat storage and you will burn stored energy…………….fat.

Once released, fat fuels your cells which make up every system and part of your body.

Burn baby burn!

Amazing Benefits of a Low Carb Lifestyle

Giving up foods with added sugar and restricting carbohydrate intake results in many benefits.

1. Fat Loss

I’ve been blaming the increased amount of fat around my mid-section to age. While this has an impact, it can be managed. The experts say it’s not that your metabolism slows down when you get older, it’s that it’s not working in an optimized state.

The reason you lose fat on a low carb diet is because you switch from being a sugar burner to a fat burner.

My mind was blown when I realized that fat is actually energy.

Who knew I had so much stored up energy? Especially because I was tired all of the time. Sound like an oxymoron?

Think of it like this. The excess energy you and I have in the form of fat is trapped. The key to using it is to reduce your insulin levels.

2. Weight Loss

Along with fat loss you should also see your weight go down.

But if your doing weight bearing exercises while on a low carb diet, your weight may not decrease as you hope. This is because muscle weighs more than fat.

But keep in mind that muscle burns fat.

What’s in a number anyway? The main benefits are how you feel and how you look. It shouldn’t be about the number on the scale.

3. More Energy

You gain more energy when you’re living a low carb lifestyle. Because you are literally releasing energy that’s be stored as fat.

When you have more energy you feel better, you can get more things done, and you have a positive impact on those around you.

Think about all of those things that you’ll be able to get done when you have more energy.

Energy, time and love are my three pillars of success. What are yours?

4. Prevent and Reverse Type II Diabetes

Type II Diabetes happens when your body becomes insulin resistant. This means your body produces more and more insulin in order to get your cells to open up and let the sugar in.

It has serious health implications if not controlled through diet or medication. It can lead to kidney failure, blindness, hearing problems and put you at risk for Alzheimer’s, just to name a few.

Numerous studies have shown that a low carb diet can reduce or normalize Type II diabetes.

If you are currently under a doctor’s care for diabetes let him or her know if you plan on going on a low card diet before you start.

PROVEN STRATEGIES FOR GAINING MORE ENERGY

5. Many More Benefits

Many studies have been conducted regarding the various benefits of a low carb diet.

• Reduction in levels of triglycerides which are fat molecules that circulate in your bloodstream
• Increase in HDL Cholesterol (Good Cholesterol) due to an increased amount of healthy fats eaten, such as avocados
• Improved blood Pressure-Many studies have shown that low a carbohydrate diet is better at reducing blood pressure than a low fat diet
• Brain Health-Ketogenic diets have been used for decades to treat epilepsy in children when drug treatments don’t work. Low carb diets including keto are now being studied for Alzheimer’s’ and Parkinson’s disease too

Why Low Carb Diets are Easy

Easy is a relative word of course, and somethings are easier for some people than others. Here are the reasons that a lot of people find it easier to follow than other diets.

Don’t Have To Go Hungry

This is the best part of living a low carb lifestyle.

Since you’re eating a diet high in fats, you feel full after you eat. You and your body don’t feel like your starving yourself, like you do with the outdated calorie-in, calorie-out approach.

Say Goodbye to “Hangry“

If you’ve ever been on a diet, or your just hungry, you may have experienced “hangry. ”

“Hangry” is when you get angry or moody when you’re hungry. The word hangry is actually in the dictionary.

Willpower Not Necessary

You also don’t have to try to use your willpower. Willpower is just your hormones trying to sabotage you.

Don’t Have to Count Calories

Unlike the calorie-in, calorie-out approach you don’t have to count calories. This is because you’re focusing on reducing carbs not calories.

As long as you’re eating whole foods (not processed) that are nutritious (greens and other veggies) and filling (protein and fat) you don’t have to worry about counting carbs or calories.

Don’t gorge yourself. Be mindful of when you feel full (leptin at work) and stop eating.

Increase Your Success

Focus on What You’re Gaining

The first step to making a low carb diet easy is to focus on what you’re gaining, not what you’re “giving up”

This same mindset is what made me able to quit smoking after a million years (seems like it anyway). The benefits such as a longer life, living a healthier life and smelling better (just name a few) totally outweighed the short term hardships such as nicotine withdrawl.

I applied this same type of mindset to changing my diet and it made it sooooooo much easier.

Get Rid of Belly Fat

Not only does belly fat look bad (I don’t know anyone who thinks it looks good), it puts you at risk for all types of health conditions.

Hard belly fat is also known as visceral fat. What makes it so bad is that it’s located near vital organs such as your liver, stomach and intestines. It can also build up in your arteries and can lead to heart disease.

Small amounts of fat under the skin is call subcutaneous fat and can be healthy. But if you have small amounts of fat around your belly you’re probably not too concerned about loosing weight.

Increased and Sustainable Energy

Ever have that after lunch crash? That’s attributed to the sugar and carbs that you just ate.

Sugar gives you the quick energy surge, but after that’s over and out of your blood stream, the excess goes in your fat cells where it’s stored for future use.

When you switch from a sugar burner to a fat burner, your hormones send a message to your brain telling the cells to open up and let the fat out. This fuels your body when you need it.

What You Get To Eat

Have you ever been on a diet before where you have to restrict what you could eat, or had to count calories? You were probably somewhat miserable thinking about what you can’t eat.

With a low carb lifestyle you get to eat foods with a high fat content that taste yummy, and makes you feel full faster.

Since you feel full, you don’t feel like you’re missing out on anything.

PROVEN STRATEGIES FOR GAINING MORE ENERGY

Live Longer

If you’re like most people you want to live as long as possible. And of course you want to be as active as possible and self sufficient. Reducing body fat will help you do that.

Once you start living a “clean” low carb lifestyle your body will start craving healthier foods. My key to success is putting almost everything I eat on a salad.

When my family is having pasta with a sauce, I put it on a salad instead of on the pasta (making sure it’s a low carb sauce). Taco Tuesdays, I put everything that goes in the shell (except beans) on the salad.

My body now craves the healthy foods, not the carbs. I don’t know anyone who can argue the point that eating salad and vegetables isn’t better for you than eating spaghetti and taco shells.

The healthier you are the longer you’ll live!

There is also rational that a low carb lifestyle (especially Keto) can fight cancer. This is because a fat-rich, low-carbohydrate diet reduces glucose levels and induces ketosis. The cancer cells are starved of energy while the normal healthy cells use the ketones to survive.

Intermittent Fasting

It may sound difficult, but you can do it in your sleep. Literally, you intermittent fasting while you’re asleep.

Intermittent fasting is simply restricting the time of day when you’re eating. You are fasting from the time you stop eating for the day to the time you “break your fast” better known as breakfast.

Add intermittent fasting to your low carb lifestyle and you’ll boost your fat loss.

Boost Your Fat/Weight Loss

The more time you can go without eating, the more time your body can lower blood sugar, and let insulin levels to go down. Lower insulin levels allows your body to release fat from your cells. Thus improving insulin resistance and the risk of diabetes.

Fasting along with following a low carb lifestyle helps you be come fat adapted (fat burner). Your body will pull fat molecules out of storage and use it as energy which will keep your metabolism running efficiently.

Giving your body a break from eating also allows your body to concentrate on other systems that fight infection, repair damaged tissues, and self clean your cells (autophagy), just to name a few.

Will My Body Go Into Starvation Mode?

I’ve heard that most of my adult life, but now I’m here to tell you it’s a myth.

Our bodies are designed to use stored energy from previous meals. That fat we’re trying to get rid is there for just that reason, to burn when you need energy. That’s why we want to be fat burners and not sugar burners.

Just think back to our caveman days (I know you’re not that old, lol). We all learned in school about our prehistoric relatives who were hunters and gatherers. They couldn’t just put something in the microwave or hop in their cars and go to the grocery store. If they went into starvation mode in between meals they wouldn’t have the energy they needed to go hunting and gathering. They wouldn’t have survived, and we wouldn’t be here.

PROVEN STRATEGIES FOR GAINING MORE ENERGY

Common Types of Intermittent Fasting

There are many different types or intermittent fasting, but they are all based on the amount of time you are allotting towards eating.

If you’re over the age of 40 check out the best types of intermittent fasting for you.

The longer you can go without eating the more benefits you will get. If you normally suffer from low blood sugar or plan to be more extreme than the 16/8 method, you should check with your Doctor before starting.

If you have any type of pre-existing condition such as diabetes you should check with your Doctor before trying a low carb lifestyle that includes intermittent fasting.

16/8 Method

Your eating “window” is 8 hours and the other 16 you are fasting and not eating.

You can also start with a larger eating “window,” and then decrease it as you become more comfortable with intermittent fasting.

Don’t worry, you can drink water and noncaloric drinks during your fasting time.

If you’re a coffee drinker no milk, creamer, or sugar. Try black coffee with cinnamon or MCT oil.

Alternate Day Fasting

Alternate Day Fasting (ADF) is what it sounds like. You go for a whole day without eating solid foods. The following day you resume a healthy diet.

Some people recommend adding up to 500 calories on fasting days. Just like the 16/8 method you can drink noncaloric beverages the whole time.

A study revealed that ADF is effective for weight loss and heart healthy in healthy and overweight adults. But it’s not easy to sustain.

This may not be beneficial to people with specific health conditions.

Alternate day fasting promotes weight loss, but is linked to hunger, which can be counter productive to losing weight if you’re miserable or can’t sustain it.

The 5:2 Method

This is also known as the Fast Diet, but ironically it doesn’t involve complete fasting.

The 5 represents the 5 days of the week that you eat a normal diet. And the 2 represents the two days of the week when you restrict your calories by 25%.

If your normal caloric intake is 2,000 calories a week then you would eat 500 calories per day on your 2 fasting days.

There are no requirements regarding what you can eat so this diet is easy to follow.

Medical News Today recommends to space out the 2 “fasting” days so they’re not consecutive. This gives your body the calories and nutrients that it needs at least every other day.

This diet is easy to follow and flexible. It also doesn’t make you feel like you’re missing out because you know that tomorrow you can go back to your regular eating pattern.

Talk to you Doctor before trying this method of more extreme intermittent fasting.

PROVEN STRATEGIES FOR GAINING MORE ENERGY

Does My Body Need Glucose?

Most of the cells in your body use glucose for energy, but they also use proteins and fat. Glucose is also the main source of fuel for your brain.

Your body being the amazing “machine” that it is, can make it’s own glucose using amino acids (building blocks of protein), waste and fat products in the liver. This is called glyconeogenesis.

So when you switch from being a sugar (glucose) burner into a fat burner your liver takes charge and makes the glucose your body needs.

The answer to this question is yes your body needs it, but it doesn’t need it from outside sources.

Should You Start a Low Carb Lifestyle?

Do you have belly fat and other fat that you want to get rid of?

Have you tried diets in the past where you didn’t lose any weight and were miserable? Or did you go on a diet where you lost weight and gained it back later?

How’s your energy level? Do you feel run down, tired more frequently than you would like? How about brain fog? Feel like you’re “crawling” through life instead of walking or running?

If you answered yes to any of these questions you should give the low carb life lifestyle a chance. Go ahead and use those fat reserves to fuel your body.

Before changing your way of eating you should talk to your doctor. If you are currently under the care of a doctor for specific health conditions please make sure you talk to him or her before starting.

If you suffer from low blood sugar levels or Type I Diabetes this is not the lifestyle for you.

To be most successful with the low carb lifestyle focus on eating fresh low carb fruits, and vegetables such as spinach and raspberries. Stay away from processed foods.

Also stay away from “Dirty Keto,” that includes any and all low carb processed unhealthy foods. They call it dirty because it’s not a diet that focuses on “clean” fresh fruit and vegetables.

My recommendation to eat 50% protein, 25% carbs and 25% healthy fats.

If you don’t see a significant change in the way you look or feel after 60 days review what you’re eating, make better choices and try again. Make sure you’re getting enough healthy fats along with protein. You may want to start counting your carbs and try to get under 135 grams.

You won’t know how great this diet is if you don’t give it a try. It will be the easiest diet you’ve ever been on.

PROVEN STRATEGIES FOR GAINING MORE ENERGY

MEDICAL DISCLAIMER:

Before starting any diet, you should speak to your doctor or other professional healthcare provider.

This post is for informational purposes only and is not to be considered medical advice.

RESOURCES:

https://www.webmd.com/diabetes/type-2-diabetes

https://drbeckyfitness.com/insulin-or-calories/