Low Carb High Protein Diet: Should You Use High Protein Low Carb Diets to Lose Weight Fast?

Sep 16 by Joanna

If you are trying to lose weight and are searching for information about the best ways to diet, you may have come across many ways to diet, such as high protein low carb diets, high carb low fat diets, high protein low fat diet, high fat high protein diet plans, etc., etc., with lots of conflicting information.

After a while you may feel overwhelmed with all the advertisements and claims about various weight-loss programs and products.

Unfortunately – apart from the exaggerated claims and hype that accompany most of these products and programs – some of them can be downright harmful to your body.

For instance, the high fat, high protein low carbohydrate diets are far from an ideal diet for humans and if used for an extended period of time can even be dangerous to your health.

Yet, despite of this fact, this type of diet is even recommended by some doctors to their patients, and eating loads of high protein snacks and foods on a daily basis are thought to be beneficial for weight loss.

How do high protein low carb weight loss diets work?

The average adult needs 46 to 56 grams of protein a day, depending on weight and overall health. As long as you’re eating a healthy diet, adding extra protein — either through protein shakes or other sources — isn’t necessary.

What your body needs most to function is carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are broken down into simple sugars that are used for energy.

When you don’t supply your body with sufficient amount of carbohydrates – required for fuel by the muscle cells and brain – your body will try to find an emergency fuel to produce energy. This fuel is called ketones, and is usually used in times of fasting or famine.

So, basically, a high protein diet plan works by putting the body into a state of ketosis.

What are ketones? Ketones are a product of fat breakdown that can be used by many cells in an emergency situation, when carbohydrates are scarce. As the body produces ketones in increased quantities, the acids rise in the bloodstream – a condition that is called ketosis. The excess protein and acids must be eliminated from the body. This job is done by kidneys, which become overstressed and enlarged.

This differs from ketosis caused by fasting, because when fasting, there is no excess protein, the amount of acid in the bloodstream is small, and a fast usually does not last more than a few days.

However, what the institutes promoting these diet plans don’t say is that ketosis is regarded by doctors as a metabolic disorder, i.e. it’s not a good thing! Ketosis reduces a person’s metabolism and leaves them feeling tired, sluggish and lethargic. When the high protein diet is stopped, these symptoms usually go away. However, ketosis also causes the build-up of ketone bodies, which makes the blood overly acidic, which in turn can be fatal. Finally, ketosis also adversely affects mental processing and flexibility.

So, what basically happens when people are following a high-protein, low-carb diet for an extended period of time – they are damaging their kidneys and increasing their risk of kidney stones. They are putting a heavy burden on their liver, heart and intestines. They are also increasing their risk for osteoporosis, because many minerals stored in the bones get washed out with the acids.

Do not be a victim of such unhealthy diets, because you will have to pay the price down the road with eventual deterioration of your health.

The Shocking Truth About Protein: How much protein do we really need?

There is a lot of discussion about how much protein we need and a lot of misinformation regarding this subject. The need for protein has generally been greatly exaggerated by market forces, and protein’s functions have been misrepresented. Most people are convinced that we need large quantities of protein for energy or to keep us from getting sick. Nothing can be further from the truth.

The primary function of protein is growth, which is negligible in adults, as well as repair from injury and replacement of worn-out cells.

Despite the advertising hype of the meat and diary industries, humans require and extraordinarily low amount of protein in their diets. Proteins (or more accurately, amino acids) are the building blocks of living cells. Once we have done our growing, we have very little requirement for the raw materials of which we are made.

Many official groups, including the World Health Organization, suggest that eating a mere 10% of our total calories as protein is sufficient. In his book “The China Study, T.Colin Campbell, a renowned Cornell University professor states that we require only 5-6% of calories to come from protein in order to replace the protein we routinely lose. For comparison, mother’s milk provides an average about 6% of calories from protein for growing infants.

Consuming approximately 5% of calories from protein is easy if you are eating enough food to meet your daily calorie needs. All plant foods contain protein, and even if you ate a diet of only white rice (not recommended) you would end up with 8% protein for the day.  Besides, our bodies efficiently recycle between 100 and 300 grams of our own protein every day.

Here is the protein content of some common foods:

• Apricots 10%
• Asparagus 27%
• Bananas 4%
• Broccoli 20%
• Cabbage 15%
• Cherries 5%
• Cucumbers 11%
• Kale 16%
• Lettuce 22%
• Peaches 8%
• Spinach 30%
• Strawberries 7%
• Tomatoes 12%
• Watermelon 7%
• Patatoes 7%
• Rice (white) 8%
• Spaghetti 14%
• Milk (whole) 23%
• Egg 37%
• Ice cream 8%
• Beef 50%

 

Many people may be shocked to learn that raw vegetables range from about 10% to 30% of protein.

The question remains what it is the highest quality of protein.

Common nutritional knowledge defines protein quality in terms of how efficiently the protein promotes body growth, rather than whether it produces health. Therefor, milk and egg protein are generally considered to be the best quality. Not all scientists agree, though. For example, T. Colin Campbell – the author of the China Study – and many others – considers the plant protein to be the healthiest type of protein for humans.

How much protein do we consume on average? It is calculated that the standard American diet, with all the meats, diary, and eggs, contains only between 11-21% of calories from protein. Only people who purposely eat high-protein diets come close to 30% or 40%.

How is this possible?

That’s because most of the foods commonly considered to be high protein foods – i.e. meat, eggs, diary, nuts and seeds, contain so much FAT that the percentage of protein in total calories consumed goes way down. So, there is really no such thing as “high protein diet” and even high protein supplements (e.g. spirulina) increase protein consumption as a percentage of daily calories very little.

 

Green Smoothies and Bodybuilding

Questions? Comments? Weight Loss Tips?

Why not add to the conversation in the comment section below! Are you trying to lose weight? What type of diet are you following? What are you struggling with? Want to share some weight loss tips and some favorite recipes with other readers?

Thanks!

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Weight Loss Motivation: Are people in your life sabotaging your motivation for weight loss?

Aug 29 by Joanna

Daily weight loss motivation can be a huge problem for many people, and often our family and friends tend to make it even harder on us. Today I want to share with you some thoughts I just received via email regarding people in your life who may be sabotaging your efforts to shed those pounds. We all have them in our lives – our spouses, parents, friends and colleagues.  What is the best way to deal with them? Keep reading for some weight loss motivation tips.

Are people in your life sabotaging your fat loss efforts?

It never ceases to amaze me that the people in our lives we think would be the most supportive of our health and fitness goals sometimes are the ones that sabotage us the most.

You know who I’m talking about. Those family members and friends that tell you:

“Oh, just have one piece.”

“Oh come on, you only live once.”

“Are you really not going to eat any of this?”

We all have these “bad food” villains in our lives and if losing weight wasn’t hard enough, this does not make the situation any easier. (I know you can agree with me on that one.)

Trust me, I’ve heard it all. In all the years that I have been eating healthy, I don’t care to repeat some of the ridiculous statements that have been said to me by my family and friends (Love you guys).

Here are some ways you can deal with these “bad food” villains, I mean loving family and friends while still maintaining your cool and achieving all of your health goals.

1.) Remember most of the people who are trying to sabotage your new healthy eating plan are just jealous or upset that they do not have enough determination, will power and commitment to do it themselves. Please be compassionate. If we want people to be compassionate with us, we must show compassion towards them (yup, now we’re back in kindergarten). Respond to them with statements that only describe you, not them. You do not want to offend anyone or hurt anyone’s feelings (or at least I hope you don’t). Try statements like:

“I really feel great eating this way. It’s made such a difference in my life already.”

Or

“I know I am doing something great for my health and I feel awesome about it.”

Or

“I really want to be a good role model for my family and my children. I want to show them all healthy habits.”

Who can say anything negative to that? (I know, I’m sure you’ve got at least one person). What you have done however, is not attacked them at all and you have kept it positive. No sense in resorting to childish antics like “Nani Nani Poopoo, I’m healthy and you’re not.” Come on, nobody wants to hear that.

2.) Next are those situations where you are in someone’s home and you do not want to offend them.

If this is a dinner party, just do the best you can. I promise you, you will not be sabotaging all of your good efforts by eating one meal that is not part of your plan. It might actually be a good break from your routine. Here’s where most people go wrong. They think if they had one bad thing now need to throw in the towel all together. One meal is NOT enough reason to give up on your health goals. Make your grandma happy by eating her lasagna (or whatever the meal may be) and don’t go overboard. One piece is enough and you have not offended anyone. Wake up the next day and move forward with your healthy food, like nothing ever happened (Lasagna? What Lasagna? I didn’t see any Lasagna.) Don’t torture yourself, or reflect on the meal. Telling yourself you have failed and then harping about it is actually worse than eating the bad food. No more beating yourself up!

3.) If you find that there are just some people who are super negative about what you are doing no matter what you try, don’t talk to them about your eating. I would love to tell you to avoid these people, but sometimes they are people who are the closest to us. Show them the wonderful side effects of healthy eating just by your actions alone. Your results will speak for themselves. I gave up on trying to convince certain people of the true benefits of healthy nutrition a long time ago. It was just too exhausting and I’m pretty sure they are now well aware of all the wonderful benefits just by my own results and actions.

Don’t let anybody tell you that you can’t do anything, especially reach the health and weight goals that you want. Show them what you’ve got by your amazing results and that will be enough to keep most people from trying to knock you down.

Isabel De Los Rios
TheDietSolutionProgram.com

Questions? Comments? Weight Loss Tips?

Why not add to the conversation in the comment section below! Are you trying to lose weight? What type of diet are you following? What are you struggling with?

Want to share some weight loss tips with other readers? I’ll be looking forward to hearing from you!

Thanks!

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How to Stop Food Cravings: 2 Proven Tips to Stop Sugar Cravings and Stop Craving Food When Trying to Lose Weight

Jan 26 by Joanna

If you are trying to lose weight or even just trying to eat a healthy diet, cravings for junk foods and sugar cravings can really sabotage your efforts. So what can you do to satisfy that sudden urge for rich, fatty, sweet stuff, that you just MUST HAVE NOW??!!

One of the ways that works best for me are green smoothies.

What are green smoothies?

Green smoothies are simply fruit smoothies – such as banana, peach, strawberry, apple, berries, etc. – with the addition on greens, kale, romaine lettuce, spinach, celery tops, and other. I am going to write more on the subject of green smoothies, but for now just read the following tips.

How to Stop Food Cravings – 2 Easy Tips to Stop Craving Sweets and Other Foods That Are Bad For You

If you’re struggling to lose weight, food cravings can sabotage your efforts and make it impossible to stay on your diet. “I’ll only have a small piece of chocolate”, or “A tiny slice of cheese can’t do any harm” – and before you even realize it, you’ve eaten an entire box of chocolates or a half pound of cheese. You start to feel like you are never going to be successful at weight loss and will just stay fat forever.

How the food cravings develop?

One reason is that you’re physically addicted to certain foods, and this is why you crave them. Foods that cause addiction contain opiate-like chemicals that make you crave those foods. The primary addictive foods include sugar, chocolate, cheese and meat.

The other reason is this: The diet that an average person consumes today is deficient in many essential nutrients. The Standard American diet (or SAD), does not provide adequate levels of fruits and vegetables to begin with, and most Americans don’t even meet the minimum recommendation of 2 servings of fruits and 3 servings of vegetables a day. Instead of eating foods rich in vital nutrients, we consume large amounts of refined foods high in calories, sugar, fat and cholesterol.

I’m sure you’ve heard all this before, but my point is this:

–If your body does not get what it needs to function properly, it will demand you eat more and more food. –

That’s why you get strong cravings. So if you are asking how to to stop craving sweets or how to stop craving food that is not good for you once and for all, you need to provide your body with the nutrients that it needs to function.

Here are two great tips to curb cravings for unhealthy foods.

1. Add green smoothies to your diet.

Make yourself delicious green smoothies by blending some fruits, vegetables and greens together with a little bit of water and drinking them twice a day. For example, you may want to try the following combinations, or experiment and create your own:

–Celery, banana, apple and spinach smoothie

–Spinach, strawberry, banana smoothie

–Romaine lettuce and celery with blueberries

2. Add freshly made vegetable and fruit juices to your diet.

Fresh juices provide all the necessary vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, proteins, carbohydrates, essential fatty acids, and other nutrients that the science has not even discovered yet. By drinking juice, you are providing your body with these nutrients in a concentrated form that is the easiest to absorb – without the fiber that your body needs to eliminate anyway. They give you a great boost of energy and help eliminate unhealthy cravings.

The quality of your life begins with the quality of the foods that you consume. The quickest and surest path to a healthier, more energetic, disease-free lifestyle starts with a diet rich in natural, plant based foods, such as fruits and vegetables, legumes, and whole grains. Such diet will also produce a beautiful, lean body that you always wanted.

Watch this video for inspiration. I would recommend to skip the flax oil and stevia that she adds to the smoothie, though. The bananas and other fruits give the smoothie enough sweetness.

If you’re truly serious about shedding those pounds, then follow the common sense advice that you find on this site. This is NOT A FAD DIET, NO GIMMICKS, NO PILLS OR EXPENSIVE SUPPLEMENTS, just common sense advice you can use EVERY DAY. If you don’t lose some weight quickly… I’d really be surprised!  Read more on the Fastest Way to Lose Weight blog. Read my posts Fastest Way to Lose Weight – FOREVER! and Fastest Way to Lose Weight Program: Wonderful Side Effects.

Questions? Comments? Weight Loss Tips?

Why not add to the conversation in the comment section below! Are you trying to lose weight? What type of diet are you following? What are you struggling with?

Want to share some weight loss tips with other readers? I’ll be looking forward to hearing from you!

Thanks!

read more