There are many weight management programs out there, but one philosophy that keeps coming to the top, in everything from South Beach to Atkins, is "low-carb" or "no-carb" eating. If you are looking to lose weight and you haven't heard of these yet - don't worry, you will!! The problem is though, there are good reasons to eat carbs every day to be healthy!
Let's take a better look at this. Now my wife and I were Atkin-ites for a while, at the (not very successful) beginning of my personal weight loss quest, so we have studied this a little... The Atkins book goes through the theory of ketosis and how your body changes the way it uses fuel, and that is the basis of the program. The science bit? If you stop giving your body "easy" fuel in the form of carbs, then it will start to break down the harder fuels - eating into the fat reserves that you are trying to get rid of, and so making you lose weight. Still though - there are good reasons to eat carbs!!
Why do I say that? Well - your body runs on glucose - that's its fuel! Now if you jumped into your car tomorrow morning, saw there was no fuel in the tank and just said "oh well - it's got too much bodywork anyway, it can burn some of that" - how would that work out? Sounds a bit silly, I know - but that's what you are doing when you drop carbs. Suddenly, instead of premium fuel, you are telling your body to go make fuel from whatever it can find - which it does, of course. But in the process, it will convert not only fats, but also protein - including the muscle groups that you do want, AND the vital organs! Your body LITERALLY starts to eat itself! Starting to see the reasons to eat carbs now?
Now this is, of course, the natural way to lose that extra weight, but when it is taken to the extreme like this, you HAVE to be very careful! Not to mention - it's really not a pleasant experience to be going through ketosis - the bad breath is just the start of things! So, given the reasons to eat carbs, how can we balance this out?
#1 - Make sure you eat good carbs - there are reasons to eat carbs for sure, but not the highly processed, white bread and candy kind of carbs. Vegetables, wholemeal bread and pasta - you know, HEALTHY food with carbs in it, not doughnuts! The flip side of this is that you will ALSO be getting some great fiber, so your system will detox more effectively too.
#2 - Watch your calories, not your carbs. The bottom line in weight loss, no matter what plan you follow, is that your calorie intake must be less than the calories you burn each day - when that happens, your body naturally converts a little of that fat each day to make up the difference, and so you lose weight.
#3 - Keep the fire burning - if you miss meals, or go too long between meals, then your metabolic fire starts to die down, and your body will actually go into "starvation" mode - meaning it will store every ounce of food it can - this is why you gain weight when you only eat once a day! Work out a plan to eat something about every 3-4 hours - not a full meal, of course, but a small amount each time to keep the fire fed. The reasons to eat carbs here are because they are such a convenient way to get your calories in regularly!
#4 - Exercise more - even moderate exercise like parking away from your office building will increase the number of calories you burn each day. And if you really want to get things going, get started on a program like Strip That Fat can help tremendously by getting you on a path that is very achievable and you will be amazed how fast the results come.
#5 - Stick with it! Again, something like Strip That Fat gives you clear milestones to work with, but you have to get yourself committed. Tell people what you are doing - even if they don't do it with you, they will support your efforts, so tell them what your goal is (10lbs by Christmas, etc) and keep them up to date - put a chart on your refrigerator - and celebrate each success. You can do this!
