The importance of carbohydrates
The types of carbohydrate Carbohydrates (carbs) can be separated into sugars and starches. Natural Sugars (monosaccharides) coming in forms of fruit and honey. Natural Starches (polysaccharides) coming in forms of rice, potatoes, oats and grains. There is also a third type of carb called a fibre (non-starch polysaccharide) and these can be found in leafy vegetables, nuts and seeds. Monosaccharides- this term means that there is a short chain of carbohydrates, mono means one and saccharides are the scientific name for sugar due to this short chain of carbs the body can easily break the chain down for them to be used as energy. These monosaccharides can be found in refined sugar like, chocolate and sweets this sugar is known as Galactose that does not exist freely in nature. Not to be confused with the same as fruit because fruit is natural and the sugars that reside inside them are known as fructose, they also have a large amount of fibre. Due to fruits large amount of fibre, some sugar content can in fact pass through the digestion tract without being absorbed and be expelled from the body. Polysaccharides- The name for these means that there is a long link of carbohydrate molecules. Poly means many and saccharide is the scientific name for sugar. These can be found in rice, potatoes, oats and grains, these carbohydrates also known as starchy carbohydrates also reside largely in, beans, peas and root vegetables (carrots, turnips, and parsnips), depending on the makeup of the carbohydrate will depend on how fast the body is able to break it down, as there are a lot of different make ups to carbohydrates they will each take different amounts of time to break down and be used as energy within the body. Non starch polysaccharides- this type of carbohydrate is also known as fibre. Fibre comes from the cellulose of plant foods and is abundant in leafy vegetables, root vegetables and seeds, starchy carbohydrates aren’t typically absorbed by the body as out digestive tract enzymes have difficulty breaking them down. Explained There are three different types of carbohydrate: sugar, starch and fibre. Sugar is quickly processed in the body and can be transformed into energy relatively quickly. Starch takes longer for our bodies to break down and gives us a slower release of energy than the sugars do. Fibre is found in sugars but mainly in starchy foods, this type of carbohydrate isn’t absorbed by the body and used and used as energy like the rest of the carbohydrates, however that does not mean that is isn’t necessary to have a large amount of fibre in your diet. It is proposed through research that males should be eating around 38g a day for men and 25g a day for women. Not only does this help you to have more regular bowel movements there is research showing that it can, reduces risks of colon cancer, reduces cholesterol, reduces blood pressure and risk of heart attacks. However, too much fibre can lead to mal absorption of essential minerals such as, iron and calcium, being deficient in these can lead to muscle cramps, weak bone density and anaemia. What happens to the carbohydrates after we have eaten them? All of these carbohydrates with the exception of fibre, will eventually be processed from their simplest form known as glycogen. Glycogen is what our body uses as energy. Glycogen is stored within our muscles in small amounts and in our liver in larger amounts. When we use up the glycogen stores within our muscles the body will look to use the glycogen stores that are within our liver for energy. Once this has happened our bodies will look to use other sources to provide us with energy, such as breaking down fat into glucose to use as energy, this is known as lipogenesis, or breaking down muscle as glucose to use as energy, this is done through the alanine- glucose cycle. Eating a high amount of refined carbs with a lack of fibre in them can lead to weight gain, as the carbs aren’t needed as energy the body will store them in your body and be transformed into fat, the idea of this is for it to be used by the body at a later date as energy, but due to lack of fibre the body will have more total carbs rather than if they were on a diet with a good amount of fibre. Why do we need carbohydrates in our diets? There are many different reasons that you should eat carbohydrates and have them in your diet. Nowadays people are scared to eat fruit because it has carbs in it and “carbs make you fat” so people try to keep away from them. Here are 4 very good reasons to incorporate carbohydrates in your diet:
Those are 4 reasons why you should be consuming carbohydrates as part of your diet. The reason people hate carbs and say they make you fat is because carbs are usually associated with cake and other goodies. These types of foods are refined and hold very low levels of dietary fibre. Recommended intake of carbohydrates When eating carbohydrate It is a good idea to stay away from those refined carbohydrates i.e. biscuits, cereals, breads, sweats and cakes These foods hold very little fibre and very little quality carbohydrates, and are filled with sugars such as sucrose or high-fructose corn syrup, for this reason it’s a good idea to stick to carbohydrates in the form of fruits, vegetables, oats and grains. It is typically thought that most people in a high carbohydrate diet are obese and with this statistic matching up with the statistic that a typical American diet situates 50-60% of their diets to carbohydrates. Along with obesity being an epidemic in America, things do not board well for the carbs. The problem is what we have mentioned before, carbohydrates are associated with cake and biscuits. As with anything eating to many carbs will lead to an overspill of glycogen stores and because of this the glycogen will be esterified into fat to be used as energy at a later date, leading to weight gain. However, eating to many carbs when you eat the right carbs is difficult, due to the high amount of fibre and the lower calories that fruits and vegetables hold, they also have much better vitamins and minerals. There is always a risk of obesity when living a setitary life style, and having poor diet habits, this doesn’t just come from the use of carbohydrates. Carbohydrate sources
Overview The three different types of carbohydrate are sugars (monosaccharides), starches (polysaccharides) and fibre (non-starchy polysaccharides). A lot of the time people get most of their diets from carbohydrates but because they are from refined sources leading to a lack of fibre and essential vitamins and minerals that you receive from fruits, vegetables and whole grains. Currently it is estimated that on a high carb diet most Americans get about 10-15g of fibre a day, this should be way higher at 38g for men and 25g for women. Carbohydrates are your bodies favoured fuel source as the body finds them easier to break down for energy than it does fat or proteins. Once converted to glycogen and glucose it is the soul nutrient used to fuel the central nervous system, allowing the CNS to work much more efficiently. Glucose is the primary source of energy and it depleted though long term exercise. Only after your glycogen stores in the muscles and in the liver are depleted the body will look to pull fat out of the cells to be broken into glucose and used as energy. Carbohydrates are great for keeping energy levels high but, like all macronutrients the consumption of too many carbohydrates can lead to them being stored as fat and weight gain. Carbohydrates being the initial port of call for energy as far as your body is concerned, keeping your glycogen stores high is ideal for keeping energy levels and performance high. Low glycogen stores that come either through starvation, diet or malnutrition is bad for the body as it can lead to hypoglycaemia and being hypoglycaemic for prolonged periods of time can lead to, hunger, dizziness, nausea, loss of performance, foggy brain and sometimes even brain damage. When taking part in a high fat diet it can lead to a condition called metabolic acidosis, where the acidity in your blood raises, this can lead to a few different problems within the body and high blood acidity has been linked with cancer. Not only does this help you to have more regular bowel movements there is research showing that it can, reduces risks of colon cancer, reduces cholesterol, and reduces blood pressure and risk of heart attacks. Further recommendations A lot of research recently has suggested that a high fat diet it the way to go and high fat diets are taking the world by storm as the best thing since sliced bread. I would recommend doing your own research on the matter and coming to your own conclusion and not to be blindly lead. Plenty of people believe that carbs are the answer as plenty of people believe that high fat is the answer, whichever you choose you will have people that agree or disagree, but don’t be blindly lead by others. I hope that you enjoyed the read xx
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Carb cycling What is it? Carb cycling is a process in which you rotate how many carbs you eat each day, for example Monday you may have a low carb day when you only eat 60g of carbs the entire day Tuesday you may have a medium carb day when you eat 100g of carbs and on a Wednesday you might have a high carb day they will allow you to eat mainly carbs throughout the day. A high-carb day will generally have you eating 2-2.5 grams of carbohydrate per pound of body weight. Your protein intake will be around 1 gram per pound, and your fat intake between 0-.15 grams per pound. A moderate-carb day will call for about 1.5 grams of carbohydrate per pound of body weight. Your protein intake will be between 1-1.2 grams per pound, and your fat intake around .2 grams per pound. A low-carb day will call for about .5 grams of carbohydrate per pound of body weight. Your protein intake will usually increase to about 1.5 grams per pound, and your fat intake to around .35 grams per pound. A no-carb day means less than 30 grams of carbohydrate per day. To achieve this, you basically can only eat a few servings of vegetables per day. Protein intake is around 1.5 grams per pound, and fat intake goes up to .5-.8 grams per pound. Every day that you eat you have to have a high protein intake (1-1.5g protein per lb of body weight) While you’re carb cycling the amount of fat that you eat is related to the amount of carbs you eat- on a low carb day your fat intake will be higher than on a high carb day some people like to set it out differently for different training days example below. How could this possibly work?
The theory is that when you’re eating a high amount of carbs you refuel your muscles by filling them with glycogen causing the body to release insulin, which has an anti-catabolic effect. It is believed that insulin induces protein synthesis, but research has been one that suggests rather than doing this is actually just inhibits muscle breakdown. Which means during a body building competition when people are cutting and they tend to lose a bit of fat and a bit of muscle (mostly fat) it will allow you to keep more muscle. You should do most of your intense training on a high carb day as your body will be able to provide more energy to the muscles. On a moderate carb day you have enough carbs to keep energy levels up (glycogen stores) but you won’t be in a little enough deficit with your calories in order to be losing much weight. This part of the carb cycle is more of a maintenance phase and like a pyramid training method you move across to the next day by preparing your body for the low carb day or the high carb day during the transition. On a no carb or low carb day you will be in a caloric deficit, what happens here is your body is supposed to be used to the high amount of carbs so there is constantly insulin production, but when there is high insulin production and low or no amount of carbs the body has to find something to burn. The idea is that the body is tricked into burning the fat from the fat cells as there is nothing else to burn. On low to no carb days you will more than likely feel irritable, hungry and tired due to the low amount of glycogen that is stored within the muscles. For this day steady state cardio is recommended. Can it help you lose weight? This diet is supposed to be done to a caloric deficit and at any point during a caloric deficit you will lose weight it doesn’t matter what you eat, hence the cookie diet! For people that don’t know what a caloric deficit is, it means that if you eat less calories than your body needs for energy you will lose weight, the problem with eating anything that you want is that you don’t get the correct amount of macronutrients which means that when you do lose weight you can lose muscle as well as fat. So your BMI will change but your body fat % could stay they same. What’s good about the carb cycle? It works and it works very well! For losing weight Accordingly you don’t have to count your calories, on a high carb day you will eat a lot of calories on a medium carb day you will have a medium amount of calories and on a low to no carb day you will have low calories. Examples
It’s pretty easy on high and medium carb days The bad It won’t get you shredded if that’s what you are looking to achieve. To get very low body fat if you’re a man or a woman you need to track your macronutrients to a tee because only then will you get a low body fat % level. It's worth mentioning being at a body fat % of 6% or lower isn't suitable for the body long term and can actually have a lot of negatives when if done on a long term basis. Hard on low to no carb days, may feel like you are starving your body and you will become irritable and tired through that day, not ideal if you have a job that takes a lot of energy to complete. Not sustainable- for long periods of time gorging yourself on carbohydrates and then eating none almost seems like a form of torture on the body. A LOT of people fail in this regard and it’s not surprising because when you are irritable and hungry and tired you just feel like eating chocolate or cake. Overview This diet can work and it has worked and it has been shown to allow you to keep your muscle while you drop fat which is a great bonus on a caloric deficit which is great if you just want to lose weight because it means it’s a bit healthier as it doesn’t make you lose both fat and muscle which is weight loss but it isn’t healthy weight loss. I would recommend traditional dieting of a healthy diet as it is consistent and it causes you to develop good eating habits which means that it will be sustainable. You will never get used to the feeling of hunger and each time it will be more and more difficult to eat a lot less calories and then eventually you will cheat and then feel horrible about cheating on the diet and spiral down into the abyss that is junk food. Thanks for reading The Mediterranean Diet
What is it? This diet is primarily based on plant based foods like fruits and vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts and fish. This diet has been shown to reduce the risks of heart disease, so good stuff all round right? Well let’s look in to this a little further shall we. This diet is actually rather good, it has a lot of different foods that you can cook and they are all healthy, they make use of fats, proteins and carbohydrates in a good way. Positives of diet The nuts, fish and legumes allow you to get in proper amounts of proteins and fats and the vegetables allow you to get in carbohydrates as well as the whole grain bread, so you’re hitting all of the groups that you need to in order to have an acceptable diet. Due to the amount of different fruits and vegetables everybody will have a great amount of micro nutrients (vitamins and nutrients) in this diet, also because of the amount of colour in the foods there will be a lot more phytochemicals that will help get rid of the free radicals in the body. This will keep you very healthy and you may find that you have a lot of changes to your skin, nails and general wellbeing to the shear amount of nutrients that you wil be getting in this diet. Very easy to follow for people that don’t mind eating similar things each day, you can eat a bean salad, fish with beans and nuts etc. Negatives of diet The negatives include: Insufficient macronutrients – this diet has a lot of micronutrients in it which you will get from all of the healthy foods that it involves. Looking at the types of foods that you will be eating there aren’t many carbohydrates or fats in them, all of the values are rather low, due to the caloric value of the foods being so low. This is bad because it will leave you hungry, being hungry while dieting is hell! While you’re on this diet, I would recommend eating more nuts and other fats than fruits and bread, as eating the fruit and breads will cause an insulin response and make it harder for you to lose weight, depending on how much you’re eating. Some fish have good amounts of fat in them i.e. salmon and mackerel, but are relatively low in calories so you may need to eat more of this in order to get in a good amount of micronutrients. Low calorie – this diet is very low in its caloric intake due to the foods that are being eaten, this is fairly typical for a diet. People want to lose weight, so they eat less because more calories out than calories coming in will lead to weight loss, it’s a basic rule when It’s comes to dieting. The problem with this rule is it often leaves people hungry, when people are hungry they tend to cheat on their diet and it’s never with another healthy meal, it’s always cake… ALWAYS! To get in the right amount of calories you may have to have a lot more food on your plate in order to fill yourself up. The problem being when people see a heaped amount of food they think they shouldn’t be eating that amount of food and feel guilty. When you’re on a low calorie diet you should eat until you feel full. Too much of a good thing- this diet has very little processed food in it which is a positive, but what does processed food have? It has sugar, when people find out that they can substitute fruit for processed food they will eat more fruit. Fruit is good, but too much of it is not because although it is packed with fibre and nutrients it is also packed with sugar. Although it is natural sugar too much of it is bad, if people decide to have 10 portions of fruit a day they will still receive an insulin response due to the amount of sugar in their system. Insulin response causes you to store fat and burn off the sugar in the blood stream rather than the stored fat cells, so although this diet is good the amount of fruit that is eaten should be monitored due to the insulin response, eating too much fruit can be counterproductive to what you’re trying to achieve. It’s very much a case of everything in moderation. Time- the amount of different recipes that come with this diet is really good, but in a world of a busy person, they may not have time to do extravagant dishes. The dishes really do not need to be extravagant. I personally can eat the same thing every day and be fine and not get bored. Unfortunately not everybody is like that and they need something new. When they get bored with the diet and don’t have enough time to cook something different, then they will be more likely to cheat on their diet, I’ll say it again, being bored is the worst thing that can happen in a diet. It makes you think of all of the things that you are missing out on and then people start to cheat on their diets Overview This is a great diet and it can be very beneficial to people if it is done correctly with a large amount of variation to stop yourself from being bored within the diet. Nutritionally it is a pretty sound diet, it has a good amount of nutrients a minerals, little processed foods, little sugars, and depending on creativity and time there are a lot of dishes that can be made. Some recommendations that I would make is to make sure you only eat about two pieces of fruit a day, to make sure that you don’t have too much sugar a day and have the reverse effect, I’m not saying don’t eat fruit completely because it’s very good for you and has a lot of benefits that other foods do not, but too much of a good thing will be bad doesn’t matter what it is. Make sure you’re still eating a lot of vegetables because they are very important, invest in a cook book so that you can cook a lot of other things and you don’t get too bored with what you’re eating, make sure you’re eating fish with high fat content in them because eating fat is essential to help the vitamins and minerals be absorbed into the body rather than just peeing out all of the nutrients, try to keep away from the breads as much as you can because bread is a carbohydrate and with cause the same response as fruit. Although, with fruit you get a lot more vitamins and minerals. Without a scheduled diet plan to stick to, this plan may be very difficult as it will take time to put together dishes that have an adequate amount of calories. If for whatever reason you don’t get an adequate amount of calories then you will feel hungry and will be more likely to pick up some cake while you’re out and about. The Volumetric Diet
What is it? This diet takes advantage of eating a lot of low calorie foods. You can eat anything, but you need to pay attention to "energy density," which is the number of calories in a certain amount of food. Foods with high energy density have lots of calories for not much food, but items with low energy density provide fewer calories with more volume. This diet is usually cut into different categories: Category 1 includes “free” or “anytime” fruits, no starchy vegetables (such as broccoli, tomatoes, mushrooms), and broth-based soups. Category 2 includes reasonable portions of whole grains (such as brown rice and whole wheat pasta), lean proteins, legumes, and low-fat dairy. Category 3 includes small portions of foods such as breads, desserts, fat-free baked snacks, cheeses, and higher-fat meats. Category 4 includes sparing portions of fried foods, candy, cookies, nuts, and fats. The volumetric diet usually goes by the rule of eating three meals, two snacks, and a dessert each day. The main thing the the volumetric diet will encourage is eating lots of fruit and vegetables because they fill you up, they are nutrient dense but they do not possess many calories. The good Usually the foods that are very nutrient dense are the foods that are not very calorie dense. This allows for you to get in a great amount of vitamins and minerals. Furthermore, when eating low calorie foods you can eat as much as you like because when you’re stomach fills up you will have eaten little calories but you will have eaten a lot of food. This is good in conjunction to most diets as with most diet’s tend to eat a meal and not be full after, which causes people to go away and eat cake. This is a good and a bad point, if you keep on top of what you’re eating then there is no reason that you would fail in this diet. This diet says that you can eat anything as long as you stay within the guidelines, for instance if you eat about 8lbs of salad you’re going to be full no doubt about it, you would do this be full and because the salad and vegetables are low in calories, whereas the same amount of calories could be eaten in half a McDonalds burger, eating half a McDonalds burger isn’t going to fill you up in the slightest, yet is equal to the same as 8lbs of veg. The main point make sure you keep on top of foods and go for foods that are low calorie that you can eat a lot of. The bad Although getting in a lot of micronutrients is very important and if this diet is done well there will be no problems with it. Each meal has a certain amount of calories that you can eat and if you botch up a meal for whatever reason you could easily go over the amount. It is a good idea when going to this diet to plan it out specifically because if you don’t opt for lower calorie meals then you will find you have gone over your daily amount and that you won’t be able to eat anymore even though you are very hungry. If that is the case, it will just fail right there and then. It could be boring. To some people trying this diet they may be used to eating sugar and sweeteners and all manner of things, meaning that they always feel the need to eat a lot of sweet things. This diet has fruit in it which is good it has natural sugars in it, but if somebody were to have fruit more than anything else it would be counterproductive as too much sugar makes you fat. Obviously the amount of sugar is quite low compared to something processed but the same problems could still still arise. Eating low calories could mean keeping this diet mainly vegetarian, the problem with this is that you won’t get the right amounts of protein that you need in order to grow and recover. You will find that it has some protein in it but there will little sources of “complete proteins”, which are very important because our bodies cannot produce them themselves. We need different proteins for muscle growth skin repair and lots of other things. If you were attempting this diet while exercising I would say that you wouldn’t get enough protein to recover your muscles after a workout Exercising is kept to a minimum, if you are a very active person this diet will be very hard to keep to as you will not be able to eat enough to replace the calories that you burn in a 45 minute intense workout session. However, if you were to just do half an hour walks every day that would still be difficult to replace those calories with the low calorie food that you will be eating. This isn’t the best thing because doing up to 30 minutes of cardio a day has shown to give an all manner of health benefits, not being able to do this due to the shear amount of food you need to eat can be difficult and not to mention costly Overview May be worth a go, if you’re looking to lose weight it can be done with this diet, but it isn’t necessarily the healthiest way to do so. Due to the lack of proteins within the meal. The same with all low calorie diets they will be testing and they will be hard to upkeep because when your body is hungry it asks you to eat. This certainly isn’t the worst diet, this certainly isn’t the best diet either. People may find it difficult to try because cooking all of the meals from scratch is very time consuming. That sort of time people don’t have in the modern day, but again this is a problem for all diets which is why we usually go out and buy a burger and chips! As with all diets it is down to preference of the individual and if this particular diet works well for one person because they enjoy this style of eating then they should stick to it. As the main reason we eat foods and try new things is that we have so much choice that we tend to get bored of eating the same thing every single day. Hope you enjoyed this review and let me know whether you agree or disagree. Thanks for reading The Paleo Diet What is the paleo diet? This diet is a diet based around only eating what people had available within the Palaeolithic era. It goes on the science that back in this period they didn’t have processed grains (oats, rice and wheat) and dairy products (cheese, milk and butter) things that weren’t available before the obesity epidemic was ever born. This diet involves eating: meats, nuts, eggs, veg and fruit. These substances are otherwise known as whole foods. These whole foods have everything needed to help you lose weight. This diet is similar to the HFLC diet because you are eating sources of carbohydrate only coming from natural substances meaning the carbohydrates are very low. Eating red meat and oily fish have a large amount of protein and fat in them, as do eggs and nuts. Why is the diet done this way? These whole foods have been found to fill people up for longer than processed foods due to the body getting a good amount of nutrient dense calories. There has been research shown that this diet leave you full longer than other diets such as the Mediterranean Diet. The paleo diet isn’t really like all the other low calorie diets due to the nutritional value of the diet itself you can eat less and get more from it. Arguments on why the paleo diet isn’t possible This is of course taken from the western Palaeolithic era, as the east and the north would surely have eaten a lot differently, in terms of meats, vegetables, nuts, seeds a fruit! They may have been exposed to much more starchy foods meaning that they would have had a lot more carbohydrates in their diet. The point still stands though that all around the world in this era they would not have eaten anything that isn’t grown out of the floor or off a tree or anything they couldn’t hunt and kill themselves. Some problems that some people may have with the paleo diet is that it’s a bit different to what it was in the Palaeolithic era, meaning that due to pesticides and chemicals our animals are different as are our fruits and vegetables, which is fair enough, they will not be exactly the same. However, the same concept is there and paleo dieting has been shown to be very effective in weight loss. To those people who say it isn’t possible because of the differences to foods today and back then… get a life. This is still the best option of a bad situation. People that start this particular diet tend to eat a lot more meat than anything else, although meet is good for you filling up on mainly this will not allow you to obtain all of the proper nutrients that your body needs in order to function at maximum capacity. If you are an avid gym goer and you want to take part in this you need to remember that your plate should be filled with all forms of food heres and example on a plates. As you can see there is a large amount of vegetables because they are incredibly important in every diet that you have, a small portion of nuts and fruit because they are also very important to this diet and then just under half the plate should be filled with meat.
Another argument is that due to the 10,000 years of agriculture our bodies have adapted to the new types of foods that we have been pumping into them. That nowadays eating paleo leaves us without necessary gut bacteria that we need in order to keep a healthy colon, we also need it in order to digest food properly, so we can take advantage of the nutrients that are being eaten. The biggest problem with the paleo diet is that it cuts out a lot of dairy and other things like legumes and beans. Beans and dairy are not bad for you even though they didn’t have them back in the day. There are a lot of benefits to the nutrients that dairy and legumes give you, some of which are hard to find in other places. The paleo diet likes to exclude these things that aren’t bad for you at all, but people following this diet are rarely hungry throughout the diet compared to normal low calorie diets. It’s as easy as meat and veg and because it is basically meat and veg there is less concern for people that have various allergies and intolerances except nut allergies. A problem is that it is so simple that some people that like to eat a lot of different types of foods could get bored with it and reach for some cake. Even though they could have a little bit of rice or pasta. Always for the cake because if you’re going to cheat, you’re going to do it to the best of your ability. My opinion I personally think this is the easiest and best of all of the low calorie diets. From this diet, you receive all of the nutrients needed for healthy growth. It’s incredibly easy to follow and eating this way helps to maintain that full stomach feeling. Many other diets have the potential to make you feel hungry a lot of the time, which means you decide to eat other things. People do a weird thing where when they have eaten something bad, they don’t just say: “okay, I slipped up next, the meal will be amazing”, they decide that the day is ruined and there is no salvaging it and eat shit the entire day on wards. The nutrient dense foods are very positive towards vitality and the lack of processed sugars doesn’t hurt either. There are a lot of discussions to say why this diet isn’t really a legitimate diet i.e. due to there being chemicals in foods nowadays but all you can do is work towards it as best you can. Okay, there are chemicals on foods nowadays but it’s either nutrient dense chemicals or sugar chemicals. There are chemicals in everything, it’s just the age we live in! If you have the money to eat fully organic or the time to grow your own stuff, I really recommend that you do that, but in this day and age it isn’t really an option due to the workload that a lot of people have to endure in their day to day lives. High Fat Low Carb Diet
What is it? A HCLF diet is exactly what it says on the tin. You eat high fat products with low carbs and sugar. Some common high fat products are:
Low carbs are:
How could a diet like this possibly work Good question! Firstly, let’s start by saying: fat doesn’t make you fat. It really doesn’t fat is a fuel source just as a carbohydrate is. We’ve been led astray for too long. Fat doesn’t make you fat, carbohydrates make you fat. How? Carbohydrate cause and insulin response What’s insulin? Insulin is a hormone that our body produces in order to lower our blood sugar levels, as too much sugar in the blood is poisonous. The natural process of the body is to store fat and release that fat inbetwen meals when we need energy for our daily routein. When we have an insulin spike, what it does is pushes the carbohydrates into the muscles and uses that as energy instead. During this period, when the fat is usually processed into energy it stays in the cells and we end up storing it as fat. On a continued cycle of eating a high amount of carbohydrates the body is continuously storing fat. The fat cells in the body eventually become greedy and stop letting out fat for energy. When you have no energy release to the body, the body sends a signal to you to eat more in order for it to get energy. It’s a vicious cycle. You are getting fat because you’re eating so many carbs and invoking a insulin response which stores fat, the fat isn’t released when you need energy throughout the day, causing you to eat more. Carbohydrates have 4 calories per gram you eat. Fats have 9 calories per gram you eat. Logically you should get more energy from fats due to the amount of calories it holds, and as fat is our bodies preferred source of fuel it will be used more efficiently. Watching a programme the other day called ‘How To Lose Weight Well’ had this and many other diets on it. Looking at various social media sites with their hashtag ‘#howtoloseweightwell’ there were a lot of people saying various things about the diets. This diet in particular was used on one of the women on the show who was overweight (by her own definition). She found that a lot of the things were very rich and that she didn’t have much energy to do her daily tasks. Her diet lasted two weeks! This came under a lot of criticism due to her having no energy so It couldn’t possibly be healthy, but not only did she lose the most out of her and her friend she was dieting with, I’d be willing to bet that a majority if not all of that weight loss was body fat! The reason this lovely lady felt a lack of energy is because she went into the diet cold turkey- Meaning that her body is used to carbohydrates being used as energy, snacking throughout the day when she feels hungry, on carbohydrates like crisps, crackers and bread rolls. Like I mentioned above, when the body is used to the insulin response, your body’s cells have become greedy from all of the the fat that it has been allowed to store and won’t let go. This process can take up to 6 weeks to change. By change I mean for your body to start synthesising the fat in the cells rather than your body telling you it is hungry and you eating more. Once it starts to synthesise the fat properly your energy levels will continue to be normal. Side effects of HFLC diet In the first few weeks you may find: - Increase irritability - Increased hunger - Decreased energy - Dehydration Dehydration is a big part of this nutrition plan. Carbohydrates help your body draw water into the body, which can mean that a lot of weight that you hold is water weight too. When you start to eat fats the body doesn’t hold as much water which means that you will have to drink more water than you usually would, as your body will just filter it through and won’t hold it in the cells like it usually would while eating lots of carbohydrates. Is it sustainable? In the age we live in it is much easier to eat carbohydrates than it is fats. It’s easier to makes a sandwich then it is a feta cheese and walnut salad. Not as expensive to buy. It can easily be done the same as anything if you are able to prepare everything you need too. The hardest bit will be the initial 6 weeks when you aren’t eating carbohydrates and your body adapts, you will more than likely be moody and lack energy. If you aren’t a person who likes nuts, red meats and such then this diet certainly isn’t for you. The lady on the show ‘How To Lose Weight Well’ wasn’t eating her food and giving it to her dog because it was “too rich.” Some people may find that it isn’t to their liking, but during this time it is important to be eating all of your meals as you will feel as though you are lacking in energy anyway. Summary This has been my short review on High Fat Low Carb dieting, hopefully it was of some use to some people. I’d be very interested to hear other people’s opinions on the matter. If you have any useful information feel free to share it as I would love to learn more about it. I would be very interested to see what people disagree with me have to say about the matter and scientific reasoning behind it. For some further reading on the subject go too- http://authoritynutrition.com/23-studies-on-low-carb-and-low-fat-diets/ This website has some great studies that support the HFLC diet and they are all interesting reads, if you wish to know a little bit more. As with every study done there are all things that can be picked out and said to be wrong with the parameters of it. Thanks for reading xxx The Cookie Diet This diet is exactly what it says on the tin. It’s a diet that’s soul source of sustenance is cookies Honestly I can hardly believe that this is a real diet. I see the appeal, cookies taste nice, they are considered a treat and it’s nice to treat yourself all day isn’t it? It’s cost effective, very cheap for a weeks’ worth of meals for a very little amount. Taken from the website- http://www.originalcookiediet.co.uk/ Dr. Sanford Siegal is a practicing physician, author, and weight-loss expert who conceived the idea of a diet based on a hunger-controlling cookie in the early 1970s while writing a book about natural food substances that are particularly effective at satisfying hunger. Dr Siegal researched the link between the hypothalamus and appetite regulation; an immensely complex process. It was already known at the time that not all foods are equally satisfying of hunger and that some foods actually stimulate hunger. Dr. Siegal decided to engineer a food to control his patients’ hunger and enable them to stick to the low calorie diet that he favours. He recognised that hunger is one of the main reasons why most low calorie diets fail. After a number of years of research and experimentation, he developed a formula for a particular mixture of amino acids that resulted from combining certain food substances. This blend of amino acid food proteins was to provide strong hunger suppression per calorie ingested. He baked his formula into a cookie as a palatable, durable vehicle and tried it with a few patients. Dr. Siegal's COOKIE DIET® was an immediate success. Soon, his South Florida medical practice had expanded to include 14 clinics and he was supplying his cookies and other foods to hundreds of other doctors throughout North America. Dr. Siegal’s medical practice, Siegal Medical Group, has treated more than 500,000 overweight patients. Each cookie contains around approximately 60 calories where one eats nine per day (one or two) at 2 hour intervals. They then eat a healthy evening meal of around 500-700 calories which, in total, adds up to a total daily calorie intake of around 1,000 to 1,200, an effective amount for sensible manageable weight loss. It has supposedly helped a lot of people due to a fomula baked into a cookie. The results do happen that’s for sure on ‘How To Lose Weight Well’ a gentleman eats cookies for 6 weeks and loses a lot of weight. There is no denying that it works. However, I disagree with this method of weight loss, I think it is terrible and I think it is very unhealthy I found it difficult to find any dietary labels that showed what the cookies have in them, admittedly I didn’t try too hard to find them but, surely that information should be highlighted on the website? I checked the website and I had no luck. What’s so bad about it? It’s claimed that a lot of other low calorie diets are failures in comparison to this magical formula or protein. The lack of micro nutrients that you will get from these cookies (vitamins and minerals) These are just a few things that are really poor with this diet. Let me explain why… A low calorie diet is what you need in order to lose weight if you aren’t doing exercise. It goes by the rule if you eat less calories then you are burning off then you will lose weight. Sounds pretty logical, you can do this with anything, literally anything. That’s why there are soup diets and apple diets (diets were you just eat soup or your just eat apples) what’s different about this? They say that there is a formula to it, people who want to lose weight are usually open to a lot of different things except hard work. This plays on the fact that everybody that wants to lose weight also wants to eat cake, fair enough I like cake too. It’s great advertising because it’s done through sweets and people love sweet things so if they can lose weight on sweet things like cookies and are given the choice between that and a salad they will chose the cookies. Dr. Siegal must have been a doctor of psychology because everything that he has done is psychological. Telling people that he is a doctor makes people automatically believe that it is the better option and telling people that it is a revolutionary formula is enough to get somebody to get it. Telling somebody they can eat cookies and lose weight is genius! Just eating cookies, you get calories from it and whatever other macronutrients are in it (proteins, carbohydrate and fats) but what micronutrients do you get? (Vitamins and minerals) I’m guessing it isn’t the same amount that you would get from eating fruits, vegetables, pulses, meat, fish etc. if in fact I guarantee it! If you don’t get the right amount of micro nutrients you can suffer from deficiencies, which can lead to health problems. Eating just cookies certainly doesn’t do a lot for your health even if it does help you to lose weight. It’s easy, which is a major selling point, it doesn’t take time to cook and you can just pull it out the pack and eat it. That over a long period promotes laziness, which isn’t a good thing. I understand people have busy lives and can’t always make it to the kitchen or have a meal and that maybe it is a better substitution then going to the curry house down the road. Is it though? The curry house will have whole food ingredients in it that will make it much more nutritious than a cookie. Admittedly, it does have less calories than a curry and that is what it is selling you on. It being a low calorie diet. Like I said, I understand not everybody has time to cook things and if you’re running late it’s easy to grab a cookie in the morning then cook eggs or porridge, but that will continue because of the easiness of it. You will continue to wake up late and you will continue to eat cookies, anytime you can’t be bothered you will grab a cookie and that isn’t a healthy life style. A lot of the time you ask somebody why they want to lose weight you get two answers “ I want to look good naked” fair enough everybody does, and “ I want to be healthy” unfortunately we associate being thin with being healthy which isn’t true at all, but that’s a different topic all together. The sustainability is horrendous! This is a short term diet in order to lose weight and as that it works, but what happens when you finish? You are going to put the weight back on again and you will be just as unhealthy as you were before you went on this ridiculous diet. Unless you think that you can eat cookies the rest of your life? I personally couldn’t imagine anything more boring. Especially when you have things like steak and various meats that are actually really good for you and vegetables that taste great, that are brilliant and are dense in vitamins and help overall health. In all honesty, I didn’t research this product too much, but I didn’t need to. A lot of things are wrong with it and there are a lot of reasons why you should not be eating this way at any point. However, it has had quite a lot of success. Mainly psychological are the benefits, people think that it keeps them full because they say it keeps them full and they think it’s healthy because it says it’s healthy. It’s not and it doesn’t. if you are eating as low calories as 1400 a day then you will be hungry no doubt about it, no questions the only way you won’t be is If you are eating less than that already, but let’s be honest if you were eating let than that you wouldn’t be wanting to diet due to already being thin. It’s not healthy because it isn’t balanced and it has little amounts of micro nutrients and other benefits you get from proper foods. Helpful tips to stop you from being to hungry while dieting
You will be expending more calories than you usually do when you start taking up these types of things which will mean that you may start to lose weight. That way you don’t have to give up cakes. If you are looking for quicker results though a good thing is to take up a proper diet too. Thanks for reading This is a victim from the cookie diet, at a first glance it looks like it'd be fun to be like this guy.
Think again! I once saw him punch an old lady in the face for the last cookie at a supermarket. I once saw him punch a 3 year old toddler for the last cookie in the store. Do yourself a favour an eat a healthy diet instead! |
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