Low Carb Food Choices

Low carb diet are still the rage and although you’ll find many low carb food items in the freezer section of your grocery store you won’t want to rely on processed foods.

If you are planning on going on a low carb diet you may want to take a look at what is available for you to eat while on the diet before you start the diet. This way you will know if a low carb diet fits into your lifestyle and tastes.
Low Carb Diet Food List is quite popular in several diets such as Atkins, South Beach and Zone diet et al.

If you are one of those looking for Low Carb Diet Food List then you first need to understand as to how exactly a low quantity of carbohydrates is responsible for reduction in weight.

Low Carb Diet Food decreases the synthesis of insulin in the body and hence plays a vital role in weight reduction. This happens due to the fact that reduction of insulin synthesis forces the body to use stored fat and muscles for energy needs.

As you can see, going on a low carb diet for weight reduction is a very natural way for quick weight loss without spending a lot of time in gym. Of course, if you’re a kind of person who has no problem in handling weights in gym then you can very quickly lose weight by going on a low carb diet in addition to sweating out in gym.

Below you’ll find just a quick look over at what you can have while on a low carb diet.

Low Carb Diet Food List for Vegetables:

Vegetables are often encouraged in almost all the diets be they Atkins or South Beach or Zone and the reason for that is pretty simple - Most of the vegetables are low in carbohydrates except for a few which are rich in carb content.

A wide array of vegetables can be consumed while going on a low carb Diet. Some of these are lettuce, spinach, chard; beans, celery, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, mushrooms, cucumbers, all kinds of peppers, onions and all kinds of herbs.

The vegetables which need to be avoided are Beets, Carrots (on some diets), Corn, Parsnips, Peas, Plantains and Potatoes in all forms in addition to Winter Squashes.

Low Carb Diet Food List for Meat:

For lovers of Non vegetarian food, there’s even more good news that almost all the popular diets recommend meat and other protein rich food when it comes to going on a low carb diet.

Since meat is a rich source of protein, it is used extensively by the body for the formation of muscular tissues. There are very few Meat based foods which are not recommended in a low carbohydrate diet.

For example several organ meats are known to contain rich reserves of carbohydrates and hence Atkins recommends to limiting its quantity to a maximum of 4 Oz per day.

With the Raw Food Diet You Can Lose Weight Easily

Raw Food Diet isn’t really a DIET but you can still lose weight

Most people starting a raw food diet are not eating this way to lose weight but are increasing their raw food consumption to make their body healthier and help it run better.

However, one of the great side effects is that participants often lose weight in addition to feeling better.

Our busy lives can sometimes make it difficult to stick to our dieting plans when we’re trying to lose weight.
We’re either keeping track of our fat intake, our sugar intake, our carbohydrate intake, or our caloric intake.

With all that counting, it’s no wonder most of us become discouraged and ‘fall off the dieting wagon.’ Add to that the surplus of convenient diet foods that are out there that are chock-full of preservatives and additives that we choose when we’re tired from a busy day and don’t have the energy or time to prepare a nutritious meal, and we’re headed down a wrong-way street trying to navigate our way through our weight-loss journey.

Enter the raw foods lifestyle

Not only are raw foods full of the nutrients, vitamins and minerals our bodies need to perform optimally, they provide enzymes for proper digestion, and will also result in the purging of toxins and the cleansing of your body systems.
The best part? You can eat as many fruits and vegetables as you like….and you will lose weight.

In addition, the natural high fiber content of most raw foods will help you feel fuller, thereby reducing your food intake.

They’ll assist in turning up the thermostat in your body, helping to melt away that excess weight and nourishing your body’s cells to continue with the fat-burning process.

Most raw foods are naturally low in calories, and obviously much lower in calories, fats, sugars, and carbohydrates than the dieting convenience foods we’d been reaching for in the past.

The added bonus of increased energy regulated blood sugar and blood pressure levels, sharper vision and improved mental functionality, and you’ll wonder why you didn’t become a ‘raw foodie’ earlier in the weight loss and dieting game.

And, once you reach your weight loss goals, you’ll realize how healthy you’ve become in the process, and the raw food lifestyle will then be your way of life.

The South Beach Diet Phases

The South Beach Diet Phases

The South Beach Diet is comprised of “phases“, and you move through phases as you get closer to your weight loss and health goals.

The South Beach Diet, created by cardiologist Dr. Arthur Agatston, is a safe and effective diet that differs from other diets in that it advocates not just a new way of eating but a new way of life.

The South Beach Diet puts an end to counting calories and it puts an end to portion control. The South Beach Diet also avoids putting people in a position where they feel like they’re depriving themselves from eating food that tastes good and satisfies them.

The focus of the South Beach Diet is on fats and carbohydrates, more specifically, the right fats and carbohydrates. With the South Beach Diet, you find that healthy carbohydrates and fats satisfy your hunger and feed you energy while eating the wrong carbohydrates and fats can actually make you feel hungrier than you were before eating them, causing you to eat even more and, as a result, gain weight.

The South Beach Diet works in 3 phases, dieters going through phases 1 and 2 sequentially, each for a particular period of time, then moving to phase 3 where they remain for the rest of their lives.

South Beach Diet Phase 1 – For two weeks certain forms of carbohydrates are restricted, based on their glycemic index (a measurement of their affect on a person’s blood sugar). Portion sizes for all other foods are normal.

This two week period is the most intense and restrictive of the three phases. Foods emphasized in Phase 1 include chicken and turkey, fish and shellfish, vegetables with a low glycemic index (including salads with light dressing), low fat cheeses, eggs, and nuts. This is the period where drastic weight loss is usually noticed in a short time.

This type of weight loss is not sustainable, however, which is why the South Beach Diet then promptly transitions you into Phase 2 where you can adjust your dietary patterns so as to achieve a more sustainable rate of weight loss without gaining back that initial poundage you just shed.

South Beach Diet Phase 2 – Here many of the carbohydrates that were forbidden in Phase 1 are incrementally introduced back into your diet.

The desired effect of Phase 2 is to get yourself to a place where you lose between 1 and 2 pounds each week, a rate of weight loss than you can easily sustain until you achieve your body’s individual “healthy weight” (generally best determined by your Body Mass Index and percentage body fat to muscle mass).
Phase 2 lasts as long as it takes for you to reach your desired weight.

South Beach Diet Phase 3 – Now you begin to establish the balanced diet you aim to maintain for the rest of your life, so long as weight remains where it is. Should you start to gain weight again, you can simply go back to one or both of the earlier phases until you get back to where you need to be.

The South Beach Diet is not a starvation diet. In it, you eat 3 satisfying meals per day plus 2 snacks in-between meals. Your meal plans are not set in stone, so you can still enjoy variety and spontaneity in your diet.

Studies of the South Beach Diet have shown that it not only helps people lose weight, but it increases their “good cholesterol” (HDLs) and decreases their “bad cholesterol” (LDLs) levels, while also improving their levels of insulin.

Dr. Agatston’s South Beach Diet is outlined in full in his book: The South Beach Diet: The Delicious, Doctor-Designed, Foolproof Plan for Fast and Healthy Weight Loss.

Is The Zone Diet Right For You?

The Zone Diet - Are you in the Zone?

Have you noticed that you have gained weight over the last year?
Has your muffin top grown a bit?
Having a hard time taming those thunder thighs?
Can’t quite seem to zip up your favorite jeans?

If so, then it’s time to start a diet and exercise routine before your weight gets totally out of control. Today we will focus on the diet part - and in particular the Zone Diet.

Does the weight loss zone diet really work, or is it just another fad diet?

Without doubt, the zone diet is one of the most famous diets in the world, largely due to the celebrities who have vocally taken part in this diet. Cindy Crawford, Jennifer Aniston, Renee Zellweger, Charlie Sheen and Tiger Woods are just a few celebrities who have reportedly tried The Zone Diet.

What is noteworthy is that none of these celebrities were actually overweight! That proves that the zone diet is not solely about weight loss, but also about a healthy lifestyle.

So how does the zone diet work exactly? The main principle of the zone diet is that it states an intake of 40%/30%/30% ratios of carbohydrates, protein and fat. The Zone Diet is a low carb diet, but instead of cutting out all carbs, the diet has you choose whole grain (complex carbs) carbs over white or simple carbs

These low carb diets have become somewhat dangerously fashionable in some circles. The weight loss zone diet however is not as restrictive or strict as many other more hardcore low carb (or carb free) diets. The Atkins diet is one example of a diet that is more restrictive than the Zone Diet

For all its success stories, the American Heart Foundation still does not fully approve of the zone diet. This is due to its high protein content and lack of essential nutrients which are vital to the human body. They are also concerned about the lack of information and research about long term effects of undertaking the zone diet for long periods of time or permanently.

Many nutritional experts are also skeptical of the zone diet due to lack of scientific research or fact backing up the claims. You also have to take in effect that many who go on diets don’t follow the rules as described but seem to change them to fit their tastes or drastically cut back on the diet to lose the weight faster.

Although the zone diet is a high protein diet, the developer of the diet later released a Soy Zone diet. This made the diet plan more suited to vegetarians, who were put off the regular zone diet by its high meat content. The Soy Protein diet simply uses a soy protein base for its meals rather than meat.

Your body can not live without the carbohydrates that are being taken away from it during the zone diet. Your body will continue to crave carbs until you finally give in. And when you give in, because your body is not used to all these high calorie carbohydrates, they cause you to put on more weight than before you began the diet!

The weight loss zone diet appears to work well for certain people. It’s just a matter of striking a balance between following the diet to a T or deviating from it a little to include some more of the essential nutrients to keep your body healthy.

As with all diets you should contact your personal physician to determine if the diet could be detrimental to your health.
You should also diet smartly. Don’t expect the results to show over night and don’t skip any meals. By cutting out meals you are more likely to keep the weight on than lose it - so why not just enjoy the foods that you are allowed on the diet.

The Zone Diet

Do 500 Calorie Diets Work?

Are you in a hurry to lose weight? Is there a special occasion close at hand and you want to drop a few pounds fast? If you are, then the 500 calorie diet may be just what you’re looking for. Or is it?

You should know that this diet is it is considered an extreme form of dieting; it is not healthy yet it is highly popular. Although standard 1,000 - 1,200 low calorie diets are common, the ultra- low 500 calorie diet only for those who are healthy and is only to be used for a short time.

A diet is considered low calorie if it involves ingesting no more than 1200 calories per day. The idea of a low calorie diet is to lose weight quickly. If not administered correctly they can be dangerous and as such it is important to plan your 500 calorie diet with a professional dietitian or nutritionist before starting. This article will help you to decide if the 500 calorie diet is right for you.

It is well known that the way to lose weight is to burn more calories than you take in. However a very low calorie diet can actually do more harm than good. When your body is craving more calories (energy) it can affect your metabolic rate. This means your body actually starts to eat away at your muscle mass.

It is doing this for the purpose of converting the muscle mass to energy, since there are no food reserves to take from. Because gaining muscle is the path to losing fat, this can have a highly detrimental effect on your body.

500 calories per day may be sufficient for some people depending on their:
- Gender
- Activity level
- Height
- Body type
- Overall health and well being

For other people though, particularly overweight people, consuming only 500 calories a day is almost like starving yourself. Your body is more than likely used to taking in over 2200 calories per day and up to 5000 or more. If you all of a sudden drop to 500 calories or less your body moves into starvation mode. Your metabolism then slows down to conserve energy.

While you are on the 500 calorie diet your body will learn to live with fewer calories. That means if you go back to your old high calorie habits (as all too many people do) you will have a sudden gain in weight, which is more than what would have occurred, had you not gone on your low cal diet.

The only real way to determine your ideal daily calorie intake is by using a bmr/amr calculator (there is one available on this site). You will then know how many calories you need to be healthy and to support your lifestyle. If you take 500 calories away from this, then you have the ideal number of calories, to take in per day to help you get your weight down.

As men and women are obviously different their ideal calorie intake is also different. This of course means while the average woman may need only 1200 to 1300 calories a day to survive, her male counterpart may need from 1500 to 1600. Again this is why it is so important for you to consult with your physician before starting any diet.

In conclusion a 500 calorie diet can be dangerous. However, if proper precautions are taken, such as a physical and close supervision by your health care practitioner, to determine your overall health fitness, you can lose weight quickly. It’s definitely not a diet to go on by yourself.

The Mediterranean Diet

The Mediterranean Diet has become ever increasingly popular and everywhere I look I am now seeing more and more statistic that show how healthy it is.

Although it’s similar to the American Heart Association dietary guidelines it’s not the same - well not exactly. The Mediterranean allow more good mono-unsaturated fats and includes a larger variety of foods.

With the Omega-3 oils in the news lately it’s no wonder that the Mediterranean Diet is gaining popularity from dieters and from the medical community, since the Mediterranean diet is high in Omega-3 oils.

If you want to learn more about the Mediterranean Diet just Click Here

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