Tuesday, November 11, 2008

How to Design Your Own Low Carb Diet

By Ricardo d Argence

Carbohydrates are the foods that allow for sugars and starches. These foods are the ones that provide the fuel and energy for our bodies. The important thing is to be balanced when choosing a diet and to remember that every food group needs to be included; even carbs. Moderation is the key to healthy eating and, whenever it is possible, be sure to select complex carbohydrates.

When people talk about Carbs is the shortened name for these energy items. When people discuss Carbs, they are usually targeting those foods with higher concentrations of sugars or starches. If you check, you will notice that carbohydrates are contained in a majority of the foods that we eat.

Many of the high carb foods are processed food items, including sweets, white bread, potatoes, and pasta. If you want to follow a low carb diet, you need to stay away from canned foods and choose fresh fruits and vegetables. Stick to unprocessed foods like brown rice and whole wheat bread. If you want cereal, plain oatmeal is a very good treat to try.

There are two basic groups of carbohydrates, one is the simple carbohydrates, and these include sugars, candy, white bread, pastas and even dairy and some fruits. This is the body's top source for energy. The complex carbohydrates are number 2 when it comes to providing us with energy. These carbohydrates take longer to digest and this is why they keep you feeling free from hunger for longer periods of time. These carbohydrates are found in veggies, some fruit, beans, potatoes, pasta, and whole wheat bread.

When partaking in a low carb diet, one should be sure that their daily intake does not exceed 20-50 gm per day. If you are maintaining your weight, 180-300 gm per day of carbohydrates will work nicely. Choose lean turkey or other protein rich foods if you want to maintain a low number of carbs in your daily diet.

Glucose can be pulled from the liver for energy if carbohydrates are not present in the bloodstream due to a low carbohydrate diet. Without the immediate energy source of carbohydrates, the body will reluctantly begin to burn some of the fat supply existing in its cells.

Most vegetables, except corn, potatoes, some mushrooms, green peas, and rhubarb are low carbohydrate foods. Even Shiitake mushrooms are almost 25% carbohydrate. A simple cucumber has 10 grams of carbohydrates, which isn't much unless you are obsessed with counting carbohydrates. Lean meats are excellent things to eat when on a low carb diet, so you can enjoy baked or grilled chicken, turkey breast, fish or even lean beef. High in fiber, beans are an excellent choice even though they add moderate amounts of carbs to your daily diet total. Avoid any kind of foods that are in cans and limit foods that are processed, as well as foods that contain sugar and starch.

Remember to do your exercises if you want to diet correctly. Even a low carb diet is not enough to successfully and quickly burn fat. You must exercise everyday to promote the process of fat burning. Exercise is good for you but there is a tip for you to use. Any exercise can boost your heart rate to where it needs to be, try a walking quickly for a quarter of an hour.

If you do this, for the next 30-45 minutes your body will be burning fat cells to supply your energy needs. This is because it takes about 15 minutes for your body to use up its supply of stored glucose. You should not eat just before exercising, you do not want to have extra carbs in your bloodstream for your body to burn, you want to target the fat. - 15437

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