by Trisha Orlando

Created on: January 06, 2008   Last Updated: January 12, 2008

The Myths About Low Carb Diets

Carbohydrates raise blood sugar in order to provide so your body's preferred source of fuel: glucose. As glucose levels rise, your pancreas releases a flow of insulin that triggers cells to store sugar.

Low Carb Diet supporters say that eating a diet low in carbs makes weight loss easier because low, steady blood sugar squashes food cravings. Proponents say these diets also change the body's metabolism encouraging the body to break down more fats; hence, fewer of the calories you take in are stored as flab.

Low-carb weight-loss plans do work in the beginning. Weight lose is quick at first because burning stored carbs, called glycogen, releases water. What you are losing is excess water weight.

Nutritionists claim that low-carb weight loss isn't a metabolic mystery, but merely the working-out of nature's number one law of losing weight: Eat fewer calories= shed pounds.
Some low-carb dieters claim this controlled way of eating eliminates cravings, but others claim they have suffered headaches and nausea.

Burning fat without carbohydrates produce substances called ketones. Ketones can decrease food cravings, but the danger is sustained high ketone levels can deplete minerals stored in bones, making them fragile.

The University of Pennsylvania did a year-long study of 63 dieters. Researchers found that low-carb dieters dropped 4 percent more weight than dieters using a low-calorie plan in the first six months. After one year, both groups resulted in nearly the same weight loss.

Researchers at the National Weight Control Registry reviewed the diets of 2,681 successful dieters who had maintained a minimum of a 30-pound weight loss for 1 year or more. Researchers expected to see many low-carb dieters. They were surprised to find just 25, 1 percent of the total group. Their conclusion: Low-carb plans didn't produce a lasting metabolic change that kept pounds off.

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