The Science Behind Why Low-Carb Diets Work (2024)

FAQs

The Science Behind Why Low-Carb Diets Work? ›

Low-carb diets have long been touted as being beneficial for weight loss, diabetes and other medical conditions. This focus on carbs is largely due to how the body uses them: The body uses carbs for energy, but when carbs are restricted, the body turns to its fat stores for energy.

Extra glucose is stored in the liver and in muscles. Some is changed to body fat. A low-carb diet is meant to cause the body to burn stored fat for energy, which leads to weight loss.

Because low-carb diets are more satiating, the reasoning goes, it's easier to eat fewer calories. That's also a plausible, testable theory!

Adopting a low-carb diet is one way to help blood sugar (and mood) stabilize. Excess sugar forces our pancreas to produce more and more insulin, a hormone that lowers our blood sugar. If we keep pumping out too much insulin, over time this process can make us resistant to insulin.

The carbohydrate-insulin hypothesis

According to this hypothesis, to lose weight you reduce the amount of carb calories you eat and replace them with fat calories. This is supposed to drive down insulin levels, boost calorie burn, and help fat melt away.

Complications such as heart arrhythmias, cardiac contractile function impairment, sudden death, osteoporosis, kidney damage, increased cancer risk, impairment of physical activity and lipid abnormalities can all be linked to long-term restriction of carbohydrates in the diet.

You'll Lose Water Weight

Glycogen helps your body retain water. You may also lose some salt along with the carbs you cut out. When you start to eat carbs again, the water weight comes right back. It takes 2 to 3 weeks for ketosis to rev up and start to burn fat.

Low energy: Carbs are your body's primary source of energy. Therefore, a no-carb diet may lead to low energy and fatigue. Insufficient nutrients: A no-carb diet may not provide enough vitamins and minerals, such as potassium, B vitamins, and vitamin C, which are abundant in fruits, vegetables, and other plant foods.

While there is no strict definition of a low carb diet, anything under 100–150 grams per day is generally considered low carb. This is definitely a lot less than the amount of carbs in the standard Western diet.

Eating more than 50 grams of carbs may disrupt ketosis.

Some people can eat more and still stay in ketosis, whereas others may need to restrict their carb intake more in order to stay in ketosis.

What not to eat on a low-carb diet? ›

On a low carb diet, foods to avoid would include bread, pasta, potatoes, and other starchy vegetables, grains such as rice and corn, oatmeal, beans and lentils, milk, sugar, sweets such as cookies, candy and ice cream, beer, soda, and higher carb fruits like bananas, grapes, and apples.

Anecdotal evidence links the initial phase of fasting or a low-carbohydrate diet with feelings of well-being and mild euphoria. These feelings have often been attributed to ketosis, the production of ketone bodies which can replace glucose as an energy source for the brain.

Reducing your intake of calorie-dense carbs automatically reduces the amount of calories you're consuming on a daily basis, which forces your body to burn fat stored around your midsection for energy, rather than the sugars it takes from carbohydrates. Eat This! Tip: Exercise in the morning before you eat breakfast.

On a standard low carb diet, the brain will still largely depend on glucose, the sugar found in your blood, for fuel. However, the brain may burn more ketones than on a regular diet. On a ketogenic diet, ketones are the primary fuel source for the brain. The liver produces ketones when carb intake is very low.

Today's body of research suggests that lower carb diets can have a beneficial effect on weight, insulin sensitivity and heart disease risk. These diseases disproportionately affect people from historically marginalized backgrounds, such as Black and Hispanic Americans.

Early studies reported that low-carbohydrate diets resulted in greater weight loss, glycemic control, and improvements in cardiometabolic risk factors (primarily decreases in triglycerides and increases in HDL-C cholesterol).

Limiting carb intake is one strategy to help control blood sugar levels ( 23 ). One study in 56 people with type 2 diabetes determined that a low carb diet was more effective at controlling blood sugar, increasing weight loss, and reducing insulin needs, compared with a low fat diet ( 24 ).

Are low carb diets OK? It is perfectly healthy to follow a low-carb diet, as long as it includes a variety of nutritious, whole, unprocessed foods. Low-carb diets can be good for heart health, since they may increase good cholesterol levels, and decrease blood pressure and triglyceride levels.

One reason why you might be struggling to lose weight on a low-carb diet is that you've succumbed to the labels displaying what you think you need, yet you're consuming too many fats or overall calories in your daily intake.