Many people follow low-carb diet to lose weight. A low-carb diet limits your carbohydrate intake — such as those found in grains, legumes, pulses, bread, starchy vegetables, and fruit — and makes you depend on foods high in protein and fat. It can also help you fight and prevent Type 2 diabetes and metabolic diseases. There are also many different types of low-carb diets which have varying proportions – all of which help you cut back on weight gain. Hence, low-carb has a big following.
To reap all the metabolic benefits of low-carb diets, merely cutting back on the carbs isn’t enough. You still need to eat a certain number of calories every day, which come from good source of fats and protein. It is a big myth that cutting out fat will greatly benefit their diet because fats aren’t exactly “healthy”. However, this is not true. When you cut out essential fats, it could further spike your hunger pangs and create a mismatch in your nutrition levels. Hence, including fat is very important.
How to make the most out of your low-carb diet
Calories are made up of fat (40%) and protein (35%) and the remaining comes from carbohydrate sources. Ideally, with any diet, you shouldn’t be compromising on your calorie intake. For ideal and effective weight loss, you should be eating 1500 calories per day- out of which, 600 should come from the fat content. Now, since 1 gm of fat equals nine calories, it comes out to be 67 gms of fat in a 24-hour window.
While the dietary choices for all people vary, a good rule of thumb is that the level of your fat intake should be around 0.4 to 0.5 grams per pound of your target body weight.
More so, you should also be paying attention to the type of fat and protein you are eating with your meals. Aim at including more unsaturated fats in your plate-since they also contain traces of protein and are rich in antioxidants and minerals which can protect your health while you are losing weight. Good unsaturated fat content are found in food items like nuts, seeds, seafood, chickpeas, and certain dairy products.
