Ways Of Approaching Dieting

Diet books outsell almost every other subject area both on the internet and in the book stores. Our life styles in the twenty first century don't allow us to consume the calories that our bodies tell us we need and many of us therefore are permanently on diets and find our weight yo-yoing backwards and forwards.

Back in the 1970s a Dr Atkins put forward a radical new idea which came across a brick wall in the diet and medical world. Instead of eating a diet that consisted predominantly of carbohydrates he suggested that if we ate a diet consisting almost entirely of proteins and fats we would lose weight. Despite all the negative comments, his diet has been proved to be highly effective and stores are now stocking low carb snacks because there is such a huge change going on in our eating habits.

Even though we have more people being diagnosed with diabetes than ever before we still don't link the intake of sugar and refined carbohydrates like pasta, cereal and bread to the production of insulin. It's a simple fact that when your body has too much insulin it converts food to fat.

Your body will also store carbs away because it worries that it may not be fed again and this means that you're left feeling unsatisfied and all these carbs are simply going on the hips. Many of us are encouraged by 'in your face' advertising to consume lots of "low-fat" diet foods. They may be low in fat but they are actually high in sugar and therefore increase insulin levels and your fat. Most refined carbohydrates are actually little more than sugar molecules bonded together and will be treated by your body in the same way as a piece of chocolate.

So, when this happens we tend to look at the advertising that's shouting the loudest. Nine times out of ten the first thing we see are the 'low fat' alternatives. This makes a lot of sense, but what the advertising doesn't tell us is that these foods are usually full to bursting with sugar which increases our insulin levels and therefore our fat. These diets don't work!

When you've made the decision to start your low carb diet you need to commit to an induction of a minimum of two weeks during which you have to keep your carb intake lower than twenty grams per day. During this time your body learns to burn fat rather than carbs and will have forgotten its need to hoard the carbs when you do start to consume them again.

For two weeks you'll have to be totally devoted to your diet and never cheat. It's during this time that you will be educating your body! It's going to be a huge shake up for it as your carb intake won't be exceeding twenty grams per day but your determination will pay off! Your body will learn to burn fat rather than carbs and once the weight starts to move you should feel motivated to keep going. After this initial period you can start to eat a few carbs again and your body shouldn't be tempted to hoard them.

By drinking lots of water you will stop yourself from feeling so hungry and it will also flush out some of the carbohydrates. There will be moments when you desperately need a snack, so try to be prepared by keeping some healthy snacks at hand. It's possible either to prepare veggies to munch during the day or you can buy snacks that will keep that you know are permissible.