Diet Doctor > Top Diet Programs > Low & High Carb Diets

Low & High Carb Diets

Learn About Plans Focused on Carbs

Low carb diets have become incredibly popular in the last ten years, with the Atkins diet spawning many diets based around the same principles. Diets like the Zone and the South Beach diet follow a low carb principle, but offer the dieter a little bit more leeway with carbohydrate intake and choices than the very restrictive Atkins diet.

Atkin’s diet brought the idea of ketosis to dieter’s mind, and makes it sound like it’s the best way to lose body fat. Ketosis is achieved when the body goes into a fat-burning state where fat is burned for fuel because there’s not enough sugar in the blood to use as fuel. The lack of sugar for fuel is created by a low carbohydrate intake. The urine of someone in ketosis will contain ketones which are a byproduct of this state.

Someone just starting on this low carb diet has to go through what’s called Induction: a two-week period of severely restricted carbohydrate intake. This effectively throws the body into ketosis, and changes it from a machine that burns carbohydrates for fuel to one that burns fat instead.

The Zone Ddet follows the low carb principles set forth in Atkins but goes a step further, by not cutting the carbohydrates down quite so restrictively. Instead, the Zone stresses the ratios between carbs, fat and protein each time you eat. Each meal and snack is supposed to contain a certain percentage of fat, protein and carbohydrates, and five meals per day is the ideal number, with no more than five hours between them. The protein on this diet, unlike Atkins, is supposed to be lower fat protein choices.

The South Beach Diet has similarities with both the Adkin’s Diet and the Zone Diet. The South Beach Diet allows and even encourages carbohydrates, but it stresses that you choose whole grains and complex carbohydrates, instead of simple sugars. During the initial two-week phase though, the only carbohydrates allowed are those found in vegetables. After that, carbs are brought back in small amounts. Several small meals are preferred over just two or three larger ones.

Atkins and the South Beach diet both are criticized by experts as containing too much unhealthy fat, while the Zone stresses good fats and low fat protein choices. Any time you follow a low carb diet you run into the danger of too much fat. Saturated fat is a particular concern given all the meat and eggs, and saturated fat is believed to be one of the causes of high cholesterol , high blood pressure and heart disease. High carb diets, like the Ornish Diet and other vegetarian diets, are typically low in fat.

The South Beach Diet has become so popular that you can buy frozen entrees designed specifically to fit into the plan. But the Zone and Atkins also have a number of products available, from shakes to meal replacement bars, to make it more convenient for you to lose weight on their low carb diet plans.