Lower Risk Of Heart Disease
One of the side benefits of reaching a healthy weight and having lean body mass is that you lower your risk for heart disease. Inflammation is the real cause of heart disease, not cholesterol .
If you have high blood pressure, then reducing your carbohydrate intake and sugars have been shown to reduce blood pressure and cardiovascular risk factors such as inflammation and raised triglycerides.
A high protein diet may reduce blood pressure and reduce triglycerides and inflammation which are the real cause of heart disease, not cholesterol.
A Greater Proportion Of Fat Loss Comes From Your Abdominal Cavity
Not all fat in your body is the same.
Where fat is stored determines how it affects your health and risk of disease.
The two main types are subcutaneous fat, which is under your skin, and visceral fat, which accumulates in your abdominal cavity and is typical for most overweight men.
Visceral fat tends to lodge around your organs. Excess visceral fat is associated with inflammation and insulin resistance and may drive the metabolic dysfunction so common in the West today .
Low-carb diets are very effective at reducing this harmful abdominal fat. In fact, a greater proportion of the fat people lose on low-carb diets seems to come from the abdominal cavity .
Over time, this should lead to a drastically reduced risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes.
Summary
Low-carb diets tend to be high in fat, which leads to an impressive increase in blood levels of good HDL cholesterol.
How Much Protein Per Day
We all need a different level of protein based on our exact needs. For example, your body weight, gender, age, and level of activity or exercise all determine how much protein is best for you.
Before determining your macronutrient needs, its important to figure out how many calories you should aim for each day. To do this, you should start by calculating your basal metabolic rate, which is the number of calories that your body needs to function, not including physical activity or exercise.
There are plenty of online calculators available that you can use to figure out your caloric needs. Use our calorie calculator.
There are also some health conditions that require people to either eat more or less protein-rich foods than the average person. And athletes need to eat even more foods for energy and performance, including plenty of quality protein.
That said, there are some general protein guidelines that can serve as a good recommendation to aim for each day. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the recommended daily intake of protein for adults who are at an average weight and activity level is:
- 56 grams per day for men
- 46 grams per day for women
In my opinion, the amounts above are the minimum protein intake you should aim for each day, assuming you are otherwise healthy and are moderately active.
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Amazing Benefits Of High Protein Low Carb Diet
Given the growing awareness about healthy living and getting fit among people, many individuals today are advocating the wonders of fad diets. Whether it is to reach their fitness goal by shedding the extra pounds or to maintain their ideal weight, diet plans are gaining popularity in a huge way amongst celebrities and commoners alike. A high-protein and low-carb diet is one such popular diet plan that not only aids weight loss but also provides your body with essential energy-giving nutrients while satiating your appetite.
Why It’s A Bad Idea For People Living With Diabetes
Keto and the like are even worse for people with diabetes! This is another place where short-term results are deceptive, because by reducing your intake of carbs/sugar, you do notice a clear decrease in your blood sugar levels!
However, the cost is that you’re drastically increasing your insulin resistance, which means that any return to eating foods high in carbohydrates will skyrocket your sugar levels, lead to weight gain, and can leave you in a worse place than you were before you tried low carb diets!
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What Does 100 Calories Look Like
100 calories from carbs – will trigger raised blood sugars, hunger, and cravings. Example 9 crisps.
100 calories from protein – will indirectly raise blood sugars moderately but keep you full and provide all the essential amino acids your body needs to function. Example small handful of prawns.
100 calories from fat – will not affect blood sugars but will keep you satiated. Example 1 tablespoon of butter.
Eating more protein keeps you fuller for longer but with fewer calories than fat. .
Additional Points To Remember:
When you are on a high-protein low-carb diet, there are certain points that you should keep in mind, including the following:
So, are you looking forward to trying out this diet plan? Do let us know in the comments section below.
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What Is A High
Our body uses carbohydrates as a primary source of energy. With fewer carbs in your system, the body breaks the fat down into ketones. The ketones will become the main source of fuel, which will drive your metabolism up. A high-protein, low-carb diet encourages switching out your daily carbs for lean protein to help boost weight loss and increase energy.
Health Benefits Of High Protein Low Carb Diets
Although people who lead sedentary lifestyles require less protein, physically active individuals, athletes, and pregnant women need significantly more than the current recommended daily allowance of 0.36 grams per pound of body weight.
As such, high protein diets may provide numerous benefits as may low carb eating patterns, which are often associated with weight loss.
Thus, combining the two diets may give numerous advantages.
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Is All That Protein Necessary
Many people with moderately active lifestyles simply dont need all the protein in very high protein, low carb diets, such as those that recommend above 0.9 grams per pound of body weight per day.
For most physically active people, a daily protein intake of 0.540.9 grams per pound of body weight is likely optimal .
Protein needs depend on your sex, body weight, age, health, activity levels, and body composition goals, so you should consult your healthcare provider if youre unsure how much you should eat.
Moreover, high protein, low carb diets arent necessary to promote overall health.
Eating a balanced, nutrient-rich diet, staying within your calorie needs, exercising, and reducing your intake of processed foods and added sugar are much more important to your well-being than your macronutrient ratios.
Summary
High protein, low carb diets are linked to a few downsides, including an increased risk of some cancers. Plus, most people have no need for all the protein that this eating pattern encourages.
When following a high protein, low carb diet, its important to reduce your intake of carb-rich foods. You should limit the following:
- Grains and starches: breads, rice, pasta, baked goods, cereals, etc.
- Sweeteners: sugar, agave, maple syrup, honey, coconut sugar, etc.
- Sugary drinks: juice, sweetened coffee and tea, soda, sports drinks, sweetened alcoholic beverages, beer, etc.
- Processed, high carb foods: french fries, fried chicken, pizza, chips, etc.
What Are Macronutrients
Food is made up of protein, carbohydrates, fat, and water. Just by adjusting the ratio of your macronutrients, you can be on a keto diet, low-fat diet, low-calorie diet, low-carb diet, high protein diet, or fat-free diet.
When you reduce your carbs you become a fat burner, not a sugar burner. Your body will burn fat as fuel and produce ketones, hence being called the keto diet. When you burn fat, you are in nutritional ketosis.
That being said, more and more keto dieters are switching their macros up to allow for higher protein. This is called a high-protein keto diet or a high-protein low-carb diet .
This is just one example of macronutrient ratios when you use a keto calculator.
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Health Benefits Of Low
Low-carb diets have been controversial for decades.
Some people assert that these diets raise cholesterol and cause heart disease due to their high fat content.
However, in most scientific studies, low-carb diets prove their worth as healthy and beneficial.
Here are 10 proven health benefits of low-carb and ketogenic diets.
Low Carbohydrate Diets And Heart Disease
Research shows that a moderately low-carbohydrate diet can help the heart, as long as protein and fat selections come from healthy sources.
- A 20-year prospective study of 82,802 women looked at the relationship between lower carbohydrate diets and heart disease a subsequent study looked at lower carbohydrate diets and risk of diabetes. Women who ate low-carbohydrate diets that were high in vegetable sources of fat or protein had a 30 percent lower risk of heart disease and about a 20 percent lower risk of type 2 diabetes, compared to women who ate high-carbohydrate, low-fat diets. But women who ate low-carbohydrate diets that were high in animal fats or proteins did not see any such benefits.
- More evidence of the heart benefits from a lower-carbohydrate approach comes from a randomized trial known as the Optimal Macronutrient Intake Trial for Heart Health . A healthy diet that replaced some carbohydrate with protein or fat did a better job of lowering blood pressure and bad LDL cholesterol than a healthy, higher-carbohydrate diet.
- Similarly, the small EcoAtkins weight loss trial compared a low-fat, high-carbohydrate vegetarian diet to a low-carbohydrate vegan diet that was high in vegetable protein and fat. While weight loss was similar on the two diets, study subjects who followed the low-carbohydrate EcoAtkins diet saw improvements in blood lipids and blood pressure.
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The Benefits Of A Low
For decades, the medical world has recommended a low-fat diet for losing weight, but its becoming increasingly clear that simply reducing fat/calorie intake doesnt lead to long-term weight loss. A low-carbohydrate, high-protein diet, on the other hand, has proven to be more effective for taking weight off. A low-carb diet restricts intake of refined carbohydrates and replaces them with protein and healthy fats.
The benefits of a low-carb diet dont stop at weight loss. Reducing carbohydrates can help improve other health conditions such as metabolic syndrome, diabetes, high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease. Low-carb diets may also raise HDL cholesterol levels if the right foods are consumed such as lean protein, healthy fats and unprocessed carbs. For example, a low-carb diet thats high in fatty meats, whole dairy and other high-fat foods can raise cholesterol, increasing the risk for heart disease and kidney problems.
Weight Loss And Bone Health
In the past, experts thought obesity would protect bone health. The tension skeletal muscles put on the bones they are attached to helps stimulate bone growth. More bodyweight often means more muscle, which usually means stronger bones.But this is not the whole picture.
If muscle mass has been reduced maybe by multiple rounds of weight loss, especially with very low-calorie restriction a person who is overweight or obese may also have a condition called sarcopenic obesity, which is having both low muscle mass and obesity.18
Additionally, the hormonal and inflammatory aspects of obesity can undermine bone health.19 Both obesity and calorie-restricted diets for weight loss are associated with an increased risk of fracture.20
This seems to create an impossible bind. If both losing weight and being overweight are bad for bone health, what can you do? The answer may be a higher protein diet for weight loss.
Ensuring you get plenty of protein may help protect your bones during weight loss.21 Adding weight-bearing exercise to the mix makes it even more likely youll reduce the bone loss that can occur while dieting.22
However, higher protein diets can help with weight loss in other ways, besides just protecting bone health. The effects of protein on appetite are also important for taming the hunger that can derail any diet.
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Is It Better To Eat More Protein
The most common myth of the keto diet is that you must eat excessive fat. In fact, it is the most common mistake people make and the most common reason weight loss stops.
The keto food pyramid helps you to set your carbs , protein , and fat .
When starting a low-carbohydrate diet, you add plenty of healthy fats to your meals and snacks but NOT to excess. Do not drink bulletproof coffees and continuously eat fat bombs.
Prevention Or Management Of Type 2 Diabetes
There are a number of convincing theories of how type 2 diabetes develops. Although different theories disagree on whether insulin resistance or weight gain come first, many of them include excessive carbohydrate consumption as a factor in the development of type 2 diabetes.
Maintaining stable blood glucose levels is important to prevent complications associated with diabetes. As carbs have the biggest impact on our blood glucose levels, reducing our intake of carbohydrate-containing foods will reduce the amount of glucose entering the bloodstream in the first place. This explains why this diet has always been involved in the prevention and treatment of type 2 diabetes.
Recent studies have found consistent benefits in improved blood glucose control, weight loss, and sustained medication reduction when participants followed a low-carb diet. Its also been shown that the low-carb diet had a high adherence rate after 12 months, suggesting its a more sustainable way of eating for the long run.
Key points:
- Excessive carb consumption is a common factor of the leading theories of type 2 diabetes development.
- A low-carb diet can improve blood glucose control and aid weight loss, which are both important in the prevention and treatment of type 2 diabetes.
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Is A High Protein Low Carb Diet Right For Everyone
As the saying goes, there is no one-size-fits-all diet, and that applies here too.
A high-protein, low carb diet can be very effective, and its especially useful for those looking to improve body composition and/or lose weight.
However, there are several routes to the same destination, and whats right for a friend might not fit your lifestyle. Other diets such as low carb, high fat , paleo, keto, whole-foods, and most diets that focus on nutrient density can all improve health.
That said, this particular diet makes controlling food intake a lot easier than many other eating plans. This mainly comes down to the beneficial impact a higher protein intake has on satiety levels .
Like most lower carb diets, it also features lots of delicious-tasting foods. After all, its hard to complain about a diet that encourages steak and cheese, isnt it?
Key Point:
Missing Out On The Benefits Of Fruit
A major risk, from a health point of view, of strict low carb dieting like Atkins is a lack of the beneficial, health promoting goodness of eating a wide range of fruits.
Many hard-core low carb plans recommended starting at a maximum of 20g of carbohydrate a day, and even those that allow up to 50g will prove restrictive in this respect.
When you go under 50 grams per day youre going to have to eliminate most fruits from your diet, although you can have berries in small amounts.
Study after study has shown that fruits are powerful protectors of health. They are also lower in calories than all other foods used as sweet snacks, and therefore great for weight loss.
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A Final Word On How To Pick The Right Type Of Keto Diet For You
Its a good idea to meet with your doctor or a registered dietitian any time you switch up your diet whether youre on keto or another eating plan. And above all, Torchia says to listen to your body and assess your energy level and how youre feeling on the diet. You will be your best teacher, she says.
Additional reporting by Elizabeth Millard.
Maintain Blood Sugar Levels
High-protein diets also help you manage blood sugar levels. You don’t necessarily have to count calories . Instead, just eat fewer carbs and more protein.
Maintaining blood sugar control is very important for anyone that has been told they have pre-diabetes, type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes, or gestational diabetes. Lower blood sugar often occurs with a low-carb diet because low-carb foods help prevent blood sugar spikes.
Eating more protein helps you keep full until your next meal and helps prevent continuous snacking which often keeps blood sugars elevated.
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