There are many diets about but in reality there are only two weight loss diets – those that put you into ketosis and those that don’t. But why does that matter? Well it all depends on how quickly you want to lose the weight. The ones that do put you into ketosis can offer fast weight loss ( a stone a month) and the ones that don’t can only offer slow weight loss ( half a stone a month).
The reason why the body loses weight and fat faster on ketosis diets is because when the body, on a ketosis diet , will burn body fat for energy.
There are only 2 types of ketogenic diets (diets that make the body go into ketosis).
·   Starvation Diets – effectively less than 750 / 520 calories a day
·   Low Starch and Low Sugar Diets - sometimes called low carb diets.
The starvation diets are really easy to understand because we all know that when you starve yourself your body will have to use body fat for energy but the problem with these diets is that the body will burn muscle for energy which is not a good idea. The other problem with these diets is that they rely on shakes to deliver the nutritional profile required.
Low starch/ low sugar diets are more difficult to understand especially when the calorie intake is relatively high. Low starch and low sugar diets force the body into ketosis as the body can not convert the calories in protein and good fats and leafy green vegetables into glucose quickly and therefore it will look for a faster form of energy in the form of body fat. So eating a high protein low starch and sugar diet will force your body to burn body fat. Often people think that low carb means No Carbs or High Fat – This is not true at all.
Unlike the starvation diet, because calorie content remains relatively high, the metabolic rate does not drop and because the food is low starch and low sugar it tends to be nutrient rich.
31 August 2010
