Low Carb Diets

Over the years there have been numerous diets put forward - all offering miracle cures and quick fixes. The only way to lose weight is to either reduce your energy intake or increase your energy output through exercise. The net effect is to ensure that output exceeds input. Diets that limit energy intake will achieve weight loss but it is important to still eat a variety of foods and chose a balanced healthy diet. Many 'diets' reduce the number of calories simply by cheating and removing a food group. These elimination diets typically remove carbohydrates like bread due to a mistaken belief that foods like bread are fattening.

Faddy diets have been around as long as conventional science. Recent examples include the Hay Diet, the Atkins Diet, the South Beach diet and the Zone diet. All work by either removing or limiting intake of carbohydrate. Typically promoted by alternative health practitioners and image conscious celebrities, these so called 'miracle diets' only offer quick fixes. Based on psuedo-science these diets have done more to promote the cause of their advocates than they have at tackling the weight of the nation.  Weight gain tends to be gradual and the most effective way to lose weight and keep it off is to lose the weight slowly and steadily. With elimination diets, the weight loss tends to be rapid. With such quick fixes the metabolism goes into starvation mode, and over time the body becomes less efficient at losing weight.