Low Carb Diet Plan - Treat Your Body Like You Treat Your Car

Low Carb Diet Plan - Treat Your Body Like You Treat Your Car:

It simply amazes me.

Everyday I see otherwise smart individuals
cramming garbage into their faces without
a single thought about what it's doing to
their body.

They go out of their way to keep their
vehicle in top running condition by putting
in the best gas and engine additives (to
keep the fuel lines clean and prevent gunk
buildup), put in fresh plugs and wires (gotta
have decent pickup!) and wash it every
week.

I can completely understand this attitude
because a car's a major investment and
you want to keep it as long as possible.

On the other hand, your body is yours for
life! You only get one. So why would you
treat your body with any less respect than
you treat your vehicle?

Why wouldn't you want to put only the
best fuel available into your personal
'machine' to keep it in optimal running
condition?

By eating junk food and drinking sugary
sodas and fruit drinks you're basically
telling yourself that you don't matter.

That your material possessions are more
important than your own health and well
being.

Doesn't it make sense to give yourself
the best possible chance at staying
healthy when you're the one paying the
bills?

I have a friend who's a fairly shrewd
business man. He sells cars on the side
to make extra cash and he always makes
a profit. He knows a lot about cars and
always keeps his own vehicles immaculate
inside and out.

He's also risen to the top of his chosen
profession of printing and has a good
family life. He's a winner.

Physically, on the other hand, he's a
different story.

He has high blood pressure which causes
his hands to shake uncontrollably. His
family has a history of heart disease.

So what does he choose to eat when it
comes time for his lunch? A candy bar, a
muffin and a 20oz. bottle of Mountain
Dew! Wow!

The reason I bring up this particular
friend (because I could use many others
as an example of poor diet) is that he
recently had a bout with hemmorhoids
which caused him to alter his diet for the
better which included cutting out the
sugary sweets and soda and eating some
roughage (Wasa Crisp crackers was the
choice here), more raw veggies and
drinking water instead of soda.

This is the premise behind a true low carb
diet plan. Cut out the simple carbs (sugar
and processed foods) and eat sensibly.

So what did this drastic dietary change
result in? An amazing transformation to
say the least. His hands almost stopped
shaking completely (lowered his blood
pressure), his energy increased (no more
sugar spikes and crashes) and he just all
around felt better. Oh, and his hemorrhoids
got better too!

Now, you'd think that with all these nearly
miraculous turns in his overall health, he'd
stick to what's working and reduce his
risks of heart disease and other ailments.

Nope!

As soon as he felt better he went back
to his old diet (if that's what you want to
call it!) and back came the shakes.

I doubt that everyone with bad dietary
habits shows such obvious signs of their
effects as my friend does, but rest
assured that your diet is directly
affecting your health.

As the old saying goes "Garbage in,
garbage out!"

By adopting a low carb diet plan and
sticking to it, you can increase your
energy and vitality, lose weight, build
self confidence (because you'll look
and feel better) and just plain be healthier!

Low Carb Diet Plan - The Science Behind The Low Carb Diet

Low carb diet plans are excellent for
losing weight, but as with all diets you
need to take care and use some
common sense when undertaking such
a diet.

With a little direction and knowledge a
low carb lifestyle can help you maintain
your weight loss.

In order to pick a low carb diet that's
right for you, you first need to
understand what carbohydrates are
and the different types of carbs.

Carbs are made up of either single
sugars (simple carbs) or bound strings
of sugar (complex carbs).

Some examples of simple carbs include
sucrose (table sugar), fructose (fruit
sugar) and lactose (dairy sugar).
Examples of complex carbs are wheat
flour or potato starch.

Carbs are one of the main nutrient
groups your body uses for energy along
with fat and protein. All three are
converted to glucose or blood sugar.

The difference is that carbs are
converted quickly, causing quick spikes
in the body’s blood sugar levels. These
spikes in blood sugar levels cause the
pancreas to create and release the
hormone insulin until the blood sugar
level returns to normal.

Insulin lowers our blood’s glucose levels.
It's released into the blood as soon as
the body detects that blood sugar
levels have risen above its optimal level.

Insulin also runs the body’s fuel storage
systems.

Eating too much of simple, refined
carbohydrates leads to over production
of insulin, which leads to the storage
of too much fat in the body.

Excess sugar or fat in the blood signals
the body to store it in fat cells and tell
these cells not to release it. Thus their
stored fat is unavailable for use by the
body as energy.

By preventing stored fat from being
released for use as energy, insulin
prevents weight loss. With higher
insulin levels, fat cells are prevented
from releasing their stores and it
becomes harder to lose weight.

Basically, what it all boils down to is
that carbohydrates, especially simple
carbs like sugar and starch, are quickly
released into the bloodstream, turned
into glucose and trigger the creation of
large amounts of insulin.

By lowering your carb consumption,
less insulin is produced and fewer
calories are stored as fat. Less fat
storage means less weight gain.

So the idea behind every low carb diet
plan is that a body that produces less
insulin burns more fat because the
body's not storing the excess glucose
as fat.

Some plans encourage a period of
extremely low carbohydrate intake so
that the body will enter a state of
ketosis and burn fat stores quicker.

Ketosis, the body's survival mechanism
during times of famine, is the process
of burning stored fat for energy when
glucose is not readily available.

When your body reaches ketosis, this
is what's referred to as the "induction"
phase.

The length of extreme carb control
varies from seven days to however
long it takes you to reach your ideal
weight.

After this period of extremely low carb
dieting, maintenance levels of carb
consumption are followed to prevent
weight gain. The amount of carb you
can safely eat will depend on your
unique body system and your level of
activity. You'll probably have to
experiment to find out what level of
carb intake is right for you.

The whole idea's to cut out refined
carbs such as white flour and white
flour products, reduce sweets and
artificially sweetened foods and consume
smaller amounts of whole grains and raw
fruits and veggies.

So as you can see, with a little common
sense and a little willpower, you can lose
weight with the right low carb diet plan.

Low Carb Diet Plan Menu Creator

In order to lose weight, you have to
follow a low carb diet plan. These have
proven to be the best plans. But how
do you know what to eat? It's difficult
at best to find foods you like that fit
the plan. Then you have to try to
create a menu around these foods that
keeps you interested and motivated
enough to stick with your diet.

What a hassle!

Wouldn't it be great to have someone,
a professional dietician who knows
what's in each food, to plan your meals
for you?

Well that's exactly what you get with
The Menu Creator.

This software's awesome because it
takes all the food you love and shows
you exaclty how many grams of carbs,
fat and protein there are in each serving.

You choose which foods you want to
include in your diet, how many meals a
day you want to eat, what your fitness
level is and what you'd like to attain
from your diet (for example - gain lean
mass or simply maintain weight!).

This thing's so cool that it actually puts
together a shopping list for you!

There's a list of several hundred foods
already included with the software but
if you don't find what you like listed
you can add as many as you want.

Input the foods, your personal info,
what your goals are and presto!
Out pops your customized menu!

And you can have it create up to 12
weeks worth of menus at a time, from
2 to 6 meals a day.

Whatever your diet goals and no matter
what stage of your diet you're in, this
is a great tool.