Low Carb Diets Cause More Than Water Weight Loss

Many critics in have attackedlow carb diets for only providing aninitial loss in water weight, rather thanactually affecting sustained fat loss.Some critics have even suggested that dieters lose don't lose any fat at all.

This attack on low carb dietsis based on a critique of thefirst phase of most low carb diets--such as the induction phase ofDr. Atkins's' diet--in which the dieter consumes no carbsover a one to two weekperiod.

Critics claim that this stageis deceptive because it leadslow carb dieters to believe thatthey are losing fat weight, whenin fact, they are shedding themajority of their weight inthe form of water.

When dieters stop consumingsugar, they immediately beginburning carbohydrate reserves for energy. Reserves are storedin the form of glycogen, which coversthe liver and muscles. Each gramof glycogen binds four grams ofwater, which means that eachgram of glycogen converted intoenergy takes with it four gramsof water.

The result is pretty straightforward.If you convert 300 grams of storedcarbs into energy, you will lose anadditional 1200 grams of water, too.This means four-fifths of the weightyou lose during the first phase ofa low carb diet is water weight.

However, while this critique doesapply to the "no carb" phase of"low carb" diets, it falls in two places:

The first place is mistakenly thinkingthat people don't want to lose massiveamounts of carbohydrate stores in additionto the fat stores they currently have.

The second is a complete failureto critique or even examine the followingstages in low carb diets.

Many dieters have lost close to one hundred pounds in excess ofof the initial carbohydrate reserves--all of which was the direct result offollowing a low carb diet plan.

Low carb dieters continue to loseweight after the "no carb" phasebecause they maintain a netloss of carbohydrates, whichforces their bodies to burnfat for energy.

So, if you plan to start a lowcarb diet in the future, do not bedeterred by critics who claimyou cannot be successful after theinitial period of carbohydrate reserveloss. This is simply untrue.

Benji Paras runs http://www.list-of-low-carb-food.com, specializing in the benefits of the low-carb lifestyle. The site contains a treasure trove of information for losing weight, and includes a list of low carb foods along with informative articles and the latest low-carb headlines.