The Low Carb High Protein Diet - How to Lose Weight Quickly and to Stay Healthy

Many people trying to lose weight try a low carb high protein diet at some point in their lives. Popularized in the 70s by the Atkins Diet program, these diets claim to result in a metabolic change whereby the body burns body fat instead of the carbs that are ingested. The key to their success is eliminating carbs from the diet, and increasing the amount of protein and fat instead. While somewhat of a long lived fad, these diets were exceedingly popular for a long time. At one point, it was claimed that one in eleven Americans were on or had tried this kind of a diet.

The way that a low carb high protein diet works is by restricting carbohydrate intake drastically to a much lower amount than that found in the typical American diet so that the body goes into a different metabolic state called ketosis, whereby it burns its own fat for fuel. Normally the body burns carbohydrates for fuel, and this is the main source of fuel for your brain, heart and many other organs. A person in ketosis is getting energy from ketones, little carbon fragments that are the fuel created by the breakdown of fat stores. When the body is in ketosis, you tend to feel less hungry, and thus you are likely to eat less than you might otherwise.

As a result of following a low carb high protein diet, your body apparently changes from a carbohydrate-burning engine into a fat-burning engine. So instead of relying on the carbohydrate-rich items you might typically consume for energy, and leaving your fat stores just where they were before (for example on the hips, belly, and thighs), your fat stores become a primary energy source. The purported result is fast weight loss.

A low carb high protein diet is known to cause a number of health problems, including: kidney failure because of the increased proteins, high cholesterol because of the increased proteins and fat, osteoporosis and kidney stones because high proteins cause you to excrete calcium, cancer, as well an unhealthy metabolic state which can cause organ failure. This unhealthy metabolic state is called ketosis and is known to dull appetites, as well as causing nausea, bad breath, kidney stones, kidney failure, etc.

Given all that is known it is a surprise to many people to find that there are still proponents of a low carb high protein kind of diet. Indeed a whole industry has developed around products and supplements designed to assist people on this kind of diet. Before embarking on this journey yourself, you might want to do a little bit of research. Any diet can lead to weight loss in the short term, but the question that you need to ask yourself is whether it can be maintained in the long term, and whether there are any health issues that need to be considered.

Dear reader, if you want to learn more about quick weight loss, follow the link get your absolutely FREE weight loss eBook and other great tips on how to lose weight and improve your life. Why to wait, do it now and enjoy the body you really want to have: StayFitLoseWeight.com StayFitLoseWeight.com/