Fueling the furnace of your body with foods low in carbohydrates

Fueling the furnace of your body with foods low in carbohydrates

Although there are a great variety of approaches to low-carb eating, they all adhere to the same fundamental tenets. The consumption of carbs (including starches and sugars) causes an increase in the amount of sugar in the blood throughout the body. In response to high levels of blood sugar, the body secretes insulin, which, in turn, causes an increase in the body's capacity to store fat and a decrease in its capacity to burn fat.

Carbohydrate intake should be limited on a low-carb diet since this causes only a modest rise in blood sugar and prevents an excessive amount of insulin from being produced. But the dreams of many people who follow low-carb diets are dashed when they experience uncontrollable cravings for sweets, hypoglycemic mood swings, hunger drives, and lethargy.

The reality about carbohydrates is that eating an excessive amount of them results in the consumption of an excessive number of calories and most likely also has certain adverse effects on the levels of glucose and insulin in the blood. Despite this, it is still necessary for the body to have a certain minimum amount of carbohydrates (in the form of glucose) in order to maintain life.

Even though the brain and nervous system require the greatest amount of glucose on a regular basis, these organs are able to function adequately without it when necessary. However, this is not the case for some of the cells that make up the blood and other types of cells. They absolutely need to have a consistent supply of glucose available to them at all times; otherwise, they will perish very quickly.

If it doesn't obtain enough glucose from the food it eats, your body will start to manufacture the glucose it needs for these cells out of the protein in your muscles if it can't get enough glucose from the food it eats that contains carbohydrates. However, despite the fact that this is a possibility, it is a stressful emergency response known as ketosis, which also makes you miserable by causing cravings, hunger, and a wide variety of other unpleasant feelings. Obviously, if we could get rid of all of it, our dieting efforts would be considerably more successful.

Your body will naturally cause you to feel hungry in order to motivate you to obtain more of a specific nutrient when it detects that you are getting dangerously low on that vitamin. However, if you have a tendency to eat meals that contain an inadequate amount of whatever nutrient they are lacking and an excessive amount of calories, this reaction will cause you to gain weight.

You are fortunate in that you can regain your previous weight loss results by merely reversing the technique. You will need to learn to eat foods that provide your body with a lot of what it needs yet are low in calories in order to do this. If you are successful in doing this, your body will have no need to signal hunger or stimulate food cravings, even if you are eating very few calories, because it will be burning excess fat (stored calories) to make up for the deficit. This is true even if you are dieting to lose weight.

This reaction holds true for all of the nutrients, including carbohydrates, just as it does for every other nutrient. If you don't consume enough carbohydrates, your body will signal that it needs food since it requires a certain amount of glucose on a daily basis to provide the cells that are unable to utilize any other fuel source.

If you consume an excessive amount of carbohydrates, you will gain weight due to the fact that excessive amounts of carbohydrates include an excessive number of calories in addition to the previously described adverse effects on blood glucose and insulin levels. How much, then, constitutes "enough but not too much"? Depending on how you choose to live your life, that number probably varies quite a bit. 

A day filled with nonstop activity and anxiety may call for a large quantity of carbohydrates, whereas a day spent unwinding and doing nothing may not. However, the minimal quantity of carbohydrate that most individuals will need each day is estimated by the majority of scientists to be somewhere in the range of 50–100 grams per day (which is equivalent to 200–400 calories from carbohydrate). This is the amount that stops your body from making glucose out of muscle protein and instead uses it to produce energy.

It is not difficult to keep tabs on and manage carbohydrate consumption because the majority of food labels disclose the quantity of carbohydrate content in the food you consume. Aim to get between 300 and 400 calories per day from carbohydrate sources in the food you eat. In most cases, this will prevent the feelings of hunger as well as the cravings that are brought on by low glucose levels.

There are a number of other nutrients that, when you do not get enough of them, can cause feelings of hunger and cravings, and these other nutrients must therefore also be handled in a similar fashion.