How Many Carbs Per Day When Dieting
How many carbs per day when dieting? That’s the million dollar question that has spawned a bit of a debate amongst nutritionists and diet practitioners everywhere.
Low carb diets can be one of the hardest diets for people to stick with but they can also be one of the more effective ways of loosing weight and burning fat quickly. That being said, there are several different schools of thought regarding the question of how many carbs per day when dieting.
The large majority of people following a low carb diet routine are following the Atkins diet. The Atkins diet calls for less than 20 grams of carbs a day within the first two weeks and then the number opens up a bit after that. The exact number of carbs depends on your body and maintaining a state of ketosis. There are ketosis strips available that allow you to monitor how your body responds to carbs. The recommendation is that after 2 weeks you increase your carb intake slowly until you see that your body has slipped out of the ketosis state at which point you would ratchet back your carbs a little.
As a personal note, I put myself on the Atkins diet some time back and it worked tremendously well. I lost 25 pounds within 5 weeks and I was not very heavy to begin with. You should know however that it was very hard to do for the first two weeks. For me it was on par with quitting smoking. I had mood swings and all kinds of intense reactions. Once that passed however, cravings subsided and the diet was relatively easy.
In the end I think a more practical and sustainable approach to a low carb diet is the way to go. The South Beach diet for example is a good option to Atkins that in my personal opinion, is healthier for the long term. So you see, the answer to the question, how many carbs per day when dieting, depends ultimately on your body and which diet plan you want to use to loose weight.
Before you settle on a low carb diet you may want to take a look at my comparison of the best fat loss diets.