Zero carb diet

“Carbohydrates make you fat and sluggish” !?!

You have certainly read the rumor on all platforms on the Internet or even overheard the one or other conversation during sports about the supposed wickedness of carbohydrates – “carbohydrates make you fat and sluggish” is said again and again. What is true about this claim and what benefits a zero carb diet or with a lower carbohydrate consumption actually brings with it, we reveal to you now!

Evil carbohydrates?

Carbohydrates are one thing above all for us: energy suppliers. In Western countries, they make up the majority of our diet and are present in almost all of our staple foods. They consist of various sugars and ensure that our body is supplied with enough energy to function. Carbohydrates provide a large amount of energy particularly quickly and accordingly also have a lot of calories. Since our body usually wastes nothing and is accordingly quite stingy, the excess energy substances are not simply excreted. On the contrary! Our body begins to store everything that it does not need at that moment. It does this by storing the excess calories in the form of fat as a reserve depot. In other words: we gain weight!

This speaks for a zero carb diet

The consequence of many diets for weight loss, is the renunciation of carbohydrates. Basically, if you want to lose weight, you just have to make sure that the body reaches a calorie deficit and as a result is forced to attack its fat reserves and gradually dissolve them. Since carbohydrates usually bring a lot of calories with them, it is therefore a good idea to eliminate them from the diet plan first. In this way, we can usually still eat a lot of food without having to suffer from hunger and still achieve a calorie deficit. Furthermore, the increased blood sugar level and the release of insulin, which the consumption of carbohydrates brings with it, the reduction of body fat is enormously hindered. Although fats naturally provide even more calories, they do not interfere with fat burning and are therefore more suitable for weight loss and nutrition without carbohydrates. Natural always provided that a calorie deficit is achieved.

Which zero carb diet suits me?

Now which diet is the best for you, you can only find out by trial and error. In order to successfully follow your diet, you should make sure that you choose the diet that will have the fewest side effects or restrictions on your daily life. This mainly brings the benefit of not having to think about your diet and something to eat 24/7.

Low GI – Glyx Diet

The “Glyx Diet”, or also called “low GI”, focuses on keeping the so-called glycemic index, as low as possible. This means that the blood sugar level rises much more slowly and the insulin release is not as rapid. As a result, we feel satiated for longer.
In plain language, this means that you can continue to eat carbohydrates, but only selected ones! You should avoid white flour products as much as possible and use whole grain products instead. Accordingly, noodles, potatoes and, of course, extremely sugary foods such as sweets and sweet spreads, e.g. honey, are taboo. It is important however nevertheless that you take everything in moderation and not in masses to you. The advantage of this form of nutrition is that you are not so drastically restricted in your everyday life as is the case with other comparable diets.

Low carb

In the low carb diet, the total intake of carbohydrates is reduced. While with the low GI diet you could still eat your whole grain pasta with a clear conscience, the low carb diet provides for a carbohydrate intake of only about 100g per day. This has the renewed advantage that the blood sugar level is kept relatively constant and hardly experiences any fluctuations. The body primarily falls back on the body’s own fat reserves to cover its energy budget. Your consumption of carbohydrates should therefore be limited to the bare minimum. Accordingly, you should ban foods that are particularly high in carbohydrates from your refrigerator. This seems a bit strange at first, since you now also have to remove good quality carbohydrates such as those found in bananas or grapes. These are healthy foods in themselves, but they are simply too packed with carbohydrates to fit into your new carbohydrate-free diet. It’s best to always pay attention to the nutritional information provided on the packaging of all foods. There is usually always the amount of carbohydrates contained. The amount is usually counted in 100g. So in some cases you have to calculate if and how much you can eat of a food.

The ketogenic diet

The newest and probably most controversial form of zero carb diet is the ketogenic diet. This takes the “without carbohydrates” very literally and does almost completely without the consumption of carbohydrates. Just 20-50g of carbohydrates a day are provided here, which is a vanishingly small amount. Again, you should always pay attention to the nutritional tables, because here the amount of carbohydrates is enormously important to maintain the state of ketosis. As with the low carb diet, the main argument is that the blood sugar level is kept almost entirely at one level and the body is not disturbed in metabolizing and burning calories. But the ketogenic diet has an extra bonus up its sleeve: by forgoing carbohydrates, the body eventually enters a state known as ketosis and, over time, uses an alternative source of energy. Instead of the sugary glucose, ketone bodies are now used as energy transporters, which is much more pleasant for your brain. This form of nutrition without carbohydrates can accordingly have a positive effect not only on your figure, but also on other problems, such as headaches or diabetes.

The Cheat Day

If you read up on dieting, sooner or later you will also come across the term “cheat day”. It seems that on this one day of the week you can eat virtually everything and as much as you want and still lose weight. But is there really anything to it? And how does it fit into a zero carb diet? However, the whole thing is not quite as nice and simple as it is often portrayed.

The physical aspect

The whole trick of the cheat day is to fool your body into thinking it’s safe. Due to the prolonged lack of calories and the associated energy intake, at a certain point your body thinks that you are in an emergency situation or a time when food is scarce. In order to protect itself and guarantee survival, it shuts down the metabolism, slowing down the burning of fat and also using energy from the muscles more often. So you’re more likely to lose valuable muscle mass than that pesky fat after a certain point. So the Cheat Day ensures that your body’s glucose stores are replenished and your body realizes: “Everything is ok. I can run a normal metabolism again!”. However, you should not overdo it. On your cheat day, you should still only eat a small amount of “sins” so that your body does not put all the excess energy directly back as fat pads. The success of the previous days would then be gone again.

The psychological aspect

Let’s be honest: Often we want exactly what we can’t have at that moment. It is the same with a zero carb diet. By the renouncement our head often turns only around the much-loved sugar commodity and the urge us these to inverweiben. Through the Cheat Day, your mind has a fixed date in sight where it can satisfy its cravings. This makes it easier to stick to the diet and there is no fight between you and your inner pig. Our personal recommendation would be to set the cheat day on a Sunday. On Sunday, as you know, the supermarkets are closed and you are not even tempted to expand your cheat day to an unhealthy level. Of course, you could still get your sins on a Sunday, for example, at a gas station, but honestly: spend money on hugely overpriced stuff just to ultimately harm yourself? You don’t need that! Do you know other forms of a zero carb diet that you find even better? Let us know in the comments!