Weight Loss and 3 Main Effects of Carb Restriction

Three Main Effects of Low-Carb Diets

Satiety Effect = No Hunger Issues

Firstly, you eat very sating and nutritious food that makes you less hungry and less likely to experience cravings. It's a fact that people naturally eat less on a low-carb diet. Protein and fat are the most sating macronutrients by far. Achieving satiety and natural appetite control are the most important effects of low-carb eating.

Insulin, which is a hormone released by your pancreas when you eat carbs, influences your appetite and with more carbs, you'll experience more cravings. Also see Dr Briffa's article: Contrary to what some may say, fruit and veg not great for filling us up.

Low-Carb Diets Are Better For Fat Loss

Secondly, eating fat helps your body release fat and lose weight, while carbohydrates have the opposite effect. This has to do with how insulin affects your body and as you may know, insulin is mostly produced when you eat carbs. With decreased insulin levels, your body will use body fat for energy and you will lose weight.

Potential Metabolic Advantage

Finally, there are studies that appear to support the idea of a potential "metabolic advantage" of low-carb diets. This means that you could achieve weight loss at a higher level than the calorie intake would suggest.

When ketones are made from the breakdown of fat in the liver, urinary ketones are excreted and may contribute to fat loss. However, this effect is not significant and the energy lost as urinary ketones is no more than 100 kcal. For more about metabolic advantage of low-carb diets, check out this article:  Is a Calorie Really a Calorie? Metabolic Advantage of Low-Carbohydrate Diets

In  this study, participants following a low-carb diet experienced increased energy expenditure (by 300 kcal) compared to those following a low-fat diet. Although it didn't result in a larger weight loss, it definitely questions the laws of energy balance.

Calorie expenditure may also increase slightly due to higher rates of gluconeogenesis, which is the process of “making new glucose” for the few tissues that can’t use ketones (Insert this after “no more than 100 kcal” in the paragraph above.

If you have troubles losing weight on a ketogenic diet, have a look at my post: Not Losing Weight on Low-Carb Ketogenic Diet? Don’t Give Up and Read Further

I hope you enjoyed reading my post. To find out more about the ketogenic diet and keto-friendly recipes, check out my apps KetoDiet, KetoDiet Basic and my new cookbook!