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Quote: “In order to be wealthy, you must be healthy”

Atkins or South Beach diet?

Do the carb-restricted diets like Atkins and South Beach work?
How do you define work?

If fast WATER WEIGHT LOSS is your goal than yes, if losing fat and keeping it off is your goal than NO! Carbohydrates are not bad, yes you did read it right, carbohydrates are not bad! If that was the case we would have had an obesity epidemic for years and Asia would be leading the pack with all of their consumption of rice, noodles etc… What are bad are refined carbohydrates, which causes high sugar consumption. Whole grains and whole oats, fruits and vegetables that are non-processed will not cause you to gain fat!  

Here is how the carbohydrate-restricted diets gain such popularity! We all want to lose weight quick so that is what a carbohydrate restricted diet does. For every 1 gram of carbohydrate you consume your body holds roughly 3 grams of water. There are 454 grams in one pound. The average American will consume anywhere from 200-500 grams of carbohydrates in a day. Considering 2 pieces of bread will have about 30 grams and 1 glass of juice about 40 grams, there is 70 grams at one average meal. Now take the low average consumption of 200 and multiply that by 3, which equates out to 600 grams of water, which is just less than 2 lbs. a day of WATER WEIGHT. WATER NOT BODY FAT! This translates into just under 10lbs of water in a week. By eliminating your carbohydrate consumption in one week you can lose an easy 5-15 lbs of WATER WEIGHT. Now once you slowly reintroduce those carbohydrates back into your diet you will start to absorb those grams of water into your body all over again and gain the weight back in days/and/or weeks unless you never consume carbs again or if you consume a very small amount for the rest of your life. It is like rinsing out a sponge full of water it gets very light and then when you put the sponge back in water again, it absorbs all the water and is hence, heavier. This process is similar during the initial two-week phase of the South beach diet. Your body is about 80% water and needs water to live. Restricting your body of high fiber non-refined/processed sugary carbohydrates is very nutritionally unhealthy. This can put you in an unhealthy state called ketosis which will have you feeling lethargic, moody, etc. When there is no glucose, which is what is broken down from carbohydrates, your brain doesn’t get the most important brain fuel for function. Remember carbohydrates are not the “enemy” that the quick fix diet deceivers have led us to believe.

The processed refined carbohydrates are the true culprits. The refined carbohydrates are what spike our insulin levels, inhibit our body’s to burn fat by limiting the hormone glucagons to release fat and taking out the nutritious components of the food like fiber, whole grains and oats.

By: J. D. Reber M.S. & B.S. Exercise Science, CSCS & NASM- CFT

Remember, eat healthy and live wealthy!

Personal training in Lenox, MA