What Food To Eat.
Low-carb diets limit one in eating carbohydrate-rich foods, such as bread, grains, rice, starchy veggies and fruit. Many types of these low-carb diets exist nowadays, each with varying restrictions on the types and amounts of carbohydrates to consume.
Examples of low-carb diets include the Atkins and South Beach diet. These diets are generally used to help someone lose weight. You might choose any of these types of diet, because you enjoy the types and amounts of food featured in their diet plan. Or, you believe that this low-carb diet plan will help you lose weight quickly and easily.
But how effective are these diet plans? Let us assess each of these diet plans to find out which one is better.
The Atkins Low Carb Diet is based on eating very few carbohydrates, and this is especially true during “Phase 1″ of the said diet. This is one of the strictest low carb diets on the market, especially during its “Phase 1″. This program only allows 80 carb calories in 1 day, on its first phase, and that’s less carbs than you’ll find in a large apple, since even a large apple has slightly more carbs than that!
Phase 1 of an Atkins Diet, however is considered ‘optional’, but even if this particular phase can be skipped, the overall carb limitations on this particular diet plan makes it a very strict low carb diet, so this program is probably not for those faint hearted individuals. Only those truly committed dieters are able to withstand Phase 1 of this program.
A South Beach diet is also a fairly strict low carb program, although it isn’t as strict as the Atkins. The higher carbohydrates are severely limited in portions during its 1st phase of the diet, and this prevents a normal amount of carbs from being eaten during the first phase.
Most of the foods which dieters are allowed to eat in “unlimited portions”, during the phase 1 are protein foods and super-low-calorie vegetables. For example, a South Beach menu allows unlimited lettuce during its phase 1, but yet it limits the portions of “tomatoes” and “onions” and “peanuts”.
Additionally, the “sweet snacks” which are allowed on the South Beach menu are limited to a mere 75 calories in a 1 day during its 1st phase. So even though a South Beach plan allows sweet snacks, they are severely limited to just 75 calories in 1 day, and that’s less calories than what a single large cookie contains.
Although a South Beach program isn’t as strict as the Atkins diet, both diets are fairly strict low carb programs, and that both diet plans will are quite difficult to follow for average dieters who aren’t truly committed, especially on its first phase.
Both of these diets seem to have no “end” in sight, since both the Atkins plan and the South Beach diet never allow dieters to return to a normal carb lifestyle, where carbs don’t have to be closely watched.
Overall, both diets aren’t very practical for average dieters who aren’t 100%PRCTG% committed to making huge sacrifices for the long term. Many people will surely find it difficult to modify their entire lifestyle permanently in order to strictly follow these dietary programs.