Excess weight in most cases is caused by an excess supply of adipose tissue, which is deposited as a result of chemical transformations of carbohydrates in the body. And although obesity is based on certain disorders of the endocrine and digestive systems, the most comfortable and painless solution to the problem remains to limit the source of excess calories in the daily diet. By stopping or critically reducing the access of easily digestible carbohydrates to the stomach by using a carbohydrate-free diet, we automatically trigger the reaction of burning stored reserves.
What is a no carb diet?
It is on the basis of a carbohydrate-free diet that athletes lose extra pounds before competitions, artists before filming, and public figures when they need to get in shape. Athletes even have a special term for such nutrition. It is called "drying" - by excluding carbohydrates from the diet, subcutaneous fat deposits are removed and relief and elasticity of ligaments and muscles are improved. But life without carbohydrates is a difficult test for those with a sweet tooth, who are forced to radically change their taste preferences and for quite a long time. It requires not only determination, but also a lot of patience and willpower.
There is also the other side of the coin - the complete rejection of carbohydrates in favor of protein products leads to a condition that nutritionists call the not very correct term carbophobia (literally "fear of carbohydrates"). Avoiding the slightest breadcrumbs or burning sugar, thinking about nothing but weight loss, sitting for months on "omelettes and cutlets", no-carb dieters will inevitably "develop" digestive and metabolic problems. Some cases are full of disorders of the higher nervous system: activities, memory loss, depression and sociopathy.
Long-term or permanent refusal of carbohydrates leads to a violation of the acid-alkaline balance in the direction of acidification of the body, which inevitably leads to a decrease in immunity and premature aging. Side effects of long-term low-carb diets include problems with the intestines, kidneys, arthritis, gout and other diseases.
Below we will consider several examples of a carbohydrate-free diet and its application scheme, which allows you to normalize metabolic processes, get rid of excess weight and, at the same time, not go to extremes, load the body with proteins. With their far from harmless chemistry and energy of animal origin.
Biochemical and anatomical basis of a low-carbohydrate diet
The decisive argument for a low-carb diet is the peculiarity of the body's reaction to the introduction of even a small amount of sugar into the stomach. The pancreas immediately begins to reflexively release insulin into the bloodstream, and the stomach secretes digestive enzymes that instantly increase appetite (hence the saying that appetite comes with eating). As a result, when we eat foods rich in carbohydrates, we almost always eat more than we objectively need. Protein food does not have such a seductive effect on the "pancreas", the production of hormones and enzymes is in working mode, saturation occurs gradually and completely. Proteins break down in the gastrointestinal tract much longer than carbohydrates, so the feeling of fullness lasts for several hours, and the need for food simply does not appear if you eat three or four protein meals a day.
Principle 250 kcal
Probably, it will be impossible to completely abandon carbohydrates - simply because they are included even in completely protein dishes, albeit in minimal quantities. But this is not terrible, the main thing is not to exceed the specified number of kilocalories of "carbohydrates".
A low-carb diet certainly requires willpower, but it can be very disciplined. It is enough to remember one number - 250. This is the number of energy units - calories contained in the daily amount of carbohydrates in the body. Of course, we will have to carefully weigh all dishes and calculate their energy value using special tables or notes of the restaurant menu, but this is an almost inevitable cost of any strict diet.
Mono-carbohydrate diet: effective, but monotonous
An ideal low-carb diet for guaranteed and rapid weight loss involves separate daily meals - on the first day of the diet you eat only chicken, on the second - only eggs, on the third - only cheese or cottage cheese. This is the fastest, but also the most "tasteless" and monotonous way to lose weight. Not everyone is ready to make such sacrifices, so we will lose weight without fanaticism and combine business with pleasure - the healing effect with gastronomic pleasures, which are promised by delicious and healthy products based on animal and vegetable proteins.
By the way, the above-mentioned critical 250 kilocalories of known carbohydrates per day should also be obtained not from cookies and sweets, but by including complex carbohydrates (long digestible) in the diet - non-starchy vegetables, cereals, whole yeast. grain bread.
Basic ingredients of a carb-free menu
Here is a list of protein foods that are suitable for a protein diet:
- lean meat - chicken, turkey, rabbit, veal;
- Offal - stewed heart and liver;
- duck, chicken, quail eggs;
- Sea fish fillets, crabs, shrimps, lobsters, sea cephalopods;
- dairy products - kefir, yogurt, cereal cottage cheese, low-fat sour cream and hard cheese;
- Leafy vegetables (cabbage), artichokes, green peas, beans, zucchini, onions, garlic, garden herbs. You can eat mushrooms, but with caution, because mushroom proteins are different from animal proteins;
- sour berries and fruits, as well as avocado;
- Nuts and seeds.
Meat and fish should be steamed, in the oven or at most on the grill, but never in a pan or deep fried.
A correct diet excludes sausages, sausages and pates, which contain a lot of questionable additives based on carbohydrates and transgenic fats.
When choosing feed suppliers, preference should be given to farms where meat and dairy animals are kept in comfortable conditions and do not receive various growth hormones and antibiotics in feed. You should not trust the price tags in supermarkets - if you are on a diet, carefully read the instructions on the packaging and study in advance the list of food additives, many of which are harmful to health, but are used in the production of notorious products. "healthy" products.
forbidden carbohydrates
Now the most important thing for all diets - what is prohibited. The following are prohibited on a low-carb diet:
- bread other than whole grain unleavened;
- Everything made from flour - pasta, pizza, pies, khachapuri, cakes, cookies;
- chocolate and confectionery;
- sweet and sour-sweet fruits and berries;
- Vegetables rich in starch (potatoes, carrots, corn, beets);
- Industrial semi-finished products. No matter what manufacturers write on the packaging, they almost always contain carbohydrate additives and preservatives and even genetically modified fats;
- fruit juices and carbonated drinks;
- Alcohol in any form.
Confident carnivores will find it hard to resist a glass of red wine with their favorite steak, but here you have to choose: health or pleasure. Alcohol, in addition to its direct toxic effect on the body, is also a strong appetite stimulant and a fairly high-calorie product - 250 kcal can be safely added to the calories consumed with it, which is the daily limit of a protein diet.
Menu for 7 days
Monday
- Breakfast - low-fat cottage cheese cheesecakes with bran.
- Dinner - vegetable salad with greens, 200 g of chicken breast with greens.
- Food - orange.
- Dinner - turkey with 100 g of stewed vegetables.
Tuesday
- Breakfast - omelette with vegetable salad or stewed vegetables. Black tea without sugar.
- Lunch - vegetable cream soup with pieces of turkey or chicken.
- Food - green apple.
- Dinner - salmon baked in the oven.
Wednesday
- Breakfast - sugar-free muesli with milk and dried apricots or other dried fruit.
- Lunch - lentil soup with chicken breast.
- Food - almonds or other nuts (handful).
- Dinner - salad of cherry tomatoes, arugula, canned tuna (1 can) and mozzarella.
Thursday
- Breakfast - oatmeal with water without sugar. One banana (can be cut and added to oatmeal).
- Dinner - vegetable soup with veal.
- Breakfast - orange or grapefruit, a glass of citrus juice.
- Dinner - steamed lean fish.
Friday
- Breakfast - mix 1 banana, a cup of fresh or frozen cherries and a cup of milk. Blend in a blender.
- Lunch - chicken pilaf 200 g.
- Breakfast - green tea with hard cheese.
- Dinner - chicken or turkey with vegetable salad.
Saturday
- Breakfast - egg white omelette. Unsweetened tea. 1 banana.
- Dinner - boiled chicken breast with 100 g of brown rice.
- Snack - a sandwich made of unleavened bread, soft cheese, ham, lettuce and chopped tomatoes.
- Dinner - vegetables with fried meat. A glass of kefir or sugar-free drinking yogurt.
Sunday
- Breakfast - 1 boiled egg. Diet bread with hard cheese.
- Dinner - champignon or wild mushroom cream soup. You can add chopped turkey or chicken to the soup.
- Snack - orange, green apple or a handful of nuts.
- Dinner - vegetable salad, 100 g of meat or fish baked in the oven.
Porridge for a low-carb diet
Puffs take a borderline position on the water. During a diet without carbohydrates, it is recommended to include four types of cereals in the menu:
| No. | name | protein content | Carbohydrate content |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Buckwheat | eleven% | 68% |
| 2 | peas | 21% | 50% |
| 3 | Oatmeal | 12% | 65% |
| 4 | Quinoa | 14% | 64% |
Porridges are especially useful in the intervals between periods of active weight loss, when it is necessary to restore the balance of fats, proteins and carbohydrates in the body.
Questionable alternative: keto diet In the United States, with its famous fast food culture, a very popular type of carb-free diet is the ketogenic diet, which allows you to eat large amounts of not only protein, but also animal fats. This scheme has both supporters and opponents. The main argument of the latter is the harmfulness of fatty foods for the cardiovascular system, due to the deposition of cholesterol on the walls of blood vessels. It's hard not to agree with that.
Diet timing and precautions
The effect of the diet begins in two to three weeks, with strict daily separate meals, you can lose weight within a week of switching to proteins. Limitation of fast-absorbing food will almost certainly lead to intestinal disorders - constipation, flatulence, which is caused by a decrease in the content of vegetable fibers in food. When eating a meat menu or fish and seafood, you should drink at least two liters of liquid a day, eat soups, and if you have persistent constipation, take mild laxatives. After a month, to prevent the development of permanent carbophobia, you should take a break - two to four weeks. It restores the disturbed protein-carbohydrate balance and intestinal motility. During a break from the diet, you should not go to great lengths: the diet must be balanced and strict, otherwise you will not only lose all the gains, but you will gain additional fat deposits and you will have to start a fight. Against overweight at first.