Low Carb Diets Cause More Than Water Weight Loss

Many critics in have attacked low carb diets for only providing an initial loss in water weight, rather than actually affecting sustained fat loss. Some critics have even suggested that dieters lose don't lose any fat at all.

This attack on low carb diets is based on a critique of the first phase of most low carb diets-- such as the induction phase of Dr. Atkins's' diet--in which the dieter consumes no carbs over a one to two week period.

Critics claim that this stage is deceptive because it leads low carb dieters to believe that they are losing fat weight, when in fact, they are shedding the majority of their weight in the form of water.

When dieters stop consuming sugar, they immediately begin burning carbohydrate reserves for energy. Reserves are stored in the form of glycogen, which covers the liver and muscles. Each gram of glycogen binds four grams of water, which means that each gram of glycogen converted into energy takes with it four grams of water.

The result is pretty straightforward. If you convert 300 grams of stored carbs into energy, you will lose an additional 1200 grams of water, too. This means four-fifths of the weight you lose during the first phase of a low carb diet is water weight.

However, while this critique does apply to the "no carb" phase of "low carb" diets, it falls in two places:

The first place is mistakenly thinking that people don't want to lose massive amounts of carbohydrate stores in addition to the fat stores they currently have.

The second is a complete failure to critique or even examine the following stages in low carb diets.

Many dieters have lost close to one hundred pounds in excess of of the initial carbohydrate reserves-- all of which was the direct result of following a low carb diet plan.

Low carb dieters continue to lose weight after the "no carb" phase because they maintain a net loss of carbohydrates, which forces their bodies to burn fat for energy.

So, if you plan to start a low carb diet in the future, do not be deterred by critics who claim you cannot be successful after the initial period of carbohydrate reserve loss. This is simply untrue.

Benji Paras runs http://www.list-of-low-carb-food.com, specializing in the benefits of the low-carb lifestyle. The site contains a treasure trove of information for losing weight, and includes a list of low carb foods along with informative articles and the latest low-carb headlines.