The craze today is a low carb diet that will help your weight loss. But is a DNA low carb diet or a keto diet best? When you are attempting to lose weight, and you want to do it fast, it does sound like a good idea, and ketosis is relatively easy to achieve.
I know what it is like to lose weight when the regular weight watchers or calorie counter diet is not fast enough. Maybe you have a beach vacation coming up in the next couple of weeks, and you just don’t have time to wait for the pounds to melt off slowly. So you turn to the low carb ketogenic diet.
Is it right for you? Will you lose the weight and keep it off? We will take a closer look at Ketosis and what is best for you and your DNA.
What Is Ketosis vs Ketoacidosis?
You may understand that ketosis is a high-fat diet where you don’t eat any carbs. Or that you need to have high ketones in your urine. But exactly what causes this process?
Ketosis and ketoacidosis sound similar, but ketosis is relatively harmless in comparison. Ketoacidosis is what type1 diabetics go into when they have too much sugar and not enough insulin in their bodies. It is a severe condition where the ketone levels in the body reach dangerous levels. Their bodies become unbalance and acidotic.
Ketosis, on the other hand, is the release of ketones into the body as a result of fasting or a low carb diet. The acid balance of your body remains intact. While this is not a serious condition, it can have some issues if not done correctly.
What Is A Low Carb Diet?
A low carb diet means what it says. You simply eat fewer carbohydrates. The Keto diet, a well-known type of diet for many years now, says to eat fewer carbohydrates and more fat.
A high-fat diet can be confusing for some because we have had it pounded into our heads that fat is bad. When this all came about, the food industry caught on and began to make an abundance of low-fat foods. But to make them taste good, they added sugar and fats that can increase our fat storage.
Did we see a decrease in the weight of the average person due to less fat? No, it didn’t have any effect on it. It may have actually harmed the population by introducing fake butter and low-fat mayonnaise as a couple of examples.
What Foods Have Carbohydrates?
Here is where the issue of a low carb diet may begin. Often when we think of carbohydrates and sugar, we think of refined sugar like candy and brownies. There are carbohydrates in many of the foods we eat. Some are complex, and some are simple sugars, but that is a story for another day.
List of foods that have carbohydrates:
- Dairy-examples: ice cream, yogurt, and milk
- Fruit- example: all fruit juices and whole fruits such as bananas, strawberries
- Grains- example: cereals, rice, wheat, oats, crackers, and bread
- Legumes- example: lentils, peas, black beans
- Starchy Vegetables- examples: potatoes, corn, peas, winter squash
- Sugary Sweets- examples: soda, candy, brownies, cakes, other desserts.
See, almost everything we put in our mouth has carbs in it. Some foods without any carbs are drinks such as water and tea, eggs, fish, butter, cheese, and oils.
Is A Low Carb Diet Good For You?
A low carb diet can be healthy if eaten in the right proportions. But most of us do not follow the guidelines well. We tend to revert to the old way of doing a low carb weight loss plan, such as the Atkins diet.
If you are eating a low carb diet for weight loss, it is imperative to keep your carbs below 50 grams a day. But if you are eating a low carb diet for health, then the grams per day is at 100-150.
When we eat carbohydrates, they break down into glucose. The cells in our body then use this glucose as energy. If we don’t take in enough glucose, our body will burn fat to give us energy.
If we take in extra carbs, the glucose is stored in the liver and muscles and used for heavy exercise. But if we take in more than our muscles and liver can hold, the glucose is stored as fat.
Side Effects Of Not Enough Carbs
- Headache possibly from sugar withdrawal and ketones
- Bad breath from the increase in ketones
- Weakness from the lack of glucose in the cells
- Muscle cramps possible mineral imbalance
- Fatigue from not enough energy storage of glycogen
You can reverse most of these side effects with an increase in carbs. But when you are decreasing carbs to lose weight in a ketosis form, if you take in more carbs, you will sabotage your progress.
A low carb diet for your health is a good plan, but one to throw your body into ketosis, in my opinion, is a short-lived plan. What do you think? Did you lose weight fast, and did you keep it off? For myself, I would have to answer yes and no to this question. Yes, I lost weight quickly, and no, I did not keep it off.
What Is A DNA Low Carb Diet
A DNA low carb diet is a healthy diet plan that is specifically tailored to the needs of your body.
But wait! Maybe you don’t need a low carb diet to lose weight. What does your body say about you? What is your genetic makeup?
Do you metabolize fat, protein, or carbohydrates the best, and in what proportion should you eat each of the food groups?
Until the last decade, we did not have the answer to these questions. But in the past couple of years, the FDA (Food and Drug administration) has approved DNA testing for weight loss. You have a small but powerful percentage of DNA that is unique to only you and can tell you what your body needs to lose weight.
So, a DNA low carb diet is different for each individual. We base it on what amount of carbohydrates you should eat for optimal weight loss and body function. I, for one, am to eat carbohydrates in higher proportions. That is not simple carbs but healthy complex carbs like fruits and vegetables, legumes and rice, and many others.
Understanding Your Body
Understanding your body will empower you to make proper decisions about your health and your weight. It is quite liberating to know yourself from the inside out and only to have to do the simple cheek swab DNA test one time. You can refer back to your results often to get back on track.
A low carb diet may be for you, and it may not. You can use a ketogenic diet short term, and most will lose weight. But keeping it off is the real issue. Eating the way your body demands is a life-changing opportunity for anyone wanting to lose weight and keep it off.
What do you think about low carbs versus DNA low carbs? I would love to hear from you. Leave your comments and questions in the comment section below.