Healthy Low Carb Eating Plan

Carbohydrates should make up 45 to 65 percent of the average person's total daily calorie intake, according to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010. For someone consuming 2,000 calories a day, this is about 225 to 325 grams. Low-carb diets often recommend a daily carb intake ranging between 50 and 150 grams, although some are more restrictive and limit carbs to less than 20 grams a day, especially during the initial phases of weight loss. On a low-carb eating plan, you need to limit carbohydrate-rich foods such as grains, fruits, some dairy products, sugar beverages and desserts. Non-starchy vegetables, an adequate amount of protein and healthy fats should be the foundation of your diet.

Breakfast

To start your day off right on a healthy low-carb eating plan, toast, bagels and breakfast cereals are out of the question. Instead, scrambled eggs with onions, cheese, bacon and cherry tomatoes are perfect choices. If you want to switch it up, you can prepare a spinach and red bell pepper omelet with goat cheese or smoked salmon or turkey slices rolled with cream cheese and vegetables. Depending on your carbohydrate allowance, you can include choices containing slightly more carbohydrates, such as peanut butter mixed with cottage cheese and berries or a smoothie made with low-carb unsweetened almond milk, a little bit of coconut milk, a few berries and almond butter.

Lunch

Bringing your own lunch to work or school is the best strategy to help you stick to your low-carb eating plan. Salads are easy to make and a good way to help your meet your recommended vegetable intake. Prepare your salad with at least 1 to 2 cups of leafy greens and add other non-starchy vegetables, such as cucumber, tomatoes and green onions, to taste. Top your salad with 4 to 6 ounces of protein such as salmon, chicken, pork or beef. Alternatively, you can also add 2 to 3 hard-boiled eggs and 1 to 2 ounces of cheese. Add slices of avocado or a handful of nuts if you like. Drizzle your salad with extra-virgin olive oil and vinegar. All of these options are low in carb and provide you with an abundance of healthy nutrients.

Dinner

Your dinner should include non-starchy vegetables, a protein source and some fat. You can serve onions, broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, bok choy, mushrooms or tomatoes, along with 4 to 6 ounces of protein from fish, seafood, poultry or meat. Cook your vegetables and protein with olive oil or add a drizzle of olive oil to your vegetables before serving to ensure you get enough healthy fat. Fat will help you feel satiated. You can also modify your favorite high-carb recipes into low-carb alternatives. For example, you can have low-carb pasta by replacing regular pasta with a low-carb variety or spaghetti squash. You can also prepare pizza on a low-carb tortilla or layer your pizza ingredients on slices of eggplants or on portabella mushroom caps. Ensure that you have enough vegetables, protein and fat combined at every dinner meal.

Snacks

If your meals are well balanced, you should not feel too hungry between meals. However, if you need healthy low-carb snack ideas to keep you going between meals, try 1 to 2 ounces of cheese, 1 to 2 ounces of nuts, 1 to 2 tablespoons of nut butter, a few slices of deli meat, raw vegetables or tuna salad.

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What Is All the Hype About Low Carb Diets?

One of the very hottest trends for losing weight currently, is the phenomena around a Low Carb Diet. This could be great news for anyone looking for a completely natural way of shedding those stubborn and unsightly bulges impacting on strategic parts of the body. For some however, this new trend just adds further confusion about the plethora of weight loss remedies, and leaves many people wondering which diet is really the most appropriate.

Let us now look at the Low Carb Diet and see if it a good choice for you or not. One of the main principles of eating low carb is that you increase your protein intake. If you overeat protein you may end up with additional health issues. So while it is fine to increase your protein, don't go overboard with it.

A low carb diet involves eating quantities of natural foods that are low in natural carbohydrates and contain no or very little sugar. The types of foods you can expect to eat include:

• · Fresh fruit with low natural sugars
• · Veggies especially dark, leafy green ones
• · Lean meats
• · Good quality fats and dairy

There are many diet plans available, of which the Aitken's one is a good example. This plan suggest you increase your protein along with high quality fats. What this means is that you won't be eating foods such as potatoes, cakes, muffins, breads and pasta. In essence this means that you don't want to eat any type of packaged or processed foods.

What you will be eating is lots of fresh natural foods. This is also the basis of the Paleo Diet, where you basically go back to your roots and eat foods that you can either grow, gather or hunt for yourself.

When it comes to eating low carb they are varying degrees that you can aim for. To start with you will see results just by cutting out processed and packaged foods. These contains lots of chemicals, preservatives, sugar and other unreadable ingredients.

By going back to nature you will be detoxifying your body and this will help remove large quantities of toxins, excess waste and help reduce your fat stores.

Some dedicated low carb fanatics go as low as only eating 20 grams of carbohydrates each time. While you can do the same, sticking with a sensible eating plan is going to produce results. Especially if you add in an after dinner walk, or swimming once or twice a week.

It is important to choose an eating plan that will fit into your life. Do you want to go out to dinner with your family and not eat anything? Or would you rather eat smaller portions of a healthier choice?

One of the best ways to start using a low carb diet is to keep a food diary and see how many high carbohydrate foods you do eat. This includes reading food labels and seeing how many carbs are in your favorite dressings and sauces! You may just be surprised.

You still want to include quality carbs each day as these help supply your body with fuel and energy. So instead of looking for a drastically reduced low carb plan, start off by cutting back and see how that goes first.

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