One of the most avoidable mistakes that many of make in pursuing any diet is overestimating the human will power. It’s easy to get motivated for short-term weight loss, but will you have the discipline to sustain for longer than a few months? It all comes down to one thing. How practical is the new diet routine to follow?
Because when it comes to improving your health including losing weight, consistency is key. More specifically, we must limit the probability of rebounding. No one can know this better than me, as I rode that roller coaster ride for years. Periods of restriction followed by binge eating. My conclusion? If you can’t incorporate your dietary approach into your long-term lifestyle, then you can be sure that it won’t work.
So why is cutting carb good?
There are three key health reasons why the whole world is crazy about cutting carbs now:
- Restricting carbs has a direct result in lowering our sugar levels and insulin. This is critical because high sugar levels play a part in almost all chronic diseases.
- By restricting carbs, you naturally increase your consumption of high-fat, protein-dense, and fiber-rich foods. These foods boost satiety levels, which causes you to eat fewer calories than before.
- By restricting carbs, you are eliminating virtually all calorically-dense processed foods from your diet, which you tend to over consume e.g. donuts, cookies, pizza.
Great so we all agree cutting carbs is good. But what’s the best low carb approach? Keto or low carb? Wait. Are they not both the same thing? Unfortunately, no.
Technical difference between Keto vs Low-carb?
- Keto Diet: Restricting net carbs below 30 grams (that’s one banana equivalent btw) per day to enter and sustain ketosis i.e. metabolic state that occurs when the body consistently produces and uses ketones for fuel. Ketone levels at 0.5 mmol/L or higher indicates that you are legitimately on the keto diet.
- Low-carb Diet: Some studies define low-carb as a diet that restricts carbs below 20% of calories while other studies classify it as a diet that consists of less than 45% carbs. However most low carb diets recommend to eat good carbs or low glycemic foods i.e foods that do not raise blood sugar quickly. More bang for your nutrition buck. Good carbs like vegetables, fruits such as berries and apples, as well as legumes and unprocessed high fiber whole grains.
Which tribe do I claim?
Personally, my health goal has evolved over time and is now simple and extremely achievable. And it’s all about balance. 80% Healthy and 20% indulge. (Yes I do have my friday night pizza!) More restrictive a diet is, the harder it is to sustain for long term. Hence I have found a low-carb diet a lot easier to stick to. So my weekday’s are super healthy and low carb consisting of salads, soups, cheese and home made breads. And weekends I let myself indulge with small amounts of vegetable topped pizza!
I am certainly not advocating one diet over the other and if you have the will power, you should try for your self what works best for you 🙂
How does Yoga Superfuel fit in all this?
Yoga Superfuel’s proposition is of healthy yet tasty nutrition. More clean energy without sacrificing taste, and lesser lifestyle diseases like diabetes and inflammation caused by refined carbs and sugar. We use zero refined flour, refined sugar or other nasties such as preservatives. Densely packed with superfoods known for their health benefits and slow digesting, so it does not spike your blood sugar. So when you crave a cookie, you know healthy option exist.