Low Carb Versus Low Calorie Dieting – What You Need To Know

Find out the key differences between low calorie and low carb diet plans.

Turn on The Biggest Loser or any other diet-related reality TV show, and what you’re bound to see are a dozen or so morbidly obese contestants exercising like crazy and pining for the sweets, sugar, and carbs that got them to where they’re at with their weight. Watch for a few minutes and you’re bound to see some crisis over a contestant sneaking in some sweets to their otherwise low calorie diet.

Yes, this is typical of what many people experience themselves while undertaking their own low calorie diet — reality TV show or not. While the science proves that low carb diets are indeed among the safest and most viable, low calorie diets continue to dominate the mainstream thinking from doctors, nutritionalists, and even accredited health organizations such as the AMA and the Surgeon General.

Given the mainstream popularity of low calorie dieting, it’s important to know a few things about how low calorie diets compare and contrast.

The Big Similarity Between Low Calorie & Low Carb Diets: Fat Burning

Although both sides of the dieting divide will claim otherwise, low calorie and low carb dieting contribute to fat burning. The fact is, if a dieter restricts their caloric intake so that it is below what they require on a daily basis, their body will indeed tap into body fat to make up the caloric difference in order to keep the body running. So too does a low carb diet shift the body into bat burning mode through ketosis, as we have discussed in another blog article.

The difference is how and why both of these diets burn fat.

In the case of a low calorie diet, the body need only burn enough fat to meet the caloric requirements of the dieter. In this way, a calorie-restrictive diet works in the same way as starvation, putting the body on red alert and making sure to take only the bare minimum from fat stores to meet energy demands. Because of this, a low calorie diet can only be as effective as how few calories the dieter can go without in their daily intake of food.

Sure, to accelerate a low calorie diet, one can simply restrict even more calories from their diet. But there are unpleasant side-effects to this approach: namely, hunger and malnutrition. And hunger of course is the primary reason why most diets fail.

A low carb diet, on the other hand, does not mimic the body’s fail-safe starvation functions. Instead, by restricting carbohydrates, which in turn convert to sugar in the bloodstream, the body ceases to rely on the glucose from dietary carbs and instead begins to burn fat in its place. This is what is known as ketosis, and, unlike low calorie dieting, ketosis puts the body into an ongoing fat-burning process, so long as the dieter continues to restrict carbs. Fat is converted into amino acids, which power the body, and any excess is dispelled through sweat, skin, and breath.

The genius of the low carb diet is that restricting carbs does not cause hunger, since the dieter can eat as much fat and protein as they want. While it is tre that low carb dieters do feel cravings for sweets and simple carbohydrates, these are not the “hunger pangs” of a low calorie diet: instead, these are psychological cravings left over from years of “using” carbs and sweets as comfort foods. Most serious low carb dieters learn to control these cravings with great-tasting low carb foods.

A Scientific Fact: Calories Don’t Make You Fat!

We’ve written before that dietary fat does not make you fat, but the same is true with calories. Calories will not make you fat! The fact is, unused calories are not converted into body fat — they are expelled through the body. Instead, it is carbohydrates and sugar that are stored as body fat. This common misconception — which is propagated even by the Department of Health and Human Services and the Sugeon General — is the single reason why America continues to have an overweight problem: our health officials encourage the population eat more carbs and less protein, making them fatter!

In this way, no matter how many calories you eat on a low carb diet, you’re bound to lose weight — and not be hungry in the process.

Bear in mind, however, that low calorie diets do work. If your daily recommended intake of calories each day is 3,000 calories and you restrict down to 2,000, there is no doubt that your body will burn fat to make up the difference. But why suffer with the hunger of a low calorie diet when you can eat low carb lose the same if not more weight, and not be hungry?

Thanks for reading our article! Did you know that there are many great-tasting low carb food products on the market today that can make sticking to your low carb diet a breeze? Linda’s Diet Delites is a leading online supplier of low carb food products, offering a wide selection at affordable prices. Take a look!

Michael Nace is a low carb blogger for Linda’s Diet Delites. He is not a Doctor, and his article does not represent the view and opinions of Linda’s Diet Delites, nor are his articles meant to be construed as medical advice.

Ketosis, Low Carb Diets & Burning Fat Instead of Sugar

With the ever-fluctuating price of oil and gasoline, more and more we hear about alternative fuels for today’s automobiles: traditional combustion engines are being replaced with hybrids, flex-fuel, diesel, and electrical engines, all in an effort to conserve energy and lower fuel prices.

If you’re one of the millions of people who both love the idea of alternative energy and are looking to lose some weight, you’re in luck: a low carb diet is all about switching the kind of fuel your body burns for energy. And this alternative fuel for your body is something that you probably have plenty of — fat.

Overdosing on Carbohydrates and Sugar

Few people realize how the majority of food that we consume in a given day is actually nothing more than sugar. While refined sugar is omnipresent in many of the foods that we eat, most forms of carbohydrates are metabolized like sugar. In the end, the pasta, white bread, rice, potatoes, fruits, and vegetables all end up as glucose in our bloodstream. And because many of us eat considerably more carbohydrates than necessary, the excess sugar in our system is converted into fat.

In this way, body fat builds up as a result of sugar, not dietary fat, as we have explained in another article.

The fact is, most peoples’ metabolisms are not capable of handling anything over 40 net grams of carbohydrates a day. Sure, you might know one or two people who can seemingly eat whatever they’d like, but the fact is, most people consume 4 or 5 times the amount of carbs in a day that they should. And people who suffer with their weight are almost always major carb bingers.

Ketosis: Burning Fat Instead of Sugar

A low carb diet effectively switches the fuel that a dieter’s body uses, switching from glucose to fat. Everyone has a Critical Carbohydrate Level, or CCL, that maintains their ideal weight. As you may have read about low carb dieting, when people exceed their CCL on a regular basis, they gain weight. However, with a low carb diet, as people stay well under their CCL, they begin to shed pounds, because their body switches from burning sugar to burning fat.

This is known as ketosis.

Ketosis is basically a metabolic process of converting fat into energy. During ketosis, your body releases fatty acids into your bloodstream, which are then converted into ketones. These ketones become the fuel for powering your brain, muscles, and other organs. And whatever ketones are not used are expelled through urine and breath. Therefore, not only does your body burn fat for fuel, but also you’re literally urinating and breathing out fat as well!

But the only way to engage your ketone engine is to stop feeding your body carbs.

Until you begin to restrict the glucose in your bloodstream, your body will continue to run on carbs and sugar. That’s because your metabolism always takes the path of least resistance: carbohydrates make for easily-converted and stored energy. When there’s no sugar present, however, your body has to work hard to convert fat into fuel.

And that’s a good thing!

Low Carb Versus Low Calorie

Let’s be clear: the low carb diet is not the only diet that encourages your body to engage in fat burning. Reducing calorie intake will have the same effect: if you need 2000 or more calories a day to fuel your body and you restrict your caloric intake, your body will indeed tap into fat reserves to make up the difference.

But there’s a big difference between the metabolic state of a low calorie dieter and a low carb dieter.

While the low calorie dieter’s metabolism is simply making up the difference between calories needed and calories consumed, the low carb dieter experiences an entire shift in their metabolism while in ketosis. That means that, as long as ketosis in maintained, there is a constant burning of fat for energy. The low carb diet doesn’t merely supplement the body’s need for energy; it retools the entire process by which you fuel it.

So, while the vast majority of diets out there will tell you that eating less is the key to weight loss, science and experience shows that ketosis is by far the most direct means burning actual fat while continuing to eat the same amount of food that you’re used to day in and day out.

Thanks for reading our article! Did you know that there are many great-tasting low carb food products on the market today that can make sticking to your low carb diet a breeze? Linda’s Diet Delites is a leading online supplier of low carb food products, offering a wide selection at affordable prices. Take a look!

Michael Nace is a low carb blogger for Linda’s Diet Delites. He is not a Doctor, and his article does not represent the view and opinions of Linda’s Diet Delites, nor are his articles meant to be construed as medical advice.