March 28, 2024

Even with the waning popularity of Atkins there are still people out there on a no carb diet. You may remember a few years ago there was a stampede back to the Atkins diet which is one example of a no carb diet when everyone was raving about all the food that they got to eat, all the fat and protein and still lost weight. Well that all kind of made sense at the time because your body with no barbs coming in will generally use stored fat for energy and you will just poo out most of that fat and protein that you are eating.

Here is a few problems with a no carb diet

1. Expensive – The no carb diet like Atkins is expensive to buy food for. How much steak and chicken can you eat? There is no fiber to fill you and you just feel bloated from eating this expensive food all the time.

2. No Carb Diet is Boring – The no carb diet are boring as they just make you eat the same foods often and you never get the interesting foods like fruits and veggies that are high in carbs.

no carb diet

3. Not long term effective – A no carb diet will help you lose a few pounds initially but you do plateau after a while and then you are stuck trying to find another way to lose weight.

As far as diets go the no carb diet is just another kind of fad diet in my book. They seem to work but after a while you find it is not a good lifestyle change. Now we have other diets that are somewhat the same in the first place. I know that the Zone diet will focus in the induction phase for no carbs but then after the first couple of weeks you add carbs in and it is a lot more healthy, it’s that induction part that always makes me nervous.

No Carb Diet. A Problem?

There are many ways to lose but the no carb diet is not a very good one in the long term

Have you done Atkins or something like it? Did  a no carb diet work for you?

18 thoughts on “No Carb Diet

  1. I can’t stand no carb diets. Like you said, they’re so boring. No fun. Now I do believe carbs do have something to do with gain (just the insulin aspect) but people don’t understand the importance of carbs and the energy it provides our bodies. Cutting them out will make you feel lethargic and down. It does more harm than good in my opinion. Everything in moderation I believe 🙂 great post keep it up!

    1. I agree Logan and actually the interesting thing I have heard people do a lot more lately is intermittent fasting or at the very least having a cycle over the week where you do no carb for a few days and then re-carb by having a high carb day where you further confuse your body

  2. 1. Atkins is NOT a “no carb” diet.
    2. There is no reason for low OR no carb diets to be expensive. You don’t have to buy pre-packaged foods or eat only organic prime rib.
    3. There is no reason for low carb or no carb dieting to be boring, but limiting your grocery list and eating very similar meals 5-6 days a week can keep your grocery bill down as well as help you keep your eating under control. Traditional low-calorie diets are much more boring.
    4. Not long term effective? Now that’s just nonsense. If you go on any diet as a temporay fix and plan to ignore your eating habits thereafter you need to change your thinking. The point to restricting carbs is to learn to restrict JUNK FOOD for life… and we eat a lot more junk than most of us realize. Also, the sugar cravings that cause low-calorie glycemic diets to fail isn’t an issue after you have purged the sugar cravings from your body, so a low carb or no carb diet is more likely to be long-term effective.

  3. Ann, doc put daughter on low carb diet but we’re struggling to figure it all out. She’s been on it for 4 wks and I don’t think we’ve seem any loss. Any info and suggestions would be greatly appreciated. She’s 5’8″ and 285. ( from chemotherapy and steroids). Now I remission her health is still in jepordy due to the .

  4. In mid February pf 2010 I came to the conclusion that I had become diabetic. Being about 5′ 8″ and weighing 229 pounds, I decided to do everything I could to control it to avoid medications. So I started a massive loss program as part of the process. Also I restricted carbohydrate intake along the Atkins path to 20 grams or fewer net carbs as much a possible. Today, November 9th of 2010 I weighed 146.8 pounds on my bathroom scale and for the most part am able to keep my blood glucose level under control. My HbA1C from last October was 5.5. I’m taking no drugs.

    Did a low carbohydrate diet work for me? You bet. I’ll have to follow through with monitoring, blood glucose monitoring, blood pressure monitoring and monthly A1C monitoring as well as my intensive exercise program. I use exercise to manage insulin resistance. I need to eat 3 meals and to snacks daily to keep my body up! The diet worked initially to lower my body about 10 pounds a month. As I got into it, the loss slowed and I added more activity (also to help manage blood glucose). This kept my loss at about 10 pounds a month.

    It works and the exercise helps with blood glucose and continued management. Not to mention that a feel several 100% better! I have an active life stye and the low carb diet has caused no problems.

    1. That is a great story John and very inspirational. I may take shots at Atkins and low carb diets but you are certainly proof that this diet will work for someone with a low tolerance for carbs.

      I love that you decided yourself to take control of your health and to make the changes necessary.

      I will try to be kinder to the low carb and Atkins style diets in the future but one of the real problems that I write about often are the high carb, high fat, low protein diets that people seem to eat without thinking about it. It is very important to look at what goes into your mouth whenever you eat.

  5. Hi there,

    I think the no carb thing at the moment is fantastic. I have been doing it for 3 days and have lost 5lbs since. I am feeling lighter and better,my skin is softer and I look better (healthier). I have anaemia and I think that the extra protein has done me the world of good. Have still to lose 60lbs but am encouraged and happy to lose it a pound at a time. At a pound a day on average I could be at my ideal in 60 days.

  6. Key Note. I do not only want to be healthy. I want and have now thinks to NO CARB diet sexy body and Healthy and back on a nutrition diet. I see ton of marketing in pills, exercise equipment and list goes on. when I did the 2 months under 5 carbs. I basically laid around house did nothing and my body ate fat off my stomach chin chest fingers everwhere. after 2 months back on nutrition…2 years latter I am still trim and healthy. I totally disapprove of only a nutrition diet if your fat. NO CARB it off..then go on nutrition.

  7. I disaggree with everone. and this article. if you are in your 20s a eat healthy with healthy carbs and balance will keep you in shape. but if your like me and over 40. you be like all the population in america u see drinking diet coke or eating very only healthy foods that have skinny legs skinny arms and fat belly and double chin. NO CARB for 2 months here and lost 60 lbs then went back up eating healthy…I spent a perfect 4 years eating exactly as doctors said and guys like you on balance nutrition diet keyed for max fitness with 4 hours aday grind exericise. the belly stayed. Period. did no carb. BAM 2 months 6 pac here. chest muscle return to my nutrition diet and stayed trim. if your done over in mid section and want be buff and looking good NOT only healthy with big ass belly….Do the No
    Carb hands down.

  8. @Weight training routines…

    You’re off on your assumption that Carbs are the bodies energy source. Carbohydrates are not essential at all in the human body. Fat and protien are just as effective as energy sources. Alot of people shy away from low carbs because they feel lathargic and depleted after a week or so, that’s because your body is still in carb burn mode, and hasn’t started tapping stored fat. Once the switch happens your energy and focus return. Also, if low carb diets are the wrong approach for building muscle why do 90% of the bodybuilders out there reccomend low carb/high preotein diets?

  9. This article is a load of crap, full of opinion and incorrect information. Bloated? No. Maybe you, but being bloated from eating more protein shows that you’ve been eating poorly for years. It’s not expensive because you inherently eat so much less. I spend about $30 a week. Plus, get the meat when it’s reduced and it costs a $1 or less per pound. You plateau on EVERYTHING. If you think this is specific to Atkins or to ‘fad’ diets, then you need to pick up a biochemistry book and actually STUDY and LEARN.

    PS: On the Atkins diet, I lost 117 pounds in 97 days (and no, it wasn’t all water *rolls eyes*), my blood pressure dropped into the athletic range, and my good cholesterol sky rocketed.

  10. I have done low carb diets in the past and am currently doing a no carb diet. I think it’s a great way to shock your body and loose quickly. If I want to look good at a friend’s wedding or am planning a trip where a swim suit will be needed then I diet for a couple weeks and my body looks awesome! After having twins I went from weighing 191 pounds on the day of delivery to weighing 120 lbs 4 weeks later with out breast feeding. After I stopped doing the low carb diet it took me about a year to put some back on I’m 5’8 and 140 lbs give or take a pound and I’m going out of town in two weeks and I’m planning on getting back to 120 in the time frame. You can loose anywhere from 20-70 pounds in a months time if you also work out. I personally work out at least an hour and a half each day on top of being a strick human carnivore. 🙂 It’s only hard the first couple of days but when you loose at least 2-5 pounds or more every day that’s enouragement enough for me!

    1. congrats on ur loss can i ask how was your energy during the 4 weeks and how many calories per day did u consume

  11. Zero carb diets are a mistake for both anyone wanting to build muscle or lose . Carbs are our bodies source of energy and if taken in low quantity at frequent intervals will help to boost your bodies matabolism and help to burn body fat.

    1. What a lot of crock, i have been struggling for years doing one diet after another, litterally hundreds, let alone the money to do these diets. Carbs are what has kept my body from having a normal metabollism. Now i am on the no carb diet, (lost of vegies are carbs, did you know that?) the is just falling off. So to all of you out there who think carbs are necessary for your body, bull dust, i am doing just great on protein, water and fat, yes fat. Steak, bacon, cream, butter, eggs, chicken, olives, cos lettuce. So if anyone wants to know more about how to loose when they have tried everything else for years, reply to me and i will tell you more.
      The loss industry is just that, an industry!! personal trainers and coaches are really there to give themselves a business, no one and i mean no one I know has EVER lost with a personal trainer and the work is sooo hard with no show for the effort, same with gyms, good for your body in all and your health but does anyone loose ,? NO never.
      Try what I am doing and it will come off, i promise and i am never hungry. Drink lots of water, which is not really that hard, just sip all day and keep a track of how many bottles you have drunk.
      Anyway, i am rambling on. Once you loose the required , you can go back onto normal eating with a few carbs, so its not for ever, the no carb thing. Please, loss industry, get real and get helping these people.

  12. A no-carb diet can be a good alternative to all those fad diets that people usually follow. But before implementing such diet in your daily routine, you need to start making some changes towards reducing unhealthy carbs in your diet. Choose one or two things to change at a time. You may be surprised that some results can be achieved with less effort than you thought. Happy dieting!

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