A Great Diet For Abs...Can You Really Lose Weight
With These Plans?
With These Plans?
Last Updated February 14, 2019 By Michelle Nader
When it comes to fitness goals, achieving a flatter, toned stomach is the most common. Everyone wants great abs and people are constantly searching for the right diet to help them reach their goals.
While there are hundreds of diets to choose from, the low carb diets tend to be the most popular and effective.
If you want a great diet for abs toning, you may want to find out why people tend to love the low carb options.
According to Google Trends, "low carbohydrate diet" is increasingly becoming more popular. Simple evidence of their effectivness.
Why Are Low Carb Diets More Effective?
The average diet simply contains too much sugar. Your body can only process so much sugar before the rest gets stored as fat.
With a low carb diet, you restrict sugar by cutting back on carbohydrates. With most of these diets, you still eat some carbs, but they typically need to come from healthy sources.
Carbs can be divided into two groups – simple or complex. Complex sugars are less efficient, as your body needs to first break them down into simple sugars.
You can find complex sugars in refined carbs, such as white flour, whole grains, and any starchy carbs. Simple sugars may be refined or natural. Low carb diets prefer you to consume natural sugars, such as the sugars found in fruits and vegetables.
When you eat food, your body absorbs the sugars into the bloodstream, where they become blood sugars. These blood sugars are also called glucose. As blood sugar levels rise, your body starts releasing insulin, which is needed to use the glucose for energy. The excess glucose eventually becomes stored body fat. With a low carb diet, you consume less sugar, which means less glucose for your body. With lower insulin levels, you can burn through more of the stored body fat to produce energy.
That is the basic concept behind low carb diets and why they are so helpful for losing weight and targeting fat loss. While they are effective, which one should you choose?
Here is a closer look at a few of the most followed low carb diets.
That is the basic concept behind low carb diets and why they are so helpful for losing weight and targeting fat loss. While they are effective, which one should you choose?
Here is a closer look at a few of the most followed low carb diets.
Keto Diet
The Ketogenic (Keto) Diet is a high fat, moderate protein, low-carb diet. You get most of your calories from healthy sources of fat, which provides a more efficient source of energy compared to sugar.
Some people may find the Keto Diet difficult to follow. You need to restrict your carbs to reach a state called ketosis, which is your body’s natural starvation mode.
When you deprive your body of carbs, it needs to find energy from another source. With the Keto Diet, your body gets energy from the fat and protein. With ketosis, you also begin producing ketones, which break down stored fat. As fat is a more efficient energy source, the Keto Diet helps keep your stomach and energy levels full. The Keto Diet also requires you to calculate your daily macros. Your macros are the amounts of macronutrients that you need to consume each day based on a specific macro ratio.
The three macronutrients are fat, protein, and carbohydrates. With the typical macro ratio, you get 60% to 75% of your daily calories from fat. Fifteen percent to 30% comes from protein and just 5% to 10% is from carbs.
While some people may find this diet to be too strict, it is one of the most used low carb diets. Like the Atkins Diet, you need to restrict your carbs to the point where your body begins burning stored fat for energy. Unlike the Atkins Diet, you continue to limit your carbohydrates. It is a sustainable low carb solution that may provide the fastest path to weight loss.
Paleo Diet
The Paleo Diet is less focused on the carb count of your meals and more focused on the types of foods that you choose. With this diet, you need to give up all processed food. Anything that comes packaged, altered, or processed is off limits.
What do you eat on the Paleo Diet? You fill up on natural food sources, including fresh fruits, vegetables, and seeds. You also eat lean meats for protein.
This diet is also called the Caveman Diet, as you are eating food that paleolithic humans may have eaten. It is a diet that revolves completely around food that you could find in nature, before modern agriculture.
The Paleo Diet is not necessarily a low carb diet. It does not force you to eat a specific number of calories per day or count your carbs. However, eliminating processed foods and only getting carbs from natural sources directly leads to fewer carbs in your diet.
People that follow this diet naturally eat fewer carbohydrates. You are also likely to get more vitamins, as the diet encourages you to eat more fresh fruits and vegetables.
If you are a fan of dairy, you may not enjoy this diet. While the Paleo Diet is not incredibly restrictive, it requires you to give up dairy, whole grains, and legumes.
The Paleo Diet is less focused on the carb count of your meals and more focused on the types of foods that you choose. With this diet, you need to give up all processed food. Anything that comes packaged, altered, or processed is off limits.
What do you eat on the Paleo Diet? You fill up on natural food sources, including fresh fruits, vegetables, and seeds. You also eat lean meats for protein.
This diet is also called the Caveman Diet, as you are eating food that paleolithic humans may have eaten. It is a diet that revolves completely around food that you could find in nature, before modern agriculture.
The Paleo Diet is not necessarily a low carb diet. It does not force you to eat a specific number of calories per day or count your carbs. However, eliminating processed foods and only getting carbs from natural sources directly leads to fewer carbs in your diet.
People that follow this diet naturally eat fewer carbohydrates. You are also likely to get more vitamins, as the diet encourages you to eat more fresh fruits and vegetables.
If you are a fan of dairy, you may not enjoy this diet. While the Paleo Diet is not incredibly restrictive, it requires you to give up dairy, whole grains, and legumes.
Whole30 Diet
Another great diet for abs is the Whole30 Diet. With this diet, you give up certain foods for 30 days. The goal is to eliminate the foods that may be causing your weight gain or keeping you from achieving a flatter stomach.
To make it through the 30 days, you need to give up legumes, dairy, grains, sugar, and alcohol. After the 30 days, you reintroduce some of these foods into your diet, one at a time.
You may learn which foods trigger your cravings or which foods make you crash. The first 30 days are restrictive, but the lack of sugar helps you burn fat and flush toxins from your body.
Another great diet for abs is the Whole30 Diet. With this diet, you give up certain foods for 30 days. The goal is to eliminate the foods that may be causing your weight gain or keeping you from achieving a flatter stomach.
To make it through the 30 days, you need to give up legumes, dairy, grains, sugar, and alcohol. After the 30 days, you reintroduce some of these foods into your diet, one at a time.
You may learn which foods trigger your cravings or which foods make you crash. The first 30 days are restrictive, but the lack of sugar helps you burn fat and flush toxins from your body.
Taking It To Extremes, My Personal Low Carb Story
About 10 years ago I embraced the popular P90X workout. I set up my own home gym and went about a 90 day trek to change my life. I accomplished a 15lb weight loss and did get super toned from that experience.
Since the workouts were so demanding, I decided to have an equally demanding diet. I was doing some grueling workouts, so why not choose a diet that will get results? I went super low carb. In fact, the only carbs I had for weeks was a piece of whole wheat bread every morning and the occasional snack of un-buttered popcorn. I thought I had a great diet for abs.
Turns out I did have a really good and effective diet, but my energy levels were tanking. The everyday demands of that workout program combined with my super low carb diet left my body drained of energy. Unfortunately, it took me a few weeks to realize this since this and I kept getting more fatigued.
Eventually I realized I needed more carbs. I started eating a few more complex carbs each day and my fatigue went away. Although I still kept the carbs low enough to lose weight and maintain energy, in hindsight, I should've added more healthy fats to my diet and had a modified keto diet before it even existed.
Every time I now go back on that extreme low carb diet, I now supplement with plenty of healthy fats and I'm able to sustain the energy needed to get through tough workouts and a regular, everyday schedule.
Which Low Carb Diet Is Right for You?
These are a few of the most used low carb diets. If you want a great diet for abs, any of these options should help you get positive results.
Before you clear out your fridge and start planning meals, you should ensure that you choose the right diet. Think about the foods that the diet requires you to give up. You should also look at some of the recipes and meals that people commonly eat on these diets.
Dieting is a lot easier if you can continue to eat the foods that you love.
