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Carbohydrate addict's diet or the Atkins programme?
Which diet plan is better, the Carbohydrates Addict's Diet or the Atkins Diet? I have been doing the CAD diet for seven weeks now and have lost half a stone, but I am struggling with the ‘reward meal’. Knowing that there are ‘no limits’ during this meal is causing problems for me.
Because you don't burn fat while there are high circulating levels of insulin in the body, elevated insulin levels prevent weight loss and are the dieter's nightmare. Unfortunately, many people are prone to high insulin levels because their bodies simply don't metabolise carbohydrates optimally. For those who have had an ongoing struggle with weight loss, these plans assure that eating high-carbohydrate, low-fat foods is the wrong way to go.
Here’s the physiology behind it all: When you eat, your blood sugar goes up. By how quickly and how much depends entirely on the food, the amount, the combination and your own personal biology. In response to this increase in blood sugar, your body secretes the hormone insulin, which in turn helps ‘escort’ that sugar out of the bloodstream and into the cells.
In some people, however - especially those who have been eating a high-carbohydrate diet for years and have been sedentary as well -- this mechanism doesn't work in an ideal way. The typical high-carbohydrate, high-sugar meal causes blood sugar to rise quickly and stay up there. The body has to secrete more and more insulin to bring it down. Over time, the body becomes less sensitive to the insulin, requiring even greater amounts to get the job done. The result is high circulating levels of insulin, cravings, mood swings and tremendous difficulty in losing weight. The muscle cells become more and more resistant to the effects of insulin, and the body becomes more efficient at storing sugar in the fat cells.
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