Low carb diets are getting more popular and seem to be effective for some people.  The current most popular low carb diet is Atkins diet, type of fad diets that restricts carbohydrate rich foods, thereby restricting total daily calories. Phase One of the four in the Atkins Diet consists of between 1400 to 1500 total daily calories. The average adult female consumes around 2200 calories daily and the average adult male consumes around 2800 calories daily. Almost any adult will lose weight if they consume 800 to 1300 fewer calories daily. Phase One of the Atkins Diet also restricts carbohydrate intake to only 20 grams of net carbohydrates daily. The definition of net carbohydrates is total grams of carbohydrates per serving minus dietary fibre per serving. Dietary fibre is the non-digestible remains of plant products found in beans, whole grains, fruits, and vegetables.

Carbohydrates are the body’s preferred fuel source. In the near future there will be a recommended dietary allowance, or R.D.A., for carbohydrates of 130 grams daily. 130 grams of carbohydrates our body needs daily is for the proper functioning of the central nervous system and production of red blood cells. Only during Phase Four of the Atkins Diet are participants allowed up to 120 grams of net carbohydrate daily. Low carbohydrate diets are nothing new, they have been around since the 1860’s and the Atkins Diet first came out in the early 1970’s.

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Today, an estimated sixty-five percent of all American adults are obese or overweight. Obesity is known to be a precursor to many debilitating health conditions such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, osteoarthritis, and gallbladder disease.

Close to a hundred million Americans go on a weight loss diet in any given year and up to ninety-five percent of them regain the weight they lose within five years. Worse, a third will gain back more weight than they lost, in danger of "yo-yoing" from one popular diet to another. The conventional approach to weight problems, focusing on fad weight loss diets or weight loss drugs, may leave you with just as much weight and the additional burden of ill health.

No doubt you have fallen for one or more of the weight loss diet schemes over the years, promising quick and painless weight loss, which are known as fad diets. Fad diets can be best described as a quick means of weight loss that are often only popular for a brief period of time. Many of these quick weight loss diet programs undermine your health, cause physical discomfort, flatulence, and ultimately lead to disappointment when you start regaining weight, shortly after losing it.

Quick weight loss or fat diet programs generally overstress one type of food. They contravene the fundamental principle of good nutrition - to remain healthy one must consume a balanced diet, which includes a variety of foods. Safe, healthy, and permanent weight reduction is what’s truly lost among the thousands of popular diet schemes.

Some of the weight loss diet schemes reign supreme briefly, only to fade out. While some wane from popularity due to being unproductive or unsafe, some simply lose the public's curiosity. Fad diets can range from methodologies as deeply entrenched as Atkins diet, the South Beach Diet, the Grapefruit diet, Cabbage Soup diet, the Rotation diet, Beverly Hills diet, Breatharian, Ornish Plan, Special K Challenge diet – the list goes on and on.

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Understanding the glycemic index (GI) is important for those who wants to lose weight or lower the risk of cardiovascular disease. This article explains how the glycemic index works, and what you should know about GI.

The glycemic index (GI) is a way of rating carbohydrate foods according to how quickly the carbohydrates are broken down into glucose, and thus how quickly that glucose enters the bloodstream. The reasoning behind this is that carbohydrates that enter the bloodstream quickly raise blood sugar levels rapidly, causing a spike in energy, that is followed by a drop after the effects of insulin are triggered.

Insulin is one of the hormones that help regulate blood sugar levels, and tries to keep them stable. When too much glucose enters the bloodstream at a time, the body reacts by releasing insulin to remove some of that glucose back out of the blood and into our cells. Its simply a way of keeping the balance. However the effect is that when all the glucose we just ate, in the form of carbohydrates, is removed from the bloodstream, we feel tired and hungry, often craving more carbohydrates. Thus a cycle is created, where we eat more than really necessary.

Not all carbohydrate containing foods are created equal, they are rated from a scale of 1 to 100 according to their effect on our blood glucose levels. A score of 100 is the highest, and this is akin to eating glucose in its pure form. A score of 55 or lower means a food is classified as having a low glycemic index. Thus, it theoretically breaks down in the body more slowly.

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