Are Low-Carb Diets Good for Weight Loss?
Yes, low-carb diets are good for weight loss as long as you are in a caloric deficit, which means eating less than what your body is burning.
Honestly, it doesn’t matter whether you are on a low-carb, keto, or low-fat diet. To lose weight, you need to be in a caloric deficit and have a workout routine that includes both cardio and resistance training.
Ultimately, what matters is that the diet you follow is sustainable for you and doesn’t feel like you are “dieting,” as long as it includes unprocessed foods.
If you want to know how exactly a low-carb diet works for weight loss and its downsides, stick around as I unpack each component one by one.
How Does a Low-Carb Diet Work?
A low-carb diet is an eating plan that restricts carbohydrate intake. Here’s a detailed explanation of how it works as per NIH.
Very low carb diets: These diets limit carb intake to less than 10% of total daily calories, or 20–50 grams per day on a 2,000-calorie diet. This extreme restriction often leads to ketosis, a metabolic state where the body burns fat for fuel instead of carbs.
Low-carb diets: These plans restrict carbs to less than 26% of total daily calories, or fewer than 130 grams per day on a 2,000-calorie diet. This level of restriction is less severe than very low-carb diets but still significantly reduces carb intake compared to typical Western diets.
Moderate carb diets: These diets allow for 26–44% of total daily calories from carbs. While still lower in carbs than standard dietary recommendations, they offer more flexibility and may be easier to maintain long-term.
Food restrictions:
Low-carb diets typically eliminate or severely limit:
- Sugar-sweetened beverages
- Baked goods
- Candies and sweets
- Processed snacks
Some versions may also restrict healthier carb sources such as:
- Grains (including whole grains)
- Starchy vegetables (e.g., potatoes, corn)
- High-carb fruits (e.g., bananas, grapes)
- Pasta
- Legumes
Increased intake of protein and fat:
To compensate for the reduced carb intake, low-carb diets emphasize increased consumption of:
- Protein sources: Fish, meat, eggs
- Healthy fats: Nuts, high-fat dairy, unprocessed oils
- Non-starchy vegetables: Leafy greens, broccoli, cauliflower, etc.
These foods help maintain satiety, provide essential nutrients, and support muscle mass while the body adapts to using fat for energy
Also Read: Why Low-Fat Diets Dont Work For Weight Loss
Potential Benefits Of Low-Carb Diets For Weight Loss
You can expect the following benefits of low-carb diets for weight loss.
It can lead to short-term weight loss
When you drastically reduce carbohydrate intake, your body’s primary fuel source is limited.
As a result, it begins to use stored glycogen (a form of carbohydrate stored in the liver and muscles) for energy.
Glycogen is bound to water, so as it’s used up, you lose water weight rapidly.
Also, lower levels of insulin due to eating fewer carbs make the kidneys release extra sodium and water, which adds to the initial weight loss.
As you continue to eat a few carbs, your body changes to burning stored fat for energy.
This process is called ketosis in diets with very low carbs. This increased fat-burning can cause significant weight loss.
Also, the higher amount of protein usually eaten in low-carb diets makes you feel full and slightly increases your metabolism. Both of these help create a calorie deficit.
This calorie deficit, where you use more calories than you eat, is the main reason for weight loss in any diet, including low-carb diets.
They are very filling
Low-carb diets often make you feel full because they usually involve eating more protein and fat, which have strong effects on feeling satisfied.
Protein and fat take more time to digest than carbohydrates. This means they stay in your stomach longer, making you feel full.
These nutrients also affect hormones that control hunger and fullness. For example, protein increases the production of hormones like peptide YY and GLP-1, which tell your brain you’re full.
Fat slows down the emptying of your stomach and affects the release of hormones that control appetite.
Also, not having quick changes in blood sugar that often happen with high-carb meals helps keep energy levels steady, reducing sudden feelings of hunger.
The state of ketosis caused by very low-carb diets can also reduce appetite.
Good for managing blood sugar levels
When you eat fewer carbs, your body doesn’t need to make as much insulin to process them.
This leads to lower and more steady blood sugar levels throughout the day.
Steady blood sugar is good for weight loss for several reasons.
First, it helps prevent sudden increases and decreases in energy levels, which can cause hunger and cravings for high-carb foods.
Second, lower insulin levels allow the body to more easily use stored fat for energy, helping with fat burning.
Also, steady blood sugar levels can help reduce inflammation in the body, which is often linked to being overweight.
For people with insulin resistance or type 2 diabetes, a low-carb diet can improve insulin sensitivity. This means their bodies become better at using insulin to control blood sugar.
This improved body function can make it easier to lose weight and keep the weight off over time.
Overall, by keeping blood sugar levels steady, low-carb diets can help control appetite, reduce cravings, and create a body environment that’s better for weight loss.
Downsides Of Low-carb Diets For Weight Loss
Here is the flip side of low-carb diets for weight loss.
It is Not Sustainable For Everyone
A low-carb diet may not be sustainable for everyone. Someone who has eaten a high-carb, low-fat diet all their life might find the switch difficult.
At first, it may seem easy and exciting, but keeping it up for a lifetime can be challenging. The body and mind need time to adjust to a new way of eating.
People might miss their favorite high-carb foods or struggle with the change in cooking habits.
Also, foods that are high in protein and fat can be more expensive. This added cost might make it hard for some people to stick to a low-carb diet long-term.
The sudden change in diet can also cause side effects like headaches, tiredness, and digestive issues in the beginning, which might discourage some people from continuing.
It Might Feel Too Restrictive
On a low-carb diet, depending on how low your daily carb intake is, you may have to restrict certain foods such as bread, cereals, fruits, etc. to an absolute minimum.
For someone who is used to enjoying these foods on a daily basis, this might feel very restrictive.
This restriction can often lead to frustrations and feelings of irritation when you have to impose rules on yourself to avoid specific foods.
This is not ideal on a weight loss diet where the goal of your “diet” is to not feel like a “diet” at all.
The feeling of deprivation can lead to strong cravings, which might result in overeating or binge eating when you finally allow yourself these foods.
This cycle of restriction and overeating can be harmful to both physical and mental health and can hinder long-term weight loss efforts.
No Evidence that it is better than other types of eating approaches
At the end of the day, what matters for weight loss is being in a caloric deficit.
How you achieve this deficit is up to what is sustainable for you, whether you do that through a low-fat approach, low-carb, or any other diet that is suitable for you.
For example, someone in India would find it difficult to do a low-carb diet since the Indian diet is carb-heavy compared to someone living in the US or Europe where meat is more prevalent in the diet.
And then you have someone who is vegan or vegetarian. The point is there is no evidence of any kind of diet being more effective for weight loss.
Weight loss is achieved by following the fundamental principles of energy balance, which is reducing your calorie intake and having a weekly exercise routine that involves 150 minutes of cardio and 2 days of resistance training at the minimum.
And of course, whichever diet you do follow has to be clean in the sense that 90% should be unprocessed food and 10% you can allot to some of your favorite treats, snacks, going out to a restaurant, etc., given that you are within your caloric limit.
The most effective diet is one that you can stick to long-term while maintaining a healthy relationship with food.
Also Read: What Not to Do When Hitting a Weight Loss Plateau
How to Do a Low-carb Diet For Weight Loss?
If you want to try the low-carb diet, here are some key factors I want you to keep in mind.
Figure Out How Many Carbs You Should be Eating
To figure out how many carbs you should eat, start by finding out how many calories you need each day.
You can use online calculators or consult a nutritionist for this.
Once you know your daily calorie needs, decide what percentage of these calories should come from carbs.
For a low-carb diet, this is usually between 20% and 30%. To change this percentage into grams of carbs, divide the number of calories from carbs by 4.
This is because each gram of carb has 4 calories. For example, if you need 2000 calories a day and want 25% from carbs, that’s 500 calories from carbs.
Divide 500 by 4, and you get 125 grams of carbs per day. This number is your target for daily carb intake.
Count Your Carbs
A food diary app (like MyFitnessPal or Yazio!) can help you keep track of your daily carb intake.
These apps have big lists of foods with all their nutrition information. You can use them to record everything you eat and drink.
The app will add up all the carbs for you. It will also show you how much protein and fat you’re eating.
At first, it might feel annoying to write down everything you eat. But if you keep doing it, you’ll start to remember how many carbs are in the foods you eat often.
After a while, you’ll be able to guess pretty well without the app. This is when counting carbs becomes a habit and feels easier.
Avoid Going Too Low
While eating fewer carbs can help you lose weight, it’s important not to eat too few. Your body needs some carbs to work properly.
Make sure to eat carbs from healthy foods like fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. These foods give you important nutrients and fiber that your body needs.
If you eat too few carbs, you might feel very tired, have trouble going to the bathroom, or not get enough vitamins and minerals.
It’s often better to reduce carbs to a moderate amount rather than cutting them out almost completely.
This way of eating is usually easier to stick with for a long time and is better for your health.
Make Sure To Be in a Caloric Deficit
To lose weight, you need to eat fewer calories than your body uses. This is called a calorie deficit.
Eating fewer carbs can help you eat fewer calories overall, but it’s not the only thing that matters.
You still need to pay attention to how many total calories you’re eating. A good goal is to eat about 500 calories less than you burn each day.
This usually leads to losing about 1 pound per week, which is a healthy rate of weight loss.
Remember, even if you’re eating low-carb, you can still gain weight if you eat too many calories from any source.
Also Read: The Biggest Mistake People Make While Counting Calories
Focus on Protein
When you eat fewer carbs, it’s important to eat more protein.
Protein helps your body keep its muscles while you’re losing weight. It also makes you feel full for longer after eating.
Your body also uses more energy to digest protein compared to carbs or fat. This means you burn slightly more calories when you eat protein.
Good sources of protein include chicken, fish, lean beef, eggs, and plant-based options like tofu and beans. Try to include a source of protein in each meal.
Plan Your Meals In Advance
Planning your meals ahead of time can make it easier to stick to a low-carb diet. When you plan, you can make sure you have low-carb foods ready to eat.
This helps you avoid choosing high-carb foods when you’re hungry and don’t have other options.
You can cook meals for several days at once and keep them in the fridge or freezer.
It’s also helpful to prepare snacks in advance, like cutting up vegetables or boiling eggs.
Always try to have some low-carb foods ready to eat, like nuts, cheese, or pre-cut vegetables.
Also Read: Are Cheat Meals Helpful or Harmful For Weight Loss?
Limit High-Carb Foods
To follow a low-carb diet, you need to eat less of foods that have a lot of carbs.
These usually include sweet foods, bread, pasta, rice, and starchy vegetables like potatoes.
Instead of these, you can eat foods that are similar but have fewer carbs.
For example, you can use cauliflower rice instead of regular rice, or use zucchini noodles instead of pasta. Lettuce leaves can be used instead of bread for wraps.
Be careful with sauces, salad dressings, and processed foods, as these often have hidden carbs.
Make Sure to Include Plenty of Fiber
When following a low-carb diet, it’s important to eat enough fiber. Fiber is a type of carbohydrate that your body can’t digest.
It helps you feel full, keeps your digestive system working well, and can help control blood sugar levels.
Many high-fiber foods are also low in net carbs, which makes them great choices for a low-carb diet.
Good sources of fiber include vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, and spinach; nuts and seeds; and berries like raspberries and blackberries.
Avocados are also high in fiber and low in net carbs. Try to include these foods in your meals regularly.
Get In The Habit Of Reading Nutrition Labels
Reading nutrition labels is very important when you’re trying to eat fewer carbs.
Look at the part of the label that shows total carbohydrates.
Also, check how much fiber the food has. Some people following low-carb diets subtract the fiber from the total carbs to get what’s called “net carbs.”
Pay attention to serving sizes on labels. Sometimes a package might seem low in carbs, but that’s only for a very small serving.
Make sure you’re looking at the amount of carbs for the amount of food you actually plan to eat.
Over time, reading labels will become a habit and you’ll get better at quickly finding the information you need.
Conclusion
Low-carb diets can be good for weight loss.
They can help you feel full, reduce your overall calorie intake, and manage blood sugar levels.
However, they’re not the only way to lose weight and might not work for everyone.
The best diet for weight loss is one that you can stick to long-term and that fits your lifestyle and food preferences.
Whether you choose a low-carb diet or not, the key to losing weight is eating fewer calories than your body uses.
It’s also important to eat a variety of healthy foods, get enough nutrients, and exercise regularly.
If you’re thinking about starting a low-carb diet, it’s a good idea to talk to a doctor or a nutritionist first.
They can help you decide if it’s the right choice for you and guide you on how to do it safely.