ZERO carbs, or RESTRICTED carbs?!

[CobraUTAH]

My buddy is doing a diet with almost no carbs in it, meaning most days less than 20. He has dropped a ton of fat weight and is looking great. Most diet's I've seen online and at this site seem to show restriction over almost eliminating carbs. It doesn't make sense to me to zero your carb intake since you do need them for some energy. Also if you go straight to the zero carb routine you have no where to go if you hit a wall on your diet. I feel that I can start at a 125-150g carb a day restriction and then if I plateau I can cut carbs as needed. Anyway just wondering what the consensus is.

 

[Miracle Man]

you need some carbs in your diet. Carbs is brain food. <30g p/d is restricted but some. zero is no good for you. Daily carb intake will vary from person to person, for me, <30g for fat burning, <100 for daily living.

 

[B0ARDIN087]

with no carbs i get signifcantly dumber, thats the only downside i have seen, the plateau part isn't a big deal, just drop cals and refeed!

 

[JJFigure]

The goal of low/non-carb diets is to train your body to use fat for energy instead of sugar for energy (by sugar, I mean carbs). That's why these diets also require higher fat intake; if you cut the carbs and the fat, the diet won't work and you'll feel like mierda. Initially, someone who embarks on this type of diet will lose a lot of bodyweight - most of it will be water though. The minute you ingest a decent amount of carbs, most of that water loss will come back.

I personally keep my carbs <30g when cutting, but always include 1-2 carb load days during the week to replenish muscle glycogen. If you're athletic at all, you must do this, or you'll really suffer in the gym. Check out the Anabolic Diet, BodyOpus, NHE, etc for examples of cyclical low carb dieting.

Offseason I still average <100 grams/day; my body prefers a higher pro/fat diet over a high carb diet. But that's just me - everyone is different.

 

[molnii]

I just cannot do a zero carb diet....I feel to tired so I eat moderate 100-150g of carbs with high protein

 

[The Red Dragon]

Glucose is a far better fuel for the brain than ketones although you can manage well enough with ketones. Also carbs hold in a lot water (why you lose water weight and why you bloat up after having carbs). I'm very intimdated to start my first CKD diet (next month after exams). The first/second week sounds unsettling to me.