Which is better: low fat or low carb?

A staggering number of Americans, more than two thirds of the population, are considered overweight. As a population, this problem is partially due to our changing lifestyles. We’ve become less active as more things are automated and more jobs are desk-bound. A large part of the problem is due to the typical American diet. For many years, doctors and dieticians have blamed this phenomenon on the theory that people are eating too much fat and relying on processed and fast foods as the mainstay of their diet.

As more people become overweight, there has also been a corresponding rise in chronic diseases such as coronary artery disease and diabetes. Again, many in the medical community have attributed this trend to an increase in the amount of fat as well as total calories consumed in the average American’s diet. If this were the case, then simply eating a low-fat diet and reducing daily calories should be the most effective ways to both lose weight and get healthy.

Recent research, however, has produced an entirely new school of thought as to the best way to lose weight and reduce risk factors for chronic disease. Study after study has found that participants who have been put on a simple low carbohydrate diet have consistently lost more weight and achieved better key biomarkers, like blood cholesterol and glucose levels, than those placed on a strict calorie restricted, low-fat diet.

Calories in versus calories out

Medical science has long held the belief that gaining and losing weight is completely dependent on the number of calories consumed vs. those that are expended through resting metabolism and activity. In other words, if there are more calories coming in than going out, you will gain weight. You may have heard it said that it didn’t matter if you ate broccoli all day. As long as you ate more calories than you burned, you would pack on pounds. However, it turns out that our bodies are more complicated machines than that.

The mechanism by which low carb diets work is still a bit of a mystery. One popular theory has to do with insulin, the hormone that regulates both blood sugar and energy storage. Put simply, insulin tells fat cells when to produce and store fat. Low carb diets drastically reduce insulin, and the result is that the body is free to use fat for energy rather than storing it.

A healthy way to lose weight

In the final analysis, we know that low carb diets work both in terms of overall weight loss and reduction of dangerous blood markers and other disease risk factors. The goal is to replace sugar, bread, pasta and other high-insulin producing foods with lean protein and healthy fats.

Getting enough protein can be difficult, however, unless you’re eating a steak at every meal! A pure protein supplement can help get your protein percentage up while also aiding in the growth of lean body mass. One scoop of FlexFitPro contains 27 grams of high quality protein which helps your body run efficiently, aids with digestion, and helps build muscle.