Let's examine what happens to your body on the high fat no
carbohydrate protein diet.
The first week you may lose up to 10 pounds. That's great
you say! But where did that 10 pounds come from? The majority, about
8 pounds is water. Carbohydrates need water to be digested and stored in
your muscles and liver as energy for later use. When you eliminate
carbohydrates from your diet you will not store any water in your body, thus
seeing the scale go down. Is that good? We'll get to that.
The rest of the 10 pounds is probably a
little
fat,
yes only a little, and a little muscle.
But I lost 10 pounds you say!
Well, why did we not lose more fat? First of all by eating
a high fat diet you are putting fat in your body while trying to lose it.
That's like trying to dig a hole while someone else is trying to fill it
in. You go nowhere.
Now, why did we lose muscle? We lost muscle because there
was no carbohydrate for the body to use as energy. The body recognizes
this and then cannibalizes itself by turning muscle into a form of energy that
the body can use.
Why is this bad? If you recall from a previous
Fit Tip we learned that a pound of muscle burns about
15 calories per day. So for every pound of muscle you lose your metabolism
decreases by 15 calories per day. By staying on this high fat protein diet
too long you could lose up to 10 pounds of muscle equating to a decrease in your
metabolism of 150 calories per day . This would cause you to gain a pound
of fat every 23 days.
So let's recap. We lost a lot of water, a little fat and a
little muscle. Now what?
By losing water we are dehydrated. Our body is comprised
of about 75% water. In another Fit Tip we talked
about how much water we should drink and what happens if we are
dehydrated. When we are dehydrated our bodily functions shut down.
Your body without water is like your car without oil. It will work
for a while, but then it breaks down. Many cases of kidney failure
have also been associated with this type of diet.
These things that happen as a result of the high fat protein
diet are very damaging to our bodies and take a long time to repair.
Please read everything you can before taking any pills, potions, or trying any
fad diets.