Friday, October 24, 2008

How to Design a Healthy Diet, Carb Related Facts

By Ricardo d Argence

Your body's primary source of energy is carbohydrates. You will feel tired and lethargic if your body does not have enough carbs. There are two kinds of carbohydrates. Sugar is a simple carbohydrate. There are also starches, also called complex carbohydrates. They only differ in digesture time.

Sugars are processed through your digestion much faster than starches. Simple carbs are foods such as pizza, chocolate, cake, and other processed food with sugar additives. Simple carbs are also some of your healthier foods like fruits. Complex carbs are found in breads, cereals, nuts, pasta, and vegetables such as carrots, potatoes, and corn. Starches take more time to digest, the release of energy is slow and it will last longer throughtout your body.

Low-carb diets often do not work, because without energy, the body doesn't feel like exercising. Dieters may become depressed and tired frequently. Usually, any success with a low-carb diet is only short-term, because the dieter gets discouraged quickly. Why? Because people usually expect to get more energy when eating healthy, not less so.

If you are looking to lose weight you need to incorporate exercise into your life. Building muscle not only boots your metabolism, but it also helps you burn more calories. More lean muscle means there's less fat to burn, even while resting.

Quick fix, fad diets usually only succeed is losing the water weight and lean muscle that you already have built up. This is why they do not work long-term. Starving and depriving yourself of needed carbohydrates simply slows your metabolism down to preserve the fat stores you already have in case of future nutrition shortage.

Consuming smaller, healthy sized meals in the course of the day maintains your metabolic rate and provides the energy required to be active. Studies demonstrate that if individuals combine a healthy diet with physical activity they reduce their weight as well as fat by a greater amount than those who only restrict their diet.

Those looking for a "quick fix" may find that cutting out carbs will help them quickly lose a couple of pounds. But, eventually the result will be that you are likely to regain the weight later. A combination of exercise and healthy eating will give the long-term results you desire.

Depriving your body of any particular food can only make you crave it more. Practicing moderation and becoming more active will go a long way to making you a healthier individual. - 15359

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