If winter’s shorter days, colder temperatures, and holiday feasting have caused you to pack on the pounds, you are not alone. The good news is that spring is the perfect time to get a fresh start on your eating habits.

As coauthor of a book on ketogenic nutrition and a long-time adherent to the lifestyle, I’m a big fan of the many benefits that come from a low-carbohydrate, high-fat (LCHF) diet, including moderated blood-sugar and insulin levels, reduced inflammation, lower blood triglycerides, and higher HDL (the “good” cholesterol), to name just a few.

But perhaps the most visible outcome of a low-carb diet is weight loss. Here’s why.

When dietary carbohydrate is reduced, energy must come from the two other classes of macronutrients—proteins and fats. Since excess dietary protein can cause digestive discomfort in some individuals plus an increase in blood-sugar levels (excess protein is converted into glucose),

we turn instead to fats for the fuel we need. This includes the fats we eat but also the fats our bodies have stored in our cells as a result of excess carbohydrate intake.

While LCHF diets have been around for more than a century and used as a therapeutic intervention for decades, the last 20 years have seen an increase in popularity and variety of low-carbohydrate diets options. This begs the question: “What exactly defines low-carb eating?”

In nutrition research, it is defined as less that 40% of daily calories from carbohydrates, which, on a 2,000-calorie-per-day diet, amounts to 800 g of carbs. Some food regimens consider a low-carb diet as having less than 5% of calories, or 100 g, while others are even more restrictive, reducing carbohydrate intake to between 40 and 60 g.

So, Which Low-Carb, High-Fat Diet Is Right for You?

That will depend on your health, the amount of weight you want to lose, and your food preferences, amongst other things. And it’s worth mentioning here that if your goal is fat loss and better health, ultraprocessed foods are definitely not on the menu. The following is a quick guide to some of the more popular low-carbohydrate diet options.

Low-Carb Mediterranean Diet

The Mediterranean Diet focuses on the traditional foods eaten in countries that surround the Mediterranean Sea. It is largely plant-based, replacing saturated fats with unsaturated ones. So rather than cream, butter, and cheese, you’ll look to olive oil, fatty fish, avocado, seeds, and nuts as your fat sources. The low-carb version also restricts higher-carbohydrate foods like bread, rice, and pasta.

Low-Carb Paleo Diet

Like the original Paleo Diet, a term coined by University of Colorado’s Loren Cordain in his popular 2002 book, the low-carb version of the diet encourages eating foods that your prehistoric ancestors might have enjoyed. Unlike the original, however, the low-carb paleo eschews grains, legumes, and tubers in favour of lean meats, fish, seafood, eggs, seeds, and fruit. If this so-called “caveman diet” feels a bit too meat-centric, you can add more vegetables to the mix. Just be sure to choose ones that are low in carbs, like tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, and zucchini.

Atkins Diet

Popularized in the 1970s by American cardiologist Dr. Robert Atkins, the original Atkins Diet was a high-fat, high-protein diet with few restrictions on the amount you could eat of either, so long as you also significantly reduced your carbohydrate consumption. The phased eating plan allowed for 1% of daily calories from carbohydrates, which amounts to 15 to 20 g of carbs per day, for a period of two weeks. This is followed by a gradual reintroduction of additional carbs in the form of nuts, vegetables, and fruit.

Although the initial phase of the diet resulted in significant fat loss, dieters tended to reintroduce too many carbs too fast and quickly regained the weight they had lost. The Modified Atkins Diet, which appeared in 2003, is a more moderate, steady-as-you-go approach to weight loss. It advocates eating 10% of calories from carbohydrates (which amounts to roughly 200 g per day), 30% of calories from protein, and 60% from fat.

The Atkins Diet is still in practice, but has been largely supplanted by the ketogenic diet, which is based on more comprehensive science.

Ketogenic Diet

A well-formulated ketogenic is the gold standard when it comes to clinical and therapeutic applications of the LCHF diet. “Well-formulated” means it contains all the nutrients needed for a balanced diet, while “ketogenic” refers to the production of ketones as a result of the metabolism of fats for energy. The principal ketone (actually a ketone body) is β‑hydroxybutyrate (BHB), a sort of superfuel that also acts as a powerful cell-signalling molecule, producing a myriad of beneficial metabolic effects. In addition to the fat and weight loss that results from other LCHF diets, clinical studies have demonstrated the extent to which ketogenic nutrition also addresses the root cause of most chronic diseases including cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, and Alzheimer’s.

Whatever route you choose, be sure to consult with your health-care practitioner before hitting the road. Also, keep in mind that the best diet for you is the one you can stick with.

Dale Drewery

Dale Drewery is co-author of BioDiet: The Scientifically Proven, Ketogenic Way to Lose Weight and Improve Your Health. She is an award-winning journalist and writer with a keen interest in science and human health.

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