If you’re interested in losing weight in a rapid yet safe manner, then you might want to try the high protein low carb diet. This manner of eating has been around for a long time, because it works for so many people. It forces the body into ketosis, which reduces your desire to eat and accelerates weight loss at the same time. Despite the success of this diet, many people experience difficulty adhering to it for long periods of time because it has a tendency to get "boring"and some people miss their favorite higher carb foods like bread, mashed potatoes, etc. Here are some tips for surviving while on a high protein low carb diet, so you can reach your ideal weight:
Search for recipes
It’s easy to tire of eating chicken and spinach on a daily basis, so varying your meals and snacks can be a major help. Oriental Orange Chicken may sound a lot more exciting and taste much better than broiled chicken and broccoli. The sky is the limit when it comes to finding low carb friendly recipes, and you can get recipes from friends, search the thousands of online websites with low carb recipes, and even visit your local library to sign out cook books. Eating a variety of low carb high protein foods is not only good for weight loss and making it easier to adhere to your eating plan, but it’s great for ensuring that you are getting a variety of vitamins and minerals
Choose your snacks carefully
When you’re on a low carb high protein diet, snacking can be somewhat difficult. You can’t eat the usual cheese and crackers, or fruit salad, but believe it or not, there are many delicious yet fitting snacks that you can eat. Here is a list of some delicious high protein high fat low carb diet snack ideas:
- Pickles – You can either the pickles alone or pair them with a slice of your favorite cheese. Some people like to eat pickles with other food items, such as thin slices of deli meat like ham, turkey or beef. Of course pickles contain no fat or protein, but they contain virtually no carbs whatsoever. By pairing them with high fat and high protein foods, pickles can help you achieve your weight loss goals.
- Beef jerky – This is likely one of the most ideal snacks for someone trying to lose weight on a low carb high protein diet. There is also a fair amount of fat in the average beef jerky snack, making it perfect for this diet. When choosing beef jerky, you will want to make sure that it’s high quality and doesn’t contain unnecessary ingredients, including potentially harmful preservatives like some beef and turkey jerky does.
- Nuts – In addition to being high protein and high fat, nuts have an immense amount of nutrients. When eating nuts as a snack, you must keep in mind that they also contain carbs, meaning you should keep your snacking to a minimum. Some nuts have more carbs than others, and cashews are top on the list of the choices with higher amounts of carbs. Almonds have the lowest amount, so you can essentially enjoy more almonds than cashews or other nuts. When choosing nuts, be sure that you’re getting the natural nuts and not some trail mix, which could contain candy, raisins and other high carb ingredients.
- Eggs – Eggs are so versatile that you can prepare them in numerous different ways. You can choose to eat them scrambled, boiled or poached, or you can even make deviled eggs or some other delicious snack. When using mayonnaise, you want to be sure to find a great sugar free variety. One deviled egg variation is to substitute the mayonnaise for avocado. You can add things like vinegar, garlic, onions, etc, and place it all in the food processor. You will be rewarded with wonderful "green mayonnaise" that is as healthy as it is tasty.
Choose your sweetener carefully
If you like eating dessert, like many people do, then you will be pleased to know that you can eat dessert on a low carb high protein diet. Of course you can’t have traditional chocolate cake covered in thick frosting, but you can have satisfying desserts. Regardless of the recipes that you decide to use, you need to ensure that you choose your sweetener carefully. With so many sweeteners available, it can make you feel confused when trying to decide which choices are best.
While on this low carb high protein diet, you should definitely steer clear of sugar, molasses, honey and other carb-rich sweeteners. Even agave nectar contains carbs, despite being low glycemic. Some better sweetener choices are stevia, xylitol, and lo han (monk fruit). Xylitol, which is a sugar alcohol, should be used sparingly, because it doesn’t have a zero glycemic index like the other choices. It can also cause diarrhea if too much is consumed at a time, especially in sensitive individuals.
Many people opt for artificial sweeteners like Splenda, aspartame, etc., but you will want to stick to a diet that is high protein and fat, low carb and natural. If you’re only worried about ensuring weight loss, then these artificial sweetener choices should be fine.
Adhering to a diet that consists of high protein, high fat and low carb foods can seem like a dream in the beginning. You get to indulge in all the bacon, t-bones and butter you can eat. However, after a couple weeks on such a diet, many people run out of interesting options, or they simply begin missing their previous diet. By following these easy tips, you can stick to the diet long enough to see some real results. Being deprived of dessert and filling in-between meal snacks is often a deal breaker for many people, but these helpful tips will make it easy for you to incorporate these foods into your diet so you can succeed.