One welcome side effect of a low carb diet is appetite suppression. Two things work together to cause appetite suppression. Eating a high protien diet and entering ketosis. The Atkins Diet Plan in particular is effective at suppressing your appetite with its mix of available foods.

Replacing refined carbohydrates with good quality high protein foods has an appetite suppressing effect. It helps to stabilize blood sugar levels, avoiding blood sugar peaks and valleys that cause food cravings and hypoglycemia. Low blood sugar (hypoglycemia) causes weakness, dizziness and hunger. Blood sugar feeds the muscles, brain, and organs so when your blood sugar is low your body craves high carbohydrate foods like sugar, refined flour, and white potatoes. These foods will quickly raise your blood sugar and even create a kind of euphoria as your blood sugar rises.

However, the real key to the appetite suppressing effects of the low carb diet is entering and staying in ketosis. Ketosis occurs when you are carbohydrate starved and your body begins to only partially burn bodyfat. Ketones, the product of ketosis, are molecules of fat that have not been completely burned. Most people report that once they are in ketosis their hunger goes away. This us usually between the 3rd and 5th day on the induction phase of the Atkins Diet Plan. Once you are in ketosis it is much easier to maintain the diet. This is normally considered a dangerous condition, commonly found in people with diabetes. However, according to Dr. Atkins, it is safe to stay slightly in ketosis. This gives you the benefit of appetite suppression and accelerated fat loss without the damaging effects of ketosis.

The key to staying slightly in ketosis is to modify your carbohydrate intake to keep yourself in ketosis. You check your urine periodically during the day to see if you are putting out ketones. Pass a keto-stick through your urine stream and check the color of the stick against the color scale on the bottle. The more purple the stick, the more ketones you are excreting. The trick is to adjust your carbs to keep that stick just slightly purple. By staying just slightly in ketosis you get the benefit of appetite suppression without the serious side effects of being in full blown ketosis. This is the secret to making the Atkins Diet Plan work.

Here is a valuable tip to help suppress your appetite.

Eat mostly high quality, low fat protiens. For instance, eat eggs. Eggs are high in protien and essential nutrients. They are also low in carbohydrates. And if you only eat the whites, they are very low in fat. A recent study showed that eating eggs for breakfast would actually stave off hunger pangs through the rest of the day. The research concerned two groups of women. One group ate eggs for breakfast and the other had a breakfast of bagels and cream cheese. The calorie count for both breakfasts was exactly the same. The subjects kept track of what they ate the rest of the day and answered questions about their levels of hunger and satisfaction throughout the day. The results showed that the women who ate the eggs for breakfast felt more satisfied throughout the entire day. They ate less at each meal than the women who were in the bagel group.

Eggs contain about 6 grams of protein each. This helps to even out blood sugar and produces a feeling of satisfaction. Both of these factors help to curb cravings. Egg yolks also contain lutein and xenazanthin. These nutrients have been shown to have incredible effects on eye health. So it’s important to eat the whole egg, and not just the white. Eggs contain choline that is important in brain functioning and memory. These nutrients are just an added benefit to the appetite suppressing qualities.

Broccoli and cauliflower, two of the acceptable vegetables on the Atkins program, also have appetite-suppressing effects. These vegetables are very bulky and they help make your stomach feel full. When your stomach feels full, it will actually create a chemical response in your body. Your body will reduce its appetite because it believes that your stomach is full of high calorie foods. This will happen regardless of what is in your stomach. You can achieve the same results with water and psyllium husk fiber. Both broccoli and cauliflower provide bulk in your diet and are essential vegetables on the Atkins plan.

The Atkins diet focuses on eating small protein balanced meals a few times per day. This will help keep your blood sugar stabilized and avoid carbohydrate cravings. With high carbohydrate diets, you are riding the wave of carbohydrate highs. After you eat, you feel great and full. Then a few hours later, you come crashing down and are hungrier than you were previous to eating the carbohydrate. This cycle continues and, over time, you will eat more and gain weight. The protein, fat and vegetable meals of the Atkins plan put your blood sugar back in balance. They provide just enough of each type of food, with a proper amount of carbohydrates (from the vegetables). The vegetables provide quick carbohydrate energy, and the protein gives the meal staying power. This combination helps suppress your appetite.

The Atkins diet is actually a craving control diet that can help suppress your appetite. If you’ve had a problem with carbohydrate cravings before, this new way of eating will help control those cravings. The more you eat on the plan, the better your cravings will be controlled and the easier it will be to follow the diet.

9 Responses to “Low Carb Diet Appetite Suppression”