Diet LCHF: reviews, general nutritional rules, sample menu, allowed foods

At the moment, scientists have developed a huge variety of diets. However, one of them is worth talking separately. This is an LCHF hunger-free diet. A real scientific breakthrough, made by Andreas Enfeldt in early 2000, simply turned all the truths of proper nutrition that existed before that time. He completely refuted the knowledge that the appearance of excess weight in the body does not cause a large consumption of fats, namely carbohydrates. Based on this fact, a nutritionist has developed a special weight loss program that has become a real revolution in food. For many years, the LCHF diet has been considered one of the most effective. We will talk about it in this article.

The essence of diet

In order to better understand what a low-carb LCHF diet is, we will decipher this abbreviation. If you translate it from English, the meaning will be as follows: "a small amount of carbohydrates - a lot of fat." It is in this that the whole essence of such nutrition lies. So, you need to include in the diet as little as possible foods containing carbohydrates, replacing them with fats.

All this led to the fact that such a nutrition plan received a different name, which is better known among adherents of weight loss: the LCHF ketogenic diet. In some ways, such a name is quite understandable, because using a diet consisting almost entirely of fats, the body, processing them, receives energy not from the decay products of carbohydrates, as usual, but from ketones. Moreover, as it was found out, they are quite good sources of energy, since they are able to metabolize in the body for a long time so that a person does not experience a breakdown.

Nutrition rules

If you decide to compose an LCHF diet menu yourself, then you should definitely know which proportions of products you need to take. The entire daily diet should consist of 70 percent exclusively of fats, and the remaining 30 percent should be in 20% of proteins and 10% of complex carbohydrates. Receiving only such products, the body loses the usual sugars that are used to saturate the body with energy. So gradually begins the splitting of their own fat reserves. This ultimately leads to weight loss.

In addition, an increase in the amount of fat in the diet distinguishes, according to reviews, the LCHF diet from other low-carb diets, since they usually reduce the amount of carbohydrates due to an increase in the proportion of proteins. However, even if the Ducan diets or the famous “Kremlin” diets help to lose weight, they can negatively affect health. Scientists have found out: if most of the food entering the body is protein, then to get energy, you will need to take it from the breakdown products of proteins, which harms the state of the kidneys and liver. So to really lose weight, but the weight very quickly return back in even greater quantities.

Tips & Tricks

It is worthwhile to prepare for the fact that the LCHF diet is strict, and therefore, despite the fact that you can eat quite a large amount of calories per day, getting used to it is not easy. Especially painful to adhere to such a nutrition plan will be sweet tooth, because you will have to completely refuse baking or sweets.

But in general, the rules of this diet are quite simple, just follow these recommendations:

• You should completely abandon any fast food. All pizzas, pies, fries and other products sold in fast food cafes are completely prohibited, despite the fact that they contain a lot of fat.
• However, there are no restrictions on the weight of servings here, so you don’t have to feel hunger during the diet, because you can eat as much as you like. The main thing is not to deviate from the above ratio of fats, carbohydrates and proteins.
• Judging by the reviews, on the LCHF diet you need to eat only when you immediately feel hunger. If it is not, then it is not necessary, therefore, meals should be adjusted to your own feelings.
• It is very important to limit the amount of fresh fruit you eat per day. Yes, they are really useful, because they contain a large amount of vitamins and other useful substances, but they need to be consumed exclusively as a dessert in small quantities due to the high sugar content.
• In the diet, you must include foods that contain a large amount of fiber. If this cannot be done, then you can buy a ready-made biological supplement with this substance in the store. This is necessary in order to prevent disruptions in the digestive tract, which can begin to occur when switching to a new nutrition plan.
• When using the LCHF diet menu, alcohol must be removed from the diet, including on important holidays. It was found that even low-alcohol drinks - such as beer - effectively prevent the breakdown of fats, which prevents further weight loss. Therefore, it is best to simply drink water. Nutritionists advise drinking one glass about half an hour before eating, and the rest of the time, drink only when thirst begins to torment.
• Burning excess fat solely by nutrition is quite difficult, so you should definitely start playing sports. Even very short workouts daily will significantly improve the results that a person receives from a diet.

What can I eat?

Now we will directly proceed to find out what are the allowed foods on the LCHF diet. It is worth noting that most of them contain a large amount of fat, so you have to get used to the fact that the food will be very nutritious and high-calorie. Now let's talk about them in more detail.

First of all, you need to clearly find out the necessary protein food for the body. The list of products for weight loss is not so small. The fact is that it includes many proteins.

As you can understand, this table of protein products is almost entirely composed of ingredients, which, in addition to the protein itself, are quite fat. This allows you to simultaneously saturate the body with proteins with essential fats for their subsequent breakdown into ketones.

However, in addition to this table, you should pay attention to the list of low-carb products. It is quite small, so it will be easy to remember. It included:

• Vegetables: spinach, zucchini, broccoli, eggplant, different types of cabbage, asparagus, tomatoes, peppers, mushrooms. In fact, this diet allows the use of any vegetables in limited quantities, but only exclusively those that do not grow in the ground. So, Russia’s usual carrots, beets and potatoes will have to be abandoned.
• Berries should also be consumed carefully. You will have to severely limit yourself to all sweet berries, such as raspberries, blackberries and others. However, sour berries can be eaten in any quantity, so you can diversify your diet with cranberries, currants, gooseberries and lingonberries.

In addition to the above products, you can eat in a limited number of a wide variety of nuts. They contain a lot of fats and other beneficial substances. So cashews, almonds, walnuts and peanuts will be excellent substitutes for sweets and other sweets.

Prohibited Products

In addition to the allowed products, when compiling a low-carb weekly diet menu for women, it is imperative to take into account those that in no case should be in terms of nutrition. This list is quite large and excludes most harmful products that significantly affect weight. So, in no case should you use:

• Any sweets. Moreover, this includes not only sugar and honey, but also sweeteners, even if they are natural and do not contain calories (for example, stevia). Their presence in the diet only supports unnecessary cravings for sweets on this diet.
• Bakery products made with wheat flour and yeast.
• Carbonated sweet drinks.
• Dairy products that were fat-free during production.
• Trans fats available in margarine and fast food.
• Breakfast cereals, granola, oatmeal and cereal.
• Any pasta, as well as wheat and corn grits, rice.
• Root crops and sweet fruits (even dried fruits).

Menu for the LCHF Diet Week

It can be quite difficult to make the right menu for this diet on your own, because you need to correctly calculate the ratio of fats and other substances that are in the products. In addition, depending on the severity of nutrition, the amount of carbohydrates can be slightly varied if desired. So, if you just started to adhere to such a diet, the best option would be to use such a weekly menu of a moderate diet LCHF, which will help to painlessly rebuild the body to a new diet. It consists of such products:

1. On the first day, the best option is to boil a couple of eggs, and serve broccoli and spinach sauté cooked in coconut oil. Lunch will consist of avocado salad and other non-starchy vegetables to taste with the addition of tuna. For dinner, cook salmon with toasted Brussels sprouts.
2. The second day is best to start with breakfast, consisting of fatty natural yogurt with slices of fresh coconut, chopped strawberries and pumpkin seeds. For lunch, turkey or chicken, sprinkled with baked cheese, with tomatoes, cucumbers and pepper cut as a side dish, is best. For dinner, you should cook grilled beef steak with roasted bell peppers.
3. On the third day for breakfast, it is recommended to serve a smoothie made with coconut milk with peanut butter and berries. If desired, protein in powder can be added to it. For lunch, grill should cook shrimp on skewers with tomatoes and mozzarella. Dinner is worth noodles made with zucchini with chicken meatballs and pesto.
4. Breakfast on the fourth day will consist of a pair of eggs fried in butter, and several slices of avocado will be suitable for them. For lunch, you can cook a delicious curry with chicken and cream with the addition of permitted vegetables. For dinner, make your own delicious pizza stuffed with cauliflower and cheese.
5. On the fifth day, the morning will start with breakfast consisting of fritata cooked with cheddar cheese, spinach and onions. For lunch, it is best to eat a simple cup of chicken soup with vegetables. But for dinner, please yourself with a moussaka, which is very similar to lasagna, but instead of pasta, use eggplant to separate the layers.
6. The sixth day, as the LCHF diet reviews say, is also best started with a smoothie. It should consist of coconut milk, berries and cashew nut oil. For lunch, rolls made from turkey, cheese and avocado are served. It is recommended to serve flax crackers with them for texture. For dinner, baked trout with fried cauliflower is prepared.
7. On the last day, you can serve omelet from cauliflower, mushrooms and feta for breakfast. For lunch, chicken breast is best, which will be stuffed with goat cheese and caramelized onions. But for dinner, prepare for yourself a large bowl of green salad with slices of avocado, shrimp and pumpkin seeds.

As you can see, the menu for the week of the LCHF diet consists of quite a variety of products that can not only saturate hunger, but also provide the body with the nutrients it needs and micronutrients.

Another menu option

In the future, you can use a more strict diet LCHF, which significantly reduces the amount of allowed carbohydrates. The diet in this case will be as follows:

1. On Monday, a fresh salad consisting of various herbs, tomatoes and cucumbers can be served for breakfast. Omelet is usually served to it. As a snack, you can drink a glass of kefir and eat some walnuts. For lunch, it is recommended to cook yourself an appetizing piece of pork on the grill, and add a green salad with celery and suluguni cheese to it as a side dish. For dinner, beef cooked in sour cream sauce with a salad of white cabbage and cucumbers is best.
2. On Tuesday, make yourself a batch of cutlets for breakfast, but steam them. To them, in addition, a salad of green onions, celery and tomato, sprinkled with nuts for texture, will be appropriate. For a snack, drink a glass of natural fat yogurt. For lunch, you can eat fried chicken with zucchini caviar, but for dinner it is recommended to bake duck breast in a sleeve with various vegetables and barbecue sauce to give an original taste and aroma.
3. Wednesday morning will start with a magnificent omelet with slices of ham, as well as a salad of tomatoes and cucumbers. During the break, please yourself with a cheese muffin with sun-dried tomatoes and a glass of kefir. For lunch, soup puree from zucchini and pancakes from them, for example, with sour cream, are suitable. For dinner, serve pork steak with cabbage salad.
4. On Thursday, breakfast should consist of jerky with a piece of hard cheese and toasted bacon. During a snack, you should eat some peanuts and drink a glass of kefir. Make dinner as easy as possible: simply grill vegetables and cook steamed chicken cutlets. You can have dinner with the pork steak left over from yesterday, and add a cheese muffin and a glass of herbal tea to it.
5. On Friday, breakfast should be served with fritters made from zucchini and a couple of boiled eggs. For lunch, you can cook meat on the grill, and as a side dish to make a fresh salad of onions, bell peppers and tomatoes. As a snack, pumpkin puree is great. For dinner, you can eat a cut consisting of suluguni, jerky, bacon and smoked cheese.
6. On the first weekend for breakfast, you can please yourself with a salad of white cabbage, cucumbers and greens, as well as an omelet with ham and cheese. For lunch, you can serve a delicious stew with stewed rabbit and vegetables. But for dinner, grill eggplant and mushrooms, and add baked chicken wings as protein.
7. On the last day, have breakfast with mashed soup from zucchini, and after a while, eat a few zucchini fritters with sour cream as a snack. You can have lunch with a pork cutlet with a light salad of greens, tomatoes, celery and nuts. For dinner, a cheese plate with fried bacon and yogurt with nuts are served.

Disadvantages of the diet and negative effects

Practice has shown that the LCHF diet really has many health benefits compared to other low-carb diet plans. However, there are a number of negative aspects that you need to know before you start using it. First of all, it should never be used by children and adolescents, as well as pregnant and lactating mothers. The only exception here is only the need for such nutrition as therapy, and strictly according to the doctor’s prescription. Also, only on the advice of a specialist, it is worth switching to a similar diet in cases where there is diabetes or various diseases affecting the liver, kidneys or pancreas. Often, such a diet is not suitable for people who are very sensitive to cholesterol, even useful.

In addition, it is worth paying attention to this fact: despite the fact that the diet is tolerated quite normally by most people, in some cases a number of side effects may occur. These include nausea, weakness, headache, diarrhea, constipation, insomnia, dizziness, and even cramping. So, if these side effects began to appear, you should immediately consult a doctor to find out the causes of the existing problem. If it is obvious that the new diet is to blame for this, then you will have to abandon the LCHF diet.

Reviews

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Conclusion

As you can see, this diet is quite specific. At first glance, having examined the menu of a low-carb diet for a week for women, it is difficult to imagine that by adhering to such a diet, you can really quickly lose weight. However, in practice, the system really works, and very successfully. Of course, this does not mean at all that the diet does not have its negative aspects. They are available, although, if you focus on the available reviews, they are clearly much less than positive. So, if you do not want to feel hunger, but at the same time you want to lose a few extra pounds without harming your health, then you should definitely start using this diet.