Many people fail on their diets because they don’t choose the right one. There’s so many to choose from, how what the best low carb diets are for you ? Let’s break down the diets and help you choose best one(s) that fit your goals and lifestyle.
We’ll be looking at the following low-carb diets:
- A Basic Low-Carb Diet
- Ketogenic Diet (Keto Diet)
- Low-Carb and High-Fat Diet
- Atkins Diet
- Paleo Diet
- Carnivore Diet
To make a full comparison we’ll dive into:
- The Differences Between Low-Carb Diets
- How To Pick a Low Carb Diet That’s Right for You
- Benefits of a Low Carb Diet
- Overview of the Different Diets
After you are finished with this article you can then find the Low Carb Diets with their Macro Breakdowns by Calorie Intake Guide here.
Most people just don’t know where to start, and there’s a lot of information out there that you have to put together yourself. I had to do tons of research and a lot of trial and error until I found what works for me. It can be very overwhelming and many give up before their journey can even start.
Instead of making you do some kind of wacky diet puzzle, I want to make it easier on you. This way you can get right to the diet part without the frustration and wanting to give up. So let’s dive in.
Major Differences Between Low-Carbohydrate Diets
At the core of it all low-carb diets have the same guiding rule: Eat fewer carbs. By having a lower carbohydrate intake your body relies on burning fat instead of sugar for energy. This is very exciting for those who are looking to lose weight. Through monitoring your food intake you can tap into your body’s fat stores in order to shed pounds. It sounds amazing.
The issue is that there is not a one-size-fits-all diet for every body type. What might work for your friend might not work for you. Why don’t all diets work the same for everyone? Well there are several factors. Some of the main ones include:
- Metabolic Rates: Some people just have faster metabolisms (it’s unfair, oh I know).
- Energy Needs: Different food types have different effects on how you might feel. Plus, you might need different fuel sources depending on your activity level.
- Health Conditions: You might have stricter dietary guidelines posing limitations on what you can or cannot eat.
- Satiety Satisfaction Level: Certain diets may not suit your long-term comfort and could discourage your adherence. If you are hungry all the time, you just won’t stick to your diet.
Luckily the variety of low-carb diets gives you options to choose the best low carb diets based on your own specific needs.
Major differences between the low-carb diets:
- Macros Ratios (Grams of Carbs, Proteins, and Fats)
- Amount of Carbohydrates: You will find levels ranging from 0 g of carbs with the Paleo diet all the way 30% of your diet coming from carbs.
- Protein intake: Most low-carb diets are pretty consistent on the amount of protein. Paleo does allow for a higher level of protein, which is good if you are looking to maintain or build muscle.
- Grams of Fat: Most low-carb diets are rich in fats, which can enhance satiety when you’re on a reduced calorie intake. A low-carb, high-fat diet, like Keto, retrains your body to burn fats, potentially reducing hunger.
- Food sources: Diets vary in their nutrient origins. The Paleo Diet emphasizes unprocessed, ancestral foods, while the Carnivore Diet relies on meat. Other low carb diets offer food flexibility, allowing personal food choice.
What about your total calories?
Low carb diets focus on macro percentages, not total calories. Counting calories is a must if you are looking to lose or maintain your weight. To lose weight you need to be in a deficit, burning more calories than you consume. The amount you burn is dependent on your current metabolic state as well as your activity level.
If you are uncertain of the amount of calories you should consume, it’s best to consult your doctor or a registered dietitian, especially if you have a medical condition. It can take a little trial and error to see what works for you. On average if you are trying to lose weight and looking for a place to start, men might try 1800-2000 calories, while women can try 1600-1800 calories. Some people, on guidance of a doctor, might need to lower their calories to 1200-1400 due to a variety of health reasons.
Pro tip: Don’t go lower than you need. It might be very tempting to drastically reduce your calories to lose weight fast. But in all honesty, this rarely works.
Why? you ask: First off, it’s hard to stick with long term. You will probably send yourself into a crash diet followed by binge eating, putting you in a worse place than when you started. (I know some of you won’t believe me and will try it anyway. We’ve all been there, it’s ok, just get back on the horse and do it the right way).
Secondly, you will slow down your metabolism. Your body needs fuel, but if it feels like it won’t get what it needs long-term then it will slow your metabolic rate in order to conserve energy. I restricted my diet between 1400-1600 calories for around 9 months and plateaued in my weight loss. It wasn’t until I increased my calories that I started to lose weight again as I had slowed down my metabolism.
Whatever range you choose, I have broken down each diet by macros for the different calorie intakes in our next article. (Just trying to make it easy, you’re welcome).
How to Pick the Best Low Carb Diets for You
Now we’re getting to the good stuff. Let’s identify the low-carb diets that suit your needs. It’s perfectly fine to experiment with different ones – in fact, I encourage it. This exploration will help you determine the most effective diet(s) for you, ones you can stick to in order to achieve your goals.
I will guide you through a 3-step process to pinpoint the ideal low-carb diet for you. We’ll consider your Goals, Lifestyle, and Food Preferences. In each step, write down the diet options that fit your needs. Once we complete this process, you can compare the three lists. Begin by examining the options in Step 1, and then utilize your choices from Steps 2 and 3 to refine your selection.
Step 1: Identify Your Goals
Step 1 is to identify your goals. Why are you dieting? Below you will find a list of goals with recommended low-carb diets to meet that goal. Use this reference as a place to start to help you narrow down your options.
- Goal – Lose Weight: Great news, almost all of the diets below are built to reach this goal. Recommended diets – Basic Low-Carb Diet, Keto Diet, Low-Carb/High-Fat Diet, Atkins 20, Low-carb Paleo, Carnivore Diet.
- Goal – Maintain Weight: Recommended diets – Standard Paleo, Atkins 40 or Atkins 100, or increase your calories for any of the above mentioned diets.
- Goal – Build or Maintain Muscle: A higher amount of protein is needed for this goal. Also note to build a significant amount of muscle you will need a caloric surplus (consume more daily calories than your maintenance amount). Recommended Diets – Paleo or Basic Low-Carb Diet.
- Goal – Improve Health Conditions: Talk to your doctor on which diets will work best for you. You can start here as a reference guide on different health benefits to have productive conversation with your healthcare specialist. If you have already spoken with your doctor and they have recommended a low carb diet, continue onto the next two steps to narrow down your choices.
Step 2: Lifestyle Considerations
Step 2, let’s assess your lifestyle requirements to determine the most suitable diets that minimize obstacles and help you stay on course.
- First time I’m trying a low-carb diet: Awesome! You are about to learn so much about yourself. It might be best to ease yourself into this lifestyle change instead of picking a highly-restrictive diet. Recommended diets: Basic Low-Carb Diet, Standard Paleo, Low-Carb/High-Fat Diet.
- Active Lifestyle: You work out regularly (3+ times per week at a moderate to high level). Sometimes switching to a low-carb diet can effect your activity level, especially if you have low-blood sugar or insulin sensitivities. At first you might feel low energy or even a little dizzy when exercising. Try modifying your workouts until your body becomes accustomed your new diet. Some recommendations to help you are: Basic Low-Carb Diet and Standard Paleo. These have a higher carb allotment. You might also consider increasing your calorie intake with any of the other low-carb diets.
- I need a lot of structure for my diet: If it eases your mind to follow exact diet guidelines, the diets that have a more structured approach are: Keto, Atkins, Paleo, and Carnivore
- I like to have flexibility in my diet: Sometimes you need some flexibility and freedom or else your mind will rebel and sabotage your efforts. Low-carb diets with more food-choice freedom and a looser structure are: Basic Low-Carb, Low-Carb/High-Fat.
Step 3: Food preferences
In step 3 take a look at your past eating habits. What types of foods do you gravitate towards or crave? If you don’t know just yet, no worries, maybe start with one of the more balanced diet options.
- You love carbs: You are giving this your all, but you need to feed the beast now and then. These diets allow you to have more carbs to take the edge off: Basic Low-Carb, Paleo. (Please note that with Paleo the only carbs will be fruits and vegetables).
- All about the protein: Most of the diets have a good amount of protein built in, if you need a bit more I recommend Paleo. You can also make some adjustments to make the Carnivore Diet into a high-protein diet.
- You crave fats: Good news, all of these diets will fit your needs. The fat rich ones are: Low-Carb/High-Fat, Keto, Atkins and Carnivore Diets.
- You need a balance or you don’t know: When your body responds best to having a more balanced meal plan go for the: Basic Low-Carb Diet or Paleo Diet.
Now compare your three lists of low-carb diet options and you should have 1-3 that you can consider starting with. The next step to make your final decision is to read each of the diet descriptions below. Go with the one that you get the most excited about and that you feel you can stick to its low-carb diet plan. You can click here for a more detailed look of each diet including full macro breakdowns by calorie amounts.
Trying Different Low Carb Diets for Success
Experimenting with different diets is not a setback. You want to discover the one that ultimately allows you to reach your short term and long term goals. Adjusting or switching diets to suit your requirements is a natural part of this journey. It’s not a black and white; it’s a dynamic process. Every step you take brings you closer to achieving lasting success.
The most successful individuals are those who choose both a a primary diet and have secondary one as a back up plan. This approach if your initial diet isn’t working for you, you don’t have to give up entirely – you can smoothly transition to your alternate diet instead of starting from scratch. Selecting a diet is a place to start, you will discover what works, what doesn’t work, and develop a fool-proof-plan to make adjustments as needed so you can reach your goals.
Next up let’s look at how to measure your diet to see if it the right one for you and how to troubleshoot some common dieting problems.
Diet Trial Period
You’ve selected your ideal diet and it’s time to try it out. It takes about two full weeks to give your body and mental state time to fully acclimate to your new low-carb diet. During this time closely monitor your results and then determine if you need to make any changes as you need them.
You maybe looking at this a possible crash diet, but for most of us this is a life-long journey whether your realize it now or not.
Troubleshooting your low-carb diet
- I’m starving on my diet: Several factors could contribute to this, including inadequate calorie intake, insufficient fiber consumption, low fat intake, or you are not selecting the right type of carbs.
- Increase calories: Try increasing your calories by 100-200 a day and monitor to see if you are still reaching your goals.
- Increase fiber: Add more vegetables into your diet, especially ones with skins, while limiting sugary foods with empty carbs.
- Increase fat: Low carb diets are supposed to have a high amount of fat. For some, such as myself, this is a very odd concept that goes against everything we’ve been told. It takes some time to unlearn that fats are bad for you. Make sure you are filling your daily fat needs with good fats. This will keep you fuller.
- Eating the right carbs: It’s tempting to fill your carbs with sugary favorites like cookies or candy. Your body will run through these quickly and you’ll have intense cravings for more. Make sure you are balancing your diet with enough complex carbs. For more guidance you can learn about the different types of carbs here.
- I’m not losing weight:
- Track your macros and calories: Ensure you are following the macros. Use an app like MyFitnessPal to track your foods to make sure you are being accurate. This is a top diet success killer. We often over-estimate or under-estimate how much we are really eating.
- Lower your carbs: You may need to try a diet that is lower in carbs. Try one of the diets that has a carb macro range of 5-15%.
- Lower your calories: To lose weight you need to be in a caloric deficit. Try reducing your daily calories by 100-200.
- Increase your calories: If you have been on a restrictive diet for a long time (6 months or more) and have plateaued, you may have slowed down your metabolism. To reset your metabolism increase you caloric intake to 1800-2000 for women and 2200-2500 for men for 1-2 weeks. I know it seems counter productive, but it does work.
- Stressing out on what to eat: Give yourself enough time to meal prep.
- Having trouble sticking to your diet:
- Give yourself time to meal prep – having foods easily available takes away stress
- Is your diet choice too restrictive? If so, switch to the Basic Low-Carb Diet for two weeks and see if that works for you.
- You are craving certain foods: Many times we get cravings for two reasons 1. Your body is used to certain foods – in this case just give yourself another week or two to see if this subsides. 2. Your body is lacking certain nutrients. Make sure you are getting in not only your macros, but micro nutrients as well.
Listen to what your body is craving, yet allow time to retrain your body.
Benefits of a Low-Carbohydrate Diet
Going on a low-carb diet is a lifestyle change. They can be an excellent way to lose weight, manage health issues, and kickstart a long-term healthy lifestyle. I go into the full range of benefits including health benefits such as cardiovascular disease, controlling insulin levels, regulating cholesterol levels, decreasing high blood pressure, and more in my previous post Low-Carb Diets How They Work, Where to Start for Beginners.
Low Carb Diets
Let’s jump into the reason you’ve all come to this article. I’m sure most of you skipped down to this section – so when you have questions go back up and read the other sections above, you will find the answers there.
The good news is there are are a wide variety of different types and variations of these diets. Why is that good you ask? Because it’s not a one-size-fits-all system. Everyone’s bodies are going to react differently to each diet including speed of weight loss, ease of following, energy levels, and feeling fuller longer. Why is this important? Because when a diet works for you, you will be able to keep on track long-term enabling you to reach your weight loss or maintenance goals.
I highly recommend picking one that you are most excited about. Know that it is ok to try different ones in order to find the best way for you to reach your goals. Some might be good for short term goals and others for long term goals and life-long eating habits.
For me I started out with a basic low-carb diet that was also a low-fat diet. I definitely lost weight quickly, but I was hungry. I’ve tried many of the diets on this list and variations of each. For me I love a low-carb/high-fat diet, but it also depends on what I’m trying to accomplish during different life stages.
The good news is that no matter which one I tried I lost weight and I definitely felt other health benefits. You’ll have to discover your own journey, so let’s dive in.
Below you will find descriptions of Diet Guidelines and Macros Percentage Breakdowns. If you would like to take these diets one step further and see the full macros breakdowns (grams of carbohydrates, grams of proteins, and grams of fat) by different daily caloric intakes then take a look at my post on Best Low Carb Diet Comparison Guide With Macro Breakdowns. Yes, I’m making all of this very easy for you.
Basic Low-Carb diet
Diet Guidelines:
The basic diet plan has more freedom in how you structure it. The main guideline is to stay somewhere between 50 g to 100 g of carbs each day. You don’t have to have the exact same amount of carbs each day, just fall somewhere in that range. You have plenty of room to play with the amount of fats and proteins you consume. Below is a general macros breakdown as a balanced starting place. This works wonders for weight loss for some people, and is also a great way to maintain your body weight.
Macros Breakdown:
Macros: 20% carbs, 40% protein, 40% fat.
Ketogenic Diet a.k.a. Keto Diet
Diet Guidelines:
Keto is an extremely low carb and high fat diet. You will be putting your body into ketosis, in which it will burn ketones (created by breaking down fat), instead of glucose as its primary fuel source. You will be eating 20 net carbs or less a day and your primary macros will be fats at or above 70% of your nutritional intake.
Macros Breakdown:
Macros: 5% carbs, 25% protein, 70% fat.
*Carbs for Keto are measured in Net Carbs
Low-Carb, High-Fat
Diet Guidelines:
This falls somewhere in between a basic low-carb diet and a Keto diet. I like to think this as keto but with more vegetables and some fruit thrown in there (and sometimes a piece of chocolate). This is one of my go-to low-carb diets, as it works very well for me. It allows you to have a good protein intake, which is great if you are working out, and allows for a high amount of fat to keep things delicious and you feeling fuller longer. I highly recommend trying the Low-Carb/High-Fat Diet or the Basic Low-Carb Diet as an excellent place to start if this is your first time adventuring into the low-carb world.
Macros Breakdown:
Macros: 12% carbs, 25% protein, 63% fat
Atkins Diet
Diet Guidelines:
Atkins was one of the original low-carb diets that got a lot of buzz behind it. It consists of three different levels: Atkins 20, 40 and 100. This refers to the net carbs on your diet, for example on Atkins 20 your diet will consist of 20 net carbs. For the Atkins diet the carbs amount is the same no matter your caloric intake. You may notice that Atkins 20 closely resembles the Keto diet and will most likely take you into a state of ketosis. If you find this too restrictive then the Atkins 40 will give you more freedom. Atkins 100 is there to help you maintain your weight and the added health benefits of a low-carb diet.
Macros Breakdown:
Atkins 20: Carbs: 5% to 10%, Protein: 20% to 30%, Fat: 60%-70%
Atkins 40: Carbs: 10% to 15%, Protein: 20% to 30%, Fat: 55% to 65%
Atkins 100: Carbs: 20% to 25%, Protein: 20% to 30%, Fat: 45% to 55%
Paleo Diet
Diet Guidelines:
The “Paleo Diet,” short for “Paleolithic Diet,” is all about eating like our ancient ancestors did back in the day, around 2.5 million to 10,000 years ago. It’s all about chowing down on natural, unprocessed foods like lean meats, fish, veggies, fruits, leafy greens, nuts, and seeds. On the flip side, grains, legumes, dairy, and processed foods are off the menu. The idea is that our bodies are better off with this kind of “old-school” eating, and some folks believe it can boost your health. But, just so you know, there’s a lot of debate among nutrition experts about whether it’s a good long-term plan.
Paleo definitely offers a more balanced ratio of macros, and it is a high-carb diet when compared to these other diet options. It is also a diet that can be adapted to fit your fitness goals including into a low-carb diet.
Macros Breakdown:
Paleo isn’t typically defined by macros, it focuses on what types of food can and cannot be eaten. Based on the diet’s structure below are standard and low-carb macro ratios for the Paleo Diet.
Standard Paleo: 30% carbs, 30% protein, 40% fat
Low-Carb Paleo: 15% carbs, 30% protein, 55% fat
Carnivore Diet
Diet Guidelines:
On the carnivore diet you only eat meat. It is considered a 0 net carb diet. This is one of the more restrictive low-carb diets. There are versions of this diet that do allow you to eat small amounts of certain types of dairy, such as butter, cheese and yogurt (considered ok as they are animal byproducts). Similar to Paleo you can adapt this diet to fit your needs. You will notice that it has a high range of fat which can be up to 75% of your total macros. To achieve this you would need to include fattier meat and fish cuts in your diet. If this is too much fat for you then you can balance out the proteins and fats so you can include lean proteins in your daily meal plans.
Macros Breakdown:
Macros: 0-5% carbs, 20-35% protein, 50-75% fat
When picking any kind of diet it is best to consult your doctor before doing so especially if you have a medical condition. Safety first. I am not a medical professional. I do have experience in dieting, the struggles of dieting, and have a lot of success with low-carbohydrate diets.
For me it has been a lot of research and learning, and I just want to make it easier for you to navigate this area so you can find your own best path. Low-carb diets may or may not be the right choice for you, but I hope you give them a try. A lot of dieting is trial and error, I look at them as self-science experiments to find the right solution. Adding in tweaks and small changes to help me reach my goals. I have discovered so much about how my body works and how to control my yo-yo weight gain through them. I just want to save you some time in navigating this landscape.
Next Up: For the full macro breakdowns by caloric intake continue on to the third article in this series, Best Low Carb Diet Comparison Guide With Macro Breakdowns.