Low carb diets, such as Atkins, are very popular and get a lot of discussion and publicity. This is despite the fact that statistics studies state that 95% of diets fail dismally. 95% of the people end up gaining back all the weight that they’ve lost and even more, so they end up fatter than they were to begin with. Why does that happen? Why do these diets which seem so promising end up failing? Why do they work for a while and then seem to stop?

The most important question, though, is why is it so hard to stick to these low carb diets for a long time?

I mean, if you could stick to these diets for a long time, you wouldn’t end up gaining weight back. But it’s virtaully impossible to do that due to the depriving nature of these diets. If you truly believe that you can eat as little carb calories as these diets dictate (The Atkins diet allows you 20 grams of carbs a day during its 1st phase), then go for it. Most people want to lose diet without starving themselves, and eating so little carbs is starvation. And most people don’t want to spend months without eating carbs. It is also extremely difficult.

The thing which is most detrimental in low carb diets to your long term weight loss is the effect such diets have on your metabolism. Since these diets are basically deprivation diets, your metabolism believes that you’re starving and slows itself down to burn less and less fat and calories. That’s why the weight loss rate in such diets slows down as time goes by. Once you stop eating low carb meals, your metabolism is so low that your fat deposits and weight shoot up.

A good diet allows you to eat a reasonable amount of food and does not deprive you of any food group like carbs. That’s why the Shifting Calories method was created: to find a way to lose weight without depriving your body and starving you. Low carb diets may provide a short term solution, but in the long run may lead you to failure.