Is Low-Carb Weight Loss Really Just Water Loss?

Any weight loss or diet plan, including low-carb plans like the induction phase of the Atkins Diet will result in water loss during the first week or two. However, one of the real beauties of following a low carbohydrate eating plan is that most of the weight loss than extends beyond the initial induction phase of the diet is really from a drop in fat pounds.

How can this be? Well, when you follow a controlled carbohydrate eating plan like Atkins or the South Beach Diet, your body soon switches from burning carbohydrates (which the diet deprives the body of) to burning fat for energy. In other words, the majority of the weight loss that occurs beyond the initial induction phase is really loss of fat that has been stored in your body.

Contrary to what many skeptics and misinformed persons may report or say, even if your body sheds water during the first few days of a controlled carbohydrate diet plan like the South Beach Diet or Atkins, the body’s water balance soon returns to normal and the weight loss that follows is the depletion of fat pounds. This loss of fat reveals itself to one and all in the form declines in inches (your body measurements) and pounds – regardless which low-carb diet you follow.