A low-carb diet is generally used for weight loss. While often associated with shedding pounds, it's possible to experience weight gain even while adhering to this dietary approach. This article explores the reasons behind this seeming contradiction, delving into the complexities of low-carb dieting and providing insights for effective weight management.
What is a Low-Carb Diet?
A low-carb diet limits the amount of carbohydrates you eat. It restricts carbohydrates, often called carbs - such as those found in grains, starchy vegetables, fruits, breads, sweets, pastas and starchy vegetables, and sometimes nuts and seeds and focuses on foods high in protein and fat. Many types of low-carb diets exist, typically limiting daily carbohydrate intake to 0.7 to 2 ounces (20 to 57 grams), providing 80 to 240 calories.
In contrast, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend that carbohydrates make up 45% to 65% of your total daily calorie intake.
How Low-Carb Diets Lead to Weight Loss
Most people can lose weight if they limit calories and boost their physical activity. Low-carb diets, especially very low-carb diets, may lead to greater short-term weight loss than do low-fat diets. Cutting calories and carbs may not be the only reason for the weight loss with low-carb diets. Some studies show that you may shed some weight because the extra protein and fat helps you feel full longer.
Why Weight Gain Can Occur on a Low-Carb Diet
Despite the initial weight loss, several factors can contribute to weight gain while on a low-carb diet.
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Calorie Surplus
To gain weight, you need to be in a calorie surplus - consuming more calories than you burn, according to Loyola University Chicago. Even on a low-carb diet, consuming more calories than your body expends will lead to weight gain. First, make sure you’re eating enough calories to meet your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE) needs, then slowly increase the number of daily calories from there. Your TDEE depends on several factors: sex, age, height, weight, and activity levels. You can calculate it using an online calculator, like this one from the National Academy of Sports Medicine.
Overconsumption of Fats
Increasing the amount of fat you eat will help bump up your calorie intake and take you into a surplus. Sudden weight gain on keto is often due to an overconsumption of fats like coconut oil, butter, olive oil, and other types of oils and fats. While these ingredients are perfectly acceptable on the keto diet, too much can lead to sudden weight gain.
Hidden Carbs
Even keto-friendly foods can add up to too many carbs per day if you’re not careful. Sometimes, you may feel like you have drastically reduced your carb intake. However, you might still be eating too many carbs to prevent your body from burning fat.
Excessive Snacking
Snacking on healthy food can help prevent hunger between meals. However, too much snacking can cause you to intake too many calories, causing weight gain.
Overconsumption of Protein
Eating too much protein can actually kick your body out of ketosis. Instead, you should only eat a moderate amount of protein, or about 20% of your daily intake. Like carbs, protein can raise insulin levels, which encourages your body to store energy. The amino acid composition of dairy protein makes it very good at spiking insulin. In fact, dairy proteins can spike insulin as much as white bread.
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Alcohol Consumption
Drinking alcohol can slow down the weight loss process and can even contribute to weight gain if you overdo it.
Lack of Exercise
Regular exercise can help reduce stress levels, boost appetite control, and speed up weight loss.
Underlying Medical Conditions and Medications
Certain health conditions make weight loss extremely difficult. Hypothyroidism, Cushing’s syndrome, Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, and many other conditions can stall weight loss. Certain medications, particularly antidepressants, can cause you to gain weight. Check the list of side effects to see if weight gain is on the list. You may be able to take an alternative drug that doesn’t have this side effect.
The Role of Insulin
During digestion, complex carbs are broken down into simple sugars, also called glucose, and released into your blood. Insulin is released to help glucose enter the body's cells, where it can be used for energy. Extra glucose is stored in the liver and in muscles.
Strategies for Healthy Weight Gain on a Low-Carb Diet
If your goal is to gain weight while following a low-carb diet, it's crucial to do so in a healthy and controlled manner.
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Calorie Surplus
To gain weight, you need to be in a calorie surplus - consuming more calories than you burn. To do so safely, you should aim to gain weight slowly, about half a pound to a pound per week - that’s 250 to 500 extra calories per day. Make sure you’re eating nutrient-dense foods, rather than “empty” calories. Increase the frequency of your meals and snacks, and wait until after a meal to drink beverages, so you have more room to consume solid foods.
Healthy Fats
Increasing your protein intake is crucial when you want to gain weight in a healthy way, the National Health Service in England says. The key is to pick healthy, unsaturated fats, according to the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. You could add avocado to your salads, drizzle olive oil over green vegetables, munch on nuts, or dip celery sticks in peanut butter as a snack.
Protein Intake
Changing from eating only lean proteins to slightly fattier proteins - especially those containing healthy unsaturated fats - is another way to get in more calories. Swap the occasional serving of extra-lean ground beef, chicken breast, and canned tuna out for oily fish such as salmon, mackerel, and sardines.
Strategic Carbohydrate Consumption
Whether you’re following the American Diabetes Association’s recommendations for a low-carb diet, which consists of 26 to 45 percent of daily calories from carbs, or the very low-carb diet, which consists of less than 26 percent of calories from carbs (most often, 5 to 10 percent), you still need carbohydrates. Aim to get the carbs you do eat from nutrient-dense sources such as fruits and vegetables, whole-grain bread and pasta, quinoa, and potatoes.
Carbs: Simple vs. Complex
It is important to understand the difference between the two broad categories of dietary carbohydrates: simple and complex. Simple carbohydrates are synonymous with simple sugars, which are found in high concentrations in sodas, candy, honey, syrup, sports drinks and energy drinks, doughnuts, pastries, cookies and cakes. Many of these products are referred to as “empty-calorie” foods, which simply means that they have very low nutritional value. You won’t find many vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals (non-nutrients in plant-based foods that help prevent disease) or much fiber in most foods and beverages that are high in simple carbs. Complex carbohydrates are plant-based foods and include things such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains and legumes. Unlike their simple counterparts, complex carbohydrates are loaded with fiber, vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals. Except for fruit, people are often surprised to learn that most complex carbohydrates are also a significant source of dietary protein, too. “Aim to eat complex, whole grains instead of refined grains.
Other Considerations
Mental Health
It isn’t always enough to just eat healthy and exercise. Taking care of your mental health is an important step in healthy weight loss. Stress keeps the body in a state of “fight or flight” and increases the amount of stress hormones, like cortisol, in the blood. Having chronically raised cortisol levels can increase feelings of hunger and cravings for unhealthy foods.
Whole Foods vs. Processed Foods
A low carb diet is about more than just eating less carbs. For healthy weight loss, people need to replace those carbs with whole, nutritious foods. Avoid all processed low carb products. Whole foods have far greater health benefits. Replacing some carbs with lean meats, fish, eggs, vegetables, and healthy fats can help you lose weight.
Sleep
Sleep is incredibly important for overall health. Studies show a lack of sleep is linked to weight gain and obesity. A lack of sleep can make you feel hungrier. It can also make you feel tired and less motivated to exercise or eat healthy food. Sleep disorders are fairly common and often treatable.
Cheat Meals
For people who find it easier to follow a strict diet, having “cheat meals” or “cheat days” every now and then may be fine. For others, these meals can build up and prevent weight loss. Eating unhealthy foods too often can slow down weight loss. If someone feels out of control around unhealthy foods, they may have a food addiction. Speaking to a healthcare professional can help you manage your relationship with food.
Metabolic Rate
If you eat at a calorie deficit for many months or years, your metabolic rate may start to slow down. If you have been dieting for a long time, try taking a 2-month period where you aim to maintain your current weight and gain some muscle. This might help with longer-term weight loss.
The Importance of Macronutrient Quality
Low-carbohydrate diets comprised mostly of plant-based proteins and fats with healthy carbohydrates such as whole grains were associated with slower long-term weight gain than low-carbohydrate diets comprised mostly of animal proteins and fats with unhealthy carbohydrates like refined starches, according to a new study led by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The study found that diets comprised of plant-based proteins and fats and healthy carbohydrates were significantly associated with slower long-term weight gain.
Low-Carb Diet Quality and Weight Change
The researchers scored people’s diets based on the quality of their diets and assigned them to categories based on those scores:
- Animal-based low-carbohydrate diet (ALCD).
- Vegetable-based low-carbohydrate diet (VLCD).
- Healthy low-carbohydrate diet (HLCD), which emphasized plant-based proteins, healthy fats and fewer refined carbohydrates.
- Unhealthy low-carbohydrate diet (ULCD), which emphasized animal proteins, unhealthy fats and refined carbohydrates, including processed breads and cereals.
The researchers found that when people improved the quality of their diets, they gained less weight over the four years of the study For example, people in the healthy low-carb group whose diet scores improved the most, gained 2.1 pounds less on average compared to those who improved the least. The two animal protein-based categories were linked to faster weight gain.
Contradictory Evidence: Low-Carb Diets and Obesity
In fact, despite the enormous popularity of low-carbohydrate diets such as the Atkins diet, the South Beach diet and the Zone diet, the professional consensus is that low-carbohydrate diets (which typically implies high-fat diets) are more likely to produce obesity than reverse obesity. Although several studies have reported that low-carbohydrate diets are slightly better than low-fat diets to reduce body weight over a period of about 4-6 months , the differences were not significant after a year. Similarly, recent “low-glycemic” diets have been promoted as useful for weight loss . It must be emphasized, however, other studies have failed to support the effectiveness of low-carbohydrate diets or low glycemic diets in long-term maintenance of weight loss. Considerable evidence supports that high-fat diets produce obesity in part because they produce a more metabolically efficient state . Although for some diets and genotypes fats may also be more palatable and therefore increased caloric consumption may also contribute to diet-induced obesity, high fat diets can produce obesity even when consumed isocalorically with low-fat diets.