Because of all the problems associated with simple carbs, the low carbohydrate diet has gained wider acceptance over the last 10 years. Simple carbs are carbs that your body processes really quickly. Because it is processed very quickly, your body has to decide what to do with all the energy its suddenly received. If it can't use it, it stores it as fat.

So simple carbs tend to accelerate fat retention in your body. That's why there's been such a push by prominent diets to drastically reduce or eliminate carbs from their recommended programs. And because of this, all carbs have earned a bad reputation. But it's a very unfair reputation.

Why?

The reason is that there are a myriad of problems with the low carb diet.

Firstly, it's very restrictive, and so difficult to stay on. The more extreme something is, the less likely you are to be able to stay on it. It can give you cravings because your blood sugar will drop so low, your glycogen (energy) stores will be depleted. It makes it almost impossible to keep up with your day. You start feeling tired and lethargic.

Because it is so restrictive, if you do eventually go back and re-introduce carbs, your body can become more sensitive to them, and re-gain any weight (not necessarily the fat) you lost more easily.

Carbohydrates provide fiber and other essential vitamins and minerals that you lack on such a diet. Because you lack fiber, toxins stay for longer periods in your body. When the level of toxins becomes unbearable, your body has to flush them out, usually with urine or feces. So these diets can cause you to become dehydrated. And often the weight loss you see comes a lot from loss of water.

This is both dangerous to your health and very temporary. As soon as you get re-hydrated a lot of this weight comes back on.

As glycogen stores are severely depleted, you lack energy, and your body will scream for the vitamins and minerals it normally gets from the nutritious sources of carbs. With a lack of these available, your body will resort to cannibalize itself, becoming highly catabolic (which means that your body is breaking your muscles down and trying to access nutrients it needs for basic processes).

As you lose muscle, your metabolism decreases. A decrease in metabolism slows down or stops any subsequent fat loss.

To sum it up, there are no benefit of a low carb diet to someone who is trying to build stable habits for transforming their body on a medium or long term basis. It is definitely a no-no. You want to make sure you get a balanced diet with a sufficient amount of carbs, proteins and (good) fats. If you want to know what sort of diet is recommended, read about this diet ebook - it will put you on the right track.