Low-carb diets are extremely popular in this day and age. Probably because you can get some really fast results when you first start the low-carb diet. But are they really the way to go to lose weight and keep it off for good? You may be surprised by the answer.

If you want to go on a low-carb diet, is your goal to change your life (for the rest of your life) to conform to that low-carb living? If not, then you shouldn't even go on the diet in the first place. After all, if you lose all the weight while you're eating low-carb, what do you think is going to happen when you stop?

The answer? It will all come right back.

So why is the low-carb diet so popular? Well a lot of people see some quick success with it so it gets a good name in that regard. But here's the real reason you'll lose weight quick on this diet:

Your body stores carbs in your muscles so you'll have energy available for the activities you do. These carbs hold water to keep your body hydrated and healthy. When you starve your body of carbs your muscles don't have anything to store, so after you use up all the available carbs you won't weigh as much because your muscles aren't storing water.

So in reality you're not losing fat right away, you're losing water weight.

Then your body is forced to fuel itself off the available tissue, which is fat and muscle. This will make you lose weight, but it's no permanent solution. As you burn off your muscle tissue your metabolism will go down, making it harder for you to burn more calories and keep the weight off permanently.

Low-carb diets are actually a crash diet that will make your body weight go up and down like a roller coaster. If you really want to lose weight you should instead focus on eating healthy and staying active. Making small changes that you can live with the rest of your life is the only way to get permanent weight loss.