The carbohydrate content of orange juice varies among the varieties (summer & winter) and the carbohydrate content also varies among the various carbohydrate lists available. I usually figure 1/2 cup of orange juice as having 15 grams of carbohydrate.
While any diet that has fewer calories than you usually eat will result in weight loss, I do not recommend you follow a low carbohydrate diet for weight loss for several reasons. First, what are you going to eat when you go off this diet? What are you going to eat to maintain your slimmer self? Are you going back to your fat eating habits that pushed your weight higher?
Second, a low carbohydrate diet (below 130 grams) is a dehydration diet. Most low carbohydrate diets caution followers to drink lots of water (8cups per day to stay hydrated for which there is no research). The low carbohydrate diet is dehydrating because in the first few days you will be burning glycogen, the body’s sugar reserves stored in the liver (about 1500 calories). One gram of stored glycogen in muscle holds 3 grams of water. As your body uses stored glycogen for fuel because you are not eating carbohydrates, you lose the water that liver glycogen was holding.
This diet also causes loss of protein from muscle and organ tissue because of the very low carbohydrate and calorie intake. As your body breaks down its own fat to provide calories to keep you going, ketones are the waste product that is produced. Ketones are quite large and do tax your kidney’s filtering system. More water is drawn from your body in order to excrete ketones. This additional loss of water from the body increases the possibility of dehydration.
Tho each person differs in terms of kidney function, your urine should be light yellow with no odor during the day. This will help you see if you are really drinking enough water for your individual kidney’s sake.
