How Carbohydrates Ruin Your Weight Loss Efforts
The recommendation to reduce or eliminate carbohydrate consumption is a common one in the weight loss field, but many people who are trying to lose weight fail to understand why eating carbs is so damaging to their weight loss efforts. Despite the fact that some doctors say that weight loss is a simple matter of taking in less calories than you expend in performing your activities, the fac of thmatter is that due to the effects of hormones, not all calories are handled the same way by the body. Carbohydrate consumption clearly makes it harder for the body to burn fat, for reasons we're about to discuss.
The primary problem with a high intake of carbohydrate is the stimulation of insulin production. The purpose of insulin is to promote the uptake of blood sugar (which after a meal is in usually in greater supply than what is needed at that particular moment in time) and store any excess for future use.
This extra blood sugar is first stored as a compound called glycogen in the muscles and liver. Glycogen can be quickly converted back to blood sugar when needed for energy to fuel sudden bursts of activity. The available storage space for glycogen is pretty limited, and when insulin has caused the glycogen storage to be filled up, the remaining excess blood sugar is stored as fat.
There is considerably more storage space in the body for fat than there is for glycogen. There are billions of fat cells in the body, each of which can enlarge to over 100 times its original size to accomodate extra fat storage. As an aside, this is why it is possible to get fat again after liposuction - even if you remove many of the body's fat cells, those that remain can enlarge considerably to store fat.
In addition to its fat storing effects, insulin also blocks the body's ability to burn fat. It is for this reason that avoiding eating carbohydrates is so critically important for effective weight loss.
It does not take very much carbohydrate to stimulate the production of insulin sufficient to shut down the body's ability to burn fat. Just a single meal with t amount of carbs contained in the average slice of bread is sufficient to produce enough insulin to block all fat burning for 1 to 2 days - no matter what your diet is like overall and no matter how much exercise you get in those 1 to 2 days!
You may have doubts about that last statement because you may know of people who are losing weight even though they eat carbs. It is important to note that carbohydrate intake causes the release of insulin which prevents the body from burning FAT. Weight loss is still possible because you can lose retained water and the body will still burn some calories, it's just that the calories being burned are from the protein in your muscles and other lean body tissue rather than fat. Because muscle is the most metabolically active tissue in the body, burning muscle is particularly bad, because not only will it make you weaker, your metabolism will start to slow down and it will become more and more challenging to lose weight.
Due to the blocking of fat burning by insulin, it is highly suggested to avoid eating refined carbohydrates as much as possible. Now, I am not recommending that everyone go on the Atkins diet. Too much protein can overwork the liver and cause its own difficulties with lasting weight loss. I suggest a diet that is high in fresh and frozen vegetables, seeds, nuts, fruit, and moderate amounts of animal proteins from meat, eggs, fish, etc.. With this sort of diet, you will be getting some carbohydrates in the diet, but mostly from high-fiber sources which do not have the strong insulin-stimulating effects of refined grain products.
Certain low-carb diets I've seen actually suggest eating one carbohydrate-filled meal per week as a way of rewarding yourself for your efforts. I think you can probably find much better ways to reward yourself that don't have the potential to derail your weight loss program like this approach does. First, as we said, any high-carb eating can produce enough insulin to shut-down fat burning for one to two days. If you do the once a week "cheat", you are potentially eliminating your opportunity to burn fat for up to eight days every month - a reduction in your diet's efficiency of about 25%! The other issue is that eating carbs tends to cause carb cravings that could lead to more cheating and eventually cause you to abandon your weight loss plan altogether.
Hopefully you now have a better understanding of why high carbohydrate consumption is so damaging to a natural weight loss plan. If you commit to a healthy diet and avoid the carbs for 2 to 3 weeks, you will likely find that you don't really miss them after that period of time and so avoiding them becomes much easier. With a little extra effort early on, you'll find that eating a healthy diet becomes natural to you and you'll be able to reach your long-term weight goals.
About the Author, Dr. George Best:
Dr. George Best writes extensively on the subject of natural weight loss. He has been assisting people with weight loss in his practice since 1992. To get additional resources on starting a natural weight loss plan, please visit www.TrainYourBrain4WeightLoss.com. Glyconutrients.
