How Carbohydrates Ruin Your Weight Loss Efforts

While a common weight loss recommendation is to reduce carbohydrate intake (primarily foods like breads, cereals, pastas, and sweets), for many people it is unclear why this is so important. In fact, even some doctors and scientists insist that weight loss is a simple matter of burning more calories than one consumes and it doesn’t matter what kind of foods those calories come from. This may seem logical at first, but with a greater understanding of how the body processes carbohydrates, it becomes readily apparent that certain kinds of calories are much easier to burn than others and consuming large amounts of carbohydrates, even in the context of a relatively low-calorie diet, most definitely predisposes the body to storing fat.

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.

When more blood sugar is avaliable than what is required for the immediate needs of the body, insulin production increases to start the proces of storing the excess for use at a later time. The first storage form is called glycogen, which is primarily held in the muscles and liver. Since glycogen storage is rather limited, when it fills up, insulin then promotes the storage of the remaining surplus blood sugar in the form of fat.

There is an enormous amount of potential space for fat storge. Fat cells are plentiful and each cell can enlarge to more than one hundred times its starting volume to allow for additional storage of 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.

High carbohydrate intake (and it really doesn’t need to be very high) stimulates the release of large quantities of insulin. This high production of insulin effectively prevents the body from burning fat – for 24 to 48 hours! In fact, a single meal containing 20 to 25 grams of refined carbohydrates (about the amount in a slice of sandwich bread) can completely block your ability to burn fat for 1 to 2 days – regardless of what you eat and how much or how hard you may exercise during that time.

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.

Because of the effects of insulin, minimizing carbohydrate intake is strongly recommended for sustainable fat burning and the most efficient and lasting natural weight loss. This is not to say that everyone will benefit from being on a high protein diet such as Atkins. Excessive protein intake can create its own problems that can ultimately interfere with ongoing weight loss due to detrimental effects on the liver. Instead, the best diet program in most intances involves eating plenty of fresh or frozen vegetables and fruits, nuts, seeds, and moderate quantities of protein from lean meats, fish, eggs, and dairy. The carbohydrates you do consume are best obtained in high-fiber forms from vegetables, fruits, seeds, and nuts, rather than from refined grains.

In some cases, even low-carb diets will sometimes allow for a “cheat” meal containing refined carbs as a reward – as often as once a week on some plans. I do not recommend this approach as it can derail your weight loss efforts in two ways. First, as we said, a single high-carb meal can block the ability of the body to burn fat for up to 48 hours. If you do the math, one high-carb meal per week would mean you could lose the ability to burn fat for up to eight days per month. In other words, you could be losing up to 25% of the effectiveness of your diet! The second problem is that eating carbs on a regular basis usually reinforces cravings. I think it is counterproductive to keep setting off cravings as this only makes your weight loss task more difficult and could result in additional cheating that could result in complete failure of your weight loss program.

You now hopefully have a more complete comprehension of why it is so important to avoid eating refined carbohydrates if you wish to burn fat and lose weight. If you can discipline yourself to stay away from carbs for a few weeks, you will likely lose any cravings for them that you might have and you’ll be well on your way to lasting weight loss success.

About the Author: Dr. George Best

Dr. George Best writes extensively on the subject of natural weight loss. He has been a practicing holistic healthcare provider since 1992. To get additional resources on starting a natural weight loss plan, please visit www.TrainYourBrain4WeightLoss.com.