If you love carbs and want weight loss, there’s good news – as long as you eat fewer calories overall you will lose weight. Eating fewer calories helps you burn more fat, allowing you to shed those unwanted pounds.
The problem with most diets is that people tend to overeat when trying to cut down on calories. This causes them to gain weight because excess calories are stored as body fat.
However, some foods contain higher amounts of calories per serving compared to others. For example, a medium bagel contains 200 calories while a large bagel contains 300 calories.
If you’re planning on cutting calories, make sure you choose healthy snacks like fruits and vegetables that provide fibre, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. You could even try drinking green tea for added benefits.
When it comes to choosing carb sources, whole grains are usually better options than processed ones. Processed foods often contain high levels of sugar, salt, saturated fats, trans fats and preservatives.
These ingredients aren’t very nutritious and may cause inflammation within the body, which leads to insulin resistance and could lead to type 2 diabetes. Whole grains, however, are rich in nutrients such as magnesium, iron, zinc and vitamin B6.
Another reason why eating too many carbs isn’t ideal is that they can lead to bloating. Your digestive system needs to work harder to break down complex carbohydrates, causing gas production.
To avoid this, stick to simple carbs such as fruit juices, plain rice cakes, white bread and pasta. Avoiding sugary treats altogether is another way to avoid consuming extra calories.
As we’ve seen you don’t necessarily need to completely eliminate carbs from your diet. Instead, focus on limiting how much you consume each day.
Try having half of your daily caloric intake from carbs. This allows your body to use the carbs efficiently and prevents you from becoming overly hungry.
Carb Specifics
Carbohydrates are the most common type of food we consume. They’re found in bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, fruit, vegetables, and even legumes like beans and lentils. Here are some things to know about carbs:
Carbohydrates are the primary source of energy for muscle contraction and brain function.
Carbohydrates help regulate blood sugar levels.
Carbs help build strong bones and teeth.
Carbs are needed for hormone production.
Carbs support healthy immune system functions.
Carbs keep us feeling full.
How Much Carbohydrate Do You Need?
Carbohydrates come in three forms: simple sugars like sugar and honey; complex carbohydrates help regulate blood sugar levels.
As we’ve seen carbohydrates provide energy for the brain, muscle tissue, organs, glands and skin. They help maintain healthy hormone levels, including those that control appetite.
And because our bodies prefer carbohydrates over fats, we tend to crave them more often. This makes sense—after all, we evolved from eating foods rich in carbohydrates.
The amount of carbohydrate you need depends on several factors. These include age, gender, physical activity level, current health status and whether you’ve recently exercised.
For example, women generally require about 25% fewer grams of carbohydrates per day than men. Women typically burn up to 50% less fat than men during exercise, so they need to eat even less carbohydrate to meet their daily calorie requirements.
And while people who work out regularly require more carbohydrate than sedentary individuals, the difference is small—about 10%.
Calculate
If you’re trying to shed some pounds, it might help to know how much carbohydrates you actually eat. To do this, multiply your daily calorie needs by 0.4. This gives you the amount of carbs you need each day.
Then divide your total carbs by four to figure out how many grams of protein you need every day. Finally, multiply your protein count by nine to find out how many grams of fats you need.
Add those three together to find out what percentage of your diet should come from proteins, fats, and carbs.
Timing
If you are on a weight loss programme and exercising more it’s useful to remember that carbohydrates are useful to fuel exercise, so it makes sense that you’d want to consume some carbs around workout times.
Another way to to consume carbs when trying to lose weight is to:
Eat Carbs In The Morning
Eating carbs early in the day helps balance blood sugar levels. You don’t want to go into a workout depleted of energy. After working out, it’s best to refuel with carbs.
This is when your muscles start to recover from workouts. Eating carbs in the afternoon helps replenish glycogen stores. Glycogen is the form of glucose stored in our muscles and liver.
Having enough glycogen stores allows us to perform better during workouts. In addition, we store glycogen in our muscles.
Calorie Balance
The concept of calorie balance is one of those things we know intuitively, but don’t always think about. If you’re trying to lose weight, it’s easy enough to understand why cutting out unneeded calories makes sense.
But there are many factors involved in reaching a healthy, balanced diet and maintaining a stable weight.
When you eat more calories than you burn off, your body stores them in the form of fat cells. This process is called “storage.”
Your body naturally wants to store excess calories as fat because it knows that you’ll need the stored energy later. But storage isn’t just a passive process; your body actively works to keep your fat levels steady.
Your body will use up some of the extra calories you eat, but it won’t necessarily let you go hungry. Instead, it will make sure that you aren’t storing too much fat. To do this, your body will slow down your appetite and increase your metabolic rate.
If you want to burn fat, you need to take advantage of this system. You must eat fewer calories than you burn off each day. By creating a caloric deficit, you force your body to start breaking down fat cells rather than storing them.
Conclusion
So we’ve seen that carbs do matter when losing weight but don’t need to be eliminated completely. It’s all about balance!
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