However cutting out carbs entirely is not going to help you either.
Why? Well let us first ask what are carbohydrates?
Carbohydrates are different kinds of sugars and when they are not burned by doing exercise activities they are stored as fat. If you don't use your carbs, then you end up storing them.
Thus many low carb and no carb diets focus on the idea of eliminating sugars entirely. The plan goes that if you reduce your intake of carbs / sugar, you will burn your fat stores instead.
Which is true, you do burn your fat stores - and your muscle - and your brain matter - and damages your internal organs. But what this plan doesn't account for is "carb crashing", wherein your blood sugar levels drop so low that your body starts to run low on energy and it cannot drain from your fat stores quickly enough, so instead you feel sluggish, tired and slow. And dumber.
If you've ever been on a low carb / no carb diet, then you know what I am talking about. Your body is basically shutting down and trying to use as little energy as possible, and to get energy it starts draining resources from muscle tissue, organs, fat stores, everything!
However there are ways to around this.
#1. Eat lots of vegetables.
#2. Combine your veggies with lean meat.
#3. Reduce grain products - rice, bread, etc. This doesn't mean you avoid such foods entirely. Simply that you reduce how much you are eating so you are not reliant upon sugars for all of your energy.
Your end goal here is to make sure you are consuming lots of nutrients and protein (veggies and meat), while simultaneously reducing how much carbs you are eating.
The end result is that you will lose weight gradually and healthily over a period of time.
As opposed to carb crashing, feeling physically horrible as your body cannibalizes itself, and making yourself slower, dumber and weaker.
So why do people complain about carbs so much?
Carbohydrates are very common, and often inadvertently overeaten because bread, rice, pasta and similar foods are considered to be staples in our modern culture. They are easy to store, easy to make, and cheap. Healthy foods - veggies and meat - always cost way more than a loaf of bread.
The concept of smaller portions of carbs, lots of veggies and a serving of lean meat just doesn't sound as appetizing to people who have been raised on mashed potatoes, gravy and fatty meats - which tastes amazing, but it would be a lot healthier if the meat was lean, the gravy was low fat, and the potatoes had other veggies (eg. peas) mixed in with it.
Here are 5 tips for reducing carbs in your diet.
#1. Make burritos but instead of wrapping in tortilla, wrap in a big piece of lettuce. This is similar to the Korean dish samgyopsal, which is BBQ pork wrapped in lettuce.
#2. Dip veggies into hummus or yogurt instead of bread.
#3. Reduce pasta portion by half, serve with lean, skinless meat or tofu, and vegetables.
#4. Have an open faced sandwich with one slice of bread. This leaves room for a side such as cottage cheese, salad or hard boiled eggs.
#5. When snacking, opt for carrot sticks, apple slices, or even a salad instead of reaching for the bag of chips.
If you have trouble dropping weight feel free to contact me for an in-person nutritional consultation.
