So I've been seeing this SOOOO much lately and I figured maybe it's time we had a discussion about carbs. I think with the new year starting off, everyone gets sucked in to these low carb diets. I mean lets be honest here.....they make it so easy for you by offering shakes and bars and meal replacements. But people....I have to tell you a secret.....carbs are not the reason you gained weight!! You gained weight because you had a poor diet and most likely did very little working out! The only thing you can attribute to weight gain is yourself. You can't pinpoint carbs and say "yep...that's it...that's why I gained 20 lbs". Carbohydrates are NECESSARY nutrients that your body needs to function. Sure....if you down a whole Pizza Hut pizza in one sitting, yeah...carbs are PART of the issue....but I'd be more focused on the fact that you just consumed 1000000000000 calories and 1000000000000000 grams of fat. Trust me....in that scenario...carbs did NOT make you gain weight. Or say you go out to breakfast and get a stack of French Toast, bacon and top it all with syrup. The carbs aren't what is going to wreck you in that scenario....the bread drenched in eggs and cream (yes....did you know that restaurants use either full fat cream or whole milk to make their French Toasts? No? Well now you do) topped with mounds and mounds of butter.....and yes....the person who is plopping that butter on your French Toast doesn't care about your waist line and while it may not look like a lot when it comes out....that butter is already melted in to your French Toast....the full sugar syrup that you pour on top...that sucker right there has about 215 calories PER 1/4 CUP....thats 4 tbsp people....AND about 35g of SUGAR! And then there is the bacon....don't get me wrong...I love bacon....I love it so much I'd bathe in it. Do I eat it a lot? I go through spurts....but when I do I always limit myself to 2 pieces. 68% of the calories that come from your bacon is fat...that's over half people. This is why you are gaining weight...NOT because you had 2 pieces of bread on a sandwich or dipped your dry piece of wheat toast in your dippy eggs.
You can have your carbs and eat them too here. What you have to understand is what TYPES of carbs should you be eating. I mean....if you just say "I don't eat carbs" does that mean you don't eat most fruits and vegetables? A banana has about 30g of carbs in one banana.....and is one of the best post workout grab and go snacks you can eat if you don't have time for anything else. There are such things as simple carbs and complex carbs. What makes them simple or complex? That depends on their chemical structure but more importantly how
quickly the sugars are digested in to your system.
Complex carbs are the carbs you should be filling your diet with. These would be whole grains, beans, fruits and vegetables. The sugars from these carbs release into your body gradually and deliver a steady supply of sugar to the blood stream which provides long lasting energy.
Simple Carbs are made of molecules that your body can easily breakdown and cause a quick release of sugar into the body. This is where you can get in to the "bad" carbs. Sugars, candy, white bread, chips, syrups.....they are all simple carbs. That syrup you had with your French Toast....it might have had 53g of carbs in it but 35g of it was sugar.....sugar that is getting released just like that in to your blood stream and is not going to sustain your energy levels.
Does all this mean that you need to eat 300g of carbs a day?? Heck no techno. Not unless you are a high performance athlete that pushes their body to the brink during workouts every single day and is consuming 3000 calories a day. I make sure to fill my diet with about 35% carbs every single day. Sure....I might choose the low carb whole wheat wrap over the regular whole wheat wrap....but that's because I eat 6 times a day and I don't like to eat up all my carbs in one sitting. I might not have a "starch" for dinner because I know that my yogurt I'm going to eat at 8 PM is going to put me at my 35%.
If you are going to carb cycle (which is a WHOLE other topic)....but being very brief....follow a low - medium - high 3 day schedule and have your high carb day fall on a demanding lifting day (for me that would be leg day). Your body will thank you. What do I consider low-medium-high?? Low - 20% carbs, medium - 30% carbs, high 45% carbs....but that's just me. Everyone is different and I know how my body reacts. I don't know about you....but I don't like being cranky.
So what am I getting at here.....basically, consuming carbs are not why you gained weight. It's what you put in your mouth as a whole that made you gain weight. What should your diet consist of then? Fruits, vegetables, whole unrefined grains, beans, etc. Don't fill yourself up with sodas, sugars, syrups, donuts and cookies. It's not really rocket science here......but I guarantee you will find yourself having more energy, be fuller longer, and will just overall feel better about yourself.
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