What’s wrong with carbohydrates then?
Nothing is wrong with carbohydrates. Sort of. It depends.
Carbohydrates come in many forms and usually taste delicious, especially the kind that come in cake, chocolate or sweet form and there is problem number one:
we tend to eat lots more of them than we should and end up ingesting a much larger number of calories than we need because they taste so damn good.
Tasty but empty
The problem isn’t so much that we eat lots of them per se but more that they are so very calorie dense whilst not being voluminous. basically we can pack in loads of calories in a very small amount of food.
Sure carbs spike our blood sugar, cause diabetes, contribute toward obesity and generally mess with our bodies when we eat too much of them, I’ll say that again; when we eat too much of them but they are not the devil. They are just not as important in nutrient terms for our bodies as other food stuffs, like protein.
Yes some carbohydrates are easier to over eat on than others as pictured above but the less refined and therefore lower in calorie carbs are generally not as tasty so we sway toward not eating so many of them, sometimes.
Not so junk and not so tasty
I am generalising a little with the statement that junk carbs are tastier than more naturally occurring carbs but you get the picture.
In terms of nutrients; we can survive as a biological system without ever ingesting carbohydrates again, aside from being grumpy and yearning for that biscuit to dunk in our tea. The same is not true of protein, you will die without protein and whilst you may not die without fat in your diet you’ll certainly be far, and I do mean FAR, worse off without it in your diet.
Fat Soluble Vitamin Deficiency
So when it comes to foods to avoid for fat and weight loss it would seem a simple choice to limit the number of carbohydrates you consume as they are the least important calories we eat.
Even more so when you consider that carbohydrates are simple units of energy and the body fat we want lose is simply a store for excess energy that we tap into when energy from food is sparse.
Why take in energy from carbs when we need to get rid of what have stored already?
To sum up;
Carbohydrates are not bad in themselves, they are just at the bottom of the list of foods we need and should be the last food to be consumed for anyone looking for weight loss that swings in favour of fat loss. If you are looking to bulk up and build muscle (hypertrophy of muscle tissue) then carbohydrates certainly have their place.
Your Epsom Personal Trainer,
Richard Ham Williams