Fitness #2

A Quick Primer on the Science of Avoiding Carbs

No, carbs aren’t inherently bad. They aren’t the devil and they don’t single-handedly cause rising rates of obesity in America. We all know McDonald’s is the cause of that! Kidding…

But the truth remains that we can all afford to cut down on carbs for a few simple scientific reasons.

1. Carbs cause insulin secretion. Insulin basically signals your body to stop burning fat and start the fat (glycogen) storing process for hours to come. In addition, the presence of insulin turns off HGH and glucagon, which are instrumental in muscle development and fat burning. Frequent insulin spikes can lead to insulin insensitivity, and we all know what that can lead to – diabetes.

2a. Carbs aren’t your primary energy source. Generally, fats are your preferred, first energy source, proteins go to your muscles and carbs are stored (a vestige of our ancestors) and your secondary energy source. So when you eat fats, they are consumed first, leaving your current stores of fats and carbs untouched and growing if your energy expenditure isn’t great enough. When you eat carbs, you’re just adding to the stockpile of calories to burn behind the fats that are always present. Basically, fats go to the front of the calorie consumption line and carbs to the back, so they are far more conducive to being stored. You’re always playing catchup.

2b. I suspect one of the biggest reasons that “fat makes you fat” became so prevalent starting in the 80′s was that fats are 9 calories per gram, whereas protein and carbs are only 4 calories per gram. This means, yes, it does take more to burn off a calorie of fat. But what good does it do if you never get past your quotient of fats to the carbs?

2a and 2b were extremely simplified for ease of application.

3. The satiation factor of carbs is far less than protein or fat. This means simply that you will need to eat more carbs to feel the same amount of fullness that you get from a smaller amount of proteins or fats. Because of this, carbs discourage portion control.

So you can see that it can be good to have a higher fat, higher protein and lower carb diet. I suggest something to the tune of 40% protein, 30% fat and 30% carbs… yes this is applicable to you women as well. (Another note about fats: there are many good and even necessary ones. The omegas are quite beneficial and your organs need a certain amount of fat. Take amenorrhea for example, the lack of body fat starts adversely affecting bodily functions.)