Many people looking to burn / lose a significant amount of fat / weight can become very confused when they read and hear all of the conflicting information that's spread on TV, magazines, the internet, and diet books. ..
One of the most misunderstood techniques is the low carb diets that have been very popular in the last several years.
The popular belief lately is that sugar (carbohydrates) should be kept to moderate to low levels in your eating.
The reason for this is because of the recent popularity of low-carb diets, such as The Atkins diet, The Southbeach diet, The Zone diet, etc.
Even in bodybuilding magazines all of a sudden everyone and their mother is recommending to keep carbs in your diets almost to a minimum.
Well, the misconception that sugar is somehow "evil" and will cause you to get fat, raise your bad cholesterol, and even lose your "insulin sensitivity" is based on several MYTHS that have been passed around by the media and "monkey see, monkey do" nutrition and exercise "gurus".
One of the main misconceptions is that eating carbs will cause a sharp rise of insulin in your blood, which supposedly causes your body to store fat.
A lot of this is based on the incorrect belief that you should avoid eating "high GI (glycemic index)" foods, and to mainly get most of your carbs from "low GI" foods.
Basically, the Glycemic Index is a chart that was developed years ago that measures how much of a rise in insulin a certain food causes in the blood once digested.
To put it simply, the higher the GI number is, the higher and quicker it makes your insulin rise.
(For some odd reason that's NOT based on any real, conclusive evidence. People seem to think that raising your insulin levels is "bad").
Well, in 1981, researchers at the University of Toronto were the first to accurately notice that "simple" carb foods (having a high GI) actually produced a smaller increase in blood sugar than most "complex" (or low GI) foods (everyone today thinks the opposite is true, of course based on what they read in the "burn fat / lose weight" article)!
In fact, eating table sugar (sucrose) actually causes a smaller increase in blood sugar than eating foods such as baked potatoes and whole wheat bread.
Foods containing added sugars do NOT have a higher GI than foods containing naturally occurring sugars.
In fact, you really can't count on the "GI" much at all!!!
Why?
Because the Glycemic Index does NOT take into account the differences in variety, ripeness, processing, or cooking foods, which have a huge impact on how that particular food affects your insulin levels, even if you are trying to lose weight.
Also, the fat content of food also has an affect on insulin: foods that are high in fat have a lower GI, like peanuts, which only have a GI of 14.
In addition, there some foods that have a high GI number, but don't affect your insulin levels at all........like carrots!
Carrots have a GI of 95 (which is pretty high), but don't try to tell me that you'll get fat, get diabetes, etc., from eating carrots!!!
Bodybuilding magazines, supplement companies, and the internet spread myths to all of us seeking to burn fat / lose weight, only leading us to NO RESULTS!
If you are trying to eat your way to a leaner, more defined, more sculpted you, there is NO NEED TO BREAK DOWN YOUR EATING DOWN TO ALL KINDS OF RATIOS or PERCENTAGES.
Regardless of what type of foods you eat and in what combinations, "IT ALL COMES DOWN TO THE CALORIES"!
You hear about them all the time. Low carb diets this, low carb diets that. Every celebrity is on this diet and everyone you know at work, at school or anywhere is on this diet. Well, if that's all they're using, they've been on it for a while and they're completely healthy, then they must not be following it completely or they're lying!
Why? Because low carb diets, for a short period of time do work to help you lose weight, but only for a short period of time, like 2-3 weeks. But if you stick with low carb diets for a longer period of time, you'll definitely be losing something other than weight and you'll see negative side effects with your health.
Don't get me wrong. There are plenty of foods out there that you should avoid, and most of them are very high in carbs. And these foods are great to avoid for just general health, not only just to lose weight.
But the other side of that coin is that carbohydrates are also a very necessary nutrient for your body to function properly. So a long term weight loss diet completely devoid of carbohydrates is not a good idea. A short one is fine since it's pretty much like fasting for a few weeks, which won't do much damage.
Here's another fact that will show you how bad long term low carb diets are, outside of weight loss. There is a risk of osteoporosis for women from long term low carb diet use. Most low carb diets will tell you to increase the amounts of protein you eat.
Normally, that's a great thing because one of the building blocks of your body is protein. But, like anything else, too much protein spells disaster. Excess protein from meat can leech calcium from your bones, which can increase the risk of osteoporosis. Why does your body do this? Because protein can cause acid build up in your blood and your body removes the calcium to balance out your blood.
Okay, so you say that's a woman's problem. Here's one for both. Your brain uses about 20% of glucose from your body. Now, glucose is a simple sugar. Simple sugars are carbohydrates.
Get the connection? If you decrease the intake of carbohydrates from your diet, you are starving your brain of an important nutrient for healthy brain function. That's definitely not something anyone wants, whether you're trying to lose weight or not.
But specifically with weight loss, low carb diets stop working if you use them over a long period of time because at that point you won't be losing weight or fat. At that point, you've already lost most, if not all, of the fat stores in your body. The reason low carb diets work so great in the beginning is because your body is using up the fat stores in your body since you aren't eating carbs, which provide energy to your body.
So naturally, your body uses up your fat stores. But once those are gone, your body turns to muscles and body tissue. So clearly, you are not losing fat at that point, which is what you would want. You'll be losing the parts of you that are helpful to real weight loss. Carbs are sources of energy for your body so after the initial 2-3 weeks of the low carb diet, re-introduce healthy carbs to your body and you will be in good shape and on the path to healthy weight loss.
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Jonathan Perez has sinced written about articles on various topics from Lose Weight, Build Muscle and Cardio Training. How did a Cleveland Firefighter discover how to lose over 50 pounds of fat weight and 10 inches off his waist in 3 and half months WITHOUT using any supplements, doing NO cardio, and no fad diet? Jonathan Perez has created the *ultimate* guide - "Fat To B. Jonathan Perez's top article generates over 74000 views. to your Favourites.
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