Carbohydrates, Insulin, And Fat

While a common weight loss recommendation is to reduce carbohydrate intake (primarily foods like breads, cereals, pastas, and sweets), for many people it is unclear why this is so important. In fact, even some doctors and scientists insist that weight loss is a simple matter of burning more calories than one consumes and it doesn't matter what kind of foods those calories come from. This may seem logical at first, but with a greater understanding of how the body processes carbohydrates, it becomes readily apparent that certain kinds of calories are much easier to burn than others and consuming large amounts of carbohydrates, even in the context of a relatively low-calorie diet, most definitely predisposes the body to storing fat.

At the heart of the matter is the hormone insulin. The function of insulin is to stimulate the cells to take up sugar from the bloodstream (when blood sugar is high, as it typically is shortly after eating) and store it for reserve energy.

The surplus of sugar in the bloodstream is initially stored in the tissues of the liver and large muscles in the form of glycogen. Glycogen can be quickly converted back to blood sugar when needed for energy to fuel sudden bursts of activity. The available storage space for glycogen is pretty limited, and when insulin has caused the glycogen storage to be filled up, the remaining excess blood sugar is stored as fat.

There is considerably more storage space in the body for fat than there is for glycogen. There are billions of fat cells in the body, each of which can enlarge to over 100 times it's original size to accomodate extra fat storage. As an aside, this is why it is possible to get fat again after liposuction - even if you remove many of the body's fat cells, those that remain can enlarge considerably to store fat.

Insulin is extremely powerful in its fat storage effects. In fact, not only does it stimulate fat storage, high levels of insulin block the effects of the body's fat burning mechanisms. It is for this reason that minimizing the intake of high-carb foods is so important.

High carbohydrate intake (and it really doesn't need to be very high) stimulates the release of large quantities of insulin. Large amounts of circulating insulin will strongly inhibit the body from being able to burn fat for a period of 1 to 2 days! In fact, a single meal containing 20 to 25 grams of refined carbohydrates (about the amount in a slice of sandwich bread) can completely block your ability to burn fat for 1 to 2 days - regardless of what you eat and how much or how hard you may exercise during that time.

Now, that last point is sometimes confusing to people because many people eat relatively high amounts of carbohydrate and still manage to lose weight - at least in the short-term. Notice that I said that high carbohydrate intake causes high insulin production that blocks FAT burning. You can still lose water weight through various methods (if you happen to be eating a low protein and low fat diet, you will typically lose a lot of water weight), and you can still burn calories, but what you burn will be glycogen and lean body tissue (protein from your muscles) and not fat. As you may be aware, lean body tissue (muscle) is highly metabolically active, and if you burn that tissue, ultimately your metabolism will slow down, making it harder and harder to lose weight.

Because of the effects of insulin, minimizing carbohydrate intake is strongly recommended for sustainable fat burning and the most efficient and lasting natural weight loss. This is not to say that everyone will benefit from being on a high protein diet such as Atkins. Excessive protein intake can create its own problems that can ultimately interfere with ongoing weight loss due to detrimental effects on the liver. For the majority of people, the most effective diet is one that is high in fresh or frozen vegetables, nuts, seeds, moderate quantities of fresh fruit, and some protein from eggs, dairy, lean meat, fish, and poultry. The carbohydrates you do consume are best obtained in high-fiber forms from vegetables, fruits, seeds, and nuts, rather than from refined grains.

A few diet plans will recommend a low carbohydrate intake, yet suggest allowing yourself a "reward" of some high-carbohydrate food like a cookie or other sweet as often as once per week. I disagree with this recommendation as it can sabotage your natural weight loss program on two levels. First, as we've been discussing, the carbs will trigger a high insulin release which will shut off your ability to burn fat for up to two days. So, at once per week, you could lose as much as 8 days per month of potential fat burning - decreasing the effectiveness of your diet by as much as 25%! The other problem is that eating carbs tends to set you up for carb cravings. At the very least, such cravings will test your will-power, and they could cause you to cheat on your diet repeatedly. This could ultimately doom your diet to total failure. I recommend that you refrain from eating refined carbs except on special occasions (parties, holidays, etc.) and this ideally would be at a frequency of at most, once every 4 to 6 weeks.

Hopefully you now have a better understanding of why high carbohydrate consumption is so damaging to a natural weight loss plan. If you commit to a healthy diet and avoid the carbs for 2 to 3 weeks, you will likely find that you don't really miss them after that period of time and so avoiding them becomes much easier. With a little extra effort early on, you'll find that eating a healthy diet becomes natural to you and you'll be able to reach your long-term weight goals.