Why You Must Limit Your Carbs To Lose Fat
Excess carbohydrates, or carbs as they are often called, are the biggest interfering factor in the majority of people’s diets when it comes to burning fat. Although it might appear to be more logical to reduce the intake of fat when trying to lose fat, the hormonal effects of high carb intake will completely block the body’s ability to burn fat. This issue is often how lose weight programs fall short of producing good results - they simply don’t emphasize the importance of avoiding carbs.
Carbohydrate intake blocks the body’s ability to burn fat because it triggers the production of the hormone insulin. Most people associate insulin with the disease diabetes and with blood sugar control, but it is also directly involved in the storage of fat in the body. Insulin stimulates the tissues to convert excess blood sugar and store as fat, and at the same time will block the conversion of fat back to sugar so it cannot be burned for energy.
When you eat a lot of carbs, they are quickly digested and absorbed into the blood as blood sugar, also known as glucose. A rise in blood glucose above what the body needs for its immediate energy needs triggers the release of insulin from the pancrease. Insulin stimulates the muscles and liver to store the excess glucose as a compound called glycogen, which is a quick energy source. The amount of storage space available for glycogen is pretty limited, and when that is filled up, the insulin stimulates the fat tissue to store the remaining excess glucose as fat. This means the more carbs you eat, the more insulin you will produce, and the more fat your body will store.
A lot of dieters think that they can get away with eating carbs if they “make up for it” with extra exercise. That’s not the case at all. Although extra exercise will burn more calories, the effects of insulin are so strong, that the calorie burning will not be in the form of fat!
When you don’t eat a lot of carbs, and don’t produce a lot of insulin, exercise stimulates the body to first burn glycogen, and then turn to burning fat when the glycogen is gone. But, in the presence of high insulin, once the glycogen is used up, the insulin blocks the conversion of fat to blood sugar, so the body has to burn something else instead to get energy. That something else is protein from your muscles, not fat!
Although initially it may seem like you’re burning fat, instead you are losing water weight and muscle. As this goes on longer, the loss of muscle results in a lower metabolic rate, which makes it even harder to lose weight. In the long run, the person who continues to eat carbohydrates in excess while trying to lose weight will simply wind up feeling weak and tired, and frustrated because their body fat percentage will be even higher than when they started trying to lose weight.
Dr. George Best is a holistic healthcare provider in San Antonio, Texas. For more information, and to get his free ebook that explains how different hormones trigger fat gain and loss, visit his lose weight help website.