The Demonizing of Carbs
Carbs are incorrectly labeled as the cause of fat gain and sometimes labeled as unhealthy for humans by food extremists. I’m writing this with the intention of explaining why they have been falsely labeled as bad and to give ways we can manipulate them to cause fat loss, even though total fat loss is primarily determined by our caloric balance.
There are 3 main points that I want to address:
1. Fat loss is determined by how many calories we consume vs. how many calories we burn .
2. Diets high in protein increase satiety, allowing tolerance of lower caloric intake.
3. Diets high in protein result in more retention of lbm while dieting.
What happens in the practical world of personal trainers is that they notice that when their clients are put on a high protein, low carb diet, their clients find more success in fat loss. This success is the result of their clients being in a caloric deficit, increased satiety from high protein intake which increases the tolerance of fewer calories, and lbm retention caused by high protein.
This is where the demonizing of carbs begins. The personal trainer with little nutrition education falsely makes the assumption that carbs must be bad for us if cutting carbs results in fat loss. They then begin a campaign to demonize all carbs, which quickly spreads to professionals with little understanding of human nutrition, which happens to be most personal trainers you find in a gym.
Whereas, as high protein, low carb diet is very effective at fat loss, it is not the only way to go about it. Whole food carbohydrates are rich in vitamins, minerals, fiber and antioxidants and should be included in all diets. Additionally, an athlete that is training at high intensities requires at least a moderate intake of carbohydrates to sustain his or her work level.
Just because a high protein, low carb diet is effective for fat loss, does not mean that carbs are unhealthy for humans. Remember that low carb diets are just low calorie diets in disguise.
exphys88
References:
A high-protein diet induces sustained reductions in appetite, ad libitum caloric intake, and body weight despite compensatory changes in diurnal plasma leptin and ghrelin concentrations
Hypocaloric high-protein diet improves glucose ox... [Metabolism. 1994] - PubMed - NCBI
