Why You Must Limit Your Carbs To Lose Fat
Posted at by ifydcat on category weight loss
Carbohydrates or “carbs”, as most people refer to them these days, are the number one enemy to fat burning in most people’s diets. While it may seem more logical to limit fat in the diet when trying to get rid of fat, the body’s biochemical reaction to excess carbs will stop fat burning dead in its tracks. This is often how lose weight programs fail, because the importance of limiting carbohydrates is not stressed enough.
The reason why carbs interfere so much with fat burning and weight loss is because they trigger the release of insulin. You may associate insulin with diabetes and blood sugar, but it is just as important in the body’s storage of fat. Insulin is an extremely powerful hormone that stimulates fat storage and blocks the ability of the body to burn fat.
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.
Some people think that they can overcome this problem by simply exercising more to make up for eating too many carbs, but this will not work. Even though exercising more will burn additional calories, they won’t be fat calories!
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 explains more about how various hormones effect weight loss in his free ebook, which can be obtained at his lose weight help website.
Related Posts to Why You Must Limit Your Carbs To Lose Fat
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Categories
Recent Posts
