Hi First name / There

 

If you have spent any time on social media or online in the last decade, you will have come across the idea that carbs are the thing standing between you and the body you want. Bread, potatoes, rice and pasta have been blamed for just about everything at some point, and every few years a new version of the same diet comes along (keto, carnivore, paleo, “no carbs after 6pm”) with a brand new reason to be scared of them.

 

It nearly always starts the same way. A friend cuts carbs, she loses 5kg / 11lbs in a few weeks, and suddenly you are wondering whether you should be doing the same.

 

Before you clear out your breadbox, please let me explain what is happening.

 

What that quick weight loss is.
Your body stores carbohydrate in your muscles and liver as glycogen, and every gram of glycogen is stored with roughly three grams of water. When you cut carbs, those stores empty and the water goes with them, which can easily add up to a kilo or two on the scales in the first week. It looks impressive, but it isn’t fat, and the moment you eat carbs again, that water comes straight back (which is usually when people decide carbs “made them gain weight”).

 

What happens after that first week is simple. By cutting out an entire food group you have cut out a lot of calories, and eating fewer calories than you burn is what causes fat loss. Carbs don’t make you gain weight, eating more than your body needs does, whether that comes from carbs, fat or protein.

 

When researchers have put low carb and low fat diets head to head over a year, people lost roughly the same amount of weight on both, because what mattered was the calorie deficit and whether they could stick to it.

 

What you lose along the way.
Ok, so if it is just another way of creating a calorie deficit, and it gets you to your goal, you may be wondering why cutting carbs is such a bad thing?

 

Carbs are your body’s preferred fuel, not just for exercise but for pretty much everything it does. If you lift weights, cutting them out often means your sessions feel harder, your strength stalls and before long you start skipping workouts. That matters more than you may realize, because when you are in a calorie deficit, not training and not giving your body any carbohydrate, it has to find its energy somewhere else, and as well as burning fat, it will start breaking down muscle for fuel. That muscle is what keeps you strong and capable for years to come. 

 

Unfortunately, the less muscle you have, the less energy your body burns day to day (in other words, a slower metabolism), which makes regaining the weight far easier and far more likely.

 

You also lose a lot of fibre. If you read my last few issues, you will know most of us are already falling short of the recommended amount, and some of the best sources (oats, beans, lentils, whole grains, potatoes with the skins on and fruit) are carbs.

 

Low carb and ketogenic diets do have a place, for example as a medical treatment for epilepsy under proper supervision. But for most women who simply want to lose fat and keep it off, they are a short term fix that rarely teaches you anything you can use for the rest of your life.

 

The question I always ask.
Can you see yourself eating this way at your children’s birthday parties (no cake), on holiday, at Christmas, and in five years' time (even five months' time)? If the answer is no, then you already know how this ends, and you will be back where you started (sometimes with a bit extra) and more convinced than ever that you are the problem. You aren’t, the approach was.

 

This is why I give my clients a carb target, not a list of carbs to avoid. When you know how much your body needs, you can eat the bread, the rice and the potatoes and still make progress, without the guilt and without starting over every Monday.