Carbs Carbs Carbs!

Carbs are life! Am I right?

To be quite honest. I am getting really fed up with the amount of unqualified people screaming LOW CARB and KETO diets are superior to more sensible and modest approaches to weight loss and health. Ladies in particular that I come across in my work have been conditioned to fear carbohydrate rich foods and actively avoid them.

I am not going to rehash everything in the image (take a read over it yourself), but I want to draw your attention to the overall fact that CARBS ARE GOOD FOR YOU! But, like anything in life - you need to choose the right amounts for you and from best options available. Always select wholemeal/grain options (the less processed the better), pile up on fibrous veggies, and select appropriate sizes of starchy carbs and fruit.

You can eat bread and rice and pasta and lose weight! Yes, you heard that right! Select high fibre varieties and eat sensible portions that match your activity levels. I personally eat a LOT of carbs because I am very active and they taste bloody good. Some days I'd eat well over 250g of carbohydrate. And I can easily maintain my weight because I eat in a caloric balanced state and chose options that are compatible with good health.

One question I get asked is why do people who remove or go very low carb lose weight quickly? Answer is simple (basically) carbs are stored as glycogen in the body, when you go low/no carb, glycogen stores are depleted. Glycogen is stored in the body with water - approximately 3g of water for every gram of glycogen. So you drop glycogen, you drop water! So that 3kgs weight you lost in your first week doing keto - yep that was water. Not fat. When these people add carbs back into their diet, their weight will increase due to the increased glycogen storage and therefore water weight.

Are you surprised? Let me know your thoughts below.