Carbs are not making you fat…
I may take a little heat for this statement, but it’s a topic that we address a lot at Saratoga Health and Wellness. Allow me to explain.
Here’s the deal. Carbohydrates, Proteins and Fats are known as macronutrients and each are essential for the normal and healthy functioning of the human being. All macronutrients contain calories or energy which is used to fuel everything that we, as vibrant active people, do throughout the day–Digesting food, thinking, vacuuming, breathing and walking–each of these activities requires energy and nutrients that is delivered from the food we eat. Again, each is important and necessary.
There is a tremendous amount of misinformation about food and weight loss. Which diet is better? Low Fat, Low Carb or High Protein? The simple answer, is if you lose weight by eating a certain way, you ultimately have lost weight because you expended more calories that you consumed. That’s right, it’s simple. For example, if you followed a Low fat diet, you minimized the intake of fatty foods and therefore calories coming from fat. By eating less of that macronutrient, you created a caloric deficit. If you lost weight by following a high protein diet (another way of saying low-carb), you created a caloric deficit by minimizing the amount of calories that came from carbohydrates. Yes, you can be successful with weight loss in any of the methods outlined above, but one is not superior to another.
Here’s the take-home message: You lost weight because you cut your calories, not because you eliminated carbohydrates, or ate higher protein, or ate no fat. You lost weight because you burned off more energy than you consumed. And this is all supported in the literature. In fact, those individuals who followed more extreme types of diets were less likely to maintain their weight loss over time and less likely to be able to ‘stick’ to the extreme, as compared to those who followed a more moderate diet.(50-60% carbs, 20-25% Protein, 20-25% Fat)
Do yourself a favor and next time you put yourself on a diet, reframe your expectations. Think about your diet as a lifestyle change. Eat moderately and emphasize fresh fruits and vegetables, lean cuts of meat, low fat dairy and healthy whole grains. Enjoy some nuts and healthy olive oil too. You’ll be more likely to have success in meeting and maintaining your weight loss and feel less deprived in the process.