The media is constantly filled with tips and tricks on how to get that beach body and how to be as healthy as possible by cutting down carbohydrate intake. Let's examine the facts and see how it all adds up!
A carbohydrate is one of four macronutrients. These are the substances that provide our cells with energy and allow our bodies to function. The macronutrients are fat, protein, carbohydrate and ethanol (commonly known as alcohol).
These nutrients provide different ammount of energy;
Fat - 9kcal/gram
Protein - 4kcal/gram
Carbohydrate - 4kcal/gram
Ethanol - 7kcal/gram
So we see that carbohydrate does not contain a lot of energy per gram, fat is in fact over double the energy per gram.
So why has the low carb-hype become so popular? Does it work? Is it healthy?
In my opinion and experience, a well planned low-carb diet can work absolute miracles for overweight and obese people.
When you eat carbs, your bloodsugar elevates. This triggers the anabolic hormone
insulin. This is a energy-storing hormone that inhibits your own fat from being burned as fuel and increases fat storage in your body.
White bread with jam and juice on the side will in turn
store as fat in your body within two hours as almost all the energy is converted to fat. (Bear in mind that this process is affected by your current glycogen stores in muscles and liver. Depleted glycogen stores from heavy training, starving or following a strict low carb diet will make sure the excess carbohydrate is stored as glycogen and not as fat.)
Insulin is also know for increasing inflammation in the body and have several other less fortunate effects on the human body.
Controlling your bloodsugar levels and insulin through a low intake of carbohydrates will in turn increase your fat metabolism from your own fat.
Do eat vegetables though, they are mostly low in carbohydrate and elevates bloodsugar only by a small degree because of their low glycemic index (GI).
What is your experience with the low-carb concept? Feel free to comment!
Some studies about low carb-dieting:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20679559 - During the first 6 months, the
low-carbohydrate diet group had greater reductions in diastolic blood pressure, triglyceride levels, and very-low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels, lesser reductions in low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels, and more adverse symptoms than did the low-fat diet group.
The low-carbohydrate diet group had greater increases in high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels at all time points, approximating a 23% increase at 2 years.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15632335 - Assuming no change from baseline for participants who discontinued the study, mean (SD) weight loss at
1 year was 2.1 (4.8) kg for Atkins (21 [53%] of 40 participants completed, P = .009), 3.2 (6.0) kg for Zone (26 [65%] of 40 completed, P = .002), 3.0 (4.9) kg for Weight Watchers (26 [65%] of 40 completed, P < .001), and 3.3 (7.3) kg for Ornish (20 [50%] of 40 completed, P = .007). Greater effects were observed in study completers.
Each diet significantly reduced the low-density lipoprotein/high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol ratio by approximately 10% (all P<.05),
