Over the years I have all too often heard people say that
they intend to cut carbohydrates from their diet to lose weight. This is
generally a bad idea, whoever you are. From a nutritional perspective, what we
should be more concerned with is the type of carbohydrate we consume and how
much we have. After all, in your diet you should be consuming more carbohydrates than any other macro nutrient so it makes no sense at all to try and cut them out.
So, what are carbohydrates and what do they do?
Carbohydrates are organic compounds occurring in foods and
living tissues including sugars, starch, and cellulose. Once consumed, carbs
are broken down and stored as glycogen in the muscles and liver. Glycogen
stores MUST be replenished every day to survive so quite literally don’t go
starving yourself to death! As you exercise, your body uses up more glycogen
and as a result, you need to replace the depleted stores by taking on board
more carbs.
About a fifth of the body’s glycogen is stored in the liver
and helps maintain blood sugar, an extremely important job! The other four
fifths is stored in muscle cells and is used as energy fuel for physical
activity. For someone who leads a relatively sedentary lifestyle or who trains
at a low intensity for less than one hour per day, I would recommend 3-6 grams
of carbohydrate per kg of body weight each day. (Serious athletes will require
7-12 grams per kg of body weight). In
both scenarios, this will be enough to fuel the body but prevent an excess fat
gain. As activity levels and therefore energy requirements increase so does the
carbohydrate requirement. Still think it’s
a good idea to cut out carbs?!
So you can gain some perspective on the energy value in food
I have listed the following average calories per gram in macro nutrients.
Carbohydrate = 4 calories
Protein = 4 calories
Fat = 9 calories
Alcohol = 7 calories (empty calories right?!)
Now, when it comes to (and I hate the word) “dieting”, yes
it can be beneficial to reduce your carbohydrate intake if it is clearly too
high. Another more precise approach I recommend is changing the type or source of
your carbs which I will explain in a minute...
Firstly a fun fact:
Did you know that for every gram of glycogen there are 3
grams of water attached to it? So in other words, suddenly reducing your carb
intake will result in a loss of 3 grams of water for every one gram of
carbohydrate. This means when you weigh yourself you have lost predominantly
water weight and not body fat.
Good Carbs vs bad carbs
Many of you would have heard of good and bad carbohydrates
and categorising them can make it easier to distinguish which ones are healthy
or unhealthy.
Simple = sugars (generally less healthy)
Complex = starches and fibers (generally good)
I would urge you not to rely solely on simple vs complex carbs
when planning your food consumption as these ideas are a little dated and can
be misleading. For example some foods such as biscuits, cakes and bananas
contain both complex and simple carbs and natural sugars are healthier for you
than processed ones.
A modern and very effective method to decipher the effects different
foods will have on your blood sugar levels and therefore weight control and
health is the Glycaemic index.
Glycaemic index
The glycaemic index ranks foods between 0 and 100 depending
on their immediate effect on blood sugar levels (how quickly the body digests
them and converts them into glucose). It is considered better to stick to low
GI foods as these have less of an impact on your blood sugar and insulin levels
therefore controlling and maintaining balanced levels. They take longer to
break down and digest. High GI foods however will quickly spike blood sugar
levels potentially leading to hyperglycemia. This is followed by a rapid dip in
the blood sugars, causing light headedness, sickness, headache and irritation! For
diabetics these symptoms can be much more severe and very dangerous.
Low GI = GI 0 – 55: Most fruits, pasta, grains,
peas, beans, brown rice
Medium GI = GI 56 – 69: Rye crackers, cereals,
couscous
High GI = GI 70 – 100: White bread, rice,
cakes, sweet pastries
Low GI foods help manage food cravings therefore promoting
weight loss. They prevent energy dips, feelings of irritation and general
hangriness!! They are also ideal for athletes as they improve endurance and
delay fatigue. By contrast High GI foods have been linked to heart disease,
diabetes and a wide variety of different cancers.
If you would like more information on healthy eating choices
or an in depth diet analysis and eating plan please email me on info@jwcorenutrifit.co.uk
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