The Carb Conspiracy: Part 5
in
We’re now somewhere on the perimeter of the low carb nucleus. The results we experienced did not last, but the fear of carbs is still very real and justifiably so.
My point here is that the food pyramid of 1992 was skewed by telling only one side of the story. What I propose is that natural unprocessed carbs are necessary for optimal performance and health; they fuel our activity and have huge range of health benefits from reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease to reducing the risk of colon cancer.
How then do we incorporate quality carbs without increasing our calorie load? This can be done if we change the way we formulate our diet plan. Many diets of recent years work in term of percentages. 40/40/20 was very popular and actually for mainstream it is still a very good approach. 40/40/20 told us that on a given number of calories we would consume 40% of them from protein, 40% from carbohydrates and 20% from fat. There are many other combinations, like the Mediterranean diet that can be up to 40% fat, but the fats are all good fats mainly coming from olive oil. I do like this approach in that it considers the source of the food and not just the macro-nutrient group it falls into.
Your body will not change on a whim, it has to be challenged and forced to adapt and we should use every tool in our arsenal to allow it to do just that. Carbohydrates are just one tool and should be used for the purpose of fueling our training and optimizing the results and health benefits.
The best way I know to lose body fat is to build your metabolism with resistance training (see my chapter on Metabolism) and high intensity cardio and to restrict calories enough to produce a calorie deficit. The food you consume should be spaced out throughout the day and should be from natural sources with little to no processed foods. For the inactive person who seeks to reduce their extra weight I would have to tell them that diet alone is really not enough. To simply reduce calories does not address the metabolic benefits of exercise and they are missing out on the endorphin, mood altering, feel good by-products of exercise. I would like to believe that everybody likes something that is “exercise” it may not be weight training or running, it may be dancing or hiking or just walking the dog.
If for some reason a person is forced to be sedentary then I would advise a relatively low carbohydrate diet with small meals eaten throughout the day. In actuality research has shown us that small frequent meals compared to few large meals make no difference when we looked at weight loss. The overall calories seemed to be the key. That being said I would still advise small frequent meals as the larger less frequent meal plan can create a greater insulin reaction and this would cause a drop in blood sugar which might then start a bout of cravings. The smaller meals will not cause such a spike and the cravings can for the most part be avoided.
