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How Carbohydrates Ruin Your Weight Loss Efforts By Dr. George Best While a common weight loss recommendation is to reduce carbohydrate intake (primarily foods like breads, cereals, pastas, and sweets), for many people it is unclear why this is so important. In fact, even some doctors and scientists insist that weight loss is a simple matter of burning more calories than one consumes and it doesn't matter what kind of foods those calories come from. This may seem logical at first, but with a greater understanding of how the body processes carbohydrates, it becomes readily apparent that certain kinds of calories are much easier to burn than others and consuming large amounts of carbohydrates, even in the context of a relatively low-calorie diet, most definitely predisposes the body to storing fat.
The primary problem with a high intake of carbohydrate is the stimulation of insulin production. The purpose of insulin is to promote the uptake of blood sugar (which after a meal is in usually in greater supply than what is needed at that particular moment in time) and store any excess for future use.
This extra blood sugar is first stored as a compound called glycogen in the muscles and liver. Glycogen can be quickly converted back to blood sugar when needed for energy to fuel sudden bursts of activity. The available storage space for glycogen is pretty limited, and when insulin has caused the glycogen storage to be filled up, the remaining excess blood sugar is stored as fat.
There is considerably more storage space in the body for fat than there is for glycogen. There are billions of fat cells in the body, each of which can enlarge to over 100 times its original size to accomodate extra fat storage. As an aside, this is why it is possible to get fat again after liposuction - even if you remove many of the body's fat cells, those that remain can enlarge considerably to store fat.
Insulin is extremely powerful in its fat storage effects. In fact, not only does it stimulate fat storage, high levels of insulin block the effects of the body's fat burning mechanisms. This is where the importance of limiting carbohydrate consumption comes into play.
Eating a lot of refined carbohydrates will trigger the release of high levels of insulin. High levels of insulin will actually block the body's ability to burn fat for up to two days at a time after just a single high-carbohydrate meal. It actually only takes the amount of carbs in a single slice of bread to shut off fat burning for 24 to 48 hours, no matter what your is like and no matter how much you exercise in that 24 to 48 hours.
You may have doubts about that last statement because you may know of people who are losing weight even though they eat carbs. It is important to note that carbohydrate intake causes the release of insulin which prevents the body from burning FAT. Weight loss is still possible because you can lose retained water and the body will still burn some calories, it's just that the calories being burned are from the protein in your muscles and other lean body tissue rather than fat. Because muscle is the most metabolically active tissue in the body, burning muscle is particularly
bad, because not only will it make you weaker, your metabolism will start to slow down and it will become more and more challenging to lose weight.
Due to the blocking of fat burning by insulin, it is highly suggested to avoid eating refined carbohydrates as much as possible. Now, I am not recommending that everyone go on the Atkins diet. Too much protein can overwork the liver and cause its own difficulties with lasting weight loss. I suggest a that is high in fresh and frozen vegetables, seeds, nuts, fruit, and moderate amounts of animal proteins from meat, eggs, fish, etc.. With this sort of diet, you will be getting some carbohydrates in the diet, but mostly from high-fiber sources which do not have the strong insulin-stimulating effects of refined grain products.
In some cases, even low-carb diets will sometimes allow for a "cheat" meal containing refined carbs as a reward - as often as once a week on some plans. I do not recommend this approach as it can derail your weight loss efforts in two ways. First, as we said, a single high-carb meal can block the ability of the body to burn fat for up to 48 hours. If you do the math, one high-carb meal per week would mean you could lose the ability to burn fat for up to eight days per month. In other words, you could be losing up to 25% of the effectiveness of your diet! The second problem is that eating carbs on a regular basis usually reinforces cravings. I think it is counterproductive to keep setting off cravings as this only makes your weight loss task more difficult and could result in additional cheating that could result in complete failure of your weight loss program.
You probably now understand better why you really need to avoid eating refined carbohydrates if you are attempting to lose weight. In my experience, most people who stay away from carbs for two or three weeks will usually stop craving them and then avoiding carbs becomes a much easier thing to do. With some will-power in the early going, your will become second nature to you and you'll be prepared to meet your weight loss goals.
Dr. George Best writes extensively on the subject of natural weight loss. He has been a practicing holistic healthcare provider since 1992. To get additional resources on starting a natural weight loss plan, please visit www.TrainYourBrain4WeightLoss.com.
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