Carbs: The Enemy to Weight Loss Efforts!

So carbohydrates, we’re often led to believe that we need to consume these in bountiful amounts to give us lots of energy, to keep us healthy, to enable us to exercise more efficiently, to keep our bodies full of vitality. Well, I’ve got news for you, you have been misled! We eat too many carbs in the standard modern diet as we are just not designed to eat so many! What's more, much of our modern diet is limited on variety and high in artificial substances which can lead to health problems.

One of the most common mistakes I see is that people eat far too many carbohydrates. It is true that the body needs carbohydrates, but the standard modern diet is overloaded with them: cereal, OJ, bread, pasta, rice, crackers, beer, couscous, chocolate, crisps, biscuits etc. These are all predominantly carbohydrates and fill a lot of people’s daily diets. They are usually relatively cheap and are quick and easy to prepare in the form of convenience foods.

Grains

Carbs also come in the form of grains- a cheap source of calories which offer minimal nutritional value in terms of vitamins and minerals (even whole grain- think brown bread!). This is also probably against what you have previously thought!

Grains include wheat, corn, rice, pasta, cereals, cooking grains (barley, rye, oats) and all derivatives such as bread, pasta, noodles, crackers, snack foods, cakes, and many other types of processed and packaged goods. What’s bad about them it they stimulate excessive insulin production – this is a deep subject but basically means we gain weight as we store energy (as fat) instead of using it! These foods now take up a large portion of the standard modern diet - it can be hard to escape them!! They have only been part of the human diet since the dawn of agriculture and civilisation some 10,000 years ago and the human design (our primal blueprint) is not used to these foods. For 2.5million years of the human story they were largely absent meaning evolution has not had time to adapt our systems! Additionally, Grains contain anti-nutrients that compromise digestive and immune function. These are agents that compromise our health instead of supporting it. You’ve probably heard of gluten, but others include lectin and phytates. All humans are affected by these anti-nutrients to 1° or another. At the lower end of the scale, you may expect some bloating, gas, constipation, etc. The other end includes autoimmune disease, allergies, mental health conditions and many more

FAT

On the flipside we’ve been led to believe that fat makes you fat – and there is some truth to this, but only in combination with high levels of carbohydrates. Fat alone does not make you fat! You can enjoy liberally with lower levels of carbs, but I must also warn that not all fats are made equally. If you stick to whole food animal-based fats (you know the ones that have been demonised) then you can’t go too far wrong.

It is easy in the standard modern diet to consume 300+ grams of carbohydrates per day and it is this that will lead to gradual weight gain, as well as various other health related issues if such levels of consumption are maintained. If your diet is overly high in carbs, you may be aware of your gut, poor physique, and lacking energy levels, but fear not, read on as I’ve got just the thing to help you with this!

Lower your carb daily intake

As part of my recent studying, I was interested to learn that 71% of the calories in the standard modern diet come from foods that were entirely absent prior to civilisation: sugary foods and beverages, refined grains (wheat, corn, rice, pasta, cooking grains, and breakfast cereals), and industrial/chemically altered vegetable oils. In other words, these foods are alien to us and can actually cause us harm. That low energy, low motivation, brain fog you may experience is just the start of it. Many experts believe that overeating carbs is actually the source of many ills, rife in modern society.

I therefore educate my clients that to maintain optimal weight they should endeavour to consume 150 g of carbs or less per day. This does require some forward thinking, and probably some meal prep, but once you get into the swing of it, it becomes second nature. It is also worth noting that if you consume 100 g of carbs per day it will allow you to effortlessly lose weight.

Change your mind set about carbs I understand this is perhaps challenging to your long-held beliefs around carbs, fat, and diet in general, and may even cause you more food stress on top of the food stress that you are likely already experiencing! I know this because I’ve been there - eating food you know will imbalance your body or at least you suspect will. It is not easy, but small, consistent changes to the way you think about and consume food, will soon shift those thought patterns, and you will quickly notice positive changes.

8 top tips to lose the gut (and how to keep it off for good)!

After speaking with a client recently, and hearing of their frustrations about carbs and all the misleading information out there, e.g. what carbs are good to eat, what are not good to eat, why they are good/bad to eat, I decided to make it easy for you guys by piecing together a simple document for you to refer to, containing every day tips and tricks that you can use straight away.

I’ve put together a pdf document where I explain my top tips on how to lose the gut and how to keep it off for good. It really will help you get to grips with the whole carbs are bad philosophy and give you further information on how you can start to make simple, positive changes to your diet, easily and quickly for maximum benefit to your lifestyle. Message me and i will forward it on.