Nowadays more and more often I see the statements like :
“Carbs make you fat.”
“Carbs make you gain weight.”
To a certain extend both of those are true, but there are a lot more other factors that play key role when it comes to results like these.
In this article we are going to take a look at if not all of these factors at least at big percentage, the results they produce and the most common scenarios of when the carbohydrates make a person store fat or gain weight.
Before I get deep in this article I would like to point out the tiny little detail that by term:
“Carbs”
I mean…
“Safe Starches and Safe Starches Only.”
I do not consider the junk and processed starches, wheats and sugar as food.
I would also like to make clear that I do not try to offend nobody and I do respect everybody’s opinion.
What my only goal is to share with you the information I have based on my personal experience, a lot of observation and researches I do everyday
As you probably already know Carbohydrates are not an essential macronutrient.
Human body can use them as an energy source, but they are not a necessity by any means.
Just because humans can survive on carbs does not mean they are must in our world or lives.
Matter of fact our bodies have the ability to store a lot more fat than carbohydrates.
To a very big extend this means our bodies prefer fats over glucose in probably 9 out of 10 times.
How the body processes the carbohydrates?
When an individual eats certain amount of carbs, first thing his or her body does is to breakdown convert them into glucose.
That glucose is stored into the muscle in form of muscle glycogen.
Muscle glycogen is a non essential fuel.
It burns way faster than fat, and it is more like rocket fuel.
If the body can’t store all the carbs, because they are too many, all of the excessive amounts are stored as fat.
So this is the most key factor which is included in each of the situations I explain down bellow.
And Yes!
If this happens the dieter is storing fat, which means he or she gets fatter.
The essential fuel for the human body is the fat, either if it is the already stored or the one from the food, but in order to be accessible, there must be no glucose available in the body.
All of the muscle glycogen should be depleted.
When there are carbohydrates available, the body always prefers to use them instead of tapping to it’s own fat store for energy.
This is how the human bodies function.
It does everything in order to make sure there are enough energy stores for periods of not enough food or even cataclysms.
In the paragraphs bellow we are going to take a look at the three most common scenarios when person gets fat from carbs.
So without further a do I would like to start with the first one.
#1. An obese individual who has sedentary lifestyle.
Probably the most common of all three and in the same way one of the most neglected.
I can’t understand how many people neglect this problem when obesity is one of the main reasons so many people suffer from diabetes and other deadly diseases.
Any additional carbohydrate consumption of a insulin resistant person immediately worsens his condition.
In other words:
Fat people always get Fatter from carbs period.
Why this happens ?
The only people that can‘t get fat from moderate or more likely adequate carb consumption are the ones who cary more:
Muscle Mass.
Even though human body has the ability to store only that much carbohydrate,
athletes who cary sufficient amounts of muscles are able to store more.
The bodies of these type athletes tend to also be able to utilize and use the glucose a lot more effective.
But for already fat person this has detrimental effect.
It not only makes him or her more fat, but also clocks the arteries and makes tumors grow.
Because of the lack of muscle mass fat people can’t store carbs as glycogen so their fat cells spill over and they get fatter.
Even they do have muscles, the overweighted people do not cary nowhere near enough muscle mass to store the carbohydrates as glycogen.
This whole process does more and more damage to their whole bodies and system.
Complex or not complex, safe or not safe starch, toxic or not…
All of the carbohydrates are turned in to sugar and all of the excess sugar is turned to fat.
Which in this scenario is probably whole amount that is consumed by the person…
Truth to be told …
There is no such thing as safe starch when it comes to obese or sick individuals.
Neither if it comes to not healthy nor fit ones…
#2. Carb-loading Misconceptions and Mistakes.
Mostly seen amongst fitness enthusiast and gym rats the second bright example of when people get fat from carbs is the improper use of the carbohydrate loading or carb re-feed protocols.
Probably the very often seen mistakes I see here are:
*Introducing too much carbs.
For some reason a lot of people want to believe they need a lot more carbohydrates than they actually do, which is the main reason why the get bad results from their re-feeds.
What happens is they introduce way more carbs than their body can handle, and when their muscles are already full with glycogen all of the excess amounts are stored as fat.
This 90% of the time this leads to bloat and weight gain on the next day.
*Not using the right foods.
A lot of today’s trainees think they should eat all of the junk food in the local grocery store neglecting two really important details.
*Not all carbs are equal.
Most of the starch based foods available in today’s supermarkets are highly processed and packed with all kinds of sugars and chemicals.
All of those produce damaging effects on the cells.
They may cause a lot of negative effects such as increasing inflammation, aging and also things like anxiety, depression, sadness.
In the end of the day it all comes to how sensitive the individual, but in some cases those foods may trigger things like:
Panic Attacks.
*Processed carbs are almost never just carbs.
Even obvious for a lot of people I would like to point this one out.
All of the cookies, cereals, crackers and pizzas are never made only from carbs.
Along with the higher sugars there is as well high consistency of trans fats.
I am not going to get in details about how the trans fats are most likely one of the main reasons huge part of the earth’s population today is sick and obese, because it seems that most of today’s bodybuilding enthusiast and trainees tend to not be interested in health or in how they feel in particular.
Based on my personal observations more and more of modern era’s gym goers, really don’t care about the fluctuations in their mood and how the feel mentally on the day to day basis as long as they are
“shredded”
Counting calories is one of the biggest interests for those people.
So in order to make the article useful for them as well I would like to genuinely point out or remind the simple fact that:
*Using junk food for carb re-feed instead of clean safe starch sources very often leads to a caloric overload.
On the next day after the enormous caloric consumption instead of more vascular and fuller most of the people wakes up…
Bloated and Moon Faced …
Most of the times all this is caused by the growing popularity of approaches such as IIFYM (if it fits your macros), having cheat meals, days and even the binge eating itself many people are mislead to a degree where they believe all those things are fine and even healthy.
But in the reality it is actually the opposite…
*People use all of these as an excuse for their weaknesses, food or sugar addiction and cravings which totally supports the developing of eating disorders.
#3. Keto and Paleo.
Carb Refeeds.
This one probably deserves it’s own post, because truth to be told is my favorite of all them three.
It is because this is really hot topic nowadays, since a lot of people really try hard to jump on the Paleo | Keto lifestyle.
What I see is a lot of people simply deny to understand the simple Facts
*Humans are either a Sugar | Carb Burners or Ketone | Fat Burners.
*They do not burn both at the same time.
*When available human body always prefer to burn the carbs first, so it basically keeps or stores the fats.
If decided to do a carb re feed while on ketogenic paleo diet and you want to avoid fat gain, there are few things you have to remember in order to turn it to success.
1. You do not need a carb re feed.
Despite what all of the Gurus say the truth is if you are a highly fat adapted individual in other words a fat burning machine and you feel great there is no point for a carb up.
Instead you can play with bumping up you total calories from fat and protein here and there during the week in order to create a bit of calorie cycling effect.
2. The re feed will definitely kick you out of ketosis.
As I already mentioned few times in the paragraphs above, you can either burn carbs or fat and not both at the same time.
Since the carbs always burn faster than fats, in the moment you introduce them, your body will immediately switch the energy source and will become a sugar burner until depletes what you ate and enter the state of ketosis again.
3. Carbs on top of the Fats.
When following a high fat meal plan or diet, the worst thing you can possibly do is to add the carbs on top of the fats. Since the carbohydrates are going to kick you out of keto you are not going to able to access the fats, so you are going to store them.
This most definitely will lead to Fat gain.
And very bad weight gain and due to water retention.
As you probably know a gram of carbs has around 4 calories such as a gram of protein, when the fats has around 8 to 9.
In the moment you introduce the carbs all the fats you consume along with them will be stored in your cell.
Almost every time when I hear someone does a carb re feed on keto they do not cut all of the fats. On the next day the wake up bloated puffy and probably have the moon face effect going.
Me personally always try to minimize my fat intake every time I decide to consume carbs.
But for more staying out of ketosis for a while and than jumping back.
On days after consuming carbs in form of
Toxic Free White Basmati Rice
I always look fuller, bigger and a lot more vascular.
If I continue in few days I start to have veins around my abs.
I do a lot of lean beaf and chicken for protein along with the basmati for fuel.
I add some veggie occasionally but is mostly white rice and high protein meats.
It works great, but keep in mind I am extremely well adapted to the
OMAD
One Meal A Day
Lifestyle.
So I hope all the stuff above makes some sense and probably you will learn something.
Thanks for the reading.
Until Next Time
Yours Truly : PETEONTHEBEAT
