3 Reasons Why Eating Less Carbs is Making You Fat

Everyone treats carbs like the rich friend that nobody really likes. You know, you keep him around because he has all the latest toys, a pool in his backyard, and he volunteers to pick up the cheque from time to time. He supplies the fun. Unfortunately, when it’s time to send out invites to the fat loss party his name is usually left off the list.

You have some fat to lose so you nix the carbs to kick start the fat burning festivities, and guess what? It works. That is, until it doesn’t and you crash and burn. Performance in the gym goes way down, your muscles feel flat, and the very sight of a piece of bread is enough to spark a mental breakdown. None of those are even the slightest bit helpful during a successful quest for your abdominals.

Less Intense Workouts

Fat loss needs high intensity training and high intensity training prefers a quick energy source. That preferred source is carbohydrates. Fat, although it contains more energy, can’t be converted into energy fast enough to fuel things like heavy weight training or explosive movements (stuff that any effective fat loss program has).

At our gym we’ve had cases of people not eating enough carbs and showing up for a fat loss workout only to tap out halfway. Their energy drops, they break out into cold sweats and some throw up. Their blood sugar is way too low for the demands of the workout. It sucks and when dropping carbs too low it happens more often than not. I don’t think I have to explain how a string of horrible workouts will impact your results.

After setting your caloric deficit and protein, slowly lower your carbs depending on your results and how you feel. If you continue to lose fat and your performance is steady then stick with it. If your performance is taking a big hit try upping your carbs a bit and see if it returns to normal.

Flat muscles

Drastically cutting carbs also empties the stores of glycogen in your muscles, giving them a flat, less full appearance. Not the greatest illusion when you’re trying to maintain as much muscle as possible during your diet. Fat loss is a largely psychological endeavour; the key is to make it as easy on your mind as possible to make it sustainable.

Keep the amount of carbs in your diet that will allow you to make progress while feeling good.

No Fun

Carbs are tasty and fat loss doesn’t have to be a dreadful experience devoid of the foods you love. If everyday you have to expend all your energy just trying to prevent yourself from raiding the bread section of your local grocery store then I can guarantee your fat loss efforts won’t last long.

For our clients we make sure that they can still have some of the foods they want to eat (many of them happen to be carbs) during their fat loss diets. Remember what I said about making it sustainable?

You can eat the carbs you want if you stay within your allotment for the day and don’t exceed your calories. It doesn’t mean your carb intake can consist entirely of doughnuts though, lean towards quality sources  such as rice, potatoes, or beans.

A case for carbs

When setting up a fat loss plan your approach must be sustainable for the long haul. You need to perform well in the gym and your diet has to work with your strengths and weaknesses. You may have to eventually drop your carbs but making huge cuts right from the beginning is a sure fire way to create a horrible experience with nothing to show for it.

Experiment to find out the right amount of carbs for you.