By For as long as I can remember, carbs have always been a food source of great detriment in a diet that’s primary aim is weight loss.
When you think of it, all the most popular diets on the market today have some carb restrictions.Many health professionals immediately dismiss carbs from nutritional plans without considering the client’s needs. Unfortunately, I know this all too well, as it’s happened to me — with disastrous results.
When I went low to no carb for body shredding purposes, I felt
- Tired
- Angry
- Moody
- My muscles were flat and lifeless
- My lifting suffered, and so did my drive to exercise.
What I initially experienced from Weight training is elation from a mental and emotional perspective. But, unfortunately, my love for weight training started to take a downhill turn. I believe the problem lies with the misconception of what carbs do when they hit our mouth and then move their way into our digestive tract. When you eat a carb source, your body breaks it down into glucose or “sugar” molecules absorbed into the bloodstream. As glucose levels rise in your body, insulin’s released from the pancreas, which is necessary to move glucose from the blood into the cells, where it can be used as energy or stored for later use. When these carbs are not needed for energy usage right away, they are stored in the liver and muscle for later use in the form of glycogen. This is excellent news if you are a marathon runner or lift heavy weights regularly.
But what is the average person to do?
Let me first explain how carbs create this “fat” look for many people and what it means.
If you have ever been on the keto diet before (and admit it, we all have been sucked into the fad), you might recall the rapid weight loss you experienced initially, and then you slowly introduced carbs back in, the weight seemed to pile back on?
I had the same occurrence after my bodybuilding diet ended. I went completely low carb for almost a year, and then suddenly, Ange blew up to a size that she was uncomfortable with in many ways!
It’s natural for someone to proclaim that carbs make you fat -and the only way to deal with it is to eliminate them from your diet.
And the cycle continues on and on and on.
If you do this indefinitely, what kind of fun can you have with your diet long term — not that much, really. In fact, the restriction can bring on things like binge eating or worse — intense and overpowering cravings.
If you are like me and don’t want to give up carbs, let me go over the actual scientific occurrence when you eat carbs to get a bit of clarity. Glycogen’s structure is perfect for soaking up water.When you burn through your stored glycogen on a low-carb diet, the water is then released. When you start to replenish it again, your body begins to hold more water. This is an entirely natural process, but it can drive the dieter up the wall with all the scale fluctuations. If it so happens that your weight goes up overnight or with an hour, rest assured it’s due to gaining water. So when you consume carbs, you are soaking up water- and water weight does occur if you regularly eat sources of carbs.
Put your sad face on now.
In my own dieting experience, I have never found a particular dietary plan that stops the dreadful occurrence of water retention. It was a normal state for me to feel bloated one minute and normal the next.
And now put on a smile as I have some good news.
After seven years of failed diets, I decided to give fasting a try due to my friend’s recommendations. I figured that I was bloated as they come and that if this doesn’t help me, surely nothing else would.
This is what happened on my fasting journey
- After one week of fasting, I felt lighter in the stomach area.
- After one month of fasting, my water retention decreased all over my body.
- By the four-month mark, I lost a lot of weight, and the bloating disappears.
- As of today, I unfortunately still experience bouts of bloating, but all women do (and some men), so I dismiss it and monitor my eating a bit more.
Why does fasting work so well?
First, it triggers the hormones necessary to create a fat-burning environment in your body. The best advantage is that as you continue to fast and train your metabolism, it will keep on putting coal on the furnace, even when you aren’t fasting. Now, how is that efficient? And all it takes is to skip a meal or two per day. Not a big deal, really in the grand scheme of things. I believe most of us eat far too much for the amount of activity we do. Everyone could use a bit of prudence and monitor what types of foods regularly make an appearance on plates. When it comes to lifestyle plans, you must weigh the pros and cons of any decision. For example, go low carb, or fast for metabolism efficiency. The decision should depend on your own goals and what works for your body type. From my experience, fasting has eliminated 98% of the issues I had with weight loss, consuming food groups and overall health. It was the perfect solution to the no-carb alternative. I don’t think there is any other lifestyle plan that beats this one. It certainly ticks all the boxes for me — and many others.What’s fascinating is that when you start fasting, it’s almost always about the weight loss — but as you progress, it shifts towards making a difference to your health, the environment and the greater good. It becomes a daily spiritual practise that continues to flourish.I’ll take some sourdough with my meal any day.