By Eating absolutely no carbs is near impossible, and it’s not a sustainable way to lose weight. If you go low carb for too long, your body can still find a way to turn that protein you eat into glucose. I think many people make the mistake of eating excessive protein at the expense of carbs. Yes, protein is quite filling, but it’s still easy to overeat.
If you are training with weights or have a hefty exercise schedule, you will most definitely need some carb source in your diet. Again, your decision regarding the intake of carbs and their source will depend on your goals.
I like going low to high carb, especially around my training schedule. My favourite method is called carb cycling. This has allowed me to eat still the carbs I want whilst also maintaining a lean physique.
I trained for bodybuilding competitions many years ago, and there was a stage that I didn’t eat carb sources (apart from veggies). At the time, I did get leaner, but my muscles had the depth to them. Usually, carbs enhance muscle mass and help provide you with an excellent shape. The results of excessive carb deprivation just put my metabolism into a negative decline, and as soon as I went off my strict diet, I put on weight. This is natural after a long period of dieting, but I wouldn’t say I liked it. I spent the next ten years trying to work out what diet would work best for me, heal my metabolism, gut health, whilst allowing me to become lean again.
It’s been a long journey for me, and carb cycling was one of the fat loss tools I used along this long process. I also found that intermittent fasting did wonders as well. That with low carb, high carb consumption skyrocketed my fat loss and muscle building.
Don’t look for quick solutions to a problem; work out the root cause of your weight gain. No doubt it is one of the following:
• Snacking too often
• Eating more than your body needs
• Not training with weights to increase your metabolism
• Inconsistencies with your diet
• Over-exercising in the hope it will burn off your caloric consumption
• Excessive dieting for prolonged periods
• Gut issues and stress
I highlight these because they are prevalent, and I have gone through all of these. I consider myself the big failure of dieting with a positive outcome on the other side!
Your best friend along the dieting journey is proper nutrition, weight training, and HIIT in the mix. If you use these three tools consistently, you will get great results. It won’t be overnight, but a lifetime process.
Throw in fasting, and you fast track this. Add some carb cycling, and you have a fat-burning ignition strategy in the making! I’m living proof of that.
Please don’t eliminate carbs, but do experiment with the concepts above and see what it can do for you.
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