Fact: You can lose weight AND feel full, satisfied, and enjoy what you eat. You’re probably familiar with the terms “good carbs” and “bad carbs.” But you might find yourself avoiding them altogether just in case. You could be missing out on tasty food and losing weight faster and keeping it off! You can and should eat carbs in your diet to lose weight. Some carbohydrates can actually speed up weight-loss. Here’s a breakdown of what’s what as far as our all-time food frenemy: carbs. Your body needs sugar for energy, and it gets a lot of sugar from carbohydrates. But the kind of sugar determines whether it helps or hurts your weight-loss goals. Why does the type of carbs you’re eating make a difference in weight-loss?
Types of Carbodydrates
There are 3 types of carbohydrates – simple carbohydrates, complex carbohydrates, and fibrous carbohydrates.[1]
How Carbohydrates/Sugars Turn Into Fat
When carbohydrates are quickly broken down into sugars (like #1 and #2), your pancreas releases insulin to bring you blood sugar back down, primarily by converting excess sugar into stored fat. It does this especially when your body has too much, particularly simple, sugar to balance you out. Why you feel hungry soon after eating simple carbohydrates/sugar Due to the rapid increase and then the rapid decrease in sugar, you feel fatigued, light-headed, irritable, and lethargic. Your body has been scrambling to make sure you’re in balance and it’s wiped out! Ironically, we become hungry again shortly after, since the energy has been taken out of our bloodstream even though we have consumed enough calories. It essentially doesn’t satisfy that initial need for energy in the first place and so we are more prone to overeating. Complex fibrous carbohydrates accelerate weight loss by
Not converting to fat as quickly Stabilizing your blood sugar levels for longer. Satisfying you sooner with fewer calories, being a low energy density food.[2]
Strictly limiting your carb intake can actually be stressful for the body and contribute to adrenal fatigue.[3] But it’s important to select carbs that will benefit your body the most, not overwhelm it with more sugar than it was meant to deal with. Eating a balanced amount of the right carbs could give you just the boost you’ve been looking for in your weight-loss. Plus, you get to enjoy a wider selection of tastes and textures! A spoonful of lentils makes the scale numbers go down– in the most delightful way. Featured photo credit: Stephanie Harvey via unsplash.com
