How to Get Started With Weight Loss Nutrition
Must Reads | Nutrition | Weight Loss 6 min ReadIf you want to lose weight chances are this isn’t your first attempt at fat loss. It probably isn’t…
Low carb & no carb (ketogenic) diets are all the rage right now.
Instagram models, Women’s World magazine, and Dr. Oz have demonized carbs to the point of no return.
The Serious Guide to Nutrition (our free guide) promotes a balanced approach to eating (yes, you can eat carbs on our plan).
But carbs are not the enemy. There are billions of people who use white rice (OMG!) as their primary source of calories and they stay lean.
So what gives?
How can people eat carbs all day long and stay skinny, and other people can completely cut them out to get skinny?
What’s really going on here?
It’s not the carbs
Carbs are so important for your body that it stores them in the liver & your muscles for later use. Glucose (blood sugar) is the primary source of energy for the brain.
Carbs have 4 calories per gram just like proteins do, and fats have 9 calories per gram. If anything you would think fats are the enemy because of how calorie dense they are, but hating fats is so 90’s.
It’s not Insulin
Carbohydrates have no magical fattening properties despite what is commonly believed. Insulin is an important hormone in the body that is absolutely vital for life, and proteins can spike insulin just like carbs. Insulin isn’t the enemy either.
Then WHy?
REason #1
Everyone who goes low carb drops 5-10 pounds in their first week.
And as soon as they eat carbs again they put that weight back on. Why?
Remember when I said the body stores carbs in the liver & muscle? When it stores carbs it also holds extra water. Almost 3 times as much water as carbs.
When you spontaneously stop taking in carbs the body digs into its storage tanks (your muscle & liver) for this important fuel source. This means you drop weight in the form of glycogen (the storage carbs) & water.
That 5-10 pounds in the first week isn’t all fat. Not even close.
REason #2
Here’s the reason low carb works after the first week.
Get ready.
IT’S BECAUSE YOU STOP PUTTING JUNK IN YOUR MOUTH.
I can’t think of a junk food that doesn’t have carbs in it.
Pizza? Carbs.
Ice cream? Loaded with sugar.
Chips? More carbs.
Reason #3
And last but not least: you are practicing mindfulness.
This is the reason any diet or exercise plan works. It’s because you stick to it, and make conscious decisions when you eat.
Going low carb means you choose foods that will bring you closer to your goals instead of further away. That’s where the real magic is.
Is Low Carb The Only Way?
No. There are countless diets that work, but the best plans aren’t “diets”.
The real definition for diet is what you eat over a long period of time–6 months or more. That’s what really constitutes a diet.
If you look at the word “diet” as something you do to lose weight then you will never be successful keeping the weight off.
If you want permanent weight loss you need to make sustainable lifestyle change.
That’s exactly what you will find in our free book, The Serious Guide to Nutrition.
It will teach you everything I learned when I coached Athena to lose 200lbs in two years.