Friday, August 1, 2008

Do you fear Carbs?

Carbs. Ever since Atkin's busted onto the scene the low fat craze subsided and people began fearing carbohydrates. Much like the low fat craze highly processed foods took on a new look carrying less carbs. Things like low carb pasta, and bread emerged and people quickly jumped on board because anyone who has been on a low carb diet knows that it works. Heck I even managed to lose over 30lbs going low carb and for a while I was convinced to fear the carb. Unfortunately when you add exercise to the equation not having carbohydrates makes things a bit more difficult. Low carb made me eat healthier and shy away from a lot of terrible foods, and that is what made me lose the weight.

Well again people took things a bit too far, myself included. Cutting out vegetables and fruit while eating extremely fatty cuts of calorie dense meat and processed cheeses isn't going to make someone the poster boy of health. With carbohydrates if your timing is good then you simply have nothing to worry about. Keep carbs lower throughout the day while having some following intense exercise and you should be fine(I've already told you that you should be exercising right?). Those that tolerate carbohydrates better than others can get away with having some at breakfast too.

As an example take a look at livin la vida low carb blog. Granted using low carb strategies this guy was able to shed 180lbs which is awesome, but recently has gained 30lbs back while following a low carb plan. If you take a look at his recent diet postings it's easy to see where he has gone wrong, but he is eating low carb, so he should be losing weight, right? Having .5 servings of vegetables (check July 27th) isn't really the best long term health advice. Sorry folks the carbs in broccoli aren't going to make you fat. It just isn't going to happen. I'm glad he's decided to ditch the crappy processed low carb junk. I'm sure that will help out a bit, but again he still hasn't squashed his limiting factor.

So in short, eat your veggies like your momma told ya, and stop fearing every single carbohydrate. All carbs were not created equal and stop with this a calorie is a calorie nonsense. Limiting sugars and most processed pre-packaged foods by focusing on whole foods and lean protein sources and you'll be well on your way to a healthy lifestyle a slimmer waistline and long term results.

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