Ahhhh, the dreaded carbs!!! I love bread, I love pasta, I love cakes, I love every type of carb imaginable AND I eat all of them, just not all the time and probably not the typical ones you’d find. Everyone has this stigma about carbs being bad for you, it’s not that they’re ‘bad’, you’re just probably eating way too much of them. Everything can be ‘bad’ – water can kill you in a too higher an amount!
Overeating carbs is definitely your biggest issue when it comes to weight gain, even the low/moderate carbs, and unfortunately for us girls, too much weight gain can cause a huge amount of hormonal disorders like PCOS and endometriosis which makes weight loss even HARDER.
Carbohydrates spike our blood sugar every time we eat them which causes the pancreas to release insulin to drop it back to baseline. The more times we spike our blood sugar, the quicker we age and the quicker our body becomes desensitized, leading to insulin resistance.
Prolonged, excessive carbohydrate intake leads to type 2 diabetes which is on the rise and isn’t about to slow down any time soon.
What can you do?
Drop out the carbs as much as you can, start with them all or just start with a small amount, whatever works for you.
For me, I can get rid of them all at the one time, for some of my clients we still need to keep them in at times. Try to make your carb choices based around nutrient dense foods like sweet potato, basmati rice, berries, etc. and save the other carbs like pizza, pasta or alcohol to a meal or two on the weekend. Oh, and don’t be afraid to have your carbs at night, apart from post training, night time is the best time to have carbs.
Why?
They increase serotonin, or our feel good hormone, and drop our cortisol levels which is necessary in order for us to sleep.
To know if you are on the right track, get a blood test to see where your insulin levels are, then have another one after 12 weeks. Have your body fat tested regularly (every two weeks if possible) so you know when to add the carbs back in and what type will work best for you.