Did you know you can still eat carbs without gaining weight?
Giving up carbs entirely can make you miserable. But you can still eat the right carbs in the right amount at the right time and still lose weight.
Restricting carbs to extremely low amounts all the time can feel like pure torture and not sustainable in the long run. It gets old and has to eat only protein and fat all the time. You can only eat so much meat and eggs in a day!
So instead of giving up carbs entirely for the rest of your life, I’m going to show you how to still eat them without gaining weight. Carbs play a key role in an overall healthy diet, but most people are just doing it wrong.
Why You Can’t Eat Carbs Without Gaining Weight
Eating carbs raises blood sugar and causes a spike in insulin. Insulin is a hormone that puts your body into “fat storage mode.”
This is when your body stops burning fat and starts producing more body fat. Insulin Essentials tells your body to stop burning fat and instead absorb all the fat and glucose in the blood and store it as body fat.
This is one of the drivers of weight gain, obesity, diabetes and insulin resistance. Insulin resistance occurs from eating too many carbohydrates and sugars over a long period of time.
Your body has a hard time releasing insulin to lower blood sugar. As your body becomes more insulin resistant, it becomes easier to store more food as fat.
Your blood sugar also drops due to the release of insulin after eating carbohydrates. This can send you on a rollercoaster ride of blood sugar spikes and drops for the rest of the day.
As your blood sugar drops, you crave foods rich in sugary carbs to restore it. So, as your hunger pangs rise, you become more tempted to eat more sugar and carbs, continuing the cycle.
To eat carbs and prevent blood sugar and insulin spikes, try taking a carb blocker before eating. This helps keep blood sugar stable and prevents the body from going into “fat storage mode.”
Carbs That Make You Gain Weight
So eating too many bad carbs can indeed lead to belly fat. But not all carbohydrates are created equal.
There are two types of carbohydrates – simple and complex. Simple carbs, like those in candy and soda, are quickly broken down by your body and can send your blood sugar skyrocketing. Complex carbohydrates, like those found in fruits and vegetables, take longer to break down.
If you want to eat carbs without gaining weight, you should avoid simple carbs.
Simple carbohydrates include:
- sugar
- candy
- soda
- White bread
- pastry
- white pasta
- ice cream
- biscuit
- juice
- Honey
- rice
Starches and high glycemic carbohydrates should also be avoided.
Starch has a high glycemic load (GL). That means starches can spike your blood sugar levels and be high in carbs and calories overall. This makes you more likely to store the starchy carbs you just ate as fat.
Some examples of starchy carbohydrates include:
- Potato
- bread
- cereals
- oatmeal
- oatmeal
- corn
- rice
- pasta
- bean
High glycemic index (GI) carbs are those that make your blood sugar spike, which in turn also increases insulin. Elevated insulin will promote fat storage in body tissue. It can also increase hunger and cravings for more sugary carbohydrate foods.
Therefore, losing weight and preventing weight gain is primarily about keeping insulin levels low. This makes it less likely that you will store what you just ate as body fat.
what are healthy carbohydrates
So, what are some healthy carbs you can eat to lose weight?
Carbs are actually healthy and good for you when they are low in sugar, starch and low on the glycemic index.
Carbohydrates are essential in your diet because vegetables and fruits are considered in this food group. Vegetables and fruits contain vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals, antioxidants and dietary fiber that benefit your health.
It is best to choose “slow carbohydrate” vegetables and fruits to eat. These are low on the glycemic index and have a low glycemic load.
Here is a list of the best vegetables:
- spinach
- Swiss chard
- kale
- kale
- broccoli
- Haricot vert
- snow peas
- asparagus
- bell pepper
- tomato
Fruit can fall into a gray area due to a number of factors. First, you want to make sure the fruit isn’t too sugary and has a high glycemic index.
Then you want to check to see if it has a lot of fiber so it slows down absorption in your body and reduces blood sugar spikes. Finally, make sure you don’t eat too much, otherwise, the GL will be too high.
If you are insulin-resistant and metabolically inflexible, eating fruit will make you fat . Drinking fruit juice is bad for you because you lose all the fiber that slows the absorption of the sugar in the fruit.
- blueberry
- raspberry
- strawberry
- blackberries
- avocado
But having said that, eating fruit is much better than eating a candy bar if it satisfies your sweet tooth. So if you have a lot of weight to lose then I suggest you reduce your fruit consumption or just eat low-sugar fruits.
If you’re having trouble eating enough greens, try adding super greens powder to your routine. It’s a quick and easy way to get all the benefits of vegetables without eating a bunch of them every day.
How many carbs to eat without gaining weight
Now that you know bad carbs vs. healthy carbs, you should also know how much you can eat without gaining weight.
Most people benefit from a low-carb diet because it’s easy to overeat, especially bad carbs. And most people aren’t very physically active, so they never actually burn off the carbs or fat they have stored in them.
But just because you’re on a low-carb diet doesn’t mean you have to have a zero-carb intake. Low-carb diets are great for weight loss, but giving up all carbs completely isn’t going to make life fun.
carbohydrate cycle
Carb cycling is the process of changing the amount of carbohydrates you eat each day or week. Typically, you will have higher carb days and lower carb days. This approach can help promote fat loss while maintaining muscle mass.
There are a few different ways to do carb cycling. One is to have one high-carb day followed by one or more low-carb days and repeat.
Another option is to do two high-carb days in a row followed by one or more low-carb days. Finally, you can also do three high-carb days followed by two low-carb days.
Carb cycling allows you to still eat carbs but in a strategic way. My typical carb cycling schedule is:
- Monday: Low Carb
- Tuesday: Low Carb
- Wednesday: Low to Moderate Carb
- Thursday: Low Carb
- Friday: Low Carb
- Saturday: High Carb
- Sunday: Moderate Carbs
dining time
When you eat carbohydrates also affects whether you store those carbohydrates as fat.
It is best to avoid carbohydrates in the morning. Why? It can cause blood sugar spikes and crashes that keep you stuck for the rest of the day. You’ll feel more tired throughout the day and feel more hungry.
Intermittent fasting throughout the morning will instantly cut your daily calorie intake by 550 calories. You’ll also get better blood sugar control, insulin sensitivity, and it’s easier to burn fat stores for fuel.
If you’ve ever had an afternoon crash, too many carbs earlier in the day can greatly affect this. You’re also more likely to crave sugar and carbohydrates for the rest of the day. Studies have found that those who eat a protein-rich breakfast feel fuller than those who eat a carbohydrate-rich breakfast.
Why You Should Eat Carbs After Your Workout…
Carbohydrates after a workout can help restore lost glycogen. Glycogen is basically carbohydrates stored in the muscles and liver. Your body first uses them for fuel and then stores them as fat.
Glycogen supplementation can improve the muscle recovery process. For example, if you are an athlete or bodybuilder, it may be beneficial to eat carbohydrates after a workout.
However, if your goal is to lose weight, eating carbs after a workout can help encourage the storage of carbs as glycogen rather than body fat.
How many carbs at night will make you fat…
Eating too many carbs at night can lead to weight gain because you don’t burn them off while you sleep, rather than earlier in the day when you would be more active.
But if you’re restricting carbs the rest of the day, this can safely free up something in the evening. Eating carbohydrates at night can also help you sleep better . It increases tryptophan in the brain, which boosts serotonin and helps you sleep better.
But some studies have found that eating more carbs in the morning can also be beneficial, especially if you’re physically active, exercise vigorously, or are an athlete or bodybuilder. So it’s best to test out what works best for you.
If you eat carbs in the evening, try to limit your carbs in the evening. I stick to the 1/4 gram carb rule per pound of body weight. So if you weigh 200 pounds, you can have up to 50 grams of carbohydrates in the evening.
serving size
Limiting your portion sizes to prevent yourself from gaining weight from eating carbs is best. Becoming more “carb conscious” will go a long way towards losing weight.
Even if you eat the right carbs, you can still gain weight by eating too much. As your portion sizes increase, your glycemic load increases, which can lead to weight gain.
So if you’re trying to lose weight, it’s best to keep the carbs you eat low. It’s easy to overeat carbs because they’re delicious, but try to adjust your portion sizes before eating them.
Otherwise, we all know how easy it is to end up eating an entire bag of chips.
macro combination
Try combining the carbs you eat with protein or fat. Protein is less fattening than carbs and is more filling. A high-protein diet will improve body composition by burning fat and building lean muscle.
So instead of eating an entire bowl of pasta, fill 1/3 of your plate with pasta and fill the other 2/3 with a lean protein like chicken.
Don’t mix carbs with fat…
Be careful mixing carbs with fat. Meals high in carbohydrates and fats overload the brain’s reward centers, encouraging you to eat more. That’s why carb-laden fatty junk foods like pizza and cheeseburgers are so tasty and beneficial. They are also the worst for us.
If you eat too many fatty carbohydrates, the sugar can cause insulin to be released. This makes it more likely that you will store all your calories from carbohydrates and fat as body fat.
Fat has 9 calories per gram, more than double the 4 calories per gram of protein and carbohydrates. So you end up storing more fat by eating too many carbohydrates that contain fat.
But fat can help slow the absorption of carbohydrates and prevent too many insulin spikes. If you’re combining fat and carbs, try eating some fiber first.
If you’re going to eat fatty carbs, then make sure you eat a small portion of low-sugar, non-starch carbs, which have a low glycemic index.
How to Eat Carbs Without Retaining Water
If you’ve spent the weekend eating a lot of carbs, there’s a good chance you’ll be feeling bloated on Monday morning. This is due to water retention caused by eating too many carbohydrates.
When you eat carbohydrates, some of them are stored as glycogen in your muscles and liver. This is the first form of fuel your body uses before fat is stored.
But for every 1 gram of glycogen, you also store 3 grams of water. So when you eat more carbs and store more glycogen, you also have more water weight.
This is why a low-carb diet can quickly flush away 3-8 pounds of water weight. Your body burns glycogen and flushes away water retention. It also causes your body to burn more fat for fuel since it has no glycogen stores left.
So eating low-carb on the Monday after a weekend high-carb meal is a great way to shed water weight.
You can eat carbs and prevent this water weight by exercising first. You’re better off burning glycogen with resistance training weights first, and then doing cardio.
Also, be sure to avoid carbohydrates that contain sodium. Sodium also increases water retention, so if you want to maintain water weight while eating carbs, make sure the carb source is low in sodium.
That’s easy with whole food sources of carbohydrates like vegetables and fruits. But if you eat processed foods like pizza, chips, pretzels, French fries, etc., they are often high in carbs and sodium.
in conclusion
It’s possible to eat carbs without gaining weight, as long as you follow a few simple guidelines. For example, try combining carbohydrates with protein or fat, avoid eating them with fat, and exercise beforehand.
Avoid bad carb foods and eat more healthy carb foods like vegetables and low-sugar fruits. If you’re eating sugary or carbohydrate-rich foods, try taking a carb blocker beforehand to prevent blood sugar and insulin spikes.