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Carbohydrates, Insuln Production, And How They KeepYou Fat |
By:
Dr. George Best |
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Carbohydrates, Insuln Production, And How They KeepYou Fat
Dr. George Best
While a common weight loss recommendation is to reduce carbohydrate intake (primarily foods like breads, cereals, pastas, and sweets), for many people it is unclear why this is so important. In fact, even some doctors and scientists insist that weight loss is a simple matter of burning more calories than one consumes and it doesn't matter what kind of foods those calories come from. This may seem logical at first, but with a greater understanding of how the body processes carbohydrates, it becomes readily apparent that certain kinds of calories are much easier to burn than others and consuming large amounts of carbohydrates, even in the context of a relatively low-calorie diet, most definitely predisposes the body to storing fat.
The primary problem with a high intake of carbohydrate is the stimulation of insulin production. The purpose of insulin is to promote the uptake of blood sugar (which after a meal is in usually in greater supply than what is needed at that particular moment in time) and store any excess for future use.
Surplus blood sugar initially is converted to a fast-energy source called glycogen, which is mostly contained in the liver and muscle tissue. The body can re-convert glycogen to blood sugar to be used for energy during short periods of physical activity. There is not very much room to store glycogen, so when additional reserve blood sugar needs to be stored beyond what can be kept as glycogen, insulin stimlates the remainder is converted to fat.
Available fat storage space is considerably greater than what is available for glycogen storage. Fat cells number in the billions, and every fat cell has an incredible ability to enlarge to meet fat storage demands - cells can expand to 100 times their original volume if needed!
Insulin has very strong effects in stimulating fat storage. In addition, because fat burning and fat storage are opposite processes, insulin has a strong suppression effect on fat burning. It is this inhibition of fat burning by insulin that makes strictly limiting carbohydrate intake so important for weight loss.
It does not take very much carbohydrate to stimulate the production of insulin sufficient to shut down the body's ability to burn fat. Just a single meal with t amount of carbs contained in the average slice of bread is sufficient to produce enough insulin to block all fat burning for 1 to 2 days - no matter what your diet is like overall and no matter how much exercise you get in those 1 to 2 days!
Some people might dispute that last statement on the basis that some people do lose weight even though they regularly consume carbohydrates. It's not that eating carbohydrates prevents all weight loss, it's that the insulin response prevents fat burning. Loss of retained water weight and weight loss through the burning of muscle and lean tissue can proceed in the presence of high insulin. The big problem here is that lean tissue is highly metabolically active, so any loss of this tissue will reduce the metabolic rate over time and make weight loss very difficult.
Because of the effects of insulin, minimizing carbohydrate intake is strongly recommended for sustainable fat burning and the most efficient and lasting natural weight loss. This is not to say that everyone will benefit from being on a high protein diet such as Atkins. Excessive protein intake can create its own problems that can ultimately interfere with ongoing weight loss due to detrimental effects on the liver. Instead, the best diet program in most intances involves eating plenty of fresh or frozen vegetables and fruits, nuts, seeds, and moderate quantities of protein from lean meats, fish, eggs, and dairy. The carbohydrates you do consume are best obtained in high-fiber forms from vegetables, fruits, seeds, and nuts, rather than from refined grains.
In some cases, even low-carb diets will sometimes allow for a "cheat" meal containing refined carbs as a reward - as often as once a week on some plans. I do not recommend this approach as it can derail your weight loss efforts in two ways. First, as we said, a single high-carb meal can block the ability of the body to burn fat for up to 48 hours. If you do the math, one high-carb meal per week would mean you could lose the ability to burn fat for up to eight days per month. In other words, you could be losing up to 25% of the effectiveness of your diet! The second problem is that eating carbs on a regular basis usually reinforces cravings. I think it is counterproductive to keep setting off cravings as this only makes your weight loss task more difficult and could result in additional cheating that could result in complete failure of your weight loss program.
You now hopefully have a more complete comprehension of why it is so important to avoid eating refined carbohydrates if you wish to burn fat and lose weight. If you can discipline yourself to stay away from carbs for a few weeks, you will likely lose any cravings for them that you might have and you'll be well on your way to lasting weight loss success.
Dr. George Best writes extensively on the subject of natural weight loss. He has been assisting people with weight loss in his practice since 1992. For additional information about developing an effective http://www.trainyourbrain4weightloss.com/ natural weight loss plan, please visit www.TrainYourBrain4WeightLoss.com. Get your own completely http://www.uberarticles.com/?id=36637&b=79 unique content version of this article.
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