Carbs - The Good, The Bad And The Other

Carbs - They're Not All The Same

There’s lots of confusion about carbs and the papers don’t help with stories about carbs this and carbs that as if they’re all the same.

They’re not.

The Good – Carbohydrates are the body’s main source of energy so we need them. In fact, most of our calories should come from carbs, but from good complex, unrefined slow-to-digest carbs. These include wholemeal bread, wholemeal pasta, brown rice, oats, etc. These are good for us, help to keep our energy levels up and keep our blood sugar levels stable.

The Bad – However, the world we live in today is awash with bad carbs – white bread, white pasta, white rice and sugar. They’re all carbohydrates that have been refined to make them more appealing, but the process takes all the goodness away, much of the flavour and leaves behind simple sugar and starch that causes our energy levels to rise sharply and then fall just as sharply – and, unfortunately, leaves us wanting more.

The Other - Ultra low carb diets that you’ve probably heard of only work if you keep your carb intake really low – that doesn’t mean carbs are bad just bad for this particular diet.

Although carbohydrates are our bodies' preferred source of energy the body has a plan B – if there’s not enough carbohydrate in the diet the body will start digesting what else it can. Whether this is a good approach or not is hotly debated and I’m not going to wade in to that. What I will tell you is that if you’re on one of those diets you need to do it properly or not at all. You must read the books and follow the instructions.

If you’re not on an ultra low carb diet then get a good helping of good carbs with each meal and snack.

If you’re interested in reading more take a look at these excellent books by Tim Shaw.

The Truth About The Fat Burning Zone

If you've used one of the cardio-vascular (CV) fitness machines in the gym like cycles, treadmills, cross trainers, etc. you've probably seen a programme called Fat Burning or something similar on it – if you’re trying to reduce you may have used one of those programmes.

The fat burning zone is fairly moderate exercise and at this level of effort you burn a higher proportion of fat than carbohydrate.

Sounds good doesn't it?

However, if you've done this and seen how many calories you've burnt you may have been disappointed – particularly when you work out how much weight you've lost or snacks you've burnt off as a result.

Let me show you another way of looking at this.

Moderate effort may burn mostly fat, but it doesn't burn much of it and that is what you really need to be trying to do if you want to lose weight.

You’re burning calories all day long, even while you’re asleep, and most of that will be at the low rate that’s best for burning fat. When you get in to the gym you’d be better advised to put maximum effort in so that you can burn more calories.

If you burn off 2,000 calories each day, but only eat 1,700 you’re going to lose weight, but if you burn of 2,100 calories you’ll lose even more. It’s as simple as that. Exercising hard (for your age and ability) is good for the heart, the lungs and the circulation and you’ll get more of that nice buzz afterwards too.

What you may not know is that after an intense workout you will burn more calories for hours afterwards – it’s not just about the calories you burn off while you’re actually doing the exercise.

There are several ways to make cardiovascular exercise more interesting too with intervals and fartlek, but more of that another time.

For now, think about exercising harder than the fat burning zone – you’ll feel and be better for it.

If you’d like to know more get in touch and I can tell you more about it.