I’ve worked with thousands of clients over the past 10 years on weight loss and getting in shape. The “biggest” misconception everyone has is carbohydrate intake. People are scared to death of carbs when they start a weight loss program because they’re afraid of gaining weight.
Well let me assure you, it’s 100 per cent false! Good news right?
The problem is not carbs itself; it’s the type of carbs that are the problem. In today’s society we eat a lot of processed, simple carbs, which turn into sugar very quickly in the blood stream and create a spike in our insulin levels.
When this continuously happens, our body becomes insensitive to that hormone creating an ‘insulin sensitivity.'
Insulin can either have a profound effect on your weight loss goals and body transformation or it can be a fat-derailing nightmare. Its main function is to keep your blood sugars in line and assist in clearing them from your blood stream and to shuttle them to your muscles for energy expenditure instead of being stored as fat.
This is how the body is supposed to work, but in most cases that’s not what we see. However, with all the processed carbs being consumed, most people are suffering from some level of insulin resistance, which is where insulin is no longer able to efficiently remove blood sugar from the blood stream.
Result ~ REDUCED fat burning and INCREASED fat storage.
On top of that, this can now lead to type-2 diabetes plus an array of other health issues. The key to eating carbs without gaining fat and creating insulin sensitivity is how and when you eat them.
Ideally you want to eat your carbs later in the day, research indicates that a group studied lost 30 per cent more muscle by eating carbs in the morning compared to only seven per cent of the evening eaters. More fat loss was also recorded with the evening carb eaters versus the morning carb eaters.
Things to aim for:
- You want minimum insulin release - This is what happens when your body is highly sensitive to insulin, that’s a good thing because it takes less insulin to clear the out the blood sugars. Eat carbs that are low on the Glycemic Index.
A quick and efficient blood sugar clearance - With high sensitivity, this will be the normal response. - Maximum glycogen uptake – This is where the body stores and converts bloods sugar (glucose) into glycogen, and if we’re highly sensitive to insulin, it stores them in our muscles to be used for future energy and not fat.
- Minimum fat storage – This kind of repeats the above statement because this goes hand in hand. With high sensitivity to insulin, we develop a lower storage of fat.
Here are a few important things to increase your insulin sensitivity and lose weight:
- Stop eating processed carbs. Period.
- Eat a hypo-caloric balanced diet to get a dietary induced thermogenic response.
- Eat high protein and high, healthy fats in the morning and at lunch with a complex carb (veggies)
- Eat a high protein, high healthy carb meal at dinner. This will help increase your leptin signal, which will increase your fat burning during the night and the following day. Carbs in the evening show to increase your serotonin levels aiding in a better sleep. Remember, it has to be the right carbs!
- If working out in the a.m., be sure to have a carb load, maybe 30% of daily carb allowance afterwards.
Here’s the good carbs you can eat, these are whole grains that will be slow releasing keeping your insulin levels fairly neutral.
Grains, Legumes & Lentils
- Long grain white rice
- Brown rice
- Buck wheat
- Pearl barely
- Quinoa
- Sweet potatoes or yams
- Whole or multigrain pasta
- Oatmeal
- Chickpeas
- Kidney beans
- Lentils
- Black eyed beans
- Split peas
Fruits
- Berries
- Apples
- Grapes
- Plums
- Cantaloupe
- Peaches
- Pineapple
- Pears
- Oranges
- Grapefruit
- Bananas green tipped
- Cherries
- Mango
- Dates
These are just some of the carbs on the low glycemic index. Search out the full list to give you more variety. If you make these changes in your carb consumption, you will be very pleased at how you look and feel. I promise you! Yours in health!
