Carbohydrate Strategies for Fat Loss
Carbohydrates are very much misunderstood. People go on low carb diet and drop pounds like
crazy super fast. Why? Because every gram of carbohydrate we eat hangs on to about 4 grams of
water in the body. They’re little sponges. Cut them out and drop water like it’s your job. Unfortunately,
most people find that a no-carb diet isn’t sustainable in the face of vacations, holidays, dinners out
and open bars. I hear ya. I feel the same way. Plus, it’s no fun to see the weight pile back on at warpspeed when you so much as smell a slice of bread.
Fortunately, no-carb and low-carb are not required. Honestly. We don’t have to employ superhero willpower and white-knuckle-it past the breadbasket. We can actually achieve fairly effortless
fat loss (which is waaaay better looking than just weight loss) if we employ a few pretty simple
carbohydrate strategies that won’t leave you hungry or battling sugar cravings of epic proportions.
Before we get to the strategies (or you can just jump down to the cheat sheet), let me give you an
overview of why carbs (and smart carb strategies) are such a major part of fat loss.
Your body is a pretty smart, complex machine. Much of what happens in the human body is
controlled by the endocrine system, aka your hormones. In the right hormonal environment, fat loss
is actually pretty effortless. Unfortunately, the Standard American Diet sets you up for hormonal
chaos that leaves you hungry, tired, irritable and fat. Fortunately, you can change that with a few
tweaks to your eating habits (no overhaul required).
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Carbohydrate Strategies for Fat Loss
The master fat loss hormone is insulin. Whether you’re a diabetic or you just want to shed a few
pounds, insulin is the key to effortless, sustainable fat loss. What is the biggest influencer of insulin?
Carbohydrates. All carbohydrates. Every single carbohydrate is made up of the same building
block: sugar. Whether you’re talking about an apple, a potato, a bag of pretzels, a cupcake, a bowl
of oatmeal or a plate of pasta, the building blocks are the same: sugar.
During metabolism, these carbs break down to their simplest part (say it with me now: sugar) and
that sugar travels into the bloodstream. The presence of sugar in the blood triggers the release of
insulin. Insulin is a storage hormone. Its job is fuel delivery. Sugar is fuel. Some of that fuel might be
needed immediately for energy if you happen to be running a race or being chased by a tiger. All
of the extra (which isn’t immediately needed for fuel) needs to be put away or stored. Insulin is the
usher, carrying sugar out of the blood and stashing it away for later.
The presence of insulin let’s the body know that there is a fuel excess situation in the body. Being
an efficient machine, your body won’t allow fat burning to happen when there is a fuel excess
situation. Fat burning is only allowed when the body needs energy and there isn’t any floating
around to be used up from your last meal or snack. So, simply put, circulating insulin turns off fat
burning. For this reason, we need to make food choices that have a minimal impact on blood sugar
and therefore don’t trigger a significant insulin response. This is how you allow your body to tap into
stored body fat for energy.
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Carbohydrate Strategies for Fat Loss
The Carbs & Fat Loss Cheat Sheet
1. Skip the carbs in the morning and limit them to post workout OR your dinner time meal
Why? Because you are most sensitive to a spike in blood sugar and therefore an exaggerated insulin
response in the morning. After an overnight fast, your blood sugar and insulin levels will be low
when you wake up. This makes morning the time of day when you will have the most exaggerated
response to consuming carbohydrates. I like to explain it using this analogy: Imagine you were in
a totally dark room for 12+ hours and then someone comes in and turns on a flood light. Your eyes
would have an extreme response, right? Now imagine you’ve been outside in the sun all day and
someone comes out and turns on a floodlight. Very minor response, if any, from your eyes, right?
Introducing carbs in the morning is like turning on the flood light after being in the dark room for
hours and hours. Your body has been fasting while you sleep. Your fuel is low. You will have an
exaggerated blood sugar and insulin response in the morning. This exaggerated response keeps
you out of fat burning mode longer than if you ate the same thing later in the day.
Going back to our analogy, what would happen if we turned on the flood light after being outside
all day? Very mild reaction, right? That is pretty similar to your response to carbohydrates later in
the day after your body has been responding to fat, protein and veggies in your meals and snacks.
As the day goes on, as you eat throughout the morning and afternoon, as your hormones shift with
the normal daily cycles you become less sensitive to those spikes in blood sugar and insulin. But
wait! There’s more!
There is another hormonal situation unique to the morning that creates a strong argument for
skipping the carbs at breakfast. Cortisol levels are at their peak in the morning. Cortisol, a stress
hormone, rises throughout the night and reaches it’s peak in the morning. This is part of your body’s
natural sleep/wake cycle. The rise of cortisol overnight helps you naturally wake up in the morning.
The mere presence of elevated cortisol in the morning can help facilitate fat loss. However, if you
elevate your insulin levels, game over. Cortisol compounds the fat-storing effects of insulin when
they are elevated together. Plus, high insulin and high cortisol in combination can actually trigger
the generation of brand new fat cells. No thanks!
Cortisol levels drop throughout the day. They are lowest in the evening. Again, this is part of your
body’s natural sleep/wake cycle. Lower cortisol in the evening helps you to fall asleep and stay
asleep until it is time to wake up. By limiting your carbohydrate consumption to the evening, you’ll
avoid these less-than-desirable effects of a high-insulin + high-cortisol environment.
2. Opt for carbs from whole food sources like potato, sweet potato, fruit and really work to limit
low quality carbs from sugary drinks or processed foods
These whole food sources of carbohydrate are packaged with water and fiber that benefit your fat
loss goals in a few ways:
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Carbohydrate Strategies for Fat Loss
1. The water and fiber help you stay fuller longer
2. The fiber slows down the digestive process and therefore blunts the impact on your blood sugar
and generates a smaller insulin response, allowing your body to get back to fat burner mode faster.
Remember: the key to sustainable fat loss is controlling your blood sugar and your insulin response.
3. Make sure to consume protein and or fat with your carbs (when eating the right carbs at the right
time) to minimize the impact on your blood sugar and reduce the insulin response
This is all about minimizing the impact on your blood sugar and requiring less of an insulin response.
Examples of this would include having a steak with your sweet potato or almond butter with your
apple.
3. Watch your quantity.
Carbohydrates have a dose-dependent impact on
blood sugar and therefore insulin, so portion control is
imperative. The more carbs you eat in one sitting, the
more your blood sugar will rise and the more insulin
will be deployed. Start small. Limit your serving of
carbohydrates (regardless of the source, though ideally
from whole foods) to ½ cup and monitor/adjust from
there. You’ll want to monitor your cravings, your energy
level and of course your fat loss progress. Some people
will want to scale down to ¼ cup and other people might
find they can either do ½ cup a couple times a day (not
in the morning) or they can have ¾-1 cup in the evening
and still feel great and see fat loss progress. Let your
body be your guide.
Check out PrimalPotential.com or the Primal Potential Podcast in iTunes for detailed episodes
on:
• Carbohydrate Tolerance (Q&A 2) - why some people can eat more carbs and stay very lean and
how you can improve your own carb tolerance
• Carb Spillover (Episode 009) - how many carbs your body can store before they are converted to
and stored as fat
• Fat Loss Breakfast (Q&A 6) - recipes and meal ideas for easy, grab-n-go or heat-n-eat breakfast
options that keep you in fat burning mode
• Carb Strategies for Fat Loss Comprehensive E-Course (under the “Work with Me” tab on
PrimalPotential.com) - detailed information on fruit, gluten, beans, wheat and more. How to
overcome cravings, the pros and cons of ketosis and everything you need to know about carbs &
fat loss
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Carbohydrate Strategies for Fat Loss
My Gift To You!
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carb strategies and more and I’d love for you to join me in it! This
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carbohydrate tolerance and will answer all your questions about
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Plus, it’s gives tons of practical information on tackling sugar
cravings, how to satisfy your sweet tooth without blowing your
goals and includes recipes and meal ideas! Use the coupon code
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