The Truth About Carbohydrates

[OhTwadi]

I figured might as well put this post in the correct section

It is perfectly fine to have carbs, provided they are healthy carbs. By that I mean whole wheat or whole grain carbs. Stay as far as you can from white starchy carbs, things like white bread cause a lot of issues in the body.

Your body has 2 distinct mechanism by which it breaks down fat/food for energy; i) uses stored fat, and ii) uses the food eaten. There has been conclusive research done which showed how the body processes a high carb meal. For this research, test subjects are put into three groups and fed them a high carb meal, pasta.

Group 1: was idle, not doing any activity

Group 2: did a light to moderate workout - brisk walking; light jogging etc

Group 3: did a high intensity workout - heavy weights, circuits, intense cardio etc

Following was discovered:

Group 1: As they were inactive, when they ingested the pasta meal, their bodies stopped using it's fat stores for energy completely. In addition to that, the pasta eaten was mostly stored as fat as well.

Group 2: After the moderate workout, when they ingested the pasta meal, their bodies ability to use fat stores for energy largely diminished. Some of the eaten pasta was used for energy but about 30-40% was stored as fat still

Group 3: After the intense workout, when they ingested the pasta meal, their bodies ability to use fat stores for energy largely remained unchanged. In fact, for some test subject this accelerated even. A key point to note here is that the eaten pasta meal was NOT stored as fat and almost all of it was used for recovery purposes. Even a few hours after this intense workout, their body was still using the eaten meal + the fat stores for energy. Resulting in a much larger calorie expenditure than the other 2 groups.

Case in point, have all the healthy carbs you can after your workout and you will be fine. If you do not have carbs post workout, your body's ability to repair itself diminishes to a large extend. So you will be sore for longer which in turn will mean that you will not be able to workout to your full potential for a longer period of time as well.

It's now well established that carbs are not bad for you, it's a matter or timing and amount. If you want to loose fat, it's a simple matter of keeping your calorie intake marginally smaller than what you expend through out the day. The thing to remember is that, the difference should not be too large or your body will either go into starvation mode where it will being to store as much eaten food as possible as fat or it will not be able to repair itself post workout. By and large, it does not matter where the calories are coming from, although there is some debate on this.

[dalsingh101]

Processed carbs are probably behind the diabetes epidemic in the world right now. Desis need to seriously stay away from white bread, excessive potatoes/cereals, sugar, even most types of rice.

People need to realise that some of these things send sugar levels spiking into the atmosphere even worse than sugar.

I had an uncle with diabetes and we tested his levels even after food the doctors here tell you is okay to eat (i..e brown bread etc), and even they shot the 'sugarh' up.

As most of live quite sedentary lives compared to our people only a few generations ago, we should probably drastically cut down on (if not eliminate) the bad, white processed carbs and generally go easy on all the other types too replacing cereals with more veg (especially green stuff).

Broccoli rocks!!

lol

[StartingStrengthSikh]

I think as a vegetarian it's the hardest to keep carb levels low. Not impossible but definitely difficult - hence why you never see 'lean' yet muscular sikhs

[VanHelsingh]

I think as a vegetarian it's the hardest to keep carb levels low. Not impossible but definitely difficult - hence why you never see 'lean' yet muscular sikhs

Great point. Its an issue I'm wondering how to overcome. I can't cut out carbs completely because, being a vegetarian, that means all I would eat is raw fruits and vegetables. A man can't live on those alone.

[OhTwadi]

Please do not cut carbs completely as that is the primary fuel source for our bodies. More specifically, our brains run solely on carbs.

The key is moderation, the days you are active, it's perfectly fine to have carbs. I would even say that it is necessary to consume carbs on such days. While days when you just sit on your butt all day, probably best to reduce the amount of carbs or even food for that matter. I would also add that occasionally it's perfectly fine to have heavy carb meals even if you are spending most of the day doing nothing. It only becomes a problem when you start over eating on a regular basis.

The healthiest people in the world consume food in such a way that their total consumption is just under total expenditure. In other words, their total calorie intake is just under what the body needs. But, this will not work if you are doing heavy weight training. In my opinion, no one should be lifting heavy weights anyway but that's another topic.