Do you HAVE to cut the carbs to lean out?

lucyholdcroft363

I'm losing weight steadily,around 0.6-1lbs per week. However, I know there's a huge anti-carbohydrate feeling in the world of dieting. My goal is to lose fat and maintain as much muscle as possible. My protein is over 100g a day, I weight lift heavy regularly and I do around an hour of high intensity interval cardio six times a week. I find that carbohydrates fuel my workout. Are they really the devil food?

barbecuesauce

Nope. I lost steadily with 40%+ of my diet having been carbs. I don't know how I could have taken up running without at least 100 grams a day.

IsaackGMOON

There's a huge anti-carbohydrate following because not enough people are educated on weight loss.

No, carbohydrates are not the devil. All you need is a caloric deficit to lose weight, that is all. Doesn't matter if you eat carbs.

Only real reasons to cut carbs out is for a medical reason (i.e refractory epilepsy, PCOS) or if you're cutting weight for boxing or a similar sport (low carbing decreases water weight pretty fast, which puts people into lower weight bands).

yarwell

barbecuesauce wrote: »

Nope. I lost steadily with 40%+ of my diet having been carbs. I don't know how I could have taken up running without at least 100 grams a day.

40% is restricted carbohydrate.

100g is low carb.

MamaBirdBoss

No.

Michael190lbs

I'll probably get slammed for this because science has proven it wrong but lots of bodybuilders I know in a cut diet eat lots of protein and fats (nuts) drops their carbs to 40-60 grams one day 100 the next then 40-60 then 100 and so on and they are ripped.. I'm just about to start this on monday I'm going to do 200 protein 100 fats and then the carb thing should be around 2000 calories a day. Personally I think their on steroids so who knows if that helps them cut.. One said lots of fish oil again could all be Bro-science but their ripped!!

livingleanlivingclean

Michael190lbs wrote: »

I'll probably get slammed for this because science has proven it wrong but lots of bodybuilders I know in a cut diet eat lots of protein and fats (nuts) drops their carbs to 40-60 grams one day 100 the next then 40-60 then 100 and so on and they are ripped.. I'm just about to start this on monday I'm going to do 200 protein 100 fats and then the carb thing should be around 2000 calories a day. Personally I think their on steroids so who knows if that helps them cut.. One said lots of fish oil again could all be Bro-science but their ripped!!

It's because they're eating in a deficit.

OP, the reason why you may restrict carbs is because as you lower your calories, you have to give up food from somewhere. If you're trying to retain muscle, you need your X grams protein and you also need sufficient fat grams for good health - these things should remain constant as long as possible. That leaves carbs. If you have limited carbs, time what you do have around training to fuel your workout.