No one eats carbs alone

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mccindy72
mccindy72 Posts: 7,001 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Thread after thread gets posted about carbs causing weight gain, low-carb diets being required, but hey, let's get real.
Here's something to consider. The foods that some people like to point fingers at as causing the problems - cookies, cake, doughnuts, pizza, etc- all contain more than one macro. not just carbs, but also fat, and in some cases, protein as well.
The problem lies in when those foods are overeaten - the excessive intake of calories. It's not an excess of carbohydrates that causes weight gain, and it's not an excess of carbohydrates that prevents weight loss.
No one eats just one macronutrient in their diet - when food is consumed, it's a combination of macros. Blaming one of those macros for the inability of weight loss is ludicrous.
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Replies

  • arditarose
    arditarose Posts: 15,575 Member
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    truth
  • karyabc
    karyabc Posts: 830 Member
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    Come to the dark side.. We got cookies
  • zoeysasha37
    zoeysasha37 Posts: 7,089 Member
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    100% true !
    People don't want to take responsibility for their weight gain so its easier to blame carbs. They can't admit that they over ate and gained, instead they claim carbs are the culprit. Then they back it up with Dr oz woo science to make themselves feel better.

    Fact is , if you eat at a surplus you gain weight. If you eat at a deficit, you'll lose weight.

    Ive lost all my weight eating cookies ,cakes , whatever in moderation. Portion control works .

    It comes down to calories always. Cico for weight loss.
  • Orphia
    Orphia Posts: 7,097 Member
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    mccindy72 wrote: »
    Thread after thread gets posted about carbs causing weight gain, low-carb diets being required, but hey, let's get real.
    Here's something to consider. The foods that some people like to point fingers at as causing the problems - cookies, cake, doughnuts, pizza, etc- all contain more than one macro. not just carbs, but also fat, and in some cases, protein as well.
    The problem lies in when those foods are overeaten - the excessive intake of calories. It's not an excess of carbohydrates that causes weight gain, and it's not an excess of carbohydrates that prevents weight loss.
    No one eats just one macronutrient in their diet - when food is consumed, it's a combination of macros. Blaming one of those macros for the inability of weight loss is ludicrous.

    Well said!

    Also, people say carbs are bad for you, but they're forgetting that it's things like adding high sodium to them that do the most damage.
  • kk_inprogress
    kk_inprogress Posts: 3,077 Member
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    I read the title and I was all, "I eat cookies by myself all the time!"
  • nvmomketo
    nvmomketo Posts: 12,019 Member
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    Soda? Jube jubes? Sugar in coffee? Just putting that out there...

    I agree that one macro does not cause weight gain, but I believe carbs can nudge one along the path to gaining more than the other macros, especially if you have a health issue like IR, heart disease, PCOS, etc.

    For the perfectly healthy person, carbs often are not an issue, calorie counting is.
  • arditarose
    arditarose Posts: 15,575 Member
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    UltimateRBF wrote: »
    But..I eat carbs alone..in the dark where no one can see my shame.
    Just kidding, sort of.
    Nice post and good point.

    :D
  • zoeysasha37
    zoeysasha37 Posts: 7,089 Member
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    If someone has a medical condition, then by all means limit carbs.
    But for everyone else , carbs aren't anything to be afraid of. Its a macro and isn't evil !
  • nvmomketo
    nvmomketo Posts: 12,019 Member
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    thorsmom01 wrote: »
    If someone has a medical condition, then by all means limit carbs.
    But for everyone else , carbs aren't anything to be afraid of. Its a macro and isn't evil !

    Even for those with a medical condition, carbs aren't evil - just a detriment to their health (or medical condition).
  • Kalikel
    Kalikel Posts: 9,626 Member
    edited August 2015
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    This is a really good point. So many people seem to think that all foods have single macro. It is good to remember that foods have different macros, vitamins, minerals, etc.

    I hope this will clear up some confusion.

  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,943 Member
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    nvmomketo wrote: »
    thorsmom01 wrote: »
    If someone has a medical condition, then by all means limit carbs.
    But for everyone else , carbs aren't anything to be afraid of. Its a macro and isn't evil !

    Even for those with a medical condition, carbs aren't evil - just a detriment to their health (or medical condition).

    Not always. It depends on the medical condition.
  • yarwell
    yarwell Posts: 10,477 Member
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    There are foods with nearly all their calories from carbs, so eating such an item can be effectively carbs alone.

    You wouldn't live long on a carb only diet, as the minimumamount of them compatible with maintaining life is zero whereas protein and some fats are essential to life.

    The issue with carbs is the "metabolic bully" effect - eat carbs and you reduce oxidation of fat. Eat fat and you don't affect nutrient partitioning / fuel selection. I want to burn off fat as much as possible, therefore.....
  • mwyvr
    mwyvr Posts: 1,883 Member
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    Anyone looking at a doughnut as the source of all their problems is probably out to lunch, but who would be so simplistic?

    Too high a percentage of carbs in the macro mix very likely is a real problem for more than a few.
  • Orphia
    Orphia Posts: 7,097 Member
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    mwyvr wrote: »
    Too high a percentage of carbs in the macro mix very likely is a real problem for more than a few.

    See opening post.
  • Patttience
    Patttience Posts: 975 Member
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    If you analyse the diet of an overweight person you will find what it is that person needs to reduce. For me, who ate lots of sweets, cake, ice-cream and chocolate, all i needed to cut out was sugar. Sugar is carbohydrate. I wouldn't deny that most of those foods contain other macros but it was for the sweetness that i was eating so much of these foods.

    Some people eat lots of pasta and white bread amd feel they have little control over their consumption of those particular foods. That's why they want to cut those things out.

  • Orphia
    Orphia Posts: 7,097 Member
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    Patttience wrote: »
    If you analyse the diet of an overweight person you will find what it is that person needs to reduce. For me, who ate lots of sweets, cake, ice-cream and chocolate, all i needed to cut out was sugar. Sugar is carbohydrate. I wouldn't deny that most of those foods contain other macros but it was for the sweetness that i was eating so much of these foods.

    All those things also contain fat.
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
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    Patttience wrote: »
    If you analyse the diet of an overweight person you will find what it is that person needs to reduce. For me, who ate lots of sweets, cake, ice-cream and chocolate, all i needed to cut out was sugar. Sugar is carbohydrate. I wouldn't deny that most of those foods contain other macros but it was for the sweetness that i was eating so much of these foods.

    Some people eat lots of pasta and white bread amd feel they have little control over their consumption of those particular foods. That's why they want to cut those things out.

    If the culprit in your weight gain was consuming too many gumdrops, hard candy, and jellybeans you may be on to something. Everything you mentioned has a lot of fat as well, in some cases, calorie per calorie, even more than sugar. A typical vanilla ice cream for example, not even the rich kind, has equal calories from fat and carbs. Now if you liked the items you mentioned only for the sweetness, try a fat-free vanilla ice cream next time and see how you like it. I'm willing to bet you would spit that stuff out unless the manufacturer took great care with additives to make it a somewhat less ugly stepsister of vanilla ice cream.

    Many people live and thrive on an 80/10/10 diet, and many live and thrive on keto. Although neither would be my personal choice (I love my fats and carbs too much to limit either), any macro combination can lead to weight loss (or gain).
  • KittensMaster
    KittensMaster Posts: 748 Member
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    Not true

    Low Carb diets are not posted as being required for weight loss

    The most often repeated piece of information is that calories burned need to exceed calories taken in.

    Add exercise as you can to help burn more is a close second.

    This stuff isn't complicated.

  • Kexessa
    Kexessa Posts: 346 Member
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    KittensMaster wrote: »
    Not true

    Low Carb diets are not posted as being required for weight loss

    Not by the posters who understand calories in - calories out. It's the newer posters to MFP who start threads asking for meal ideas and recipes that don't include carbs. Carbs are evil! How to achieve weight loss with no carbs because, carbs are evil! How to eat in social situations where omg there are going to be those evil carbs!

    Posters who don't understand CICO are the ones posting about having to cut carbs as a requirement for weight loss. So yeah, it's pretty prevalent. Just like the 80's and 90's where fat was the big bad evil, now carbs are the big bad evil.

    Oh and it's ok to eat fat. Fat doesn't make you fat. Too many calories do.

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