So, are carbs evil or not?
Replies
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I used to think carbs were bad. I tried so many times to follow low carb and semi-low carbs diets and couldn't make it work in the long run. Been eating well over 200 grams of carbs a day for the past 5 weeks and this feels right. Doesn't feel like I'm dieting, yet the weight is still coming off and my body is toning up. I don't think carbs are bad anymore (at least the wholesome ones
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This was a good read; thanks!
Quite welcome! His website is a wealth of info. Worth bookmarking.0 -
Yes it is "science," as those rats have been specifically genetically engineered to behave that way. Also, leptin in rats behaves much differently than leptin in humans, and the current theory on leptin resistance is that it is an adaptation to obesity, as newer researchers are theorizing that leptin isn't actually a satiety signal (as insulin already has that job covered,) but more of an anti-starvation signal. This is why people with low levels of leptin gain weight, and is a major contributor to dieters regaining weight. Leptin levels are at a baseline. When someone gains weight, leptin levels rise. When they lose weight, leptin levels fall. When leptin levels fall, metabolism slows. When metabolism slows, the body fights back by wanting to add more weight on, out of fear of starvation.
Trying to stop confusion actually. Caloric deficit IS all that is needed. The science and math is there.
But determining what is a calorie deficit for any individual has many parameters and is not easy to determine. My macros are set for one pound a week and I faithfully follow my plan to a "t" . I also exercise what I have determined is a safe level for me and I faithfully record that. Yet, I only lose about a half-pound per week. I can tell you that if I ate half of my calories in "empty calories" (and sugar is, by anyone's measure, empty calories) I would not only stop losing weight altogether but I would also become ill. You can't slap your maxims on everyone and expect not to do real harm to people who don't know any better.
So, instead everyone should take your anecdotal experience and apply it as a universal maxim?
Not at all. I am the exception to your maxims as are many, many others---especially women.
Ok, so there are some exceptions. No one is confused about that. And as much as I'd like to take credit for being the author of the energy balance equation, as well as the theories for properly setting macronutrients, they are not "my" maxins. As the saying goes "it's science Yo!".
So is it "science" that Zucker rats become very, very fat because of their genetic inability to manufacture leptin (when given leptin injections, they return to a normal weight). Many, many obese individuals often have the ability to manufacture leptin but have apparently become resistant to its effects.0 -
I couldn't function without Carbs! Lol
I really don't know how some people survive on just protein (?)
I need to have Pasta, Rice, Bread or Potatoes with every "main" meal or it would feel like i haven't eaten enough and i 'd just feel weak and hungry very soon after.
As long as you stick to eating healthier Carbs (i.e Brown Bread, Wholewheat Pasta etc) you should be fine!0 -
Nothing wrong with carbs at all.
I just had 160g of popcorn as I diet as I've got 4000 calories to play around with any a friend brought them back from the cinema who is on a diet too.
If it it falls within your macros, there is no problem.
There is NO such thing as a bad food really.0 -
Nothing wrong with carbs at all.
I just had 160g of popcorn as I diet as I've got 4000 calories to play around with any a friend brought them back from the cinema who is on a diet too.
If it it falls within your macros, there is no problem.
There is NO such thing as a bad food really.
not from a moral perspective no, but there are less nutritional and more nutritional foods, thus bad/good - i don't know why people love playing semantics with this so much. bad and good are just easier to type than the above.0 -
not from a moral perspective no, but there are less nutritional and more nutritional foods, thus bad/good - i don't know why people love playing semantics with this so much. bad and good are just easier to type than the above.
Tell me what is wrong with a food if it fits into your daily macros?
Please go on tell me the horror of choosing a bar made out of sugar than a potato?
Tell me how this will effect the overall body composition. I'll give you a clue, it won't.
Sure, if you HAVE to have lower calories, you choose a lense dense food which may mean a basic sweet potato, but tell me how that carb is any better or worse than a pop tart if you have room in your calories?0 -
although titled 'protein' this is a great article about intake of all macros & is simple to understand;
it has a big section on carbs but explains the carb/fat/protein relationship very well
http://www.acaloriecounter.com/diet/how-much-protein-per-day/0 -
Tell me what is wrong with a food if it fits into your daily macros?
Please go on tell me the horror of choosing a bar made out of sugar than a potato?
Tell me how this will effect the overall body composition. I'll give you a clue, it won't.
Sure, if you HAVE to have lower calories, you choose a lense dense food which may mean a basic sweet potato, but tell me how that carb is any better or worse than a pop tart if you have room in your calories?
Two main things:
1. Some people aren't iceman with their diets. Foods like pop-tarts are easy for us slackers to abuse.
2. While you're 100% correct that body composition won't suffer, what about other heath issues? Pop tarts don't have anywhere near the fiber or micro-nutrient profile that a sweet potatoe does. So if you max out your carbs with junk food, you're likely going to be deficient in at least fiber, and possibly other stuff like magnesium, anti-oxidants, etc.
Of course some junk food won't matter at all if it fits your macros and you're still eating plenty of veggies, but a lot of people definitely do not eat enough veggies.0 -
Nothing wrong with carbs at all.
I just had 160g of popcorn as I diet as I've got 4000 calories to play around with any a friend brought them back from the cinema who is on a diet too.
If it it falls within your macros, there is no problem.
There is NO such thing as a bad food really.
not from a moral perspective no, but there are less nutritional and more nutritional foods, thus bad/good - i don't know why people love playing semantics with this so much. bad and good are just easier to type than the above.
The problem with "good/bad" is that they're meaningless terms. The only bad foods are the ones you can't fit into your daily goals. Foods that do fit into your daily goals are good.
There's no such thing as an inherently bad food. And there's certainly no such thing as an inherently bad nutrient.0 -
For me, eating wheat makes me crave more wheat. I can't just eat one serving of pasta and be satisfied. Therefore, I stay away from it.
Food is an addiction so I don't know why people here tend belittle those of us that struggle with our relationship with eating - "oh just watch your portions". OH IS THAT ALL!? IT'S THAT SIMPLE!? If that were the case, we wouldn't have as many overweight people as we do.0 -
Tell me what is wrong with a food if it fits into your daily macros?
Please go on tell me the horror of choosing a bar made out of sugar than a potato?
Tell me how this will effect the overall body composition. I'll give you a clue, it won't.
Sure, if you HAVE to have lower calories, you choose a lense dense food which may mean a basic sweet potato, but tell me how that carb is any better or worse than a pop tart if you have room in your calories?
Two main things:
1. Some people aren't iceman with their diets. Foods like pop-tarts are easy for us slackers to abuse.
2. While you're 100% correct that body composition won't suffer, what about other heath issues? Pop tarts don't have anywhere near the fiber or micro-nutrient profile that a sweet potatoe does. So if you max out your carbs with junk food, you're likely going to be deficient in at least fiber, and possibly other stuff like magnesium, anti-oxidants, etc.
Of course some junk food won't matter at all if it fits your macros and you're still eating plenty of veggies, but a lot of people definitely do not eat enough veggies.
This is the point. It's your nutrient intake at the end of the day that matters. How you get there really doesn't matter.
If you can get carbs from pop tarts and ice cream and still get your fiber and micros, who cares?0 -
I did not, and will not give up carbs and have been able to lose weight. Moderation is the key with carbs and everything else.0
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Tell me what is wrong with a food if it fits into your daily macros?
Please go on tell me the horror of choosing a bar made out of sugar than a potato?
Tell me how this will effect the overall body composition. I'll give you a clue, it won't.
Sure, if you HAVE to have lower calories, you choose a lense dense food which may mean a basic sweet potato, but tell me how that carb is any better or worse than a pop tart if you have room in your calories?
Two main things:
1. Some people aren't iceman with their diets. Foods like pop-tarts are easy for us slackers to abuse.
2. While you're 100% correct that body composition won't suffer, what about other heath issues? Pop tarts don't have anywhere near the fiber or micro-nutrient profile that a sweet potatoe does. So if you max out your carbs with junk food, you're likely going to be deficient in at least fiber, and possibly other stuff like magnesium, anti-oxidants, etc.
Of course some junk food won't matter at all if it fits your macros and you're still eating plenty of veggies, but a lot of people definitely do not eat enough veggies.
Fibre is indeed very very important, absolutely no two ways about it. But you are going away from the point - whatever the source of the carb isn't bad as long as you hit your macro goals - and yes this includes hitting your fibre needs. I'm certainly not saying avoid fibre.
I however think its is VERY wrong calling carbs bad, when there isn't bad carbs. It makes people want to avoid them without understanding WHY they are avoiding them.
As for abusing them, absolutely. But then you can do that with any food - I love my sweet potato fries I make and could easily down a kilo of them in a sitting given the chance.
This vid here is very interesting about carbs and why they are not bad -
http://youtu.be/G6H2edyPLU8
(it raises the same point as you regarding fibre).0 -
deep fried process food is evil. LOL0
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deep fried process food is evil. LOL
Yeah? Why?0 -
Carbs are not evil. I personally believe that simple carbs are metabolically bad, but I'm talking about white sugar, bleached flour, nutritionally "empty" kind of things. In the final instance, calories are what counts. Some people have a deranged insulin metabolism, and for those people, they tend to have a lot of trouble with carbs. They cause wicked cravings, and people's blood sugar and insulin production are very crazy when they eat carbs. Other people do not have this extreme reaction. However, I think bottom line is, the majority of your calories should come from real, whole foods. A wide variety of foods, in as close to their natural state as you can enjoy them, will give you the energy, macro and micronutrients you need to be healthy.0
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I limit my carbs to an extent because to stay within my calorie deficit to lose weight I find that carbs do not fill me up for very long.
Other than that, I have no issue with them - they just seem to be the first thing to go for me as I want to feel satisfied and not hungry!0 -
1. Some people aren't iceman with their diets. Foods like pop-tarts are easy for us slackers to abuse.
I really wanted to address this point. It's not about being "icemen." It's about taking control of your choices and owning up to them. In all my previous diet attempts, I used to clear my house of anything carb-heavy. Bread, sweets, pretzels - they all had to go. I believed they were triggers and I couldn't have them in the house or I just HAD to eat the entire container.
You know what? The carbs didn't make me eat anything. I chose to keep eating. Blaming the pretzels because I refused to stop after one serving wasn't going to do me any good, unless I wanted to hide from foods I enjoyed for the rest of my life.
For me, mastering the mental part of dieting involved a lot of therapy. I've been an emotional and stress eater as long as I can remember. But I made the decision to get over it and stop blaming my problems on food. I'm still working on developing a healthy relationship with eating, but it's so much more empowering than blaming Pop Tarts for my overeating.0 -
Tell me what is wrong with a food if it fits into your daily macros?
Please go on tell me the horror of choosing a bar made out of sugar than a potato?
Tell me how this will effect the overall body composition. I'll give you a clue, it won't.
Sure, if you HAVE to have lower calories, you choose a lense dense food which may mean a basic sweet potato, but tell me how that carb is any better or worse than a pop tart if you have room in your calories?
Two main things:
1. Some people aren't iceman with their diets. Foods like pop-tarts are easy for us slackers to abuse.
2. While you're 100% correct that body composition won't suffer, what about other heath issues? Pop tarts don't have anywhere near the fiber or micro-nutrient profile that a sweet potatoe does. So if you max out your carbs with junk food, you're likely going to be deficient in at least fiber, and possibly other stuff like magnesium, anti-oxidants, etc.
Of course some junk food won't matter at all if it fits your macros and you're still eating plenty of veggies, but a lot of people definitely do not eat enough veggies.
I think this is the key. Honestly, I don't see anyone advocating getting all your carbs from Poptarts. And it's not just veggies but be consious of you micronutrient intake and eat mostly nutrient dense foods in general. Protein powders can be great for supplementing but they are not rich in micronutrients. As far as point 1. goes, that is really a personal self control issue. If some foods are a trigger for you, it's best to avoid them. Sometimes these threads deal in extremes like this:
.So if you max out your carbs with junk food
I'm sure some do. Most, here anyway, don't. We don't want to exclude the middle where a mostly nutrient dense diet has some fun food (not junk food) in it. You addressed that in your last statement. Overall, you and I agree.0 -
I'm insulin resistant so for me carbs are of the devil and impact my weight loss. If you are not I'd still argue that there are probably better ways to get calories then carbing out but for most people a calorie is a calorie is a calorie.0
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This guy diets on pop tarts for example, world reknown Alberto Nunez.
Nothing wrong with them!0 -
Tell me what is wrong with a food if it fits into your daily macros?
Please go on tell me the horror of choosing a bar made out of sugar than a potato?
Tell me how this will effect the overall body composition. I'll give you a clue, it won't.
Sure, if you HAVE to have lower calories, you choose a lense dense food which may mean a basic sweet potato, but tell me how that carb is any better or worse than a pop tart if you have room in your calories?
Two main things:
1. Some people aren't iceman with their diets. Foods like pop-tarts are easy for us slackers to abuse.
2. While you're 100% correct that body composition won't suffer, what about other heath issues? Pop tarts don't have anywhere near the fiber or micro-nutrient profile that a sweet potatoe does. So if you max out your carbs with junk food, you're likely going to be deficient in at least fiber, and possibly other stuff like magnesium, anti-oxidants, etc.
Of course some junk food won't matter at all if it fits your macros and you're still eating plenty of veggies, but a lot of people definitely do not eat enough veggies.
I think this is the key. Honestly, I don't see anyone advocating getting all your carbs from Poptarts. And it's not just veggies but be consious of you micronutrient intake and eat mostly nutrient dense foods in general. Protein powders can be great for supplementing but they are not rich in micronutrients. As far as point 1. goes, that is really a personal self control issue. If some foods are a trigger for you, it's best to avoid them. Sometimes these threads deal in extremes like this:
.So if you max out your carbs with junk food
I'm sure some do. Most, here anyway, don't. We don't want to exclude the middle where a mostly nutrient dense diet has some fun food (not junk food) in it. You addressed that in your last statement. Overall, you and I agree.
See when people judge my diary, my typical day anyways, they always seem to overlook the fact I eat a couple pounds of veggies and a couple pounds of lean meat a day. I fill in my calorie needs with Pop tarts, ice cream, corn bread, & cereal at the end of the day.0 -
This guy diets on pop tarts for example, world reknown Alberto Nunez.
Nothing wrong with them!
what about that is good? it also has zero to do with the average MFP-er who isn't on anabolic steroids...0 -
what about that is good? it also has zero to do with the average MFP-er who isn't on anabolic steroids...
If you new anything about Alberto Nunez you'd know he's not on them either.
I was showing you can get very lean on ANY carb. Its people demonizing them that cause the rest of us problems.0 -
what about that is good? it also has zero to do with the average MFP-er who isn't on anabolic steroids...
If you new anything about Alberto Nunez you'd know he's not on them either.
I was showing you can get very lean on ANY carb. Its people demonizing them that cause the rest of us problems.
why does me "demonizing" a certain kind of carb have any effect on you or cause you ANY problems? out of curiosity.0 -
Carbs are good. Healthy fats are good. Protein is good. It's all good, and you don't need to cut anything out. Though I advise against tubs of Crisco.0
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what about that is good? it also has zero to do with the average MFP-er who isn't on anabolic steroids...
If you new anything about Alberto Nunez you'd know he's not on them either.
I don't believe that for a second.0 -
carbs are not but should not be eaten after lunch and should only be good healthy carbs in the form of fiber.0
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what about that is good? it also has zero to do with the average MFP-er who isn't on anabolic steroids...
If you new anything about Alberto Nunez you'd know he's not on them either.
I don't believe that for a second.
haha we can at least agree on that. 0
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