Do carbs make you fat?

When you eat at a calorie surplus ( meaning you eat more than you burn ) on a continual basis then any of the macronutrients - carb, protein, and fat-- can be converted into adipose tissue.

It just drives me nuts when I hear it's all about calories from experts or anyone for that matter because that's not the case for me.

Yes it is, it's the case for every human being. Different peoples' bodies do not work differently on such a fundamental level as how and what they burn for energy. Calories are literally units of energy - your body doesn't burn specifically fats, carbs, or proteins, it burns units of energy. High carb can cause more intense fluctuations in water weight which maybe masked weight loss for you, or you just weren't counting accurately or didn't give it enough time to see a change. I personally find it impossible to see a change in weight on a daily or even weekly basis and always feel like I'm "stalling", but when I look at a long term graph of my trending weight it's always in a decline.

I bet there are some nice folks with PCOS on the board that may disagree with you, a few ladies in menopause who might as well.

Those nice folks are wrong.

Calorie deficit = weight loss Calorie surplus = weight gain

I don't believe in magic.

*editors note* Certain medical conditions, like PCOS and Hashimoto's, make it more difficult to lose weight. But even in those cases calorie guidelines specific to the condition must be adhered to. It doesn't mean calories don't matter for those cases, in fact they matter more.

My point with the 1200 calories was OP was claiming that she could not lose weight at 1200 calories if she ate carbs and that is 100% not true so something is wrong there. You will lose fat eating 1200 calories unless you are 60 years old and 4'6'' and if you lose fat sure that might be masked by water retention for a bit but eventually if you stick with it you will see a reduction in your weight. There is no variation in body efficiency that could make up for this. My suspicion with the OP is that eating carbs will restock your glycogen which comes with a heafty amount of water retention while eating low carb will deplete your glycogen stores over time and result in a lot of lost water retention. One makes you look like you aren't losing weight, the other makes it look like the weight is steadily coming off...but its water, not fat.

"At Harvard Medical School, Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, an associate professor of medicine and epidemiology whose research was cited by experts in the film, said that the long-held idea that we get fat solely because we consume more calories than we expend is based on outdated science.

He has studied the effects that different foods have on weight gain and said that it is true that 100 calories of fat, protein and carbohydrates are the same in a thermodynamic sense, in that they release the same amount of energy when exposed to a Bunsen burner in a lab. But in a complex organism like a human being, he said, these foods influence satiety, metabolic rate, brain activity, blood sugar and the hormones that store fat in very different ways.

Studies also show that calories from different foods are not absorbed the same. When people eat high-fiber foods like nuts and some vegetables, for example, only about three-quarters of the calories they contain are absorbed. The rest are excreted from the body unused. So the calories listed on their labels are not what the body is actually getting.

“The implicit suggestion is that there are no bad calories, just bad people eating too much,” Dr. Mozaffarian said. “But the evidence is very clear that not all calories are created equal as far as weight gain and obesity. If you’re focusing on calories, you can easily be misguided.”"

My point with the 1200 calories was OP was claiming that she could not lose weight at 1200 calories if she ate carbs and that is 100% not true so something is wrong there. You will lose fat eating 1200 calories unless you are 60 years old and 4'6'' and if you lose fat sure that might be masked by water retention for a bit but eventually if you stick with it you will see a reduction in your weight. There is no variation in body efficiency that could make up for this. My suspicion with the OP is that eating carbs will restock your glycogen which comes with a heafty amount of water retention while eating low carb will deplete your glycogen stores over time and result in a lot of lost water retention. One makes you look like you aren't losing weight, the other makes it look like the weight is steadily coming off...but its water, not fat.

You start off saying it is 100% not true that someone could not be losing weight on 1200, then switch to how we lose fat. As if they are the same thing.

I rather think this states better than I:

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/05/09/fed-up-asks-are-all-calories-equal/?_php=true&_type=blogs&ref=health&_r=0

"At Harvard Medical School, Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, an associate professor of medicine and epidemiology whose research was cited by experts in the film, said that the long-held idea that we get fat solely because we consume more calories than we expend is based on outdated science.

He has studied the effects that different foods have on weight gain and said that it is true that 100 calories of fat, protein and carbohydrates are the same in a thermodynamic sense, in that they release the same amount of energy when exposed to a Bunsen burner in a lab. But in a complex organism like a human being, he said, these foods influence satiety, metabolic rate, brain activity, blood sugar and the hormones that store fat in very different ways.

Studies also show that calories from different foods are not absorbed the same. When people eat high-fiber foods like nuts and some vegetables, for example, only about three-quarters of the calories they contain are absorbed. The rest are excreted from the body unused. So the calories listed on their labels are not what the body is actually getting.

“The implicit suggestion is that there are no bad calories, just bad people eating too much,” Dr. Mozaffarian said. “But the evidence is very clear that not all calories are created equal as far as weight gain and obesity. If you’re focusing on calories, you can easily be misguided.”"

OP, you won't change the mind of those on these forums who believe we are all the same and what they experience will be exactly what you experience. Just listen to your body and whatch how it responds to different foods. Do you what you need to do for you.

Carbs do not make you fat. Eating above your maintenance calories makes you fat. However, macronutrient management is crucial. Varying degrees of macronutients is the primary difference between all the diet plans on the market. What diet plan works for you depends on what macronutrient percentage works best for your body.

Carbs raise your blood glucose. When your blood glucose goes up, your body releases insulin to lower it. Insulin causes the body to store carbohydrates as fat because it activates a fat storage enzyme, lipoprotein lipase. Insulin also inhibits the body from being able to draw on stored fat for energy.

Whether a low carb diet will work for you depends on how much carbs impact your blood glucose and how your body responds to the insulin that is released because of elevated blood glucose. People who are carb sensitive and/or insulin resistant find that a low carb diet is the best (and often only) way to lose weight.

It is not strictly necessary to reduce your carbs to a ketogenic-inducing level, as in the Atkins diet. Many scientists/theorists/researchers believe that a carb amount below 100g/day is low enough to produce desired glucose management and weight loss.