"Do Carbs make me fat"
Options
Replies
-
GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »kenyonhaff wrote: »Carbs are absolutely vital for health. Cutting carbs out completely is very unhealthy. As with everything else, it's a balance.
Saying that, cutting down carbs often makes sense. Carbs (especially simple carbs) offer quick energy but then a crash. Which makes one want to eat more carbs. And so on.
I'm a fan of carbs, hugely so, but you can actually live without them.
Also? The term I think you might be after is refined carbs. Simple carbs include things like apples. Complex carbs include things like dreaded white bread.
Saying that, a little of that dreaded white bread or some candy don't make everyone want to eat more carbs and oftentimes are just the thing needed in certain situations. Additionally, in the context of an overall balanced diet, they're fine in moderation, unless they cause problems for you on an individual level.
To address another poster, Gary Taubes' theories aren't really panning out. Additionally, there used to be a poster around these parts who had IR and she lost weight just fine eating plenty of carbs, simply by cutting calories. Plenty of diabetics simply manage carbohydrates rather than completely eliminate them or drastically lower them.
IR simply means that the body isn't responding to insulin properly, causing elevated blood glucose. In the absence of a caloric surplus, this situation won't cause additional fat to be permanently stored.
That's spot on what you are saying. There's so much information that gets thrown out there and it is believed by so many.
It is possible to live without carbs but let's be honest you are really missing out on a lot of fun!!! Everyone should have some sort of carbs in there diet weather it be simple carbs or refined.
2 -
BarryBrownFitness wrote: »GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »kenyonhaff wrote: »Carbs are absolutely vital for health. Cutting carbs out completely is very unhealthy. As with everything else, it's a balance.
Saying that, cutting down carbs often makes sense. Carbs (especially simple carbs) offer quick energy but then a crash. Which makes one want to eat more carbs. And so on.
I'm a fan of carbs, hugely so, but you can actually live without them.
Also? The term I think you might be after is refined carbs. Simple carbs include things like apples. Complex carbs include things like dreaded white bread.
Saying that, a little of that dreaded white bread or some candy don't make everyone want to eat more carbs and oftentimes are just the thing needed in certain situations. Additionally, in the context of an overall balanced diet, they're fine in moderation, unless they cause problems for you on an individual level.
To address another poster, Gary Taubes' theories aren't really panning out. Additionally, there used to be a poster around these parts who had IR and she lost weight just fine eating plenty of carbs, simply by cutting calories. Plenty of diabetics simply manage carbohydrates rather than completely eliminate them or drastically lower them.
IR simply means that the body isn't responding to insulin properly, causing elevated blood glucose. In the absence of a caloric surplus, this situation won't cause additional fat to be permanently stored.
That's spot on what you are saying. There's so much information that gets thrown out there and it is believed by so many.
It is possible to live without carbs but let's be honest you are really missing out on a lot of fun!!! Everyone should have some sort of carbs in there diet weather it be simple carbs or refined.
Oh I agree. I think that, at the very least, the phytonutrients in vegetables are something you can't obtain through a strict carnivore diet. I know you can get all the micronutrients if you eat organ and raw meat, but I doubt many have the fortitude to do that properly. Some do. Just wanted to put it out there. I still don't think it's optimal for health.
Then again, I'm a vegetarian
4 -
BarryBrownFitness wrote: »kenyonhaff wrote: »Carbs are absolutely vital for health. Cutting carbs out completely is very unhealthy. As with everything else, it's a balance.
Saying that, cutting down carbs often makes sense. Carbs (especially simple carbs) offer quick energy but then a crash. Which makes one want to eat more carbs. And so on.They make me fat because I cannot eat them like a sane person.
I agree you need them in your diet. There are no difference in fat loss when it's comes to lower - higher carb diets under protein and calorie marched conditions.
And yes we all can agree that they make us fat because we can't control our selves when there is a large pizza sitting in front of us haha
Some people can. Especially here on MFP. Lots of people tooting their "I'm so good at moderation" horns. Toot toot.
I'm going through a spell where I can't. I'm torn with Christmas coming. I know I want to make myself some Christmas cookies and I know I'll likely eat the whole flippin' batch in a day or two. Maybe. I keep telling myself... maybe I'll be able to do it since I'm eating maintenance now.0 -
GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »BarryBrownFitness wrote: »kenyonhaff wrote: »Carbs are absolutely vital for health. Cutting carbs out completely is very unhealthy. As with everything else, it's a balance.
Saying that, cutting down carbs often makes sense. Carbs (especially simple carbs) offer quick energy but then a crash. Which makes one want to eat more carbs. And so on.They make me fat because I cannot eat them like a sane person.
I agree you need them in your diet. There are no difference in fat loss when it's comes to lower - higher carb diets under protein and calorie marched conditions.
And yes we all can agree that they make us fat because we can't control our selves when there is a large pizza sitting in front of us haha
Some people can. Especially here on MFP. Lots of people tooting their "I'm so good at moderation" horns. Toot toot.
I'm going through a spell where I can't. I'm torn with Christmas coming. I know I want to make myself some Christmas cookies and I know I'll likely eat the whole flippin' batch in a day or two. Maybe. I keep telling myself... maybe I'll be able to do it since I'm eating maintenance now.
Yeah I can't have cookies in the house. I have no idea what I'm gonna do if I ever have a family or don't live alone someday.1 -
Carbs help build this bod.. so for me... no.8
-
BarryBrownFitness wrote: »I would like to hear everyone's opinion about this topic "Do Carbs make me fat". It be interesting to see what people are thinking on the subject.
Nope-weight loss, weight gain and weight maintenance is about CICO. I eat a carb heavy diet and I'm several years into maintaining a 50ish pound loss, have excellent health markers, a bmi of 21 and a 25 inch waist. I
carbs. 3 -
My problem is that I love to eat them to much. LOL2
-
If you are insulin resistant carbs make you fat. Look up Gary Taubes.stevencloser wrote: »No one should look up Taubes.
^This.1 -
stevencloser wrote: »No one should look up Taubes.
Unless they look up the correct sources - which reveal that Taubes is a tinfoil hat crackpot junk scientist who has been debunked over and over. Taubes, Mercola and Dr. Oz are all peas from the same pod.
As to the OP, a calorie surplus makes you fat. Period. Regardless of macro composition. As others have said, the "carbs make you fat" thing comes from scammers with books and products to sell, and the people who've drank their kool-aid.9 -
The answer is YES! I grew up on a farm, and we fed our hogs nothing but carbs to fatten them up. Same is true for beef cattle. Corn(a carb) is the favorite food to fatten them up. There is absolutely no socially redeeming value to empty carbs.... only the good carbs like cabbabe, cale carrots, spinach,tomatoes,onions, garlic, asparagus, beets, etc that have the vitamins and minerals. But can I leave the empty carb stuff alone??? Heck no, I just had three cookies and a bottle of sweet tea today which destroyed my diet. But I'll do better tomorrow....2
-
virgilnewman37 wrote: »The answer is YES! I grew up on a farm, and we fed our hogs nothing but carbs to fatten them up. Same is true for beef cattle. Corn(a carb) is the favorite food to fatten them up. There is absolutely no socially redeeming value to empty carbs.... only the good carbs like cabbabe, cale carrots, spinach,tomatoes,onions, garlic, asparagus, beets, etc that have the vitamins and minerals. But can I leave the empty carb stuff alone??? Heck no, I just had three cookies and a bottle of sweet tea today which destroyed my diet. But I'll do better tomorrow....
Corn is an empty carb? Wut?
Overeating makes you fat.7 -
Noooooooo. If It Fits Your Macros and you are eating at a deficit you'll lose weight.
I roll my eyes every time I hear this because at my first go at losing weight I was not restricting carbs in anyway. Oatmeal for breakfast, lunch was usually some sort of quinoa salad with beans and veggies or maybe avo toast with eggs. Dinner was typically balanced with a protein, with a grain and vegetable. I was eating mostly vegetarian so eating high protein without supplements like whey powder was hard, so I ended up eating pretty close to the way MFP recommends with the majority going to carbs. It's worth mentioning I was also half marathon training so I needed all those carbs but if you're at all active carbs aren't going to hurt you.1 -
virgilnewman37 wrote: »The answer is YES! I grew up on a farm, and we fed our hogs nothing but carbs to fatten them up. Same is true for beef cattle. Corn(a carb) is the favorite food to fatten them up. There is absolutely no socially redeeming value to empty carbs.... only the good carbs like cabbabe, cale carrots, spinach,tomatoes,onions, garlic, asparagus, beets, etc that have the vitamins and minerals. But can I leave the empty carb stuff alone??? Heck no, I just had three cookies and a bottle of sweet tea today which destroyed my diet. But I'll do better tomorrow....
I'm not sure why we're comparing people to hogs, but have you considered the hogs gained weight because they were eating at a surplus? Carbs like wheat and corn are more calorie sense than vegetables, so obviously a pound of rice will have more calories than a pound of cabbage.
Also, whole wheat, brown rice, oatmeal, etc has fiber and plenty of other nutrients in it. I agree white processed flours are empty, but nothing wrong with a whole grain.5 -
GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »
The term I think you might be after is refined carbs. Simple carbs include things like apples. Complex carbs include things like dreaded white bread.
Won't comment on insulin resistance, but it seems you aren't totally up on complex vs simple. Simple just means it has one or two sugars, so apples are, yes, simple, but so is table sugar. It means we process them quickly, creating an energy spike.
Complex carbs have three or more. Yes, white bread is considered complex, but so is whole wheat or whole grain bread and many veggies.
The key is glycemic index tells us how quickly the food raises our blood sugar. Low gi raises our blood sugar more slowly than high gi foods. Apples are low gi, wheat bread and whole grains are medium and white bread, highly processed grains, candy and such are high. You feel fuller longer with low/med gi foods because they take longer to digest because of fiber content.
Even so, they're not good or bad, they don't make you fat or thin, etc. Too many high gi foods can spike your blood sugar fast, which can be less healthy, esp. if you're diabetic.
For those of you interested in sources, Harvard School of Public Health.
And, for the original question, no. Eating too much makes you fat. Whether is is carbs or fat or protien, candy or bread or fruit, beef or pork or chicken or whatever, too much is too much. And without proper fiber, we don't eliminate properly, which gets unpleasant and ugly really fast.0 -
GI is only relevant if you eat a particular food in isolation and in a fasted state. Other foods and your existing gut contents will mitigate the GI. Also worth noting is that protein spikes insulin in a manner and quantity almost identical to carbohydrates.
Considering GI isn't particularly relevant to anything unless you have a medical reason to do so.5 -
virgilnewman37 wrote: »The answer is YES! I grew up on a farm, and we fed our hogs nothing but carbs to fatten them up. Same is true for beef cattle. Corn(a carb) is the favorite food to fatten them up. There is absolutely no socially redeeming value to empty carbs.... only the good carbs like cabbabe, cale carrots, spinach,tomatoes,onions, garlic, asparagus, beets, etc that have the vitamins and minerals. But can I leave the empty carb stuff alone??? Heck no, I just had three cookies and a bottle of sweet tea today which destroyed my diet. But I'll do better tomorrow....
The reason they fatten up is that they are being fed at a calorie surplus, and well, they are in the growth cycle of their life. Thus, the cattle would grow on grass as well, just slower because grass has less calorie density than corn or other grains. That means it is most cost effective to fatten cattle with corn or grain because they have the calorie to grow faster meaning less time from birth to shipping out.5 -
Not to even mention the fact that cows are herbivores/ruminants in the first place, so what else would you feed them than primarily carb-sourced nutrition?rileysowner wrote: »virgilnewman37 wrote: »The answer is YES! I grew up on a farm, and we fed our hogs nothing but carbs to fatten them up. Same is true for beef cattle. Corn(a carb) is the favorite food to fatten them up. There is absolutely no socially redeeming value to empty carbs.... only the good carbs like cabbabe, cale carrots, spinach,tomatoes,onions, garlic, asparagus, beets, etc that have the vitamins and minerals. But can I leave the empty carb stuff alone??? Heck no, I just had three cookies and a bottle of sweet tea today which destroyed my diet. But I'll do better tomorrow....
The reason they fatten up is that they are being fed at a calorie surplus, and well, they are in the growth cycle of their life. Thus, the cattle would grow on grass as well, just slower because grass has less calorie density than corn or other grains. That means it is most cost effective to fatten cattle with corn or grain because they have the calorie to grow faster meaning less time from birth to shipping out.
9 -
No.virgilnewman37 wrote: »The answer is YES! I grew up on a farm, and we fed our hogs nothing but carbs to fatten them up. Same is true for beef cattle. Corn(a carb) is the favorite food to fatten them up. There is absolutely no socially redeeming value to empty carbs.... only the good carbs like cabbabe, cale carrots, spinach,tomatoes,onions, garlic, asparagus, beets, etc that have the vitamins and minerals. But can I leave the empty carb stuff alone??? Heck no, I just had three cookies and a bottle of sweet tea today which destroyed my diet. But I'll do better tomorrow....
Nothing wrong with any carb.
And you didn't destroy anything by eating 3 cookies if they fit in your calories.
And carbs are NOT empty. Carbs are energy. Cookies are not just carbs, but also fat. Oreos also have a decent amount of iron.
The only reason carbs are used for livestock fattening is they're CHEAP in large quantities to feed in large quantities to fatten livestock up. All mammals will gain weight if fed more than they need to maintain their weight. And, cows typically are carb eaters, and carbs are cheaper to feed to pigs in large quantity for weight gain. It's not actually the carbs causing weight gain, but the amount.
Carbs, protein, fat... it doesn't matter which one, will cause weight gain if over maintenance.
6 -
Lettuce will make you fat if you eat enough...along with literally every food that ever existed.4
Categories
- All Categories
- 1.4M Health, Wellness and Goals
- 391.7K Introduce Yourself
- 43.5K Getting Started
- 259.7K Health and Weight Loss
- 175.6K Food and Nutrition
- 47.3K Recipes
- 232.3K Fitness and Exercise
- 394 Sleep, Mindfulness and Overall Wellness
- 6.4K Goal: Maintaining Weight
- 8.5K Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
- 152.7K Motivation and Support
- 7.8K Challenges
- 1.3K Debate Club
- 96.3K Chit-Chat
- 2.5K Fun and Games
- 3.3K MyFitnessPal Information
- 23 News and Announcements
- 944 Feature Suggestions and Ideas
- 2.3K MyFitnessPal Tech Support Questions