Do You Really Need To "Cut Carbs" To Lose Weight?

Are Carbs The Enemy To Fat Loss?

Jordan Patrick, B.S. Kinesiology & Nutrition, Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist, 8 Weeks Out Certified Conditioning Coach

The Short Answer: Maybe, but let’s talk first…

Everyone at some point or another had a friend or family member (maybe it was you) who said something along the lines of, “I cut out all my carbs and all I’m eating now is protein, fruits, and vegetables!”

Spoiler alert: fruits and vegetables are carbs.

But to be fair, these people probably mean they cut out all their processed carbohydrates and heavy starches.

People tend to think high carb foods are:

Pizza 🍕
Burgers 🍔
French Fries 🍟
Cookies 🍪
Cakes 🎂
Ice Cream 🍦
Donuts 🍩
Pasta 🍝

The reality is that these foods have nearly as many (if not more) calories from fat than from carbs. You may argue the pasta that’s listed, but it’s usually covered in some sort of oily, buttery high fat sauce.

Remember, fat contains 9 kcals per gram whereas carbs contain 4 kcals per gram.

Therefore, carbs DIDN’T cause the current obesity crisis, and neither did fat for that matter, but too many overall calories did.

In fact, total carbohydrate and sugar consumption has dropped during the last 2 decades while obesity has continued to rise. See below:

Often, my clients say something like “when I eat carbs I just can’t control myself”, and when I ask them what kinds of carbs they almost always list the foods above.

But somehow it’s the carbs that’s making us all fat? Let’s take a look at some examples…

Average slice of cheese pizza from Pizza Hut:

295 kcal
15g Protein (15g x 4 kcals per gram = 60 kcals from protein)
34g Carbs (34g x 4 kcals per gram = 136 kcals from carbs)
11g Fat (11g x 9 kcals per gram = 99 kcals from fats)

Sure, it’s got 136 kcal from carbs but it also has 99 kcal from fats. And we’re talking about CHEESE pizza, which is the lowest fat content pizza there is. Once you add more toppings like pepperonis the fat content goes up disproportionately (nearly 50%), making fat the dominant source of calories.

3 oz serving of french fries from walmart

150 kcals
2g Protein (2g x 4 kcals per gram = 8 kcals from protein)
18g Carbs (18g x 4 kcals per gram = 72 kcals from carbs)
8g Fat (8g x 9 kcals per gram = 72 kcals from fats)

Average size glazed doughnut (64 grams)

269 kcals
4g Protein (4g x 4 kcals per gram = 16 kcals from protein)
31g Carbs (31g x 4 kcals per gram = 124 kcals from carbs)
15g Fat (15g x 9 kcals per gram = 135 kcals from fats)

Yet most people think these foods are “high carb”

So how could this be? Because calorie intake has continued to rise mostly from fats and increased portion sizes.

“BUT BUT BUT My friend went low carb and lost 10lbs in 1 week!!!”

Here’s another thing about carbs, each gram of carbohydrate you consume also stores about 2-3 ounces of water in your body. When people decrease carbs and lose significant amounts of weight it’s mostly from body water. Losing WEIGHT and losing FAT are different. It’s physically impossible to lose 10lbs of pure body fat in 1 week. Not only that, but as soon as your friend goes back to eating “normal” they are 90-95% likely to gain all that weight back plus more. (References cited below)

Losing body fat comes from a CALORIC deficit, not a CARB deficit. In order to lose body fat, you must maintain a caloric deficit while finding the right balance of proteins, carbs, and fats that you can adhere to long term. Maybe that DOES mean decreasing your carb intake a bit, but it probably means decreasing your fat intake too. While you’re decreasing carbs and fats, it’s a good idea to INCREASE your protein intake to about 25-35% of your overall calories. This will help you feel satiated longer and will likely reduce the cravings for processed carbs and fats. Not to mention, protein is the building block of muscle mass, which burns more calories at rest than your body fat…but that’s another article.

In summary, I’m not saying fat is bad for you, but what I am saying is that excess energy (i.e. too many calories) will increase body fat REGARDLESS if they came from carbs vs fats. If you enjoy a low carb diet, that’s great! But you didn’t lose fat because of “the insulin theory”, you lost it because you restricted calories…mostly likely by reducing your consumption and portions of foods you thought were “high carb” but were really just high calorie.

References:

If you need more professional help and guidance, and especially if you have certain physical limitations and need help with nutrition, I talk to all of my clients daily through my app as well make them custom meal plans, provide nutritional coaching, and hold them accountable to their goals! I make custom training plans with instructional exercise videos for my clients based on their goals, abilities, limitations, and available equipment. Click here (https://jordanpatrickfitness.com/contact/) so we can schedule a 30 min consultation call to see if I can help you reach your goals!