As a trainer and nutrition coach, people frequently ask me about the latest fad diets. These days, people are asking about ketogenic diets. A few years back, it was always about gluten-free or Paleo. Back when I started in the industry, the Zone diet and Atkins were the big ones. Pretty consistently throughout, people always ask about “cleanses” (which are total B.S., but I’ll get into those in another post).
Everyone wants to know what the “Perfect Diet” is for them. Will the latest fad work for them? After all, their friend Sally lost 20 pounds doing X, so it must be good, right?
My answer is almost always, “It depends.”
Our bodies are so highly adaptable that even seemingly simple principles like energy balance (E.G. losing weight by taking in less energy from food than you expend through your daily activity) don’t apply in the same way to everyone.
Years of yo-yo dieting or adaptation to various activities can make one person’s metabolism function much differently than another’s, even if on paper they’re the same “5-foot-7, 150-pound female”.
The impact of our environment, our genetics, and what we put into our bodies can mean that my gut microbiome (the bacteria that help us break down and utilize the food we eat) is very different from yours, so we might have equally different needs when it comes to the foods we should eat or avoid.
Our palates can also vary widely and impact our reactions to different combinations of flavours, so what might be delicious to me is not at all appetizing to you, leading each of us to have different cravings and our own different kryptonite when it comes to eating well vs. falling off the wagon.
Beyond all that, maybe your goals are different from mine. Maybe you just want to be healthier, but you aren’t particularly worried about losing weight. Maybe you are a high-performing athlete, where I’m just a “weekend warrior”.
Like I said above, the most common thing I’m asked about these days is Keto, and whether folks should be avoiding carbs, so here is my answer to “The Keto Question”…
Why I Don’t Recommend Chronic Low-Carb Diets Like Keto
The mechanisms of gluconeogenesis and ketosis touted by keto and other extreme low-carb proponents as evidence supporting their extreme dietary approach absolutely do exist. It is a real, scientific fact that our bodies can function without taking in carbohydrates from our diet.
They are not, however, a clear signpost saying, “humans don’t need to eat carbs”. They are an evolutionary response to the historical feast/famine cycles common to the human existence prior to the agricultural and industrial revolutions. Our species evolved those mechanisms to keep us alive when carbohydrate-rich sources of energy were scarce. They are tools for our bodies to deal with FAMINE and STARVATION, not something we should invoke because we want to lose a few pounds.
Some studies have reported significant effects on hormonal balance due to carbohydrate restriction, even when total calories consumed remained the same (I.E. additional dietary fat or protein was eaten in place of the carbohydrates removed). These effects are reportedly even more significant among women than men. I believe that these hormonal changes are also an evolved famine response, as our bodies favour critical survival functions over everything else during times of dietary insufficiency.
It has also been shown in some studies that, following sufficient time for adaptation, those on extreme low-carb diets have just as much stored muscle glycogen as those whose carbohydrate intake is not restricted. While this seems like evidence that a low-carb approach can work even for physically active people, the trouble is that once those stores are depleted through activity it takes significantly longer for them to be restored without taking in dietary carbohydrate, so the ability to recover and perform repeatedly at moderate to high levels of exertion is hampered.
While it is true that our body has these mechanisms in place to function without dietary carbohydrate, it is equally true that our bodies are highly capable of processing and using dietary carbohydrate for fuel. We are, in fact, much BETTER adapted to extract energy from carbohydrate-rich food sources than from other sources.
If our aim is to be healthy and THRIVE, not just survive, then intentionally triggering starvation-survival mechanisms in our bodies is a foolhardy approach.
Where Carbs Can Become A Problem
Where carbs can become a problem for many of us is that it is very easy to OVER consume them. Grains, sugars and other energy-dense forms of carbohydrates are so highly-available, shelf stable and inexpensive in our modern society that they often make up the bulk of each plate of food we eat. They are the “dietary staples” in the typical western diet because they can be produced cheaply and last longer on store shelves than the fresh fruits and vegetables that should make up most of our carbohydrate intake.
“Carbs” themselves are NOT the problem. Eating carbohydrate-rich foods SHOULD be a part of your nutrition plan, as should eating dietary fats and protein. The key, as ever, is balance and moderation.
3 grams of carbohydrate from rice vs. fresh spinach
How Many Carbs Should I Eat?
So, you’re (mostly) convinced that carbs should form an important part of your diet, and you know that controlled consumption is the key. But what’s the magic formula? How many carbs should you eat? Should you be reading food labels and weighing everything to make sure you get just the right amount based on some arbitrary formula? Heck, no.
The scientific ideal would be to consume just enough carbohydrates to keep your blood sugar levels and insulin response relatively stable, with only small variations (it’s impossible to keep them 100% level). To do so, however, would mean around-the-clock blood glucose monitoring and feeding, and a LOT of keeping track of details. Basically, an impractical pain in the butt unless you’re feeding yourself with a constant feeding tube of glucose goo…YUCK.
Instead, I have four recommendations:
First, cut out the obvious crap. Eliminating junk foods, sweetened beverages and any added sugar should be a pretty easy win for just about everyone.
Second, for the vast majority of people, whether you’re trying to maintain or lose weight, my suggestion is to use Precision Nutrition’s palm-portioning approach. For carbohydrate-rich foods, that means 1 fist-sized portion of fruits or vegetables and 1 cupped palm full of starchy carbs (like rice, potatoes or grain-based foods) per meal for women, or double that amount for men, 3-4 times per day. Try that consistently for a couple of weeks and adjust if necessary to keep moving towards your goals.
Third, try to replace some or all of the starchy carbs with “slow carbs” like beans or lentils. These options will make you feel fuller faster and for longer, and trigger a less sudden insulin response - these are both good things. It may take your body some time to build up the enzymes to digest these, or you can take Beano to help. For some people, they just can never tolerate legumes or pulses, and that’s OK too.
Lastly, if you’re trying to lose weight or improve your body composition by reducing body fat and you’ve consistently done all of the above for 2-3 months but you’re just maintaining, I would make a small tweak by using carb cycling. On days when you’re exercising for 45-90 minutes at a moderate to high intensity, follow the recommendations above. On days when you’re not exercising, or only doing low-intensity stuff like yoga, walking, etc., double up on the fruit and veggie portions and eliminate the starchy carb portions. You’ll still be taking in significant amounts of carbohydrate overall, just focusing more of your intake on days where your body will better make use of the energy.
Questions?
I’m happy to try to answer any questions you may have about any of the above, or anything training and nutrition related. Just reach out via our Contact Us page, and I’ll get back to you. ;)
—-Coach JP