Look, if you want to lose weight, you have to cut carbs.
You have to go very low carb. Well, at least that's
what low-carb enthusiasts are going to tell you.
Is that like completely true? Is there more
to it than that, or is it at a BS? My name is Joe Leech.
I'm an online dietitian, I've been talking
about this topic probably since 2014. This
video is for you if you've got a weight loss goal,
or maybe you've thought about, you know, some
sort of low carb diet or you’ve tried it before and I've
also got a guide at the end for you guys. Just
quickly to low carb theory is like it's a hypothesis
basically, it's not proven but it's that if you
lower your carbs, you will therefore lower
the hormone insulin and therefore your body
cannot store any fat, and so basically the
idea is that if your insulin is really low then
calories don't matter because you won't store
fat anyway because it's not about calories.
It's about how much how much insulin is in your
blood. And so now they've studied this in really
good clinical trials, which means like you're
a large group of people who will follow, you
know, a low-carb ketogenic diet and a large
group of people who will follow a regular or
higher carb diet I suppose and then we can measure
their insulin levels measure their weight
change things like that and and the really good
studies were funded by the low carb enthusiasts
because this is how much they believed their
insulin hypothesis to be true. And the reality
was they found that there was no difference
in fat gain between these two different types of diet.
In fact, the higher carb diet seemed to perform
better in terms of the weight goals in the outcomes.
They measured and I'm referring to the Kevin
Hall studies particularly. I think the first
one was 2017, but there's been plenty more around
that study as well which finds the the same thing
that low carb is not inherently better for fat loss.
Than other types of diets that have higher carb
intake and if you don't trust the that studies
which is how we can prove anything, but if you
don't trust that daily, you can look at historical
and epidemiological data. So historically
what about populations that eat very high carb diets.
They should all be very overweight and obese
going by the carbohydrate insulin hypothesis.
Even the still populations today that a very
high carb diets. We can look at these and then
actually make sense of it all. Historically
we have the Kitabans who are in Papua New Guinea
and there was also I think that Tara Tarahumara
Indians. So indigenous Americans who
were eating very high carb diets like 70% plus
I mean typically in a western diet. We've all
our junk foods and things like that. We're probably
at about 60 percent of their calories from carbs.
They're eating seventy percent of their calories
from carbs and they've been well studied like the Kitabans
I think it was in the 70s and overweight people
like didn't exist literally like there was
no record their insulin levels are very low
eating very high carb diets. Some some will
say yeah well because they were so active right
there moving around all the time. Like there
was no, you know, this is like they're driving
around and doing things like that. Well, yeah,
then that means you are agreeing that calories
matter because they're burning more calories
than we do in our sedentary lifestyles. Let
me give you a current modern-day example. So
Okinawa an Island in Japan, it's referred
to as a Blue Zone. They have the most centenarians
in the world the most people over the age of a
hundred now, if you get over the age of a hundred,
you're probably doing some things right, especially
if a lot of a lot of people are getting past that
marker in the 50s, they ate up to 85 percent of
their calories from carbs particularly potatoes.
85% it's is ridiculous. It's like you're not
eating hardly any protein or any any fat of course,
and so that’s in fifties. So 70 years on they're
doing pretty well because they have the most
people over a hundred years. So, if carbs were
inherently bad for you and and fattening
then we wouldn't expect to see we wouldn't see
this in Okinawa. We wouldn't see this in the
historical data. I know what you might be thinking.
Well, I don't I don't care. I don't believe that
because I did low-carb and it works for me and this
is confirmation bias like a perfect example.
So even though presented with you no factual
data, it can be hard for us humans to like to take
that on when we have our own bias our own experience.
The reality is below a low-carb diet works for
you or is working because you cut your calories
because when you cut out these high-carb Foods
you cut out calories from your diet because
high-carb foods that we western societies
are high in calorie because their high carb
plus hi fat when someone says yeah, I'm not
eating carbs, I'm not having chocolate well.
The sugar is not where the calories come from in chocolate.
It's fat, it's more fat than carbs chocolate,
but people will call it a carb. You're cutting
out fat plus carbs. I'm not having ice cream.
I'm not having french fries. I'm not eating burgers.
I'm not having pizza. These are all things that
have more fat and carbs yet, we call them carb
foods and cutting carbs are not eating. I'm
not eating sugar. Hey there, more fattening
carbs, but be there fat plus carbs. That's a
problem, the two macronutrients that provide
calories when you put them together, you have
very calorie-dense foods. So when you cutting
out those high-carb foods that we call them.
You're actually getting rid of high carb plus
high fat foods which are high calorie. And therefore
you're reducing your calories. Therefore
you're creating a calorie deficit and losing
weight make sense. Second thing. Is that they
the Keto and very low carb work really well in
the beginning and that's great because you
get that motivation to keep going until it's
stops working. The reason it works really well
in the beginning is because carbs stored in
our body bind to water. Okay. So one gram of carbohydrate
can typically hold three grams of water or H2O. Okay.
And you know a well-fed sustained adult can
hold up to 500 grams of of carbs as glycogen on the body.
So that means 500 grams of carbohydrates stored
because they are eating carbs and three times more
as water held on your body. So that would be 1500
grams of 1.5 kilos about 3 pounds of water. So
when you deplete these carbs stores you’re also depleting
three pounds of water, gone. So on the scales
you get quick results and that seems amazing.
But guess what happens when you introduce carbs
back in your diet that the favored fuel source,
your body is going to hold onto that way. Oh, yes.
I'm not I'm not deprived of this great nutrient.
We going to stall this bad boy straight away.
And then what happens when you store 500 grams
of carbs? It holds on to 1500 grams of water and
then the scale goes back up. And so it's that
initial change that makes the low-carb very
attractive in the beginning and getting you
a small win, but we need to be thinking about
actual sustainable fat loss long term. So yeah,
that's the truth about low carb diets and weight loss.
Yes low carb can help you to lose weight, but
it's because initially car. Blind to water
and more importantly it's because you're actually
cutting calories from your diet. So it's not
the carbs themselves when we eat when we talk
about carbs were actually referring to Cubs
plus fat and and that equals lots of calories.
So basically a low carb diet is a low junk food
a low a low calorie dense diet and lo and behold,
of course it leads to weight loss. If you found
this useful, make sure you give us a thumbs up
or or a heart leave a comment if you have any questions
and yeah, if you want my weight loss guide so
I've loads of evidence-based tips on how to
sustainably you can really look through and
see because different things work for different people.
We're all different. So have a look at you can
have a look at that resource and really determine
what what resonates with you and what you would
like to try if you want that just comment “GUIDE”
and I can send it to you.