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SHOULD YOU CUT CARBS TO LOSE WEIGHT? · No Forking Nonsense - The Nutritionist UK

• 0:00
  @paulthenutritionist: Welcome to no forking nonsense. The podcast that slices through the nonsense and serves you straight talking nutrition advice that actually works. I'm Paul, a registered nutritionist and your host. And every episode, I'll be debunking diet myths, breaking down confusing food advice and giving you practical science backed tips to help you eat better, feel better and get your hedge back. There'll be no fads.
• 0:24
  Before we get started on this episode, I just wanted to say if you want five days of completely free coaching from me, a registered leading nutritionist, for free straight in your inbox, go to tinyurl.com/kickstarter26 and you will get five days of completely free coaching straight in your inbox just by clicking that link. So if you've enjoyed anything that I've ever said, go to tinyurl.com/kickstarter26. Let's get into the episode. Hello and welcome to another episode of No Forking Nonsense and today we are talking about the most demonised macronutrient in history, carbohydrates. Should you avoid them, what happens when you do and why does everyone think that they're intolerant to bread and pasta when actually they're just being greedy and eating too much of it?
• 1:17
  So let's get into it. So let's start with the obvious question: why is everyone so scared of carbs? The Atkins diet, keto, low carb, no carb, paleo, carnivore. For the last twenty years every diet that's gone viral has told you the same thing: carbs are the enemy. Carbs make you fat, carbs spike your insulin, carbs cause inflammation, cut carbs lose weight.
• 1:42
  And on the surface it works. People cut carbs and they lose weight fast. They fear the mazing for two weeks and they think that they've cracked the code. But here's what I don't tell you, the initial weight loss is not fat, it is water. You see every gram of carbohydrate you store in your muscles and liver as glycogen holds about three to sometimes seven grams of water with it.
• 2:05
  So when you cut those carbs, your body literally dumps the glycogen and all the water comes with it. So you lose five, six, maybe even seven pounds in the first week, scales move fast, you feel lighter, your genes feel better and you think hurrah, I have won the dieting world. But you haven't lost fat, you've lost water and glycogen and the second you eat carbohydrates again it all comes back because that is quite literally biology and how your body works, it's not fat. And this is where people get stuck because they think that carbs have made them gain weight so if they cut carbs again and again and eventually they're terrified of a slice of bread because the last time they had one they gained five kilograms overnight. That's not carbs that are the problem, it is water retention and we're going come back to that.
• 2:55
  So let's talk about what happens to your body when you go low carb or no carb long term. I'm not talking about like two weeks or a month, I'm talking about a year. So this is the process, first of your energy will tank, so carbohydrates are obviously your body's preferred fuel source, your brain literally needs glucose to function. So it uses around 120 of glucose a day just to function and that's its fuel. And when you cut carbohydrates your brain has to switch to running on ketones which it can do but it's not optimal and it takes usually about twelve days of meticulous eating to make that happen.
• 3:34
  And most people will end up feeling slow, foggy, exhausted and also your movement and training suffers. If you're doing any kind of high intensity exercise, your muscles need glycogen. That's carbohydrates stored by the way. And when you're low carb, your glycogen stores are depleted, so you can't train as hard, you can't recover as well, your performance drops. And also your hormones get disrupted especially for women, carbohydrates help produce serotonin which converts to melatonin at night.
• 4:07
  Melatonin, as we were talking about before, is your sleep hormone. Low carb diets will often lead to poor sleep. They also affect thyroid function and reproductive hormones and women who go low carb for long periods of time often lose their periods and that's your body pretty much shutting down non essential function because it thinks that you are starving. Also your mood will tank because serotonin, which is your happy hormone, is made partly from tryptophan which needs carbohydrates to cross the blood brain barrier. So low carb diets are directly linked to increased anxiety, depression and that is literally biochemistry, s not just theory.
• 4:53
  You also probably are going to find yourself quite socially isolated because it's hard to go out to eat unless you go to a keto restaurant if you can't have carbohydrates, pastas, breads, pizza. You can't enjoy a meal without analysing every ingredient and food stops being enjoyable. And the thing with if you do try and go into ketogenesis, you literally cannot consume more than 50 grams of carbs a day which is absolutely nothing and sometimes it's less than that. Now I'm not saying low carb diets don't work for some people because obviously they can do but for most of us, long term they're just unsustainable and fucking miserable. And the benefits you get from cutting carbs, can get from just eating better and being a little bit more reasonable when it comes to portions.
• 5:39
  Because carbs do not make you fat. Eating more calories than your body needs makes you fat and that can come from carbs, fats or protein. There was a really good study in 2009 where researchers took over 600 people and split them into two different groups. One group went really low carb and the other group went low fat. Both groups were told to eat healthy you know like good single ingredient food and to stay in a calorie deficit.
• 6:08
  After a year of doing this, both groups lost the exact same amount of weight. Low carb didn't win, well low fat didn't win either, they were literally identical because weight loss comes down to quite literally energy in energy out. If you eat less than your body needs, you will lose weight. If you eat more, you gain weight. The macronutrient split matters for performance, satiety and adherence but not for fat loss itself.
• 6:36
  So I guess the question why do people think that carbs make them fat? It's because carbs are very easy to consume and they're even more easy to over eat. A bowl of pasta can be two hundred-four 100 grams and it looks pretty much the same. A slice of bread is 80 calories but most people have two slices plus butter and jam and fillings and before you know it's 500 calories and before they realise. It's not carbs, it's the portion sizes, it's the fact that carbs are often paired with fat which doubles the calories, bread with butter, pasta with cream sauce, pizza with cheese, rice with curry.
• 7:14
  The carbs aren't the problem, the combination and the amount of the food that you're consuming is a problem. Carbs are also really nice, right? I love carbs. All of our favourite foods are usually carbohydrates, they're comforting, they're socially acceptable, they're just nice right? So we eat more of them and that's not carbs for it's just human nature.
• 7:40
  When it comes to bloating and this is where people get confused, people will eat pasta and then they wake up and the next day they feel puffy, feel bloated, they feel heavy and they think well I must be intolerant to eat or I'm intolerant to gluten, carbs don't agree with me. But this is actually what's happening. When you eat carbohydrates, especially after a period of perhaps low carb eating, which often happens, so people usually have less carbs in the day, even in the week and then the evening comes or the weekend comes and you'll start eating carbohydrate and your body will store them as glycogen in your muscles and liver. And as I said earlier every gram of glycogen holds three to seven grams of water. So if you eat a big bowl of pasta and let's say 100 grams of carbs then your body will store 300 to 700 grams of water and that's, I mean 300 grams of water is 400 grams in total so nearly half a kilo and you're not gonna, it's almost impossible not to be heavier mathematically so you're going to look slightly puffier, that isn't fat, that is literally water and it's temporary.
• 8:50
  On top of that carbs, especially refined carbs like white bread and pasta, digest super quickly and will cause you to get a bit of gas and bloating in your gut and that's not because you're intolerant, it's just because your gut bacteria are fermenting the carbs and producing gas and that's just digestion really. Most people who think that they're intolerant to bread or pasta aren't intolerant at all, they're just eating huge portions and usually not drinking enough water to go with it. A proper portion of cooked pasta is around 100 grams and that's a small bowl and most people eat maybe two, two fifty, sometimes 300 grams in one sitting. That is three times the portion size. So your stomach is quite physically stretched and you're bloated because you've eaten too much and you know there's a lot of air in there as I said and it isn't because pasta is bread and that's same with bread.
• 9:43
  One slice of bread is fine, four slices is going to make you feel probably quite full and that's again not a wheat intolerant, that's just overheating. And then there's the portion and the salt combination, so most restaurants will, when it comes to carbohydrates, certainly pasta dishes come with loads of salt in the sauce and salt will make you retain water. And so you eat a big bowl of salty pasta, your body holds on to water and you wake up puffy again, not fat, just water. Genuine gluten intolerance and coeliac disease does exist but around one percent of the population has coeliac disease. Another six percent have non coeliac gluten sensitivity but the rest of you are probably fine.
• 10:28
  What really fucks me off is those IgG tests where you can get a you send your hair off to some lab and they give you this list of all these things you're intolerant to. They're basically halogen tests and if you've been told you're intolerant or gluten or allergic to something via those tests, message me paulthenutritionist on Instagram because I can fix you. But yeah, people, they just need to eat a reasonable portion and maybe drink more water. With regards to water, this is the most underrated part of managing bloating and weight filtration that nobody talks about. When you eat carbs, especially when you've been restricting them or you're eating more than usual, your body will hold water and that is pretty normal.
• 11:14
  But if you're not drinking enough water, your body holds on to even more because it thinks you're dehydrated. So I know it sounds counterintuitive, drink more water to reduce water retention but that is literally what you need to do. When you're dehydrated your body goes into conservation mode and it holds on to every drop of water that it can so you feel puffy and bloated but when you drink plenty of water your body relaxes, it knows that it's abundant so it releases the excess and you actually flush out the bloat. Most people I work with, when they first come to me are chronically dehydrated and it is the quickest win. When they're drinking maybe a litre of water a day, maybe, but they're having three coffees which can dehydrate further and then they wonder why they're bloated and the scales won't move.
• 12:02
  Here is what I want you to do. Drink at least two litres of water a day. More if you're bigger or if you're training a lot or if it's hot. And when you eat a big carb meal, drink even more water the next day because it helps your body process the glycogen and flush out the sodium. And you'll find that within two days that plate is gone.
• 12:21
  I have seen clients lose two, three, sometimes up to six kilograms on the scales just from drinking more water consistently and that's not fat loss, that's just water balance finely regulating. And if you are on HRT, if you re perimenopausal, if you re stressed, if you re eating inconsistently, water retention will be worse and water is the simplest fix and most people just ignore Right, let s tackle wheat intolerance because everyone thinks they re intolerant to wheat, bread makes them bloated, pasta makes them tyre gluing as the enemy. But in most cases it s not wheat, it s portion size, it s a combination, it s salt, it s a lack of fibre, it's the speed in which you're eating, it's dehydration. So here is a really simple test. Next time you think you're intolerant to eat, try this.
• 13:08
  Eat one slice of good quality sourdough bread with some eggs and avocado, drink a big glass of water, wait for two hours, how would you feel? Because most people will feel fine because that's a reasonable portion with protein and fat which will slow the digestion and they're hydrated. And then compare that to eating half a baguette with butter or a giant bowl of white pasta with creamy sauce washed down with beer and of course you didn't feel bloated. You've eaten three times Portia size, paired it with fat, had some alcohol and you dehydrated. That is not a wheat intolerance, that is just overeating with poor food combining.
• 13:45
  There is a really good study from 2018 where researchers tested people who self reported as gluten sensitive. They gave them bread with gluten and bread without gluten in a blinded trial and most of them reacted the same to both. The symptoms weren't from gluten, they were from the FODMAPs in wheat or the portion size or their gut health or the placebo effect. Real gluten tests do exist, coeliac disease is very serious but for the vast majority of people the issue is not gluten. The issue is eating too much, too fast with no water and blaming the food instead of what's actually happening.
• 14:24
  So should you eat carbs or not? Absolutely, unless you've been told or there's a genuine medical reason not to, carbs should absolutely be part of your diet. Carbs give you energy, they fuel your brain, they help you sleep, they support your mood, they make you more enjoyable, they make you more tolerable, they help you train in, they help you perform, they help you think, they help your emotions, they help you recover. The key is choosing the right carbs in the right portions at the right times. So whole grains, rice, potatoes, sourdough bread, pasta in reasonable portions, fruit, veg, these are all really nutrient dense, they keep you full and they support your health.
• 15:08
  Ultra processed things like white bread in massive portions, sugary cereals, pastries, biscuits, crisps, these spike your blood sugars, they do not fill you up and they make you crave more. But even those carbs won't make you fat if you're eating them in moderation and as part of a pretty balanced diet. The problem is that most people aren't eating them in moderation, they're not eating them with a source of protein or veg to balance them out, having them in massive portions multiple times a day and it's just going to murder you. So here is a simple rule: carbs should make up around, I like to stay dependent 35% to 45% if you're training, pair them with protein and veg, eat reasonable portions, drink plenty of water and stop cutting them out unless you have a genuine reason. So let's wrap this up with some practical things.
• 15:56
  One, stop being scared of carbs. They are not making you fat. Eating too much probably make you fat. Watch portion sizes, a portion of pasta is about the size of your fist, like cooked by the way. A portion of rice, the same and one or two slices of bread, not half a loaf.
• 16:13
  Pair carbs with protein and veg. Do not just eat a giant bowl of pasta and you know on its own, add chicken, add veg, balance it out. It'll keep you fuller for longer and it'll stabilise those. Sugars I am always banging on about. Four, drink more water.
• 16:29
  If you are not drinking two litres of water a day, then there's no hope for you. It's literally the basic fundamental, there is no excuse to not do that and more if you're training or you're a little bit bigger. It helps manage bloating, it will make you feel better, it will reduce that water retention and if you're not doing that I can always guarantee you'll lose three kilograms in the next week. If you think you're intolerant to wheat, test it. Eat a small reasonable portion with protein and veg, drink water, see how you feel and then most of the time you're fine, you're fine, you're you're fine, you're fine, you're fine you just need to eat less fat.
• 17:07
  Stop cutting carbs out completely unless you have a medical reason. Your energy, your mood, your sleep, your attitude, your training will all suffer if you cut carbs out. Finally, if you've been low carb for a while and you reintroduce carbs, expect the scales to go up for a few days. That is just water and digestion, not fat. It'll stabilise within a week if you are drinking enough water and you're doing what I said above.
• 17:34
  So, that's it. Carbs do not make you fat. Eating too much makes you fat. Most people think they're intolerant to eat, just need to eat some other portions and drink more water. So stop avoiding carbs before mild, stop eating them properly, your body honestly will thank you.
• 17:51
  If you have found this useful, please share it with someone who needs to hear it And if you want five days of furry nutrition coaching, head to tinyurl.com/kickstarter26 or just click the top link in the show notes below. And if you want specific personalised help with your nutrition, follow me on Instagram thepallnutritionist or go to thenutritionistuk.com Thanks for listening, I'll see you next time. That's it for this episode of No Forking Nonsense where the fluff gets binned and the facts get served. If you found this helpful share it with someone who could do some clarity from an expert. That's me, by the way.
• 18:26
  And make sure you hit follow so you don't miss what's coming next. And if you want more straight talking, no nonsense nutrition advice, come and find me on Instagram Paul the Nutritionist. Until next time, eat smart, feel human again and stop falling for the forking nonsense. See you next time.