Short Articles on Weight Loss

Carbohydrate is Needed for Successful Weight Loss

Many people, even professionals, assume carbohydrate is "unnecessary" for weight loss. They are wrong.

Even among nutrition professionals, the "conventional wisdom" often assumes that carbohydrate provides only an unnecessary form of energy (Calories), and that therefore dieters can eliminate carbohydrate from their diets.  The theory is that this will force their bodies to use more stored fat Calories for energy, thus burning more fat.

This is an attractive theory.  It has elements of truth.  But it doesn't work that way in practice.

Rather than being unnecessary, carbohydrate is so necessary that your body will quickly begin to make glucose  (the main biological form of carbohydrate)  out of muscle proteins  (and a few other things)  if you don't get enough from food.

It is true that although the brain and nervous system prefer glucose and are the main users of it, they can do without it if they must. The brain and nervous system are able to "switch over" to using the "ketone bodies" that are a product of the incomplete burning of fat. This reduces your overall need for glucose.

This switchover takes a day or two to actually happen. When it happens, it very likely produces an inefficient functioning of nerve cells cells because it forces them to use their "second preference" as their main fuel source.  It certainly produces the very noticeable and very unpleasant states known as "hypoglycemia" and "ketosis". But this switchover capability does keep the brain and nervous system alive in an emergency and allow them to function at at least the minimum level required of them.

However, there are other cells (mainly certain blood cells) that cannot stay alive without a steady supply of glucose. They cannot switch over to the ketones from fat metabolism or to any other fuel source. They will die if they don't have glucose.

This is almost certainly the reason your body starts to "cannibalize" muscle and organ protein in order to make glucose. Since muscle and organ tissues tend to use fat as their main fuel source, gradually losing these tissues to this cannibalizing process is a poor strategy for weight loss.

In other words, without a certain minimum amount of dietary carbohydrate, your body goes into an "emergency" mode of operation in which it is slowly destroying tissues you need.  It is also making unpleasant adaptations that don't really help you lose weight.

This state is very unpleasant. It is doing gradual, long-term damage to muscles & organs. And it tends to both lower your metabolic rate and decrease your activity level so you don't burn as much fat.

It's not a good mode to be in for the weeks or months that may be necessary to lose the amount of weight you may want to lose.

How much carbohydrate should you eat to prevent this? Not much, but you should make sure you get that amount and no less. Most physiologists accept that between 50 and 100 grams of dietary carbohydrate per day is the minimum needed to prevent "gluconeogenesis" (the term for the process of manufacturing glucose in the body).