It’s all anybody is talking about: Carbohydrates! Where do carbohydrates belong in our diet, if they belong at all? Atkins, Carbohydrate-loading and The Paleolithic Diet are just a couple examples of diet strategies that involve the manipulation of carbohydrates. All this confusion around carbohydrates, or carbs for short, stems from our need to not injure people’s delicate egos. Often times, in an effort to sell their material authors will avoid alienating any specific group of people. Therefor, they write to all people when they should be writing to a specific group. As it is with almost every debate this one is not black and white. There is much more to this debate than “everybody should eat low carbs.”
First, let us examine the role carbs play in our diet. Iowa State University tells us that, “The roles of carbohydrate in the body includes providing energy for working muscles, providing fuel for the central nervous system, enabling fat metabolism, and preventing protein from being used as energy.” One way in which this definition is lacking is an exact measurement of how carbohydrates provide us with energy. Carbohydrates provide us with fast to medium term energy. When consumed, carb energy is quickly turned into fat if not used for energy within the next couple of hours. So when a desk jockey goes out to lunch, consumes a high carb meal, then returns to his desk, he will most likely be adding to his waistline. If there is one lesson you should learn from this article it is that carbohydrates are fast and medium term energy not long term.
So, what is the role of carbs in your diet? The answer to that depends on many different factors. The four key factors in knowing how many carbs you should eat, in order of importance, are: your activity levels, the type of carbohydrate, your current body goals and, finally, your body fat percentage.
Your activity level, and type of activity, is the most important factor in carbohydrate consumption. Here is why. Carbs provide our bodies with fast energy and are our bodies preferred source of energy. However, while preferred, they are also easily transferred into fat. This energy is used in our explosive movements that people use in the weight room or in an athletic competition. If you do not have an active lifestyle you do not need as many carbs. For example, on the days professional bodybuilders do not go to the gym they decrease the amount of carbs that they consume. They do this because they know that their body will require less explosive energy to survive. So, to find out how many carbs you need first ask yourself, “How active is my lifestyle?” If you live an active lifestyle than you will need to consume more carbs than the average person.
The second most important factor in deciding how many carbs you need is revealed in the distinction between slow carbs, also called complex, and fast carbs, also called simple. Slow carbs come from foods like oatmeal, sweet potatoes and other unprocessed foods. These carbs provide you with the medium term energy because their complex molecular structure takes longer to digest. Fast carbs come from foods like cupcakes, cookies, fast food and other heavily processed items. These carbs provide you with the short term energy because they are easy for your body to digest. They have a simple molecular structure that the human body can break down easily. Thus providing you with the “sugar high.” From this point on I will refer to slow carbs as quality carbs and fast carbs as crappy carbs. It is imperative that at least 90 percent of your carb consumption comes from quality carbs. If you eat too many crappy carbs then it will be difficult to change the way your body looks. It will be difficult because you do not use the energy quickly enough to stop it from being turned into fat. As a general rule of thumb just avoid processed carbs altogether. In fact if you make a commitment to yourself to avoid eating processed carbs your carb consumption often takes care of itself. When you have a craving for a crappy carb, like cake, you can fill it with a quality carb instead and your body will thank you for it.
The third most important factor is your current body fat percentage. The higher your current body fat percentage the lower your ability to efficiently process carbs will be. So a low carb diet will help people lose weight but those who do these diets have to be careful to adjust their carb intake as they become thinner, or more muscular. Their body will improve at burning these carbs as that happens. That is the cause of many people losing the progress they gained. Many people tried and failed the Atkins diet because they lost weight but didn’t raise the amount of carbs to fit the new body they now had. Then when their body was starving for more carbs they would over eat, generally on crappy carbs, and gain the weight back. Generally those with higher body fat should consume fewer carbs and more proteins and fats.
Finally, another important thing you need to about carbohydrates is their relation to your goals. Say you have gotten to the point were you can start experimenting with your macronutrients intake. Those who are looking to gain weight will increase their carb consumption. Those looking to lose weight will decrease carb consumption. There are many more body goals than that. I encourage you to investigate personally how carbs impact your goals.
In conclusion, not me, not the USDA or anybody else can tell you how many carbs you need. You would need to come into our office so we can measure these factors to give an accurate prescription. So go take your measurements, be honest with yourself, and find out how many carbs you personally need.
Daedalus' Workshop 