Maybe the simplest thing you can do to massively improve your health, lose weight, and look much better is to cut low-quality ‘bad’ carbohydrates out of your diet. Not all carbs are ‘bad’ but many, many are… and the worst carbs are found in 1000s of modern foods.
The low ‘bad’ carbs you eat, the better, for the most part, all refined sugars and grain flours fall into the bad carb category. These are sometimes called ‘white carbs’ and they’re a big reason (maybe the biggest reason) why so many people nowadays are overweight and unhealthy.
High-starch carbs like potatoes can also fall into the category. There’s lots of controversy surrounding this delicious starchy vegetable, but one thing’s for sure: you will lose weight much faster if you cut these high-calorie, high-carb plants out of your diet. (You can always bring them back once you’ve reached your target weight.)
Here are 5 of the most amazing benefits of eliminating bad/low-quality carbohydrates from your diet:
1. Much easier fat loss.
People who follow low-carb diets lose weight very easily, almost without even really trying. In fact, if you’re looking for a practical way to lose weight fast without exercise, a good low-carb diet is probably the best solution. (Note: Exercise has health benefits beyond weight loss so you should still do some if possible!)
When you cut bad carbs, you avoid blood sugar spikes and reduce insulin production. Insulin is a nasty hormone that stops all fat-burning and shuttles any unused calories into the fat cells. The less of it you have floating around your body, the better.
Over time, the lack of carb calories and insulin forces your body to deplete muscle glycogen (stored energy) and tap into the fat stores for energy. On a proper low-carb diet you don’t need to count calories or worry about ‘food points’ and other such nonsense. You just have to figure out which foods and beverages have sugar and low-quality carbs… and avoid them altogether!
2. Faster weight loss
This obviously goes hand-in-hand with the above ‘easy weight loss’ benefit. Eating few carbs leads to very fast weight loss, maybe the fastest possible weight loss achievable without dangerous ‘cheats’ like steroids, pharmaceutical drugs, and stimulant-based diet pills.
If your goal is to lose 10, 20, or even 30 pounds in a month, a hardcore low-carb or even harder-core ‘ketogenic’ diet is your best choice. Depriving yourself of sugars and starches turns your body into a fat-burning machine within a matter of days.
Once you get rolling you may want to have a cheat meal or cheat day every 10 days or so. Eating a large amount of carbohydrates can help to confuse the body, prevent adaptation, and avoid weight loss plateaus/slow-downs.
3. More energy, fewer fluctuations
Most of us grow up being taught that we absolutely need carbohydrates for energy. But, in reality, that’s only true if you’re doing very strenuous exercise or activity on a regular basis. Marathon runners should probably not eat low-carb diets because their bodies need massive amounts of energy in the form of muscle glycogen.
Most of the rest of us will actually have more energy by avoiding carbs!
Simple carbs like sugars and highly processed flours might give you a ‘sugar rush’ for an hour or so, but you’ll soon be even more tired and hungry for more simple carbs. Avoiding these blood sugar-spikers is one of the best ways to avoid the big energy and mood swings so many people suffer from.
Low-glycemic veggies and beans/legumes are the best carbs to eat because they fuel you without spiking blood sugar/insulin at all. But most people can also do well on whole grains and fruits as well. These ‘complex’ carbs are digested much more slowly and provide large amounts of energy without the peaks and valleys of simple carbs.
4. Less hunger and cravings
An amazing thing happens to most people who stop eating bad carbs: their constant hunger and food cravings vanish within days. They lose their ‘taste’ for sugary and fatty foods and stop thinking about their next meal all the time.
A big reason for this is a reduction in the body’s production of ghrelin… aka The Hunger Hormone. High insulin levels lead to more ghrelin production, so avoiding insulin spikes is key to reducing hunger/cravings.
The good news is that proteins and healthy fats — the focus of a good low-carb diet — help to reduce ghrelin and increase the amount of ‘satiety hormones (like leptin) floating around the body. The easiest way to maintain high energy levels and avoid ‘drop-offs’ is to eat meals and snacks with proteins and good fats, along with small amounts of good carbs (mainly veggies and legumes).
5. Better balance of hormone & neurotransmitters
In the end, everything comes down to how well your body is able to balance the 100s of hormones and neurotransmitters it produces constantly. If your hormone balance is good, weight loss is easy and your health improves dramatically. If it’s bad, you’re most likely overweight, tired, and will eventually suffer from many different health ailments.
Cutting carbs — especially bad carbs — and doing a bit of exercise every day is the best and easiest way to properly balance your hormones and neurotransmitters. In fact, scientific studies have shown that high-protein, low-carb diets are powerful natural hormone regulators.
People on low-carb diets feel better, suffer from less depression, and are able to get and maintain the fit, lean, sexy bodies they desire… very quickly
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