Losing weight seems simple at first. You just have to work out and burn that extra fat. Or, you could also eat less fat overall. Other people advocate for cutting carbs instead. Just like that, things get complicated quickly. So, what’s the deal with carbs and fat?
Carbs are already a fairly complex topic. Firstly, there’s a reason behind sugar increasing your weight. Yet, carbs are a crucial macronutrient as well. Therefore, you need a bit of knowledge to lose belly fat.
Many people know that excess calories turn into fat. Thus, too many carbs should increase your weight. But, does that happen?
Let’s find out!
The important difference between carbs and fat
Firstly, we need to clarify a couple of things. Carbs and fat are two of six macronutrients. Yet, only carbs, fat, and protein provide calories. Protein and carbs provide 4 calories per gram. On the other hand, fat provides 6.
Basically, calories are a measurement of energy. More calories mean more energy. As such, fat should provide more energy than carbs. But, it’s a bit more complicated than that. Basically, energy from fat isn’t useful for every part of our bodies.
Also, we must consider the need to burn calories to lose weight. Burning a carb-heavy meal is a lot easier. You need roughly twice as much work to burn a fat gram’s worth of calories.
Carb metabolism and its influence on body fat
So, what happens if you don’t burn those calories? Well, excess calories need to be stored somewhere. And, that tends to go into your fat reserves. That’s where weight gain really becomes a problem.
Via ketosis, our bodies can use fat for energy. That’s the entire point of keto diets. But, not all our cells can use that energy. Our brain and nerve cells require glucose to function. And, fat doesn’t convert to glucose effectively. That’s why carbs are crucial.
Then, we need to get that glucose from somewhere: protein. Our bodies start to break down protein for glucose. That leads to muscle loss without affecting fat stores. In other words, you lose muscle and keep the fat.
Does that mean carbs increase your body fat and weight?
Well, not really. Different studies have failed to find an association between carbs and BMI. Changes in carb intake don’t seem to impact weight gain. Therefore, high-carb diets shouldn’t be “more fattening.” Or, we can deduce that, at least.
That’s because storing excess carbs as fat isn’t efficient. Different studies have found that only a few carbs turn into fat.
In other words, it’s worse to overeat fat than carbs. As such, low-carb diets should be less efficient than low-fat ones. Sure, you might see a few results in the beginning. Yet, they tend to become negligible with time.
So, what’s worse between carbs and fat?
Now, it might be easy to reach a conclusion here. The article and evidence favor carbs over fat. But, you can’t neglect other factors. Generally, low-fat and low-carb diets aren’t particularly different.
In general, eating fewer carbs doesn’t show significant results. In some cases, it might lead to short-term weight loss. However, these results tend not to last long. But that doesn’t mean fat causes more weight gain.
In the end, losing weight is all about calorie deficits. You just need to burn more calories than you consume. Sure, your diet can make that easier or harder. Still, the true goal is to find a balance between carbs and fat.
The holistic takeaway
Carbs and fat are pretty different. However, they’re two crucial energy sources for our bodies. That’s not to say that one’s better than the other. In reality, your goal should always be to reach that calorie deficit.
That means burning carbs and fat more effectively. And, that’s why I like Carbofix so much. It’s an accessible formula that lets you process carbs more effectively. Thus, you get more energy and less weight gain!
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