“Just like any food, carbohydrates can be fattening if you eat too much.”
Fad diets preach the message that carbohydrate is fattening. Wrong! Just like any food, carbohydrates can be fattening if you eat too much. However, carbs are an important staple of your diet, because your body needs carbohydrates for energy. Instead of avoiding carbohydrates, focus on eating healthy carbs in the proper portion size. Starch, fiber and sugars are all types of carbs that occur naturally in foods. However, some foods, mainly processed foods, add sugar, which increases the calories and decreases the nutritional value.
Focus on whole foods with little-added sugar. Carbohydrate is not fattening; excess calories are fattening; in particular, excess fat calories – butter on bread, oil on pasta, mayonnaise on sandwiches, cheese on crackers –are fattening. You should get approximately 45 to 65 percent of your daily calories from carbohydrates. Also, for every 1,000 calories you consume, you should get 14 g of fiber. If you are following a typical diet of 2,000 calories, between 900 and 1,300 calories should be from carbohydrates, and you should get 28g fiber. Fat provide 36 calories per teaspoon compared with 16 for carbohydrate.
Additionally, the conversion of excess carbohydrate into body fat is limited because you burn carbohydrate when you exercise. Your body preferentially burn the carbohydrate and stores the fat because the metabolic cost of converting excess carbohydrate into body fat is 23 % of the ingested calories. Excess dietary fat, on the other hand, is easily stored as body fat; the metabolic cost of converting excess dietary fat into body fat is only 3% of ingested calories If you are destined to be gluttonous, your better bet is to overeat pretzels (carbohydrate) rather than peanut (fat). You’ll fuel your muscles better, and the next day you’ll have a high energy workout with muscle well loaded with carbohydrate.
“Only after your glycogen stores are filled, the excess calories will be stored as body fat.”
But be aware that a continuous intake of excess calories from carbohydrate will eventually contribute to weight gain. When your glycogen stores are filled, the excess calories will be stored as body fat rather than try to stay away from bread, bagels, and other grains, remember these points:
Carbohydrate- based foods are less fattening than fatty foods.
You need carbohydrate to fuel your muscles.
You burn carbohydrate during hard exercise.
Carbohydrate is a friendly fuel; the enemy is excess calories from fat. When dieting to lose weight, you should energize with fiber rich cereal, whole grain bread, potatoes and other carbohydrate-dense vegetables but reduce your intake of butter, margarine, and mayonnaise that often accompany them.
