This is one of the questions that has been asked many times by many people in different parts of the world. Is it really possible to eat carbs and still lose weight? Let’s find out.

Eating fewer carbs is essential for optimal weight loss but however, it doesn’t mean that you have to completely eliminate carbs from your diet. When you’re trying to lose weight and fat from your body, you will need to understand how carbs work and then you’ll understand how you can eat carbs and still lose weight.

The amount of carbs that you need to eat is based on two things- how much weight you want to lose and where on your body you want to lose the weight.

There are different diets available when you want to cut carbs and these are known as low carbohydrate diets. However, if you do not have to take such extreme steps when you’re trying to lose fat from your body. The spectrum between how much carb a normal person eats in his daily life and the amount of carbohydrate allowed in such low carbohydrate diet is too broad. You can reduce the amount of carbohydrate a little bit than before but you don’t have to go for a low carbohydrate diet and you can still lose weight. It is true because diets are not one size fits all and different levels of carbohydrate intakes may work better for different people. Different types of research has been done on it and it has been proved in different such studies.

Study

In one study done in Tufts University, subjects were divided into two groups and different types of diets were allowed for the groups. Group 1 ate a traditional higher carbohydrate, low-fat diet and group 2 consume a moderately carbohydrate reduced diet where 40% of total calories came from carbohydrates and emphasis was put on fruits and vegetables over grains.

After 18 months, it was found that both groups of dieters lost the same amount of weight, irrespective of the plan they followed.

Then the study looked deeper into the findings and the physiology of the participants. They found something interesting. The study found that people with poor insulin sensitivity lost more weight when they followed the group 2 diet in comparison to when they were on the low-fat diet. On the other hand, people with good insulin sensitivity lost weight on either diet. Insulin sensitivity simply means the capacity of the body to deal with carbohydrates.

The meaning

It means if you are relatively lean, you have good insulin sensitivity and you’ll be able to lose weight by reducing your overall calorie intake and exercising. Just by restricting the carbohydrates more aggressively, you’ll be able to lose fat and weight.

If you have more belly fat, it can be an easily identifiable red flag. In that case, shifting your diet every from grains and more towards vegetables, fruits and proteins will help you to lose both fat and weight.

References 1. High Carb Fat Loss
2. Guide to Behavior Change
3. Weight-Loss and Maintenance Strategies