Cutting Carbs to Lose Weight

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An image of foods containing carbohydrates with the caption "Cutting Carbs vs Cutting Fat"

Cutting back on processed carbohydrates is one of the most effective ways to lose weight and start using body fat as fuel. Eating refined carbs, like white bread and sugar, stimulates the production of insulin, the fat storage hormone within your body. It also increases hunger and largely prevents stored body fat being accessed.

When your diet is full of high glycemic grain foods and sugar, your body is continually in fat storage mode and unable to use its stored triglycerides for fat burning. These stored triglycerides are primarily found in the adipose tissue around the waist. If you’d like to reduce your waistline, then start by reducing your refined carbohydrate intake.

As a quick primer to cutting carbs in your cooking, here are four types of foods to avoid, or at very least greatly reduce, when you’re ready to start losing weight.

Following these are the best types of foods to replace them with to really elevate your health and energy levels.

The last section of this page will bring it all together with the right types of meals for weight loss. So let’s get started.

Here’s a short video giving you some more information.

Four Types of Carbohydrates to Cut Back on in Your Meals

1. Bread and Other Bakery Products Made From Refined Wheat Flour

With the possible exception of candy bars and sugary drinks, these kinds of foods will usually have the strongest effect on your blood sugar and therefore insulin. Because they stimulate the production of so much fat storing insulin, they are the type of foods that are first and foremost worth reducing if you really want to lose weight.

Traditional rye bread is a much slower digesting food for weight loss and makes a good occasional replacement. That said, it’s much better overall to come up with different meal options that don’t involve bread, especially at the start of changing your eating patterns.

Slices of toast bread.

2. Pasta Made From Wheat

This is another big culprit in spiking insulin and a big bowl of wheat pasta in the evening is a great way to store body fat.

Recently, a surprisingly healthy alternative has become available in gluten free quinoa pasta, made from the highly nutritious grain-like superfood seed. The significant levels of protein, fiber and beneficial fatty acids in quinoa make it much more blood sugar stable for the occasional pasta meal.

3. White Rice

The sumo wrestlers favorite. Rice does not have the inflammatory gluten issues of wheat, but too much of it can raise your blood sugar to a level where you stimulate body fat storage. In fact, Japanese sumo wrestlers have bowl after bowl of high glycemic white rice in order to fatten up. Unless you want to look like them, it’s best to cut down on rice and switch to a much healthier version of it.

Brown rice is slower digesting than white rice due to its natural fiber content. However, an even better tasting and better for you option is wild rice.

Wild rice has a delicious nutty flavor, a much lower glycemic load than regular white rice and up to 30 times the free radical protecting antioxidants. A small amount of wild rice with your meals is a much better choice than the bland white stuff and it’s well worth making the change.

4. Potatoes

A small amount of organic potatoes steamed or added to recipes provides good levels of vitamin C, B6, potassium, copper, manganese and fiber. The way most people have potatoes though is in french fries and in manufactured potato chips, full of sodium chloride and acrylamide.

If you’re looking to lose weight, it’s a good idea to avoid potatoes for a while. This is because they have one of the strongest effects on your blood glucose levels of any vegetable.

Once you’re at your ideal weight, you can include them occasionally with other vegetables. That said, pumpkin, butternut squash or sweet potatoes all make a similar, yet more nutritious replacement, high in dietary fiber and rich in antioxidants for a healthier body. Why not use more of these instead?

About a dozen or more potatoes.

Healthy Carbohydrate Foods for Weight Loss

Swapping your main source of carbohydrates from grains (particularly refined grains) to mixed vegetables and high-fiber fruits is one of the best things you can do for your health.Lets look at ‘why’ you’d want to do this, particularly as it relates to having a better body.

Weight loss becomes significantly easier when you are not consuming too many grain-based foods. This is because grains (along with sugar) are the foods most likely to raise your blood glucose levels and promote the release of fat storing insulin. In fact, when you cut right back on grains and sugar, and start getting your carbohydrates primarily from high-fiber vegetables, your body will naturally begin accessing its stored fat as fuel.

This makes losing body fat a simple process. No counting calories or starving yourself. Those methods have been tried over and over again and have failed miserably in the long run for the vast majority of people.

Even if you manage, by sheer willpower, to lose a little water weight and muscle mass by drastically limiting the amount you eat, you will almost invariably put it back on once you stop starving yourself. Your body is very quick to recover after a period of restriction and most people are back where they started, or even heavier, a couple of months after a starvation style diet.

The best way to lose fat is to switch to using it as your primary fuel. This is why eating plans based on a good intake of high-quality protein and healthy fats, balanced with nutrient and fiber rich vegetables, along with some high-fiber fruits, are so effective.

When you reduce your daily carbohydrate intake to around 50 to 80 grams, primarily from healthy vegetables, your body naturally begins breaking down stored triglycerides for fuel. Eating in this way, you should not be afraid to liberally use healthy fats, like those found in avocados, pastured butter, grass fed meats and coconut oil. These will help encourage your body to switch to using slow burning fat as its main energy source and really speed up weight loss.

Various vegetables including bell peppers, onions, carrots, etc.

The Best Type of Meals for Weight Loss, More Energy and Better Health

Once you’ve switched out inflammatory vegetable oils, damaging sodium chloride and fattening sugar for their much healthier alternatives, the most important thing you can do to lose weight and improve your health and energy is to replace the grain foods in your meals, like breads, pasta and white rice, with a variety of vegetables.

Many people will shudder at the suggestion, but really think about it for a moment. Just how much actual flavor does a slice of white bread, or a bowl of pasta or white rice really have? Would you eat it on its own? Of course not.

The flavor comes from the protein in the meal, the sauces, seasonings and spices and often from the fats. You’re not limiting healthy fats with this kind of eating, so ingredients like avocado oil, grass fed butter and coconut milk are encouraged.

Coconut milk in particular is especially rich and very flavorsome mixed with herbs, seasonings and spices. It’s a mainstay of my cooking and makes amazing sauces and soups.

Given that most of the flavor in your meal will come from the healthy protein, ideally organic chicken or turkey, free range eggs, wild salmon, grass fed beef or wild meats, a base of fresh tasting veggies can make a wonderful compliment to your meals.

Try switching to a mix of vegetables like mushrooms, pumpkin, onions, bell peppers, bok choy, spinach, broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, zucchini, eggplant, celery, scallions, kale, green beans, tomatoes, snow peas and many more. The more you chop up together, the more flavor and nutrition you’ll have in your food.

A cooked dish comprised of meat, vegetables and spices.

It’s not like you’re having them all on their own. In fact, with this kind of weight loss eating it’s better to eat them with healthy fats. Doing so will actually increase the amount of nutrients you absorb from your vegetables as well. This is because many of the antioxidants in veggies, like pro-vitamin A, vitamin K and vitamin E, are fat-soluble and best assimilated in the presence of fatty acids.

So start experimenting with a variety of colorful vegetables. You can steam them, drizzled them with avocado oil and season with black pepper and a little Himalayan crystal salt; lightly stirfry them in coconut oil with turmeric; make them into a healthy salad; or blend them up into a soup. For some more great examples have a look through the Recipes section on Health Ambition as well.

More and more people are discovering how good eating like this makes them look and feel. If you’re really ready to start cutting carbs to lose weight, this kind of eating is the most effective way to do it. Try it for at least two weeks, seriously and without processed supermarket foods, sandwiches, pasta or rice and please come back and share with other people the difference it makes for you.

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0 thoughts on “Cutting Carbs to Lose Weight”

  1. Hello Jim,

    Thank you for this information. I have been struggling with losing weight for such a long time. I have very bad digestive system. I love veggies and fruits so I think I am going to take on this challenge and see within two weeks if there’ll be any improvement. I believe it will also be an added plus for my problematic skin (chloasma). I will come back to share my progress .
    Thank you so very much. God bless you more.

    Reply
  2. I am a firm believer and proof that cutting out carbs as lusted above will help you lose weight,I had to go gluten free for IBS,i lost 10 lbs in the first 3.5 weeks,i dont eat breads of any kind anymore,and all my meals are organic,fresh fruit and veggies,the difference in how you feel is amazing, my skin and hair look healthier also,its helped me with alot of my problems.

    Reply
  3. It perplexes me how the Japanese and Koreans eat so much rice and noodles and still remain so thin. Same with the French with their buttery decadent pastries. I know from reading some other articles that the Japanese have a lot of pressure to conform to society to stay thin so maybe they have enough discipline to eat small portions even if it’s rice, fried food, or anything else unhealthy. It’s mind-boggling because I personally find anything with flour or rice to be a trigger for uncontrolled binge eating. I can no longer eat pastries, rice, or noodles because it’s pure torture to taste it and then only stop eating after 1 serving. On the rare occasion I go back to eating bread, it will definitely have to be the traditional rye.

    Reply
    • Hi Christine,

      I think these cultures generally eat smaller meals than in America and, at least with Asian meals, rice is probably a little less fattening than wheat or corn products (especially the HFCS added to so many products in the USA). Japanese and Koreans do also eat a lot more vegetables than the restaurant versions we’re used to. Unfortunately recent obesity figures in France show a significant increase. Perhaps switching the traditional butter for hydrogenated vegetable oil in their pastries is part of this negative trend.

      Reply
  4. Thanks for your write up ! i agree and After discussion with a couple of nutritionists the resounding commonality of theory is to increase vegetable intake with each meal and increase greens, such as broccoli, kale, rocket and spinach. Reduce intake of refined sugary foods and white breads. Taking chromium to help regulate blood sugars. Drinking lemon juice each morning. Applying all of the above as well as regular (daily) exercise has helped clear out my digestive tract, keep me regular, increase energy level and burn fat. I have increased metabolism and look forward to reaching my weight loss goal mid 2014!

    Reply
    • Hi Em,

      You definitely sound like you’re on the right tract. There’s no need to go hungry (and in fact it’s counterproductive). When you eat like this your body naturally gets back into balance and a healthy weight.

      All the best for reaching your weight loss goals soon.

      Reply
  5. Hi, my new years resolution is to eat no bread and have no carbs with my main meal, i’m also planning to gradually reduce my sugar as i have severe headaches if i go cold turkey. Obviously this will not eliminate carbs entirely as i will still be having carbs from cereal ect. Will i still lose weight this way?

    Reply
  6. Can one use bottled lemon juice to make lemon water? I like to drink 28 ounces water mixed with 4 ounces bottled lemon juice, either ice cold or room temperature. i could easily drink two of these a day. Are the benefits of bottled lemon the same or even close?

    Reply
    • Hi Connie,

      It’s better to use real lemon juice rather than lemon juice concentrate as these products usually contain sulfites, a preservative some people have a negative reaction to. Natural enzymes, antioxidants and vitamins are also likely to be lost in the manufacturing process.

      Hope this helps.

      Reply
  7. Hi Jim,

    I found all the posts to be informative…I’m a mother of 4, and in desperate need to lose weight. I have been jungling between counting calories and carbohydrates. So far, I have lost a total of 48 lbs in 5 months…

    Reply
  8. I know this is dead-on, the best of all I’ve read on nutrition to lose stored fat, and start burning it:) I am so happy to find it, and I am doing it now, but your article added so much that I wasn’t using, yet;) Denise

    PS I just want to say this is NOT easy, but it does get easier. Not buying foods that are contributing to my weight is very hard. But my cupboards are clear now. Once my metabolism is more normal, back to normal, I can have times where I can eat a piece of pie, I don’t believe in deprivation, or denying myself joining in on some goodie. It’s just to learn moderation;) I have high hopes now, at 61, and I have lost 5 lbs according to the scale, which I know is not trustworthy as I don’t know what is water loss, fat loss, or maybe lean muscle, so the tape measure will be my best tool, and the way I feel;)

    Reply
  9. Hi I’m a mother of six I had my sixth child in Aug of 2014 I’ve had problems with losing weigh or keeping a diet I really want to try lose weight n keep it off my sister did this n lost a lot of weight. If n e 1 can help in what to eat what not to eat if this works what helps n e info please share I’m 5 foot 5 n weight about 170 I was a 199 when pregnant I really need to lose weight I feel awful all this extra weight makes me feel awful all the time… 🙁 I know it all has to start with me n that is why I’m gonna try this.

    Reply
  10. I’ve been overweight for 10 years and tried so many things. Different things work for different people and I was lucky enough to find one that worked for me. I lost 19 pounds in one month without much exercise and it’s been a life changer. I’m a little embarrased to post my before and after photos here but if anyone actually cares to hear what I’ve been doing then I’d be happy to help in any way. Just shoot me an email at oceanflowers82@gmail.com and I’ll show you my before and after photos, and tell you about how things are going for me with the stuff I’ve tried. I wish someone would have helped me out when I was struggling to find a solution so if I can help you then it would make my day

    Reply
    • Annetta, this is impressive. I’ve just started my journey to reduce carbs and sugar from my diet. In just 4 days, I can see the difference in my face of all places. My clothes are fitting better and I believe I’m almost over the fatigue phase. I’m a 50yr old male, 6’4″ and my current weight is 248. My goal is to get down to 200lbs. I’d be very interested to hear your story further as I think it will be very helpful to share success stories. Congratulations on your accomplishments!

      Reply
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