What is the scoop on Low Carb?

Low carbohydrate diets are all the rage. It is not exactly a new diet, as Atkins, South Beach, and many others have been around for many years. 

But what is a low carbohydrate diet? How many carbs is too many? How many is not enough? 

And what does the science actually say?

Let’s start with what the Food and Drug Administration recommends. The “Acceptable Macronutrient Distribution Ranges” (AMDR) is the recommended range of each macronutrient - carbs, proteins, and fats. This is the percentage of your total daily intake that should fall into that particular category. For carbs, that range is set to 45-65% of all the food you eat in a day. That is the highest range for any of the three macronutrients. 

Why is the recommended amount set so high? 

Carbs are easy sugars for the body. Even foods we consider to be complex carbs, are still easier for the body to break down and use as energy than fats and proteins. This makes carbohydrates the preferred source of energy for the body. Most of the body can use proteins or fats instead, but not all of the body. Your brain and your red blood cells can only use glucose (sugar). If we don’t eat enough carbs to give our brain and body what it needs just to survive, it will sneak into our muscles and break down the muscle tissue to get what it needs. 

Not such a good thing when we are trying to keep our muscles strong! Strong muscles protect our body, keep our bones strong, and speed up our metabolism. So we need enough carbs to protect them. This is about 130 grams just to survive- not even to thrive!

What happens if you don’t get enough?

You may have heard of some of the side effects of a Keto diet. “Keto breath”, strange urination, some tiredness and dizziness. These are all side effects of not getting enough carbs for your brain and blood to use. So it breaks down your muscle tissue instead, causing the release of ketones, elevating uric acid (which increases inflammation!), causes bad breath, nausea, constipation and more. 

Will you lose weight?

Probably! Carbs are stored as glycogen in the muscles and liver and it tends to attract water. The more that is stored in the muscle, the more water weight the muscle holds as well. When you deplete your body of the stores, the water goes away too. Then, your body has to break down the muscle later for the glucose it needs. All these combine to create weight loss. But you are putting your body at an imbalance in the process.

That said, weight loss is not fat loss. Once you give those muscles the glycogen stores again, that weight will return. 

Your body wants, loves, and craves balance. If you push past its nature to imbalance it in one direction, it is very likely that it will buck against you in the opposite direction. This can swing the pendulum to the other far side, creating an even further discrepancy than you experienced before you tipped the scales.