Those are the first two things you need to know when considering if sugar is bad. After all, your body is perfectly designed to metabolize sugar. When you eat carbohydrates (any carbohydrates, vegetables included) your body eventually breaks them down into glucose (AKA sugar).

So, the idea that sugar is bad when your body is designed to use it and convert it into energy just doesn’t make sense.

Now, that’s not to say that too much sugar can’t be a problem. It can, but understanding your limits can make your diet a lot less stressful and a lot more delicious. Let’s dig in.

Is Sugar The Cause of Obesity and Diabetes?

If you’re going to stand up for sugar for anything (because, again, it has some downsides, which we’ll discuss), it’s the belief that sugar is the cause of diseases like obesity and diabetes.

Yes, sugar can play an indirect role in both. But, data and research don’t align to suggest that both diseases are driven by sugar.

Over the last 40 years, our sugar consumption has shifted from 20.8 teaspoons of sugar per day in the 1970s to about 23 teaspoons of sugar per day. Both numbers are too high, but the ~2.2 teaspoons increase is only about 32 added extra calories. Again, too much sugar, but the increase in sugar is not what’s driving obesity.

After all, according to USDA data, calorie consumption has increased by anywhere from 600 to 700 calories over the same time period. For reference, the consumption of fats and oils jumped from 52 pounds per year (per person) in the 1970s to 82 pounds per year more recently.

The problem with obesity is too many calories. And that is a complicated problem that includes many factors such as food availability, hyper-palatable foods (think fat, salty, and sweet combined), psychological factors, social factors, and genetics.

Can sugar potentially make you desire to eat more? Yes. But, as you’ll find out, the poison is in the dose and the source. It’s not one or the other.

The same goes for diabetes. Many people believe that sugar causes diabetes. In reality, it’s excess body fat that triggers the disease. If you have too much body fat, then it creates insulin resistance, which means your body’s natural glucose control breaks and you start storing and processing sugar differently. That’s what leads to prediabetes and, ultimately, diabetes.

So Why Do People Think Sugar is Toxic?

The short answer: because it makes for a compelling narrative in a book or documentary.

Listen, sugar has its downsides, and limiting sugar is a good thing. But, the idea that you need to avoid all sugar isn’t supported by science.

If sugar is bad and “toxic,” then what should you think about fruit?

Before you buy into the easy-to-sell idea that sugar is the root of all evil, you might want to consider that over the last 50 years, different ingredients or macronutrients tend to be blamed for all health issues.

Despite science that suggests one food is not the reason for all health shortcomings, many are convinced that carbs and sugar are inherently bad.

Sugar’s real “toxicity” level is something like 6 pounds per day (test in rats). That’s not happening to even the biggest sweet tooth.

When people talk about toxicity, they usually are referring to the addictive nature of sugar. The anti-sugar crowd likes to compare it with addictive drugs.

But, if you were to eat a spoonful of sugar (cue Mary Poppins), how much would you want to shovel down a second, third, or fourth spoonful?

The answer is most people wouldn’t because sugar alone does not drive palatability. There are many factors, which include:

• A combination of sweet, starch, and fat
• Mouth-feel
• Salt
• Consistency

Even research suggests that sugar-alone isn’t driving food obsession. A comprehensive review found that sugar was not addictive, but that high-fat savory and high-fat sweet foods are much more likely to be overeaten than mostly sugary sweet foods.

Which Sugars Are Better and Healthier?

Sugar is far more than just the white stuff you spoon into your coffee. (That’s sucrose.)

In biochemistry, sugar is either a monosaccharide or a disaccharide (“saccharides” being another name for “carbohydrates”).

• A monosaccharide is a simple sugar.
• A disaccharide is a sugar composed of two simple sugars.
• An oligosaccharide is composed of two to ten simple sugars.
• A polysaccharide is composed of two or more simple sugars (300 to 1,000 glucose molecules in starch).

In short, all carbohydrates are composed of single sugars. If we go back to the example of sucrose, or table sugar, that’s actually a disaccharide of the simple sugars glucose and fructose.

Meanwhile, starch, dietary fiber, and cellulose are polysaccharides. That’s an important distinction for those of you keeping score at home: fiber — something most people know as good — is also a form of sugar.

Of those three, we can only digest starch, which is composed of glucose. Starch is also what you’ve probably heard call “complex carbs” or “slow carbs” — slow because the body needs time to break them down into single sugars (notably glucose, the “blood sugar”).

So the idea of a true non-sugar diet means kicking out a lot of foods that are perfectly healthy. Sure, you can live without ingesting sugars, or even carbs … but only because your body can synthesize the glucose its needs out of fatty acids and amino acids.

This happens because your body needs sugar. Glucose is needed as fuel for important functions, like your nervous system and your brain. (Yes, your brain doesn’t only function on glucose, but it does need glucose; and glucose also helps cells interact.)

Maybe more importantly: there are many perfectly healthy foods that contain sugar (see below).

Any no-sugar diet that removes all of the following foods is likely flawed. And that’s the point: any diet that veers towards extremes oftentimes is misguided, and that includes the catch-all “don’t eat any sugar.”

When Does Sugar Become Bad For You?

Like most things in life, the poison is in the dose.

As we’ve seen, your body actually needs sugars, to the point that it’ll manufacture some even if you avoid all carbohydrates.

We already discussed that body fatness is the main driver of type-II diabetes and obesity. But sugar can contribute to overeating. And, too much sugar also results in an increase in advanced glycation end products, and so in skin damage and a greater risk of cancer and cardiovascular disease.

That’s why added sugar can be dangerous: not because it’s “as addictive as cocaine.”

The real danger with sugar is not that it’s inherently fattening. A gram of sugar is still just 4 calories. And 4 calories will not make you fat.

However, you can eat a lot of sugar and not feel full. And that’s the typical pattern. You eat some sugar (usually combined with other foods and hidden in beverages)…and then some more…and then some more…and next thing you know a box of cookies are gone, a can of soda, and sugary coffee drink are all gone…and you’re still feeling hungry.

Added sugars are too easy to over-consume. That’s true of every added sugar, no matter how healthy-sounding it may be.

Is Honey Better Than Cane Sugar?

Don’t be fooled into thinking honey or maple syrup or agave is better for you. Sugar is sugar. Even the much-vilified high-fructose corn syrup (55% fructose, 45% glucose, usually) isn’t a lot worse than sucrose (50% fructose, 50% glucose).

What are especially treacherous are sugars in liquid form. You can drink and drink and drink mass quantities of them—enough calories to account for a five-course meal—and yet still feel hungry.

Perhaps it’s unsurprising that soft drinks are linked to the current obesity epidemic. Sodas and colas are by far the main source of added sugar in the average American’s diet, accounting for 34.4% of the added sugar consumed by U.S. adults and children.

In that respect, fruit juices aren’t any healthier. In fact, they can be even worse.

Why? Because the sugar in fruit juice is fructose, which can stress the liver (only the liver can metabolize fructose in any large amounts).

There’s one “sugary” drink that doesn’t pose the same threat: milk.

While milk contains sugar (lactose, a disaccharide of glucose and galactose), it has far less than fruit juice, since milk also contains protein and fat. Back in the day when fats were the enemy, low-fat milk was considered healthier than whole milk; the same isn’t true today.

Now that fats have been (partially) redeemed, whole milk is back in fashion — and backed by lots of evidence.

Is The Sugar In Fruit Bad?

No, fruit is not bad for you. If we could scream it from the mountain tops and plaster over every Instagram feed, we would tell you:

There is no evidence that eating fruit, even in high amounts, will harm your health.

Unlike fruit juices, whole fruits are filling. Apples, though solid, are 10% sugar … and 85% water; that alone makes them very hard to overeat. In addition, recent studies show that whole fruits may help regulate blood sugar.

How Much Added Sugar Is Safe?

Here’s something we can all celebrate: you don’t need to feel guilty each time you eat added sugar. But, you should stay aware of your consumption and do your best not to exceed these limits:

• 100 calories/day if you’re a woman (about six teaspoons, or 25 g);
• 150 calories/day if you’re a man (about nine teaspoons, or 36 g)

What does that mean in real food?

That’s the equivalent of about 1 full-sized Snickers bar or about 7-8 Oreo cookies.

That’s not to say you should add Snickers or Oreos to your daily eating plan. The example simply illustrates the safe, maximum amount you can have each day.

The reason it’s not so simple is that added sugar winds up in a lot of unexpected places, like soup, pizza, and granola.

While the average consumption of sugar in the United States may be decreasing, it’s still way too high.

If you want an easier way to keep your sugar consumption in check, use the guide below. It’s based on the model of the old school Food Guide Pyramid, which was released in 1992 and replaced in 2005 by MyPyramid—before that was eventually replaced by whatever this thing is that the government is using nowadays.

The Sugar Pyramid is a new spin on dietary sanity.

The base of a healthy sugar pyramid is made of vegetables and fruits: Not only are they filling, but they also provide you with fiber, vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals (biologically active compounds found in plants, some of which are beneficial to our health).

Whole milk also fits into the base of the Sugar Pyramid. The little sugar naturally occurring in bread doesn’t count as added sugar, either—but the sugar that’s often added during manufacturing in the U.S. does.

As for fruit juices, honey, and maple syrup, they all count as added sugar, as does high-fructose corn syrup.

If the base of your personal sugar pyramid is wide, then sprinkling a little added sugar at the top won’t make it collapse. It’s only when most of the sugar in your diet comes from soft drinks, sweets, cookies, and breakfast cereals that your pyramid is likely to topple, and your health along with it.

READ MORE: 

Do Carbs Actually Make You Fat?

Winning the War on Hunger: Practical Solutions to Overeating

Healthy Fat: Which Foods Should You Really Be Eating?

Kamal Patel is director of Examine.com, an education company he cofounded in 2011. Since that time, Examine.com’s growing team of researchers has reviewed thousands of studies on supplementation and nutrition. Today, over a million visitors each month rely on Examine.com to separate marketing hyperbole from scientific evidence.

The post Is Sugar Bad For You? appeared first on Born Fitness.

Are carbs bad? Are carbs unhealthy? Do carbs make you fat?

If you look back at the history of dieting, this is nothing new. In the 80s and 90s, you could replace “carbs” with “fat” and you’d be having the same conversation.

But, as time goes on and research improves we should have a better sense of what drives weight gain and weight loss. Unfortunately, carbs missed the science train and been stuck on the pseudoscience rollercoaster.

For years, I’ve heard some variation of, “I know that if I eat fewer calories I’ll lose weight. But, if I eat a couple of slices of bread or some rice, I’ll get fat.”

Fortunately, this isn’t true. You can eat carbs. Anyone can. And they are not the cause of weight gain. However, there are a few details that will help you figure out how many carbs you can eat and the types of carbs that are likely to be best for your body.

Why Do People Think Carbs Are Bad?

The easy answer is that most of the delicious foods that we can easily associate with weight gain also happen to be carbohydrates. Think candies, cookies, donuts, and any other deliciousness you can find at a bakery. All sugary sodas (and sugar, for that matter) fall into the carbohydrate category.

There are certain limits on how many (and how much) of those foods you can eat. They are not 100 percent off-limits (here are some guidelines for how much sugar you can have, and it’s not zero), but the more you eat those foods, the more you’re likely to pack on pounds.

But, carbohydrates also include fruits and vegetables, oats and grains, quinoa, and lentils. The Mediterranean Diet, which has a good amount of research supporting its ability to help maintain a healthy weight and reduce the likelihood of heart disease and other cardiovascular diseases, is a high-carb diet that features all of those healthy carb options.

Even rice — yes, white rice too — is a staple of the Japanese diet, which is linked to longer life and lower weight.

Some of the confusion is linked to the carbohydrate-insulin model of obesity. In a nutshell, this theory states that obesity is caused by carbohydrates, not calories. The idea is that carbohydrates increase insulin, which reduces the way our body is typically fueled (by glucose and free fatty acids). Instead, the insulin drives fat into our fat cells, we gain weight, become hungrier for more carbs (and insulin), and this becomes a hamster-wheel of weight gain.

There’s just one problem: whenever the model is tested, the claims don’t hold up and research does not suggest that carbs make us fat.

Just as importantly, if carbs were the driver of weight gain, then other macronutrients (like fat), arguably wouldn’t make us gain weight.

But, that’s also not the case. Two different studies have compared what happens when you eat too many carbs or fat. (You can find the research here and here.) What happened? Overeating fat resulted in the same outcome as overeating carbs, and sometimes overeating fat led to more fat gain than overeating carbs.

Now, this doesn’t prove that eating carbs don’t make you fat. However, it’s evidence that suggests you can gain weight regardless of insulin levels.

In other words, the goal isn’t to avoid carbs completely, but, instead, find the sweet spot for your body so you can enjoy foods, stress less, and be in control of your weight.

Are Higher-Carb Diets Healthy?

A healthy diet can (and arguably should) include carbs. After all, carbs help fuel many important processes in your body. This includes:

1. Powering your heart and brain.
2. Fueling anaerobic activity (think weight lifting) via glycolysis (the breakdown of carbohydrates).
3. Helping with recovery by restocking glycogen (carb stores) that has been depleted through hard training.
4. Supporting an anabolic (muscle-building) environment after training.

Safe to say carbs are not bad, regardless of your activity level. But, eating in a way that supports your activity level is important so that excess carbs don’t become unwanted weight gain.

Some people will thrive on more carbs, while others require less. The easy way to determine how many carbs you need (and how high you can go with your carb intake) is based on your activity levels (more on this soon).

That said, you can be very healthy on a higher-carb diet, and, at the very least, you should feel comfortable having some carbs in your diet without fear that it will lead to weight gain.

Need proof? The best example is a meta-analysis that compared carbohydrate intake ranging anywhere from 4 (super low carbs) to 45 percent (pretty high) of total calories, and fat content at 30 percent or lower in low-fat diets.

Here’s what the researchers found:

1. Low-fat diets were slightly more effective at lowering total cholesterol and LDL.
2. Low-carb diets were more effective at increasing HDL and decreasing triglycerides
3. Neither diet was more effective than the other at reducing body weight, waist girth, blood pressure, glucose, and insulin levels.

This overall lack of differential effects led the authors to conclude that both low-carb and low-fat diets are viable options for reducing weight and improving metabolic risk factors. Read that one again.

And it’s not like this was a small study. It included 23 trials from multiple countries and totaled 2,788 participants.

What’s more, the cuisines of some of the healthiest populations in the world consist of diets that are heavy on carbs. The best examples are “The Blue Zones,” which are known as “longevity hotspots that have the longest life expectancies and the lowest rates of chronic and degenerative diseases.”

The main energy sources for all of these Blue Zones are carbohydrates. Need more evidence? The Top-10 countries in the world with the lowest obesity rates all consume a carb-dominant diet. 

OK, So What Are Healthy Carbs?

The easy answer is fruits and vegetables. The more complicated answer is that any type of carb can fit into your diet if you know how many carbs (and what types) you need, based on your activity levels.

People who exercise regularly have very different dietary needs than sedentary populations.

If you are relatively sedentary or most of your exercise consists of low-intensity activities (such as walking), then you won’t burn through as many carbohydrates. In other words, if you don’t exercise often or at a higher intensity, your carbohydrate needs are much less.

If you’re inactive, you really only need to worry about providing adequate carbohydrates to fuel your brain and central nervous system at rest, which is primarily regulated by your liver glycogen stores.

Could you go the super low carb route? Of course, that’s also an option. But, for most people, it’s unsustainable and it does not offer any type of superior fat burning.

So, if it’s a good system for the way you like to eat, then you can cut carbs very low. If not, you just need to lower how many carbs you eat, not eliminate them completely.

How Many Carbs Should You Eat?

If you’re more inactive, an effective low-carb, non-ketogenic diet can be accomplished with roughly 100 to 125 grams of carbs a day from non-starchy vegetables, legumes (like beans), whole fruit, as well as a little bit of starch (such as oats, rice, or even pasta or bread). Preferably, the starch will only make up about 30 percent of your carb intake.

But, here’s the key point: 100 to 125 grams of carbohydrates is hardly a “no carb” diet, but it’s still low-carb.

High carbohydrate intakes, on the other hand, are more appropriate for gym rats and athletes that engage in intense muscle tearing, glycogen (carbohydrate)-depleting training sessions.

When you exercise, your body undergoes cyclical depletion (through training) and repletion (through carb intake) of muscle glycogen stores. As a point of reference, your muscles can store about 300 to 600 grams of carbohydrates.

The more you weigh (or the more you want to weigh), the higher you can go on the carb scale. And the more you train intensely, the more carbs you can eat and store as part of your recovery and growth.

While it’s true that lower-carb diets provide many health benefits and can help with weight loss, don’t confuse “low carb” with no carbs. Dropping all carbs is unnecessary, and — in many cases — that extra behavior leads to extreme struggles that result in binges and weight gain.

Instead, enjoy your carbs. Eat them based on your activity level and your personal experiences and sensitivities with different types of foods. If you’ve struggled with dieting, accepting that carbs are good and won’t make you fat is one of the most liberating decisions you can make.

Eat The Way You Want (Carbs included)

If you want help building muscle, losing fat, or for me to personally design a customized exercise and diet plan, join me in my coaching program. You can apply here.

READ MORE: 

How Many Eggs are Safe to Eat?

Healthy Fat: Which Foods Should You Really Be Eating?

Fix Your Diet: Understanding Proteins, Carbs and Fats

Adam Bornstein

Adam Bornstein is a New York Times bestselling author and the author of You Can’t Screw This Up. He is the founder of Born Fitness, and the co-founder of Arnold’s Pump Club (with Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Pen Name Consulting. An award-winning writer and editor, Bornstein was previously the Chief Nutrition Officer for Ladder, the Fitness and Nutrition editor for Men’s Health, Editorial Director at LIVESTRONG.com, and a columnist for SHAPE, Men’s Fitness, and Muscle & Fitness. He’s also a nutrition and fitness advisor for LeBron James, Cindy Crawford, Lindsey Vonn, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. According to The Huffington Post, Bornstein is “one of the most inspiring sources in all of health and fitness.” His work has been featured in dozens of publications, including The New York Times, Fast Company, ESPN, and GQ, and he’s appeared on Good Morning America, The Today Show, and E! News.

The post Do Carbs Make You Fat? appeared first on Born Fitness.

There’s research, case studies, and even a few stats that look great on paper. There’s only one problem.

The weight loss hypothesis and overstated claims aren’t accurate. Many people want to know how to lose weight. But that’s much different from “how to lose fat.” Or more importantly, how to maintain that fat loss for the long-term.

Any book or program that highlights one food as the root of all problems is oversimplifying how weight gain works.

While there are plenty of reasons to remove grains from your diet (in fact, it’s something I do with coaching clients who need the adjustment), eating grains does not have a direct effect on weight loss and fat gain.

Or maybe more importantly: wheat and grains are not the cause of obesity.

These food sources do not automatically make you gain weight. And the removal of grains  (or carbs, fat that matter) doesn’t remove the laws of thermodynamics or the role of calories.

You see, if there’s one attribute that I’m universally disliked for it’s my somewhat agnostic approach towards nutrition. I’ve been in too many research labs, read too many studies, and worked with too many clients to ignore an undeniable truth: many diet approaches work for fat loss, muscle gain, and general health. From low carb diets to high carb diets–I’ve seen both more.

Why? Because there isn’t a single “cause” of fat gain.

It’s why the played out “eat less, move more” just doesn’t work as actionable advice that leads to better results.

And it’s not just opinion. Scientists have literally created a battle royale of diets, pitting one against the other, only to find out that…surprise!…there’s more than one way to drop pounds. Many diets work. That’s a scientific fact.

Create a diet that primarily (but not exclusively) consists of real foods (think proteins, fruits, vegetables, nuts, and yes, even grains) and you can lose weight and be healthy.

So after reading Wheat Belly and other similar demonizations of wheat, I was beyond frustrated with the overgeneralized claim that has scared many people into unnecessary wheat-less eating habits with the misguided belief that it offers weight loss magic.

But the recent influx of clients who have reached out about how they removed grains and gained weight has reached critical mass. And while it’s not my preference to undress the work of others, there is a social responsibility to help you make choices that make it easier to lose weight and enjoy eating.

Wheat Doesn’t Make You Fat: The Proof

To make a point about grains and weight loss, I’m going to do something I’ve never done before on this site: share a shirtless picture of myself.

I’m not a fan of playing the body image game, so why share now? To make a point that the over-generalized wheat hypothesis just doesn’t make sense.

If you’re going to make a blanket statement such as, “wheat makes you fat,” then disproving that theory would be pretty easy. If you have examples of people that eat wheat and aren’t fat, then we can’t apply the rule universally.

And that’s the issue with wheat and weight loss: any book or program that highlights one food as the root of all problems is oversimplifying how weight gain works. 

Having abs doesn’t make you healthy. But they are a pretty good indictor that you’re not resistant to fat loss.

This picture shows me on a diet where I ate cheesecake once per week. Yes, I was counting macros. And, sure, about 80 to 90 percent of what I ate was in the form of vegetables, fruits, proteins. Did I mention I also ate grains every day?

By this association, I should conclude that adding cheesecake to your diet once per week results in abs, right?

Obviously that sounds insane and isn’t true. But it’s the same style of reasoning that leads a researcher like Dr. Davis to say, “I have clients who removed wheat and lost weight. Wheat must be the problem.”

The point here is not that removing wheat is ineffective. Instead it’s that we can’t definitively draw a cause-and-effect conclusion that wheat causes weight gain.

Not only because the wheat hypothesis lacks proof to suggest that with certainty, but also because there are far too many case studies of people who do eat wheat and can lose weight.

Take the picture above. During that time of the above picture, this was my diet.

As you can see, wheat and grains were a prominent part of what I consumed every day. Eventually I achieved sub 10-percent body fat following this plan. And it’s not because I did anything special or removed any particular food.

I ate well, I exercised hard, and I was extremely patient with the process.

That’s not to say that people don’t have wheat allergies or sensitivities. Those are real and can be problematic.

Gut health can play a role in weight loss, and we continue to research and learn about the microbiome. And I do believe that many people can benefit from removing or limiting grains. 

But that does not mean grains cause weight gain or prevent you from dropping fat.

Whether it’s wheat, or gluten, or dairy, or carbs, or fat, the finger-pointing at the “cause” of weight gain must end.

I also have many clients who wanted to eat wheat and were terrified about removing some of their favorite foods. We made sure that their diets were not devoid of carb sources. Here are their “wheat bellies.”

The Science of Fat Loss: The Only Undeniable Truth

Selecting a diet based on blind removal of a food group can lead to weight loss. But that should be a choice that matches your lifestyle, not one that is done on undeserving faith that any food possessing a magical “weight gain” gene.

And just because an adjustment in a diet leads to weight loss doesn’t mean that altered variable is the cause of weight gain. 

If you want to remove wheat because it’s not something you enjoy or eat often, then do it.

If you have reason to believe (medically) that wheat is a problem for your digestive system, then make the adjustment.

Or if you feel better not eating grains, then you should alter your diet and do what works best for you.

But don’t believe that any one food–especially one that is “natural” and is has numerous studies suggesting health benefits–is suddenly problematic.

In the end, any diet that suggests absolute certainty on a topic and doesn’t even acknowledge other possibilities is just delivering more hype, which is likely to lead to long- term frustration.

Is Wheat Your Problem?

If you’re interested in why wheat is not the cause of weight gain (as well as other research claims), click here for a full review that analyzes all of the research presented in Wheat Belly. Unraveling the truth about wheat and weight loss.

READ MORE: 

Wheat Belly Deception: Understanding Wheat, Insulin, and Fat Loss

Do Carbs Actually Make You Fat?

Why Weights are Better Than Cardio for Fat Loss

Adam Bornstein

Adam Bornstein is a New York Times bestselling author and the author of You Can’t Screw This Up. He is the founder of Born Fitness, and the co-founder of Arnold’s Pump Club (with Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Pen Name Consulting. An award-winning writer and editor, Bornstein was previously the Chief Nutrition Officer for Ladder, the Fitness and Nutrition editor for Men’s Health, Editorial Director at LIVESTRONG.com, and a columnist for SHAPE, Men’s Fitness, and Muscle & Fitness. He’s also a nutrition and fitness advisor for LeBron James, Cindy Crawford, Lindsey Vonn, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. According to The Huffington Post, Bornstein is “one of the most inspiring sources in all of health and fitness.” His work has been featured in dozens of publications, including The New York Times, Fast Company, ESPN, and GQ, and he’s appeared on Good Morning America, The Today Show, and E! News.

The post Grains and Weight Loss (A Twisted Relationship) appeared first on Born Fitness.

But then, taking your body into ketosis — the process by which the body runs on fat because you don’t have enough carbs/glucose — is a rich resource for the seemingly unbelievable. This is, after all, a dieting method that requires you to purchase special test strips to examine your urine in order to confirm if you have “achieved” ketosis. (Yes, seriously.)

So is the keto diet effective? Yes and no.

The claims about keto superiority for fat loss and muscle gain are significantly inflated.

But that doesn’t mean the diet is without value.

To help you determine if the keto diet is the right approach for you, we dig into your biggest keto diet questions—and some you probably hadn’t even thought about asking. In the end, should you decide that going keto is best for you, you’ll at least know how to do it properly (most people don’t), understand what it’s really doing to your body (ditto), and be aware of the risks involved.

What is a ketogenic diet?

In a traditional ketogenic diet, you eat 80 percent of your daily calories from fat. The remaining 20 percent is divvied up between protein and carbohydrates—but most of it protein. Typically, carb intake is capped at 20 grams per day, or less than what you’ll find in a single apple, according to Andy Galpin, Ph.D., C.S.C.S., C.P.T., associate professor of kinesiology and director of the Biochemistry & Molecular Exercise Physiology Lab at California State University, Fullerton.

This number is far lower than what you’ll find with most low-carb diets, which generally max out carb intake at about 45 percent of daily calories, according to a review from Tulane University. For someone following a 2,000-calorie diet, that works out to as much as 225 grams per day.

But, don’t forget the most important part — it’s not the low carbs that surprises most people. After all, keto is known as the low-carb diet. What you need to remember is that the ketogenic diet is also surprisingly low in protein.

Why? As you’ll learn, taking your body into ketosis means having your body run on fat for fuel, and protein can be converted into glucose in your body. That means you need to keep protein levels lower to truly establish a state of ketosis.

Why do ketogenic diets go so low with carbs?

Carbs and glycogen (or carbs stored in the liver and muscles) are the body’s preferred and most efficient energy source. Once you deplete them, your body must find other energy sources.

When you cut carbs so drastically — as one does on a keto diet — you can put the body in a state of ketosis. What does that actually mean? Your liver is forced to convert fat into fatty acids and ketones — compounds the body can use to produce ATP, a.k.a. energy, Galpin explains.

It’s this process that truly separates the ketogenic diet from other low-carb approaches such as Atkins, and why the diet revolves around such a high intake of dietary fat: without it, your body cannot produce the ketones needed to keep you up and running.

To determine whether the body has truly entered a state of ketosis, you’d need to test yourself for high levels of ketones, Galpin notes. That’s why people who go keto have to urinate on at-home test strips.

If your body is not in a state of ketosis, you’re technically just following another low-carb diet.

Which means your body is not running on ketones. And all that carb-depletion isn’t going to work the way you intended.

Through ketosis, your body becomes what many refer to as “fat adapted,” meaning your body adjusts to what you’re giving it and uses fat for energy.

In a world of quick fixes and promises, this usually is not a quick process. Research suggests that it usually takes several weeks to occur, according to ketogenic diet researcher, Antonio Paoli, M.D., director of the Nutrition & Exercise Physiology Lab at the University of Padova in Italy.

What happens in the process of becoming fat adapted? Expect extreme fatigue, brain fog, and sluggish exercise performances. After all, your brain is the primary user of your body’s carbs and glycogen. Without that fuel, your entire central nervous system feels the effects.

In fact, it’s those effects on the neurological system that first popularized the keto diet. According to a 2014 review published in the Journal of Lipid Research, ketosis alters the activity of mitochondria in the brain of those with neurodegenerative conditions, which helps cut down on the frequency and severity of seizures.

Is a keto diet good for fat loss?

For those who are looking to cut their body fat percentage or improve exercise performance, the keto diet comes with mixed results.

In one Nutrients study, male cyclists who followed a keto diet for four weeks decreased their body fat percentages and improved their VO2max levels (the amount of oxygen they could take in and use in a minute), but their max power decreased.

Other studies suggest that following a ketogenic diet can allow the body to burn a larger percentage of calories from fat instead of carbohydrates and glycogen when participating in endurance events such as marathons and triathlons, according to a 2017 review in the Strength and Conditioning Journal.

But some of this is very misleading. According to nutrition researcher Alan Aragon, you’re not actually burning more body fat.

You see, when you eat more fat your body is going to burn more fat. This causes an increase of “fat oxidation,” which can easily be interpreted as an increase in fat loss.

But when protein and calories have been balanced (as in, you’re comparing diets where total calories and protein are the same — but fat or carb intake is difference), there is no difference in fat loss between a keto diet and a non-keto/higher carb diet.

“To lose weight on the diet, you still have to consume fewer calories,” Galpin says.  “There are no physiological shortcuts. Calories still matter, and while they aren’t the only thing that matter for fat loss, you still have to maintain a caloric deficit to lose fat.”

Paoli notes that a ketogenic may aid in cutting calories by increasing satiety, but that potential benefit is not yet definitive.

Is a keto diet good for building muscle?

Unfortunately for people who have body-comp goals (think: ditching fat and muscling up), research consistently shows that in order to lose fat without also losing a significant amount of lean muscle, daily protein intake has to be higher than what a traditional ketogenic diet offers.

After all, with only 20 percent of your daily calories coming from carbs and protein combined, there isn’t a lot for muscle-building protein. A 2015 review published in Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism showed that, in order to retain muscle mass while cutting calories, protein intake should be set at about 25 percent of total daily calories. And why must protein be so low on a keto diet? It all has to do with preventing side effects (which we’ll get to in the next section).

Just as important, keto research to date seems to indicate no performance benefit among those performing high-intensity activities such as sprinting and weightlifting, according to the review authors. This is due to both a decrease is fast-acting carb availability as well as a recruitment of slow-twitch endurance-based type II fibers over fast-twitch power ones.

It’s worth noting, however, that a lot of the studies on keto done to date have suffered from at least one big design flaw.

“A major problem with the research on the ketogenic diet is that a huge chunk of the it doesn’t establish whether study participants are actually in ketosis,” Galpin says. “Researchers often don’t draw blood to determine a state of ketosis and instead assume that participants were eating few enough carbs and enough fat that they were.”

What about side effects – is a keto diet safe?

When it comes to protein, a keto diet puts people in a sort of “screwed if you do, screwed if you don’t” situation.

While a low protein intakes can cause the body to lose muscle mass, too high of a protein intake can cause the body to spring out of its state of ketosis, Paoli says.

Basically, breaking down protein for energy is easier than producing ketones and using them for energy. So, if that is an option, your body is going to take it.

But a far bigger issue is that eating too much protein during a ketogenic diet can put your body in a state of ketoacidosis, in which keto acids (ketone-containing acids) accumulate and decrease blood pH, Galpin says.

When this occurs, symptoms include nausea, vomiting, excessive thirst and confusion. In very rare cases, “extreme ketoacidosis” can be fatal.

While some may think a keto diet gives them license to go crazy on greasy, processed foods and still lose weight, it’s important to focus on getting dietary fats from whole, natural sources including red meat, eggs, avocado, nuts, olive oil, and dairy (although many forms of dairy have sufficient carbs to kick you out of ketosis, FYI).

It’s worth noting that, since these high-fat foods tend to be low in fiber, a person who does go keto should work with a dietitian to keep their fiber intake at a level that prevents constipation and GI issues such as diverticulitis, Galpin says. He adds that most keto dieters require a fiber supplement to get enough fiber without going overboard on carbs.

Lastly, having a high protein intake can also increase keto-dieters’ already-elevated risk of developing kidney stones. Note that a high protein diet alone is not a precursor to kidney problems like many people believe. But, adding high protein + a keto diet approach can potentially lead to kidney stones.

What else should I know if I want to go keto?

The keto diet has a lot of very interesting research around brain health and fighting autoimmune diseases. For people that struggle with a variety of health problems, the nature of the diet is promising. And for those that don’t mind the fairly rigorous rules, it can be a very effective approach for fat loss — just like several other diet methods.

At the same time, there’s no getting around it: the keto diet is incredibly tough to follow. Researchers have found that to be true even when adults attempt the diet to control their epilepsy. If people who have such a high degree of motivation have trouble following the protocol, you have to ask yourself a simple question: how well do you think you’re going to do following the rules of the diet?

Research has shown over and over again that your success on a diet depends entirely on how consistent you can be.

So if you can’t stick to it for a long period of time, then another option might be a better fit.

After all, nutrients don’t occur in isolation—they are found in whole foods that, generally, contain some mix of the three macros. So it can be difficult to find high-fat foods that don’t put you over your protein or carbohydrate goals. And since fat is an energy dense macro, packing nine calories per gram, it’s also easy to go overboard there and wind up gaining weight, rather than losing it.

If you choose the ketogenic diet, keep a cheat sheet of ways to stay on track. Reminders like “overdoing it on protein can snap you out of ketosis” will help make sure that your efforts pay off. Or how even one carb “cheat” on the ketogenic diet can cancel out any purported benefits of the eating plan. If you’re going to see success with the ketogenic diet, you have to do it to a T — and it’s best to do so under the supervision of a physician or registered dietitian, according to Paoli.

READ MORE: 

Healthy Fat: Which Foods Should You Really Be Eating? 

The Protein Guide: How Much Protein Do You Need?

Do Carbs Actually Make You Fat? 

The post What is the Keto Diet? (And Should I Try it?) appeared first on Born Fitness.

Weight Loss Research on Glycemic Index

Almost no difference in outcomes for 36 weeks of low-glycemic load diet in obese

No difference on health outcomes of high or low GI diet over 5 weeks

Relationship of GI to markers of health unclear

No differences in outcomes between low and high GI diets over 10 weeks (including satiety)

Review indicating some benefit in weight loss for low glycemic diets

2013 review indicating no anthropometric (fat loss included) differences between high and low glycemic index and load diets (This is the biggest nail in the coffin right here, as it’s a comprehensive review and is recent)

Weight Loss Research On Food Reward

Overall review of the food reward hypothesis

Additional research here

Increased Hunger and Slowed Metabolism

Extreme levels of overeating when high palatability food is presented

Energy restriction (for a whole year) shows only small (yet significant) declines in metabolic rate

Weight Loss Research and Metabolic Changes

MASSIVE weight loss rates (18kg in only 12 weeks) resulted in 67% of the weight loss predicted from NO metabolic adaptations. Thus, the idea that a slowed metabolism could account for a stoppage of weight loss is not in evidence. Furthermore, not all of the difference is explained by metabolic rate slowdown, further weakening its explanatory role in preventing weight loss

Metabolic changes only account for 120 calories–on average–of difference in metabolism during dieting, on average

Study showing 230 calories lower metabolism for a diet of 700 calories lower than maintenance levels (obviously not enough to stall weightloss)

The Yo-Yo Effect: Weight Regain

Weight regain occurs often, strategies to help it unclear

Review of behavioral interventions on weight regain show only small benefits

Weight regain for most diets highly common, solutions unclear

Weight Loss and Blood Sugar

Obese people have HIGHER blood glucose levels and HIGHER blood fat levels, not lower

Low-Carb Diets vs. Low-Fat Diets vs. Calorie Intake

Both low-fat and lowcarb nutrition plans work, no clear winner in this study either

Possible slight edge to low-carb, but results largely equivocal

No meaningful difference in weight loss of low-fat and low-carb

In controlled settings, most popular diets work about the same if they restrict energy to the same extent

The Science of Obesity

Fat went down only a small amount over time, carbs and calories up by a bunch

Percent of energy from fat decreased by only 3% from 1971-2006, but obesity went up 20%

Vegetarians and vegans take in much more carbohydrate, but are less overweigh than omnivores

Adam Bornstein

Adam Bornstein is a New York Times bestselling author and the author of You Can’t Screw This Up. He is the founder of Born Fitness, and the co-founder of Arnold’s Pump Club (with Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Pen Name Consulting. An award-winning writer and editor, Bornstein was previously the Chief Nutrition Officer for Ladder, the Fitness and Nutrition editor for Men’s Health, Editorial Director at LIVESTRONG.com, and a columnist for SHAPE, Men’s Fitness, and Muscle & Fitness. He’s also a nutrition and fitness advisor for LeBron James, Cindy Crawford, Lindsey Vonn, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. According to The Huffington Post, Bornstein is “one of the most inspiring sources in all of health and fitness.” His work has been featured in dozens of publications, including The New York Times, Fast Company, ESPN, and GQ, and he’s appeared on Good Morning America, The Today Show, and E! News.

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From New York Times best sellers to one that fell far short of expectations, I’ve realized that while many books have some good information, they overcomplicate the message that really needs to be spread. I’ve read books on everything from why we gain fat to how to build muscle, low-carb diets to “magic bullet” protein trends, and even how to live longer and fight disease.

What I learned was that despite some great information, we were missing the bigger picture. So I put together the world’s simplest book proposal, which has been rejected over…and over…and over again.

A big reason so many people struggle with diet and exercise is because the majority of diet and exercise books have overcomplicated the real issues.

At first, I thought it was me. Maybe my ideas are stupid. Then again, three of my books have been “best sellers,” and one of them even hit #4 of the New York Times best seller list.

Then I saw this message the other day on Facebook.

And I realized that some people don’t need another book. They just need information, some clarity and direction, and the occasional cheese sandwich.

Because no one will publish my simple book concept (which works), I’m sharing the lessons for free to fight back against ideas like activated charcoal (no, it won’t detox your body) and every other ridiculous, money-driven cause that has a terrible ROI for your health.

Solving The Diet Book Crisis

The hook: A big reason so many people struggle with diet and exercise is because the majority of diet and exercise books have overcomplicated the important issues, resulting in more stress and worry, billions of dollars spent on supplements, and creating inaccurate scapegoats (Carbs, dietary fat, gluten, lactose, “toxins”, laziness, dessert, etc.) that inevitably lead to diet failure and learned helplessness.

The result: too many people feel their bodies are broken, nothing can change, and internally they struggle with how they look and feel.

Want a better, healthier life? Forget what you’ve learned and just apply these 10 simple lessons. 

1. Sleep.

2. Smile.

3. Eat proteins, vegetables, and fats.

4. Drink water.

5. Ignore all detoxes, cleanses, and magic pills. Save your $$

6. Accept that there is NOT “one problem” that causes weight gain or makes weight loss difficult.

7. Have sex.

8. Move/exercise to fight stress—the type of exercise is your choice, but do it often.

9. Be good to others.
   

10. Embrace imperfection, with diet, exercise, and even your appearance. It’s OK. You’re human. Bad days happen. -Repeat often.

Sure, it’s short. But when the advice is applied to my clients, I’ve seen crazy results. Since no publisher wants it, you can take it for free. Try it out and tell me how it works.

Adam Bornstein

Adam Bornstein is a New York Times bestselling author and the author of You Can’t Screw This Up. He is the founder of Born Fitness, and the co-founder of Arnold’s Pump Club (with Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Pen Name Consulting. An award-winning writer and editor, Bornstein was previously the Chief Nutrition Officer for Ladder, the Fitness and Nutrition editor for Men’s Health, Editorial Director at LIVESTRONG.com, and a columnist for SHAPE, Men’s Fitness, and Muscle & Fitness. He’s also a nutrition and fitness advisor for LeBron James, Cindy Crawford, Lindsey Vonn, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. According to The Huffington Post, Bornstein is “one of the most inspiring sources in all of health and fitness.” His work has been featured in dozens of publications, including The New York Times, Fast Company, ESPN, and GQ, and he’s appeared on Good Morning America, The Today Show, and E! News.

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The year was 2006. I was training a few people while in grad school and I had admittedly become wrapped up in the world of low carb evangelicalism. Ok, make that the, “no carbs diet.”

Before I go any farther know this: I’m not anti-low carb. I still prescribe that approach when necessary. 

While a lower carb diet can help you lose weight, it’s not that carbs are the enemy.

But low carb is not the same thing as “no carbs.” And even low carb diets usually means eating much more carbohydrates than you think you should while still losing weight. 

So there I was apologizing to a client because I had done him wrong. I misinterpreted the low carb-weight loss relationship, and in doing so gave him diet advice that wasn’t helping his training goals.

In reality, I shouldn’t have been giving diet advice at all until I received the type of training that would help me do so. (That would come in the following year, and then continue to this day.)

The point: Most people still don’t understand why they need carbohydrates and how simply dropping carbs is one of the most deceiving ways to lose weight. Not to mention, if you’re training, it can have some potential negative effects. 

To put an end to the myths and confusion (and ensure you don’t make my mistakes of the past), Nate Miyaki, author of The Truth About Carbs, has offered the complete breakdown of how to make carbs a part of your diet, and determine the right approach for your goals and your body.

The Truth About Low Carb Diets

There is a reason why lower-carb diets have gained critical acclaim. They work.

Let’s correct that: They work damn well for certain demographics.

Lower carb diets may be the best approach for improving body composition and biomarkers of health for obese, insulin resistant, and sedentary populations. I’ve consulted with a few corporate wellness programs that have used this strategy to collectively achieve thousands of pounds of weight loss, and even more importantly, dramatic improvements in biomarkers of health.

You give a couch-surfing body just enough carbs to support liver glycogen stores and fuel your brain and central nervous system at rest, and you have everything you need for good cognitive function, energy, and mood without gaining fat. That’s why I love Paleo-style diets as a starting point for these specific types of people demographic.

The Caveman theme is simple to remember and relatively easy to apply, and thus it is a great educational tool for the complete beginner that doesn’t know (or care) much about nutrition. The improvement in food quality and nutrient density almost always improves diet numbers, leading to better blood sugar control, body composition, and biomarkers of health.

This does not mean Paleo is the end-all answer to your dietary needs. It also doesn’t mean low carb is right for your body. The biggest problem is with the active community. Those that run, lift, jump, bike, ski, or do anything at all that requires more energy. Too many people are creating a diet that doesn’t match their level of activity.

Diets to Lose Weight: The Unspoken Rule

Anyone that is active and spends time exercising needs to look at their diet through a different lens. Kicking it with cavemen is not the same thing as crushing the competition. Surviving in the wild is not the same thing as athletically thriving in the arena, lifting more weight, or running faster.

If you want to perform well and look a certain way, you need to consider all of the factors at play.

The diet industry has lost the principle of specificity: matching your nutrition plan to your individual situation, body type, activity levels, current health status, metabolic condition, and physique or performance goals.

So don’t just blindly follow any cookie-cutter system. You must educate yourself, and then test and assess in the real world to see what works best.

High Intensity Exercise: It Changes Everything

Anaerobic exercise (strength training, HIIT, cross-training, intermittent sprint sports, CrossFit) creates a unique metabolic environment, an altered physiological state, and changes the way your body processes nutrients for anywhere from 24 to 72 hours after completion of a training session.

So if you exercise 2 to 4 days a week, then your body is virtually in a recovery mode 100 percent of the time. It is in an altered physiological state beyond pure resting conditions, thus your body’s nutritional needs are completely different than the average sedentary office worker.

A good analogy is your car. If your car has been sitting in the garage, it doesn’t need gas. Loading up on carbs is like trying to fill up a full tank. It just spills over the side.

In the human body, that overspill equates to sugar backing up in the bloodstream (high blood glucose). This in turn leads to body fat storage and a host of other negative effects like elevated triglycerides and cholesterol, insulin resistance, and, eventually, type II diabetes.

However, if you drive your car around every day, sometimes for long mileage, you have to fill it up often. If you don’t, you will run out of gas.

An empty tank in the human body equates with fatigue, depression, lethargy, irritability, impaired performance, muscle loss, stubborn fat, insomnia, low testosterone, impaired thyroid production and metabolic rate. That’s a long way of saying you’ll be incredibly frustrated because despite dieting and training your body is not changing.

Carbs, Weight Loss, and Your Body

If you are an athlete seeing great results on a low-carb plan that’s awesome. Honestly, don’t change anything.

But if you are suffering from any of the symptoms I mentioned above, be humble enough to admit that you might be making a big, mismatched dietary mistake. A funny thing happened to the wheat industry thanks to the low-carb movement: People stopped eating breads and grains.

And that wasn’t all that happened. Lots of dieters who made the change lost weight and felt better than ever. But the reason wasn’t what everyone assumed. While a lower carb diet can help you lose weight, it’s not that carbs are the enemy. In fact, they are a vital nutrient that will help you get lean fast and keep you energized for your workouts.

The reason the diet changes made such a difference was because many people were overeating carbs, and the change in diet meant they were eating more protein and vegetables. So while a low carb diet can be helpful with weight loss, carbs a not inherently bad.

Your carb sensitivity is based on your body. It’s important to know that adding weight occurs by eating too many unused calories.

If you overeat, you’ll store fat, regardless of where those calories are coming from. So controlling weight gain is more about total calorie balance than any particular food, carbs included. And if removing carbs makes you miserable, it’s probably not the right approach for you.

That said, some people find it easier to control their weight when they reduce or avoid carb-heavy foods that they have a tendency to overindulge in. But if you can control your intake, enjoy the carbs. The best way to prevent overeating is to make sure most of your carbs come from raw fruits and vegetables, while leaving a minor proportion for desserts.

READ MORE: 

Do Carbs Actually Make You Fat?

How Much Fat Should I Eat?

The Curious Case of Why People Fear Protein

Adam Bornstein

Adam Bornstein is a New York Times bestselling author and the author of You Can’t Screw This Up. He is the founder of Born Fitness, and the co-founder of Arnold’s Pump Club (with Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Pen Name Consulting. An award-winning writer and editor, Bornstein was previously the Chief Nutrition Officer for Ladder, the Fitness and Nutrition editor for Men’s Health, Editorial Director at LIVESTRONG.com, and a columnist for SHAPE, Men’s Fitness, and Muscle & Fitness. He’s also a nutrition and fitness advisor for LeBron James, Cindy Crawford, Lindsey Vonn, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. According to The Huffington Post, Bornstein is “one of the most inspiring sources in all of health and fitness.” His work has been featured in dozens of publications, including The New York Times, Fast Company, ESPN, and GQ, and he’s appeared on Good Morning America, The Today Show, and E! News.

The post No Carbs Diet: The Flaw in Fat Loss appeared first on Born Fitness.