Why Do Carbohydrates Matter?

Why do carbohydrates matter? They cause weight gain. Without bad carbs, calories don’t matter.

For years, we learned that we gained weight and fat by taking in more calories than we burned. Calories in–calories out. That is not true. I still see experts talk about calories in and calories out. They ignore forty years of studies. I first went on the Atkins Diet in 1997. I ate omelets, sausage, bacon, Spam, steaks, meats, cheeses, and eggs. I ate at least 3000 calories daily and lost 26 pounds in six weeks. That is the rule, not the exception. I don’t believe the Atkins Diet is a good idea for most people. The similar ketogenic diet has similar problems, and I avoid it.

Most of the scientific community has accepted that you can lose weight by eating few carbs. Some pay lip service to the glycemic index (a measure of how high your blood glucose goes after you eat) of the foods you eat, but most downplay its importance in weight control. They are wrong.

If you eat certain carbohydrates, what I call bad carbs in my book, The Three Rules to Lose Weight and Keep It Off Forever, Second Edition, you will gain more weight than if you don’t eat bad carbs. This is why the keto diet and Atkins diets cause weight loss even if you ignore calories. The mechanism for this effect is simple to understand. Insulin is the most important hormone for gaining weight. It is difficult to gain weight if you have a low insulin level.

Type 1 diabetics, who have no insulin, are skinny (or were before junk food became so popular). The main trigger for insulin production and secretion is glucose in the blood. Glucose levels rise when we eat bad carbs. So, you eat a muffin, your glucose and insulin go up, and you store fat. If you don’t eat bad carbs, your glucose and insulin levels remain low, and you cannot efficiently store fat. If someone gives you money, you cannot efficiently store it at the bank if you have holes in your pockets or spend too much. To say the more calories you eat, the more weight you gain, regardless of the carbs you eat, is like saying the more money you make, the more money you save at the bank, irrespective of how you spend it or the holes in your pockets.