Carbs are bad, and you should stay away from if you want to live a healthy lifestyle. I’ve heard this several times. Even from my gym instructor a few years ago when I was desperate to lose weight and joined the gym, because, Gym is the only option of you ant to lose weight and stay healthy, which is again another misconception.
But for this post, let’s just focus on Myths about Carbs. In this post, I am going to bust a few pretty common myths about Carbs.
1. Carbs will make you fat
Little knowledge is a dangerous thing, and people who know little claim, or in fact, declare that Carbs will make you fat no matter what.
In reality, in depends on various situations, on the body type, on the type of daily routine you have and what your goal is.
Carbs or Carbohydrates is basically the source of energy for our body, while it is true that is that energy is no consumed ( in the form of a physical activity) it gets stored in the body.
But the Energy requirement varies from person to person, A professional Cyclist consumes around 5000-6000 calories per day whereas a Sedentary (or a 9-5 office going person would require only 2000-2500). Or even less if you work from home
2. High Carb Food is Unhealthy
Again, it depends on the type of food we are talking about, is it a processed food? which gets all its carbs from Sugar or it’s a Fruit like Bana.
Even a Donut has a high amount of Carbs, but those come from Sugar and All Purpose Flour, it would be a bad idea to have more than one donut at a time, even in the mornings, but Banana, which is also considered to have high amount of calories, is actually good for you.
And it is preferable to have high carb food in the morning or when your physical activity is high.
3. Simple Carbs Food is not good
Simple carbs, as the name suggests are easy to digest carbs that don;t stay longer to break down and get absorbed by the body fast.
A common myth is that all simple Carbs Food are bad, but is won;t be correct to say that, even some Fruit and Vegetables come under simple carbs, but they are also good in fiber which makes it longer to digest (which is a good thing).
Though Simple Carb Foods like Cookies or Donuts are bad.
“Close your eyes, now picture Banana as your Carb Source, Not Donuts”
4. Low Carb Diet is the only way to lose weight
A lot of people, including trainer in my first gym think and even preach that a low carb diet is the only way to lose weight. But taking carbs out of your diet has negative effects.
Out entire body runs on energy we get from Carbs, and if the supply is low, the functioning is affected. Like I said in the first point, it depends on the physical activity, if you carb carbs for a person who has a lot of physical activity, it is not a good idea.
You will have to balance it properly so that you don’t get burned out and feel low all the time. Because that is the time you will crave for your favorite things and fill yourself up with Cookies and Donuts and lot of empty calories which will ruin your diet in the first place.
5. Having Carbs in second half of the day is not healthy
Again, do not follow religiously if anyone tells you that having Carbs in the second half of the day is not healthy.
Obviously more calories from Carbs mean you need to burn more with physical activity or by working out but that doesn’t mean you need to cut Carbs from the second half of your day.
6. Having more Carbs can make you Fat
I gave the example of cyclists above, which proves that Carbs is not the culprit. People who believe this myth of not consuming more carbs in fear of getting fat have read it from people who talk about getting ripped, or six pack abs. It’s for fitness models.
But people like you and me, the normal people, we don’t need to be scared of Carbs.
7. It is impossible to gain weight on low carb diet
If you hear this from anyone, ask them to come here and read this article. Like I mentioned in point 4, when you cut Carbs, you are cutting energy, you feel low every time, especially on high physical activities, you get irritated, so much that you become the weakest mentally and can eat anything that is offered to you, because, who can say no to a slice of Pizza? or Donuts for that matter.
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