146: Why Low Carb Works So Well
You may have heard that a low carb diet is effective for health and weight loss but do you know why? In this episode, we’re talking about the top three reasons a low carb diet works so well and how many grams to target to stay in the low carb range.
EPISODE 146: Why Low Carb Works So Well
Show Notes
(0:00) Intro
Hello my friend welcome back to the Club how are you today? I hope you had a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful day celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior.
Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which Jesus will give to you. John 6:27
It’s very easy to become overly focused on the physical in the New Year and so I’m just kinda here to help you stay grounded in the spiritual.
Lessons from the Lord and from hindsight
Sermon on the Couch
Feast 2 Fast
Moving away from working 1:1 with clients
(6:43) The low carb nutritional approach:
Defining what is considered low carb
0-30 = very low carb
0 - 100 = low carb
150 - 250 = high carb
300+ = too high (obesity range)
In Feast 2 Fast we stay within that low carb range but with tighter parameters closer to 50-75grams. (except on feast days).
There are a lot of benefits to doing this but today I’m going to talk about 3 big ones.
#1. It it minimizes your processed food intake
#2. It keeps insulin low
#3. It can reduce gut inflammation.
These benefits translate into weight loss, better body composition, better sleep, increased energy, more stable moods - all of things I was talking about earlier when you regulate blood sugar and improve gut health. So let’s talk through each of these in a little more detail.
(8:40) #1. Keeps Processed Foods Low
When you have a budget of carbs to spend each day, you are, by default, limiting your intake.
Processed foods like chips, cookies and bread blow the carb budget pretty quickly.
Processed foods are not the only foods that fall into the carbohydrate category.
Vegetables, fruits, grains and legumes all fall under that umbrella.
In F2F I break these carbs into 3 levels:
Real Food Carbs,
Whole Food Carbs
Heck Yeah Carbs.
We work through each level so that we can slow our roll and really see how the different kinds of carbs contribute to our carb load and how they work for the body in terms of blood sugar regulation, gut health AND simply your personal preferences.
In F2F we do our best to upgrade the Heck Yeahs - we want to look for the highest quality ingredients in our chips and cookies and bread, etc.
(12:15) #2. Keeps Insulin Low
Insulin is the hormone that helps put glucose (sugar) into your cells for fuel and energy.
Carbohydrates turn to sugar in your body, your body releases insulin which is the key that unlocks the cell door so the sugar can enter to be used.
Your body either uses the sugar energy right away to fuel the needs of your body in the moment or it goes to be stored in your liver or muscles for later use, and anything leftover gets put in your fat cells for storage.
This is why insulin is known as the fat storage hormone.
All carbs turn to sugar in the body.
The more carbs you eat, the more insulin shows up. The more insulin shows up, the more energy (calories) you store and the less you burn.
By eating a diet lower in carbs, you have less foods turning to sugar and less insulin showing up and, therefore, you give your body more opportunity to burn fat.
Lowering insulin is a humongous gamechanger when it comes to your health and weight.
(16:40) #3. It Can Reduce Gut Inflammation
Carbohydrates feed our gut bacteria - both the good and the bad. Both good and bad carbs feed both good and bad bacteria.
You don’t want an overgrowth of bacteria in general
You certainly don’t want an overgrowth of bad bacteria
Bad bacteria smother out and overtake the good bacteria and we need that good bacteria because it does a lot of things for our body.
Carbs feed our gut bacteria and our gut bacteria help us utilize our carbs for good purposes.
I’ve run a lot of stool tests on people and never had one come back that didn’t have some level of gut dysbiosis. And this means gut inflammation. On an obvious and direct level this may manifest as digestive issues.
Gas, bloating, constipation, diarrhea. It’s believed that up to 84% of IBS symptoms may be caused by an overgrowth of bacteria in the intestines.
Even if you have zero digestive issues it doesn’t mean you don’t have gut inflammation.
If you have anxiety, depression, migraines, skin problems, joint issues, sinus issues, immune or autoimmune issues - you name it, that can be a symptom of gut inflammation.
60% of our immune system lies in the gut. The more inflamed your gut, the less robust your immune system.
100: Gut Reset to Budge Weight Loss
When someone has gut inflammation, when there’s an overgrowth of bacteria (even if it’s good bacteria) it creates health issues.
(21:55) Closing thoughts:
Healing the gut is a whole other conversation and podcast but I hope that today you ‘ve gotten a better understanding of why low carb diets work so well.
If you want to learn more about it and more of the nuances of how to apply it, join us for Feast 2 Fast. Our new year round starts the first Monday in January.
You can sign up now and as soon as you sign up you have access to all of the materials so that you can get prepared or even start early if you want to!
(23:21) Outro & Disclaimer
Thanks for listening! Have a healthy and blessed week!