Don’t dread bread... why going low carb is never the answer

If there is one way to bring another person down it’s food shaming.
Jamie WilkinsonJamie Wilkinson
Jamie Wilkinson

“Why are you eating that? I thought you are on a diet?”

“ You’ll never lose weight eating food like that;” or,

“Isn’t that very fattening?”

The worst part is that 99% of the people who concern themselves with what other people eat, do not know a thing about nutrition or calorie management.

A typical rule of thumb for the untrained eye is that if the food is green it’s probably healthy and if it looks in any way tasty... it’s probably not.

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The question I always wonder is why is bread so victimised? Why is it the poster boy for unhealthy food and why the second we want to drop a few pounds do we decide ‘‘That’s it!... no more bread for me,’’ (who are you kidding, everyone knows you will be back for more).

I love bread... whether it’s white, brown, wholegrain or any of the greater bread family (baps, wraps, bagels etc.)

I post a lot of my food on social media and am often asked, “Why do you eat so much bread, isn’t that bad for you?”

My response is always the same, “Why would eating bread be bad?” This is usually followed by a face of panic immediately followed by “It’s full of carbs”, but why is eating carbs bad?”

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It’s at this exact point where people begin to realise they have no idea why carbs should be avoided, and they have been led to believe that to be successful in dieting you need to reduce your carbohydrate intake. (THIS IS NOT TRUE)!

What foods are high in carbs? From the ‘healthier’ variety of carbs, there is bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, fruit.

For the more fun form of carbs, there would be anything high in sugar (full sugar fizzy drinks and sweets).

Why are you told to avoid them for fat loss?

There’s no smoke without fire and surely there has to be some good reason why you would cut out carbs?

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If you have a low carb diet you will likely lose weight very quickly. To diet successfully you must eat fewer calories than what you need daily and by having limited carbohydrates you are eliminating a LOT of tasty foods that are very easy to overconsume.

If you look at your diet right now and the list of foods above, if you eliminated all the carbs how much food would you have left?

No cereal or porridge for breakfast, no sandwich or wrap for lunch and no potatoes or pasta for dinner, all you have left is meat, chicken, eggs, and some oily fats.

I challenge you to eat 2000kcals a day of meat, eggs, mayo and olive oil every day and I give you at least a week until you come running back to carbs.

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Low carb diets will help you drop weight quickly at first (mainly water weight and a small amount of body fat) so the results on the scales seem much more impressive than the results in the mirror. This is simply your body quickly getting rid of stored carbohydrates (water weight) due to your calorie deficit and limited carb supply.

I’m not telling you, you must eat carbs. If you want to go the rest of your life without enjoying a toastie again, be my guest! But don’t be surprised that after a few weeks of strict eating that the temptation gets too great and you find yourself running home from Tescos to scoff a full tiger loaf.

Carbohydrates are not the problem... the fact they are so delicious and we rarely control or quantify the amount we consume is the problem.

Having two slices of 54kcal bread with a teaspoon of reduced sugar jam is completely different to having two slices of Nutty Krust with half a jar of Nutella on it (I know you licked the spoon as well).

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Having a 50g bowl of pasta (uncooked weight) is very different to having a 200g bowl. The problem is people have no idea the amounts they are consuming and just eyeball what looks like a good amount into the pan.

If the scales aren’t budging don’t blame it on the bread. Chances are you are eating too many calories across your full dieting week. Rather than going cold turkey on carbs, you should take time to understand quantities and realise how many calories you need to be consuming per week to help you get results.

Remember calories do count on weekends! You may have to weigh your food for a while to fully understand portion control, but taking a few months to learn the ropes of effective calorie tracking can help save you years of pain and frustration.

If calories, tracking food and dieting all sounds jibberish to you and you want to learn how to have a sandwich and still lose weight don’t forget to drop us a message on www.one2onefitnessni.co.uk or check us out on FB or Instagram.

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