Dude, Carbs are NOT Evil! Here’s Why…

Have you even been sunburned so bad that just wearing a SHIRT hurt like an S.O.B?  I have, and it’s not something I want to ever experience again.

Is the sun really the stupid one here?

So the sun must be evil since that stupid ball ‘o fire in the sky burned me (and probably you) so badly!  Stupid sun!

Or was it ME that was stupid?  Surely not.  All I did was play outside on the beach all day… with no shirt… or sunscreen. Come to think of it, maybe I really was the stupid one to get burned.

And obviously, I was.  The sun is just doing what it’s supposed to do.  It’s up to us to avoid letting it burn us, while still reaping the mood-enhancing and even immune-enhancing benefits of el sol.

Well guess what, Captain Carbophobe, carbs just do what they’re supposed to do.  It’s up to YOU to avoid letting them make you fat, while still reaping the muscle-building, performance-enhancing, and even mood-enahncing benefits of los carbos.

Ok, since you’re probably not a nutritionist, let me give you a brief synopis of what happens when you eat carbs.  Then you’ll be able to figure out for yourself when you should and should not eat them.

The Easiest Biochemistry Lesson Ever!

When you eat carbs they’re broken down in the mouth, stomach, and intestines.  Then, when they’re broken down enough, they’re absorbed in the intestines where they are quickly picked up by the bloodstream.

Since the blood only needs a few grams of carbs at a time, the rest will be picked up by the truck (well, technically it’s a transport hormone, but truck is a better analogy) known as insulin.  Insulin will then drive off to the muscles to see if they need any carbs,  Since they do so much work, they get first priority.  Whatever carbs the muscles want, they take.  Then whatever is left is carted off to the liver.

If we haven’t eaten enough carbs lately and let our blood sugar get low a bit, then the liver (the carb resevoir for the blood) may need some carbs as well.

But what if the muscles and liver have gotten all the carbs they want, but there’s still some left over? Then (and only then) will insulin take those leftover carbs and convert them into fat.

So yes, excess carbs can definitely turn into body fat!  That’s something I learned at 17 when I did the high-carb no-fat diet that all the Pros in Flex Magazine were doing at the time.  I got fat!  But, and this is a big but, I was eating 600 grams of carbs per day, every day.  That was simply more ‘fuel’ than my muscles (and liver and blood and brain) needed.

When some people hear that too many carbs can make you fat, they automatically assume that they should just not eat any – that’ll solve the problem!  Well, sure, and you could kill a cockroach with a shotgun, but that’s sort of overkill, don’t you think?

If you don’t eat any carbs then you miss out on the plethora of benefits they offer.  I’ll just summarize it like this: both our BRAIN and our MUSCLES prefer to use carbs for fuel… and they use a decent amount of fuel per day.

But how do you know if the carbs you eat will turn to fat or be used by your muscles? It’s simple, if your muscles are not full of glycogen (stored carbs), then carbs will go to the muscles.  Once the muscles’ glycogen stores are full, then they’ll be turned to fat.

Yep, that was too much gas, Einstein.

It’s no different than pumping gas!  When you get gas you just partially fill or fill your tank up and that’s it – no more.  If you have a 12 gallon tank and you pump 15 gallons of gas, then guess what, dummy, you’ll have 3 gallons of gas in your shoes and on the ground.  Well, guess what else?  If your muscles (etc) need 75g of carbs and you eat 100g carbs, you’re looking at 25g of carbs that are trying they’re best to turn to fat and stick right on your love handles or butt!

But how many grams of carbs should I eat, exactly? How in the world would I know that?  There are a million variables that determine how many carbs you need.  But it mainly depends on two simple things: how many carbs you’ve been eating and how much work (exercise) your muscles have been doing.  These determine how much ‘gas’ (glycogen) is left in your tank.  You simply eat accordingly.

Here’s my observation (based on having worked one-on-one with well over a thousand people…and myself): women who exercise a moderate amount do great averaging about 100 – 125g of carbs per day.  Men usually about 175 – 225g per day.  Going much lower than this only serves to empty muscle glycogen stores too much, which makes it virtually impossible to get a good workout, much less build any muscle.

Besides, going lower than that isn’t even necessary to burn fat.  Your glycogen stores do NOT have to be empty to burn fat!  I have gotten shredded before (striated glutes and all) and never consumed less than 125g carbs per day.  But you have to keep in mind, for those of us who lift weights, 100g of carbs is nothing!  We usually burn AT LEAST that much during the workout itself.  So that, in essence, puts us at 0 g of carbs for the rest of the day.

The Final Plea for Carbs

Stop being dumb. Eat some carbs!

Look, please don’t ever say “Dr Clay is all about high carbs.”  On the other hand don’t say I’m ‘all about’ any single type of diet.  I do NOT advocate any one type of diet!  I simply use a low-fat, low-carb, or moderate (mixed macro) diet on a meal to meal basis based on what the body needs at that time.  That’s it.  I don’t have a “diet.”  Any one of my clients plans may have one meal (or even day) that’s low in carbs, another that’s high in carbs, and another that has moderate amounts of each.  It just depends on what they need at that time.

But since so many people have become carb-phobic (just like people were fat-phobic in the 198o’s), I’m taking a stand and speaking out of behalf of carbs. They are NOT evil!  When you’re on your 5th set of squats I’ll bet you wish you had eaten a few more grams of carbs.   Or when you’re too tired to even do some fat-burning cardio because your blood sugar has bottomed out, you’ll realize that carbs certainly have their time and place.

Now don’t use this to go scarfing down stupid amounts of crappy-ass refined carbs!  But on the other hand, don’t forget that carbs fuel your brain, muscles, and keep your blood sugar from getting too low (which leads to insane cravings…and eventually binges).  Carbs are not AT ALL evil until you simply eat too many.  So if you want, err on the low side, just in case.  But don’t avoid carbs all together or your recuperation and even overall mood may go straight down the toilet.

Remember – you wouldn’t kill a roach with a shotgun!  (It works, but there are very inconvenient consequences.)

Dr Clay